Josh Staub knows exactly how much work goes into making an animated character feel real. As a Disney animator and visual effects artist whose credits include Frozen, Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph, he has spent years creating characters that can make audiences laugh, cry and see the world differently. But one of his most personal creations began with a much quieter goal: helping people communicate with one another.

Staub created Oscar, a Deaf third grader at the center of his animated series Small Talk, and then gave the character another purpose through Small Talk ASL, a free app that introduces people to American Sign Language. The decision to make the app free forever says something about the project, but the story behind it says even more. Staub did not simply learn a language and turn that knowledge into a product. He learned ASL, entered a community, formed friendships and found his understanding of connection changing along the way.

Frozen’ animator launches an interactive ASL learning app and vows to keep it free forever:
Disney veteran Josh Staub and his Jubilee Studios are offering “Small Talk ASL.” https://t.co/877NqLyZcr pic.twitter.com/0zmeBDBGDr

— Deaf News Today (@DeafNewsToday) July 25, 2026

Oscar Was Created To Make Learning ASL Feel More Human

Oscar is the central character in Small Talk, an animated series being developed by Staub through Jubilee Studios. He is Deaf, as is his mother, Ana, while his father and sister are hearing. That family structure gives the series an opportunity to place Deaf people at the center of an ordinary family story, rather than treating Deafness as something that exists only in the background. The series is still in development, but Oscar has already found a life beyond the show itself.

He now serves as the guide for Small Talk ASL, an app designed to teach roughly 200 introductory signs. Even that number was chosen with Oscar’s character in mind. He is a third grader, and the app’s vocabulary reflects roughly what a child his age might know. That detail gives the learning experience a sense of personality that can be difficult to create in a traditional language lesson.

Staub’s intention was for Oscar to feel less like a teacher standing at the front of a classroom and more like someone learners could get to know. That matters because beginning a new language can be intimidating, particularly when the reason for learning it is deeply personal. A parent may suddenly need to learn ASL after discovering that their child is Deaf. A sibling may want to communicate more naturally. A grandparent may simply want to be part of the conversation.

For those people, the first lesson can carry a lot of emotion. Oscar gives them somewhere gentle to start. He can repeat a sign without frustration, slow down when someone needs more time and remain available whenever a learner wants another attempt. The technology is useful, but the human idea behind it is simpler: learning becomes easier when the person helping you feels approachable.

Staub’s Own Experience With Deaf Culture Shaped The Project

Staub did not begin this project as someone looking for a new business opportunity. He learned American Sign Language from a Deaf teacher, and that experience introduced him to a culture and community that eventually became deeply meaningful to him. What started as learning a language developed into relationships, friendships and a broader understanding of the people who used it.

“I began learning about Deaf culture and fell in love with the Deaf community, forging deep friendships,” Staub. That sentence helps explain why the app has been designed around more than vocabulary. For Staub, ASL was never simply a collection of hand movements to memorize. It became a way of entering conversations and relationships that had previously been outside his experience.

Those relationships also influenced the people involved in creating the app. The project brought together Deaf, hard of hearing and hearing animators, consultants, engineers and producers. Their involvement meant the community being represented was also part of the process of deciding how that representation should look and feel.

Staub has also been careful about what he believes the app can and cannot accomplish. “I want it to be very clear that learning from a Deaf ASL teacher is by far the best way to learn the language,” he said. That is an important distinction. Small Talk ASL is intended to open a door, not become a replacement for the people who can teach the language within its cultural context.

The Animation Was Designed To Show More Than Hand Movements

One of Staub’s most interesting observations came from thinking about how ASL is actually experienced. Someone unfamiliar with the language might focus almost entirely on the hands, but facial expressions and other physical cues can play an important role in communication. A learner who concentrates only on reproducing a movement could miss part of the meaning carried through the face and body.

“Facial expressions are supremely important with ASL and that is where the whole ‘character’ or ‘friend’ part comes in,” Staub said. That insight became one of the reasons Oscar works differently from a conventional video lesson. An animated character can be designed to repeat a movement while also maintaining the facial expression and visual energy that accompany it.

Staub noticed that recorded language lessons can sometimes make teachers appear more serious than they would in an ordinary conversation. “Pre-recorded videos of teachers tend to be pretty stern,” he said. His observation was about the limitations of the medium rather than a criticism of Deaf educators. Recording a vocabulary lesson requires concentration, while natural communication has a different rhythm.

“Deaf folks in general are extremely outgoing and ‘animated’ when they communicate, so why not express that in the character?” Staub said. Oscar therefore becomes more than a set of hands demonstrating vocabulary. His face is part of the lesson, helping learners understand that communication can involve expression as much as movement.

The approach also gives beginners permission to take their time. There is no embarrassment when Oscar repeats a sign for the fifth time. A learner can slow him down, watch the movement again and practice privately before trying it with another person. For someone who feels nervous about making mistakes, that can be a valuable first step toward becoming more comfortable with the language.

The App Addresses A Communication Gap Many Families Know

The cheerful design of Small Talk ASL sits against a much more serious reality. Nearly 95% of deaf and hard of hearing children in the United States have hearing parents, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology. Yet many hearing parents do not learn ASL, which can create a communication gap inside families even when the relationships themselves are loving and supportive.

The exact percentage of parents who learn ASL is difficult to establish, and the sources cited in the original reporting do not agree on one definitive number. Small Talk cites an estimate that around 70% of parents of Deaf children do not learn ASL, while a Brigham Young University review estimated that only about 22% of hearing parents learn to sign and noted that available research is not sufficient to confirm a single figure.

What is clearer is the importance of early access to language. Research cited in the original reporting indicates that children who do not have full and accessible language during the early years can face serious consequences for language development. That makes communication more than a practical household concern. It can affect how easily a child shares experiences, asks for help, expresses emotions and develops relationships with the people closest to them.

The scale of hearing loss also extends beyond childhood. The Hearing Loss Association of America estimates that roughly 48 million Americans live with some degree of hearing loss. That means the opportunity to learn ASL is not limited to parents of Deaf children. Teachers, healthcare workers, relatives, classmates, neighbors and friends can all find themselves in situations where knowing how to communicate more accessibly could make another person’s experience easier.

Language Can Shape A Family’s Everyday Life

Families communicate through countless ordinary moments that rarely make anyone stop to think about them. A child tells a parent about something funny that happened at school. Someone asks for help. A sibling shares a secret. A parent comforts a frightened child. These moments may seem small, but together they form much of what people experience as family life.

When people do not share an accessible language, those moments can become harder to reach. The problem is not necessarily a lack of love. A parent can be devoted to a child and still struggle to communicate with them fully. That distinction matters because the solution is not to question the family’s care. It is to make communication more accessible.

Learning ASL can therefore become an act of participation. A few signs may lead to more learning, which may lead to conversations and relationships that otherwise might not have happened. The first attempt may be awkward. The learner may make mistakes. None of that makes the effort meaningless.

In fact, the willingness to make those mistakes can be part of what makes the effort meaningful. Communication requires two people to meet somewhere in the middle, and learning another person’s language is one way of showing that the meeting is worth making.

Staub Promised The App Would Remain Free

Staub could have treated Small Talk ASL as a conventional educational product. Instead, he made a public commitment that the app would remain free. “It’s completely free, and because there should never be an obstacle to learning ASL, we’re committed to keeping it that way, forever,” he said.

That promise carries practical consequences. The app required animators, engineers, consultants and other professionals to create, and technology requires resources to maintain. Keeping an educational platform free means choosing not to recover those costs directly from the people using it.

The decision also reflects the particular audience Staub hopes to reach. Someone who needs to learn ASL may already be dealing with a major change in their life. A parent adjusting to a child’s diagnosis may be trying to understand education, healthcare and communication all at once. A financial barrier to a basic learning resource could make the first step harder.

By removing that barrier, Staub has made the invitation broader. The app can be used by a parent who has never signed before, a grandparent learning alongside a child or a person who simply wants to become more comfortable communicating with Deaf people. The cost is no longer the question.

That does not make an app capable of solving the larger challenges surrounding accessibility. It does something smaller and more practical. It gives people a place to begin, and sometimes a beginning is what keeps a difficult task from feeling impossible.

Oscar Is Supposed To Lead People Into The Real World

The most meaningful part of Staub’s message may be what he hopes happens after someone finishes using the app. He does not want learners to stay inside a digital experience. He wants them to become curious about Deaf culture, seek opportunities to communicate with Deaf people and continue learning from the community itself.

“For some of you, Oscar is your first Deaf friend. Don’t make him your last,” Staub said. He encouraged people to learn about Deaf culture, find opportunities to immerse themselves and communicate with the Deaf community, make mistakes and continue trying. His own experience suggests why he sees that next step as so important.

The language gave Staub more than a professional skill. It introduced him to friendships and a community that changed the direction of his life. Oscar is now an attempt to make that first encounter easier for someone else, especially someone who might otherwise have no idea where to start.

For anyone beginning the process, the first steps can be straightforward:

• Start with everyday signs. A small vocabulary can make continued learning feel more manageable.
• Learn from Deaf teachers. Direct instruction provides a deeper understanding of both language and culture.
• Learn about Deaf culture. Language becomes richer when it is understood within the community that uses it.
• Be willing to make mistakes. Fluency does not begin with perfection. It begins with practice.
• Look for real conversations. The purpose of learning a language is eventually to use it with other people.

Oscar can demonstrate a sign from a screen, but another person has to give that sign a human meaning. That is where the project becomes larger than an app. It becomes an invitation to notice the people around us and make the effort to meet them where they are.

Sometimes Connection Begins With Learning How To Say Hello

Staub started with animation, but the story he ended up creating is really about what happens when people become willing to cross a communication gap. He learned ASL and found friendships he might never have formed otherwise. Now he has created something that could help another person take that same first step.

Oscar is fictional. The relationships that can grow from learning the language he teaches are not. A few signs will not solve every barrier faced by Deaf people or their families. But one person choosing to learn can change a conversation, and a changed conversation can change a relationship. Sometimes that is where belonging begins.

Loading...