Bus driver Edwin Cora welcomes riders with simple greetings. “How are you feeling today?” he asks a female rider getting on the Q44 Thursday morning in Queens. “How are you doing, brother?” he says to a young man who boards next. Occasionally, however, the veteran bus driver talks with his hands. Cora, for example, might make two fists, press both sets of door-knock knuckles together, rotate them slightly in opposite directions, and then extend his right pointer finger forward at a rider — American Sign Language for “How are you?” Inspired by a few frustrating encounters with deaf riders who needed help, Cora decided to learn ASL to communicate with members of the deaf community. “They are always surprised to see a bus driver who knows how to sign even a little bit,” Cora, 55, said. “They get very happy. They get very excited, and the other passengers, who watch us, are flabbergasted.”
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