He is an influential figure in American Sign Language literature as a storyteller and writer of deaf culture.
Bahan also co-wrote and co-directed the film Audism Unveiled (2008) with his colleague Dirksen Bauman.
Afterwards, he attended The Salk Institute in La Jolla, California where he researched American Sign Language linguistics and acquisition.
Then in 1981, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area to collaborate with Joe Dannis on starting a new business called DawnSignPress, for which Bahan was vice president.
He is currently an Executive Editor with Bauman and Melissa Malzkuhn of the Deaf Studies Digital Journal, the world's first online, peer-reviewed academic and cultural arts journal to feature scholarship and creative work in both signed and written languages.