The Importance Of Deaf Culture In American Culture

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 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.

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.

In mainstream American society, we tend to approach deafness as a defect. Helen Keller is alleged to have said, "Blindness cuts people off from things; deafness cuts people off from people." (rnib.org) This seems a very accurate description of what Keller's world must have been. We as hearing people tend to pity deaf people, or, if they succeed in the hearing world, admire them for overcoming a severe handicap. We tend to look at signing as an inferior substitute for "real" communication. We assume that all deaf people will try to lip-read and we applaud deaf people who use their voices to show us how far they have come from the grips of their disability. Given this climate, many hearing people are surprised, as I was at

There are also questions that arise such as, what constitutes Deaf culture? There are two other questions that are very important into explaining the importance of Deaf culture, which is, how has ASL (American Sign Language) impacted the Deaf community and what are the major issues that are being addressed in Deaf culture today?

The rich history of American Deaf culture in conjunction withlanguage displays the determination along with the brilliance of these people. Though the hearing world had called them sin, denounced them as dumb, these people rose up against their oppressors, making a new world for themselves.

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.

I was interested in immersing myself with this group because they are a community of people that I’ve often wondered about. I’ve always wondered about the way they communicate with others and was it hard being deaf or hearing impaired in some ways. As myself, I learned that most people feel uncomfortable when meeting a Deaf person for the first time and this is very normal. When we communicate with people, we generally don’t have to think about the process. When faced with a Deaf person, we are uncertain which rules apply. We don’t know where to look, or how fast or loud to speak. When the Deaf person gives us a look of confusion, we don’t know how to correct the problem. Accept the fact that your initial

This book was mainly focused on looking at Deaf culture of today and comparing it to the culture of the past, and what kinds of struggles deaf people had to endure to get where they are today. The two authors of this book are deaf; one was deaf her whole life and the other became deaf as a child. In my opinion, that was a major contributing factor to why it was so interesting. The reader gets a chance to travel through the history of the Deaf through words from those who have experienced it. It also had a positive impact because the authors let the readers know in the introduction that they are deaf and a brief history of themselves, which I

From antiquity, being deaf was looked upon as an undesirable and a culture which was disconnected with the rest of mainstream society. Often members of the community found themselves ostracized by members of other cultures, who viewed them with suspicion, and were thought to be possessed, or in communion, with undesirable “spirits”, particularly during the advent of the Christianity that was in practice during the Middle Ages. During this period, before the advent of Gutenberg’s metal, movable type printing press, the populace was mostly illiterate and religious texts and spiritual obligations/instructions were verbally transmitted to the people by the literate clerics of the day. Thus, the deaf were believed to have no access to “Fides

Their society is not individualistic. They share information in a lot more detail than hearing people would. Because they until recently didn't have instant communication the way they interact with each other is to get as much information across as possible because they didn't know when they would see each other again or be able to tell them something. This also affects things like constructive criticism because they want to get as much information across as possible so they don't soften the blow. They immediately say the constructive negative thing and don't soften the blow.

A subculture is defined as a subdivision of a national or the main culture that has a unique and integrated network. The Deaf subculture has its own network, language, which is the official sign language coupled with shared attitudes and beliefs. The Deaf subculture has many subcultures that are divided by various aspects. Some are divided by racial differences while others are divided by the communication method they use. Vision plays a dominant role in the Deaf subculture. They prefer using the American Sign Language (ASL), which has its own syntax and grammar structures. The language relies on visual gestures, but it is not universal and does not have English word order.

I may not be considered part of the hearing culture due to my severe to profound hearing loss, but some people might be surprised to hear that I am not considered a part of the Deaf culture. A majority of the Deaf culture is very critical of those who assimilate with hearing people and accept hearing culture as their majority culture. I believe that every hearing impaired and deaf person is an individual and needs to do what is best for them instead of being worried about following the rules of the Deaf culture.

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,

The first mention of a deaf person, which was written in history, appeared in the Torah and was named Chushim (Nomeland, 2012, p. 6). Before this, no other person had been recorded in written history as being deaf. In 1000 B.C., The Hebrews views the deaf and other “disabled” people as being a “part of life”. They were not considered ignorant and often were well respected. Although they were not shunned and some were respected, the deaf did not have as many rights as hearing individuals. For example, they could not own property and some could not marry. They also weren’t permitted to fully participate in rituals.