Recent cross-language lexical activation studies found that spoken language bilinguals activate both languages during lexical processing even in monolingual contexts. While those studies investigated cross-language activation based on phonological and orthographic overlap between bilinguals’ languages (e.g., English-Dutch; English-Spanish), with support from the NSF Science of Learning Center on Visual Language & Visual Learning (VL2) my collaborators and I explored whether semantic overlap of two languages was sufficient to activate cross-language lexical processing in deaf and non-deaf signers. Deaf bilinguals showed simultaneous activation of ASL signs and English print despite no direct phonetic or orthographic overlap. Our studies have been replicated with numerous studies on cross-language activation in other signed languages and their surrounding written languages. Jill Morford and I are serving as collaborators for Villwock’s (Humboldt-Berlin) DFG (German Science Foundation) funded project on the developmental trajectory of behavioral and neural correlates in the co-activation of German Sign Language and written German in deaf and hearing bilinguals.