With every culture, it is impossible to put a homogeneous blanket over the entire group regarding how the members live, their experiences, or to exactly define it. When asked to define culture Central Michigan University’s Multicultural Advisor Josh Lee responded “Asking someone to define culture is like asking someone to define God, there is no set definition; it’s completely ambiguous”. One Deaf person’s definition of their culture could be vastly different from another’s, just like if two Americans were asked to describe American culture. Deaf culture faces even more struggles since many oralists, deaf and hearing alike, deny there is a Deaf culture. According to E. Giffin’s book A First Look at Communication Theory, “It is not important how anthropologists or researchers view (culture) it’s how the members view it” (2009). Deaf culture, as viewed by its members, is not a measure of hearing or lack of; it is a source of pride, of identity, and a way of life.
There are four main ways to identify in Deaf World: Deaf, deaf, Hearing, and hearing, all with gray areas in between. Lowercase "h" hearing is the simplest for the dominant group to understand: a person with average hearing. For the outsiders of Deaf World, it seems the only difference between Deaf and deaf is a tap of the shift key. That small tap holds a magnitude of significance within the Deaf community. A lowercase "d" deaf person is someone who cannot hear, but does not use American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary medium of communication. When referring to someone who is lowercase "d" deaf, it generally means his or her deafness is purely an audiological experience (Ladd, 2003). Lowercase "d" deaf people try to blend in with the dominant group and do not embrace their natural language, or wish to have minimal contact with the Deaf community. Uppercase "D" Deaf people, on the other hand, embrace their Deafness and recognize it is not a disability; it’s a way of life. People who consider themselves uppercase "D" Deaf use ASL as their primary language, and immerse themselves in the Deaf community and are active members of Deaf culture. By this definition a person could be lowercase "d" deaf but consider his or herself uppercase "H" Hearing if he or she identifies with Hearing culture. The opposite would also be true, a hearing person could be Deaf. Within these four labels there are others co-cultural groups including “profoundly deaf” and “Hard of Hearing” among others. Though there are some socially acceptable labels, like every culture, Deaf people have branded some as faux-pas.
Deaf people do not identify with the term hearing-impaired, though many Hearing professionals still label deaf people that way. Lane, Hoffmeister, and Bahan conclude the reason Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing individuals prefer those titles is because hearing-impaired implies “a child with a loss of a bodily function has an impairment; the impairment gives rise to a disability, a severe restriction in a normal human activity, namely communication…”(1996, p. 34). Most Hearing parents who have a Deaf child do not look toward the Deaf community for advice or guidance; instead they look toward Hearing doctors and audiologists. This causes the parents to form a perception that there is something wrong with their child. When they visit the clinic, the doctor will approach with a solemn look on his or her face and say, “I’m very sorry, this is never easy to tell parents, but your child is deaf” and then he or she goes on to suggest various ways to try and “fix the problem” the best they can. If the same parents also went to a Deaf club, or asked a member of the Deaf community what it means to be Deaf the parents would have received a drastically different viewpoint and thus would treat the situation drastically different. Since approximately 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, most parents believe their deaf child has a disability which they need to ‘fix’ using prosthetics, hearing aids or cochlear implants.
If a deaf person, or more than often his or her parents, wishes to use prosthetics, he or she has two choices when it comes to prosthetics: hearing aids or cochlear implants. Generally, if a person has enough hearing in an ear hearing aids work good enough to assist him or her in the Hearing World. Hearing aids are much more affordable than cochlear implants, plus you can easily take advantage of new technology by purchasing a new hearing aid. There is also greater flexibility with repairs. If hearing aids are chosen, unlike with cochlear implants, the residual hearing in the ear is retained. On the other hand, hearing aids do not perform as well in high frequency situations. Repetitive issues with ear molds and feedback can be frustrating and time-consuming. In contrast, cochlear implants are a permanent prosthesis which is surgically implanted in the deaf person. Many deaf people with severe and profound deafness who cannot use hearing aids can use cochlear implants. The frequency rage is greater in a cochlear than with hearing aids, as is, hearing from longer distances. Many young recipients of cochlear implants, 83%, switch from manual language to oral language after implantation. As you can see by the graph below, the earlier the implant the more likely the child will switch from signed language to oral language (National Deaf Children’s Society of Australia, 2008). The implants do not allow the person to hear like he or she is hearing, but the implants can drastically improve someone’s hearing, if the implant works for him or her. Not all recipients are happy with the implant, most that are unhappy were implanted as a child and the implant was unsuccessful. Along with cochlear implants, there are all of the risks that go along with any major surgery. Other cons include: static in noisy areas, like restaurants and classrooms, implants are expensive, especially if the recipient has inadequate insurance. While hearing aids and cochlear implants may be right for some people, many Deaf people do not use any sort of prosthetics and communicate with their natural, visual languages.
American Sign Language, or ASL, is the manual language used by Deaf Americans and some Deaf Canadians. Different parts of the globe have individual signed languages. Even within the United States there are various signed languages; along with ASL, there is Signing Exact English (SEE) which is literally the English language expressed on the hands. Every word has a sign or is finger-spelled so a sentence in English would be translated verbatim into signs. ASL has its own grammar and syntax and is an independent language. Pidgin Sign Language is a mixture of ASL and SEE. Most hearing people, who learn ASL and are not directly in the Deaf community, usually use Pidgin. A brief history of ASL will help make the language more comprehensible.
History is a very significant part of every culture. It is something that every member of a cultural group share with each other. History constitutes a base from which each member of a specific culture can start defining their individual culture. Though England and the USA share a common tongue, ASL is closer to LSF (Langue des Signes Française) than British Sign Language. Thomas Gallaudet, who shares a name with the Deaf college in Washington D.C., went to England to learn how to teach Deaf children, and when rejected by the English, found a Frenchman named abbè Sicard who agreed to teach him LSF and methods on teaching Deaf pupils. After a few months Gallaudet and Laurent Cleric, one of Sicard’s pupils, returned to the United States and founded the first Deaf school in America, then known as the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Institution of Deaf and Dumb Persons, in 1817 (1990, p.61). There is a continuing debate over which is better for deaf people: oralism or a signed language. In 1890, Alexander Graham Bell founded what is now the Alexander Graham Bell Association. The goal of this group was to assimilate the deaf into the Hearing World and forcing them to speak by extensive speech therapy and reading lips along with other techniques. According to the California Department of Education in the State of Education Address 90% of deaf and hard-of-hearing children have hearing parents (2007). With the majority of deaf individuals having hearing parents, it is easy to see why many people (mostly hearing) preferred the oral method of teaching the deaf. From 1890 on, ASL started to dissolve in public forums until its rise again in the 1960’s (1990, p.61-63). In the 1960’s, William Stokoe Jr. presented his research of ASL and proved that it stands up to the linguistic tests of languages. Stokoe is given the credit of defining ASL as an actual language and is known as the father of ASL.
Mabel Bell, the deaf wife of Alexander Graham Bell, was quoted saying:
I . . . am conscious of no habitual lack of sound I know what the world of silence is.
It is the silence of a hot sabbath morning in the country—Summer, when no breath of
air stirs the smallest twig... when the waters of the lake show no ripple—not the faintest
breath of wind fans the face. Then there is silence—a silence that is stillness And then
comes a faint ripple across the glass-like waters—a twig moves, a cow flicks his
tail—and the silence is broken to me as well as to him whose ear rather than eye noticed
the change, [quoted in Anthropology and Humanism, Fjord 2008, p. 67]
Members of the Deaf community embrace their Deafhood and are proud of who they are. Deaf people do not think about what is missing from their lives, but they focus on what they have. Deaf Culture is so important to its members; it provides an environment where Deaf people can live their lives, be who they are, and share experiences, all using their natural signed language.
Works Cited
Bahan, Ben, Robert Hoffmeister, and Harlan L. Lane. A Journey into the Deaf-World. San Diego: Dawnsign Press, 1996. Print.
Berke Jamie. "Deaf Culture - Basic Aspects of American Deaf Culture." Deafness and Hard of Hearing - Deaf - Sign Language - Hearing Aids - Hearing Loss - Cochlear Implants - Ear Wax. 5 Sept. 2010. Web.
Griffin, Emory A. A First Look at Communication Theory. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. Print.
Levitan, Linda, and Matthew S. Moore. For Hearing People Only. 3rd Rev&Ex ed. Chicago: M S M Productions Ltd, 2003. Print.
"Parental Perspectives on Changing Communication Skills after Implantation." Aussie Deaf Kids - Australia. National Deaf Children's Society. Web. 08 Sept. 2010. Web.
Valli, Clayton, Ceil Lucas, and Kristin J. Mulrooney. "Language Contact in the American Deaf Community." Linguistics of American Sign Language: an Introduction. Washington, D.C.: Clerc, 2005. 458-65. Print.
Van Cleve, John V., and Barry A. Crouch. "A Place of Their Own: Creating the ..." Google Books. Web. 29 Sept. 2010. Web
