Deaf Culture Facts

The book “A Journey into the Deaf-World”, by Harlan Lane, Robert Hoffmeister, and Ben Bahan, is about the different people who are considered deaf: hard-of-hearing, deaf, and CODA. People who are hard-of-hearing are people who don 't hear well; people who are deaf lack the power of hearing since birth; you can be born hearing and throughout time lose some or all of your hearing sense. People who are CODA (children of deaf adults) are often signing because their parents are deaf and CODA’s often are helpful by being interpreters. CODAs become a great link between their parents and the hearing world. This book explains about deaf culture and how sign is a visual and manual way of conversing. The benefits of sign language are many and the ASL “foreign language” is growing among hearing as well. About more than 500,000 people sign in America alone. ASL is dated from 1779, but probably even earlier. Sign language promotes cultural awareness; deaf culture uses sign language as their main form of communicating.

The purpose of this research paper is to answer the major question, what is Deaf culture? There are three sub-questions that will assist in answering the major question: (1) What constitutes Deaf culture? (2) How has American Sign Language impacted the Deaf community? (3) What are the major issues that are being addressed in Deaf culture today? With these questions answer, it will give a better understanding as to what Deaf culture is and that it is indeed a culture.

Deaf children are entitled to know that they are heirs to an amazing culture, not a pitiful defect. In order to follow through on that obligation, one of the best things I feel we can do is try to educate other hearing people about the realities of American Sign Language and Deaf culture. Language is one of the most critical aspects of most cultures, and one which sets deafness aside from other defects such as blindness, physical disability, or illness. Sign language is not universal, nor does it always correspond to the spoken language in the same country. For example American Sign Language is native to the United States and Canada. Deaf Canadians might use English, French, or both as a written language. But deaf people in Great Britain, while they may write in English, use a completely different sign language. (nad.org)

The documentary, Through Deaf Eyes, is a two hour film that focuses on all things related to Deaf life over the span of 200 years. The documentary includes interviews of people who have made a significant impact on the Deaf community, including actress Marlee Matlin and various people who work or either have worked at deaf schools such as Gallaudet University. Before watching this documentary or even before signing up for this ASL course I knew a little bit about Deaf culture through my own personal experience. After watching this documentary I have learned so many different interesting facts and now I have a whole new perspective on the Deaf culture.

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

For my Deaf event, I attended Deaf Coffee Night at Starbucks. When I walked in, I was happy to be able to look around and see people communicate through the use of only their hands, body and faces. I was also encouraged by the fact that I understood a majority of the signs I saw. After I ordered my drink, I approached a table of two people who were using ASL and I introduced myself. One person at the table was hearing while the other was Deaf, but both were happy to include me in their conversation. We talked for quite awhile about each of our lives. It was interesting to notice that throughout our conversation, the three of us were equally engaged in the conversation at hand about the lives of these strangers. This is a lot different then most conversations in the hearing world since most of the time we do not talk about our lives for that long and when listening to the lives of other people we do not actually care to pay close attention.

The book also describes how life has changed for deaf adults through the years. Previously, many deaf adults were not able to get jobs in many places, because there were not many places that were accepting to them. These days, however, almost every business or company is looking for those that are fluent in American Sign Language, due to the simple fact that they would be able to accommodate that many more people and earn more money for their business. Also, there were not many outlets for deaf adults to use in relation to entertainment or basic needs, because again, mostly everything was catered to hearing adults only. However, they have recently developed many different ways for the deaf to communicate with the hearing and with one another, including TTY, full-keyboard, and internet phones and closed-captions on television stations and movies.

It is known that hearing people are superior to Deaf people. No one can sit and prove it, but you can tell how a hearing person acts compared to how a deaf person acts when they walk into a room. The hearing people are chit-chatting and enjoying their time. The deaf person is looking around trying to read lips but deep down is feeling isolated. Most Deaf people understand that they are equal to hearing people and should not feel discriminated against. Deaf people sometimes still get treated different, but most of the world is starting to treat them equally. They have been able to get more employment, higher education, and higher job positions. In Bernard Bragg’s book, “Lessons in Laughter: The Autobiography of a Deaf Actor”, he expressed

In the Deaf community Benjamin Bahan is considered an influential figure because not only does he write about Deaf culture but he is a storyteller as well. Bahan has published at least twenty-eight articles, five books, and eight videotapes. With Dirksen Bauman and Melissa Malzkuhn they created the world’s first online journal called, Deaf Studies Digital Journal. It is a “peer-reviewed academic and cultural arts journal to feature scholarship and creative work in both signed and written languages” (Gallaudet Press). Because he is a storyteller he appears in chapter two of “Signing the Body Poetics”. In this chapter he talks about the Face-to-Face tradition in the American

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

“To the hearing world, the deaf community must seem like a secret society. Indeed, deafness is a culture every bit as distinctive as any an anthropologist might study.” (Walker 1986) Lou Ann Walker’s autobiographical book, “A Loss for Words” details the story of her childhood with two deaf parents. She is the oldest of three children, with two sisters who are named Kay Sue and Jan Lee. All of their names were chosen for ease of lipreading for her parents. As she is the eldest of the three, she begins to act as an interpreter, and does so; often dealing with store keepers, mechanics, and others who would not know American Sign Language, but who would still need to understand what her parents are saying. Lou Ann, as she grows up, realizes

Deaf people share certain behavioral norms such as eye contact, body language and gestures enable them to communicate effectively. They rely on body touch waving hands, using a third person, hugs and have open communication. They value the ASL, interpreters, devices that help them communicate effectively such as vibrating systems, and visual alerts. They have a tradition of sticking or forming their own groups where they champion for their rights and respect from others in the community. The Deaf subculture is referred to as a subcultural group mainly because the members have distinct behaviors, physical artifacts, traditions, values, history, and beliefs that distinguish them from the other people (Minnesota Department of Human Services, 2013).

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

Recently I attended a seminar for work, on childcare and development, where they discussed how to work with children with hearing disabilities. At this event there was a population of predominantly people who used American Sign Language as their primary language as opposed to hearing people speaking. I have had interactions with deaf people before but only on an informal level, because most of the deaf people I have

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,