Communication Barriers In Deaf Culture

(n.d.). Part one: the deaf community and cochlear implants my child can have more choices: reflections of deaf mothers on cochlear implants for their children. Cochlear Implants: Evolving Perspectives. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/excerpts/CIEP.html

The Deaf community is comprised of people of a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds, as Deafness prevails around the world; discriminating against none. The Deaf community grows continually. As a hearing person learning about the community, it’s distinctive culture and how to communicate in ASL, I am developing myself and discovering my fairly new position within the Deaf community.

Two centuries ago, the Deaf community arose in American society as a linguistic minority. Members of this community share a particular human condition, hearing impairment. However, the use of American Sign Language, as their main means of communicating, and attendance to a residential school for people with deafness also determine their entry to this micro-culture. Despite the fact that Deaf activists argue that their community is essentially an ethnic group, Deaf culture is certainly different from any other cultures in the United States. Deaf-Americans cannot trace their ancestry back to a specific country, nor do Deaf neighborhoods exist predominantly throughout the nation. Additionally, more than ninety percent of deaf persons are born

Cochlear Implants are an object that is very controversial in the deaf community. “A Cochlear Implants is a device that provdes direct electrical stimulation to the auditory (hearing) nerve in the inner ear.” (“Cochlear Implants”) Cochlear Implants bypass the damaged hair cells, and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Depending on when the Cochlear Implant is implanted it allows people to hear sounds, and sometimes even their own voice. While it does not cure hearing loss or deafness, it does allow people to hear. On more technical terms a Cochlear Implant includes parts like a microphone, speech processor, and a transmitter which each play a different part in the Cochlear Implant. The microphone picks up sounds, sends them to the speech processer, and then the speech processor analyzes and digitized the sound signal, thus sending them to a transmitter worn on the head. The debate of whether or not Cochlear Implants are right in the deaf community is one that has been going on for years. People believe having Cochlear Implants are a good thing, because they allow deaf people to communicate with hearing people, it allows people who are not helped by conventional hearing aids to be helped, and it creates new possibilities for deaf people. However there are also people that argue that having a Cochlear Implant is a bad thing, because it proposes the idea that deaf people need to be fixed, it can give deaf people false hope, and it proposes the idea that deaf people have a

The deaf subculture has always seemed so interesting, American Sign Language (ASL) is so intriguing, a personal friend is deaf and it is amazing, the fact that hearing and speaking could change a person’s culture so drastically. This essay will explain in broad terms what the deaf culture is like and how it is separate

According to Edwards, the Deaf community began to rise in response to the social view of deafness as a handicap rather than a difference that a whole “Deaf” community is characterized by. Their shared

This documentary does an excellent job of advocating for the acknowledgment of people who are deaf within society. This is shown through not only the brilliantly written and performed poems of the students but also in the basic, everyday struggles each of them face, such as the desire to fit in or be valued by those around them. Deafness is not a specific to any gender, race, culture, or religion. The struggles many people who are deaf go through are relatable to all and

Most doctors recommend that children with cochlear implant only use spoken language as a method of communication so they can maximize the benefits from the cochlear implant. However, the popular method of communication for children with cochlear implants is total communication which is the integration of oral communication and ASL. Although Heather Artinian was fluent in ASL before she received her cochlear implant, she was able to communicate with hearing and deaf people through both ASL and spoken language after years of intensive speech therapy (Aronson, Sound and Fury: Six Years Later). When cochlear implant users take it off, they cannot hear any sounds so they are technically still deaf. Even though they are able to hear sounds, cochlear implant recipients will not be able to identify themselves as hearing individuals. When they bridge the gap between the deaf and hearing world, they can still be a part of both cultures without defining themselves as a part of only one culture (TedX: The Heather World). Therefore, the cochlear implant can be a great device for deaf people who want to stay in the Deaf community but still be able to take advantage of additional opportunities in the hearing

The deaf community does not see their hearing impairment as a disability but as a culture which includes a history of discrimination, racial prejudice, and segregation. According to PBS home video “Through Deaf Eyes,” there are thirty-five million Americans that are hard of hearing (Hott, Garey & et al., 2007) . Out of the thirty-five million an estimated 300,000 people are completely deaf. There are over ninety percent of deaf people who have hearing parents. Also, most deaf parents have hearing children. With this being the exemplification, deaf people communicate on a more intimate and significant level with hearing people all their lives. “Deaf people can be found in every ethnic group, every region, and every economic class.” The

The topic I have chosen for this paper is the discrimination that deaf people face in their everyday life and I will be going into details as to why discrimination is present in their lives and how did it come to be. While it’s a norm, even though it shouldn’t, that many people do deal with discrimination regardless of their background as long as they are different from others which will then cause them to be discriminated against; I will be using specifics with the discrimination in the educational setting for deaf students and teachers and if lack of education concerning the deaf people and their culture is the main contributor for the discrimination that the general population develops against deaf people. The issues that will be explored are the following; deaf teachers, politics in education, apartheid in deaf education, and deafness.

Those that oppose cochlear implants argue mostly from a minority standpoint. The deaf community feels that as the minority, the hearing majority is threatening their way of life. “The deaf community is a culture. They’re much like the culture of the Hispanic community, for example, where parents who are Hispanics, or shall we say deaf, would naturally want to retain their family ties by their common language, their primary language, which is

Everyone belongs to a culture some people belong to multiple cultures but everyone belongs to at least one. A culture is “ the sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to our beliefs, behaviors and  practices; everything but the environment around us.” (ConleyA-3). Culture provides many things for individuals including; self-realization, moral values, discipline, and compassion. Most cultures are contained to a specific part of the world, however there are some cultures that are universal, one of those being the Deaf culture. The Deaf culture is also a unique culture because within this large culture are  multiple sub-cultures, that each person brings with them. But because there is an underlying disability that brings all of those in the Deaf culture together there is oftentimes a social barrier between the Deaf culture and the Hearing culture. During social gatherings where members of the Deaf and Hearing cultures are both represented, actions are guided by social norms in order to make social interactions accepted by both cultures.

The deaf community does not see their hearing impairment as a disability but as a culture which includes a history of discrimination, racial prejudice, and segregation. According to an online transcript,“Through Deaf Eyes” (Weta and Florentine films/Hott productions Inc., 2007) there are thirty-five million Americans that are hard of hearing. Out of the thirty-five million an estimated 300,000 people are completely deaf. There are ninety percent of deaf people who have hearing parents (Halpern, C., 1996). Also, most deaf parents have hearing children. With this being the exemplification, deaf people communicate on a more intimate and significant level with hearing people all their lives. “Deaf people can be found in every ethnic group,

Our world has changed so much, especially for Deaf people. Less than a century ago, the ability to text and email weren’t available, and communication between Deaf and hearing people seemed much harder. Deaf people became weary of interactions with hearing people, for fear of being scammed or cheated. People who were hearing and knew sign language were sparse. Love Is Never Silent shows the communication barriers and how, for a Deaf couple, they relied on their hearing daughter to be their ears in the world.

In past times, an issue that occurred most often was how to respond to the deaf in terms of education. They most certainly were not able to hear which meant that they also would not be able to speak clearly or at all; many questioned how they would be able to comprehend others or communicate with them in that kind of setting. There were little to no schools that educated deaf children until Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a man with great intellect, decided that what he wanted do in life was to contribute to the deaf world (“Thomas H. Gallaudet”). Gallaudet, founder of Gallaudet