Sometimes the only thing standing between someone and a genuine friendship is one person willing to make the effort.

When a college student used her high school sign language skills to befriend a disabled classmate that nobody else had tried to connect with, the friendship grew naturally — until one poorly worded joke left another friend questioning her motives.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for using a disabled person for my “own benefit”?

So I (18f) took ASL lessons in high school, but up until now I’ve never had a Deaf friend.

This year I started college, and there’s a Deaf-mute person in my class. He uses an interpreter during lessons.

She notices that none of her other classmates have made a real effort to communicate with him.

Everyone has been nice to him, but no one really tried to get to know him or actually befriend him, so he wasn’t very close with anyone.

I’m not judging them for that — had I not already taken ASL in high school, I probably wouldn’t have learned just for him either.

So when she made the effort to sign with him, the two established a friendship.

But after I told him I knew some ASL and started signing with him, we naturally got close.

Since September, I’ve been signing with him almost daily, and my signing has gotten so much better!

She thought they were close enough to joke with each other, but she ended up seriously hurting his feelings.

Anyway, about a week ago, he suggested that I start taking ASL lessons again, and I joked “that’s what you’re for!”

It was absolutely a joke — I laughed right after I signed it — but maybe because my signing was off, he took it seriously and got offended.

She quickly tries to make it right, but the awkwardness lingered.

I apologized and explained it was just a joke. He said he understood and even apologized for getting upset in the first place.

He acted a bit distant for a couple of days but eventually got over it, and we’re completely fine now.

Other people started to take notice.

But today, one of my other friends told me he noticed that my Deaf friend and I had been a bit distant lately, and asked if everything was alright.

I told him we had a little fight, “but don’t worry, we’re completely fine now.”

But for some reason, he wouldn’t let it go!

Then the other friend started getting ruder and ruder.

First he made jokes like “there’s some truth in every joke,” which I laughed off. But then he said something like “I knew you wouldn’t hang with a guy like him for no reason.”

I was like — excuse me?

I told him that was such a rude thing to say, and he said it was the truth.

So he fires back once more.

I called him out for being a bigoted jerk and an ableist — which I guess got under his skin — because he snapped back at me and said I’m not one to talk, that I’m worse than him, and that I’m “taking advantage of a disabled guy” and “using him for my own benefit.”

AITA?

Sounds like this situation really went off the rails.

Reddit is sure to have some strong opinions on this one.

A deaf commenter chimes in with their experience.

Jokes are often made in good fun, but it doesn’t always mean they’ll be taken that way.

This other friend is clearly trying to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong.

Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s how you learn from them that really counts.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.