In Martha's Vineyard, much of the community, even hearing people, was using a sign language known as Martha's Vineyard Sign Language due to the high ratio of deaf people. The large population of deaf people in this community is an instance where deaf people are individuals within the entire community and not distinctly part of a Deaf ethnic group.[6] The extent of bilingualism in ASL and spoken English allowed for code switching from spoken to sign when in a group where most people were deaf.