A friendly way into ASL, built on real signers

What Ziggy is

Ziggy is a mobile app for iOS and Android that teaches ASL through short video lessons, recognition drills, and spaced review, with a small, encouraging mascot who is glad you showed up. The dictionary and guides on this site use the same video clips as the app. Nothing here is stock footage or animation.

Who signs the clips

Every clip was filmed with a signer in front of a camera, one sign at a time, and re-filmed when a take was unclear. The dictionary is signed by our four signers:

• Jared
• Elijah
• Victoria
• Ariel

ASL has regional and generational variation, just like spoken languages, so you may see small differences between our clips and the way a signer in your area produces a sign. Where a common variant exists, we try to say so in the written notes.

Who writes the words

Guides, blog posts, sign explanations, and category intros are written and reviewed by the Ziggy Teaching Team. We write the way a good teacher talks in a first-semester class: plainly, with the reason behind each rule, and without pretending ASL is English on the hands. We do not make claims about individual credentials, and we do not use medical or legal framing around deafness.

Corrections and contact

If a clip looks wrong, an explanation is off, or you would sign something differently in your community, we want to hear it. Email support@ziggyasl.com with the sign page link and what you would change. We read everything.

How the site is built

The dictionary is exported directly from the app's sign catalog, so the web and the app never drift apart. Video is served as small H.264 clips with a poster frame, muted autoplay, and a half-speed control. Pages are prerendered so they load fast on a phone and are readable by search engines, with structured data for each video, term, and question.