Colorado Students with Down Syndrome Start College

College freshman Mia Barone’s fingers are flying in the campus library, her eyes closed as she signs the words on her study list — tomorrow, free, champion, flirting.

The 18-year-old with hot pink streaks in her hair that match her fingernails has a gift for sign language. Barone, who has Down syndrome, began learning to sign as a baby and hopes that after she graduates from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs she will work as an interpreter or children’s sign language teacher.