When Raphael Martinez helped launch the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy six years ago, he wondered if the charter school would take off, but he was driven to try for the sake of his now 12-year-old son Ben, who is deaf and has special needs.
Today, the K-12 academy has 100 children enrolled, a waiting list of 40 and plans to expand to a much larger building at the Sawmill community land trust near Downtown Albuquerque.