Welcome to the All Deaf forum!
I hope you can learn about our deafness and Deaf Culture. People who were in the police forces and the probation offices including the prisons were not aware of d/Deaf people not being able to understand what was going on especially in Courts. We just can not hear, even if we have hearing devices like hearing aids and CIs. Lipreading is not accurate and we get lost in trying to read lips. So it is why we need ASL so it is easier for us to understand what is/was going on. We can only hear environment sounds but not pick up words very well at all. Some deafies with CIs can hear some, not all of them. It is good that you are learning to sign ASL. 
