Research with d/Deaf people

Population, Space and Place

Human Organization, 2015

In our research with d/Deaf people in five families in the North and South Islands of New Zealand, we found that some of the challenges that we as researchers faced in our encounters with participants and within our mixed hearing and d/Deaf research group paralleled broader issues for this community. We use the details of our field research processes to explore the conundrum of d/Deafness, which may or may not be a disability and use this exploration to reflect on approaches to d/Deafness as revealed in our research findings. We argue that d/Deafness creates a predicament, but not only for the d/Deaf. We propose that practical solutions to this predicament may be thought of as services that enable citizenship, participation, communication, and care, rather than disability services, and this rethinking would ease the cognitive and cultural dissonance experienced by perfectly able d/Deaf people who have to access disability services in their everyday life.

Encyclopaedia of Life Sciences eLS, 2013

The Deaf community consists of a group of like minded people sharing a common sign language and culture. This community has a positive attitude toward being deaf. Typically, deafness is considered a strong part of linguistic and cultural identity and Deaf individuals do not wish to have treatments or a cure. Deaf people have concerns that a hearing society, with little knowledge or experience of their rich culture and language, would encourage the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and prenatal genetic testing for deafness with the ultimate aim of having hearing children. They feel strongly that deafness is a source of human variation that does not warrant the use of genetic technology in this way. Deaf (written with an uppercase 'D') refers to people who belong to the Deaf community. Deaf people use sign language (e.g. British Sign Language, American Sign Language, Auslan, etc.) as their first or preferred language. They also have a positive identity attached to being Deaf. People who consider themselves deaf (written with a lowercase 'd') or hard of hearing tend to use speech as their preferred form of communication, and may experience being deaf as a medical disability that needs to be treated. These groups often have very differing attitudes towards the use of genetic technology.

American Annals of the Deaf, 158(5): pp. 428-438 , 2013

The authors argue that Deafhood (a term coined by Dr. Paddy Ladd) is an open-ended concept with an essentialist core. They describe how deaf people who have attended their Deafhood lectures and workshops have perceived different aspects of the Deafhood concept, and compare the basic tenets of Deafhood and criticisms on Deafhood to theories and criticisms on feminist essentialisms. The authors find that the vagueness and wideness of the Deafhood concept is one of its strengths, though they also find that it is in some respects problematic to combine and unite ontology and liberation theory in one concept. They further sug- gest that the ontological aspects of Deafhood need to be foregrounded. The question of essentialism inherent in the Deafhood concept is also briefly discussed with regard to hearing people, the use of spoken lan- guage, and the use of amplification technology and cochlear implants.

2012

Sign Language Studies, 2017

2009

The American Deaf community for several decades has been involved in sometimes complicated and often contested ways of defining what it means to be Deaf. It is our thesis that the processes of identity construction and the recent discourse of Deaf identity are not unique phenomena at all but echo the experience of other embedded cultural groups around the world, particularly those that are stressed by the assertion of hegemony over them by others. We turn to 2 particular theorists, Jose Martı ́ and W. E. B. DuBois, to help us un-derstand both the dilemmas that Deaf people face and the possible solutions that they propose. This article argues that identities are constructed not just within Deaf communities but within the social contexts in which Deaf communities are embedded. This article discusses how Deaf people’s identities are

Scandinavian journal of public health. Supplement, 2005

Born-deaf, sign-language-using people have for the past two centuries been placed within a succession of externally constructed models, notably the traditional "medical" or pathological model. This perceives them primarily as biologically deficient beings in need of cures or charity in order to be successfully assimilated into society. This paper proposes that the concept of colonialism is the one that most appropriately describes the "existential" reality of deaf communities, and offers instead a deaf-constructed model. Utilizing recent confirmation of the existence of bona-fide feaf cultures, it highlights the extent to which these communities have resisted such models, maintaining their own beliefs concerning their validity and quality of their existence, and what they offer to non-deaf societies. This "vulnerability as strength" is manifested through the concept of deafhood, which is presented as the first move towards a formal narrative of decoloni...

Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education

In this chapter, it will be argued that there are two fundamentally different ways in which deafness can be conceptualized: as a pathological medical condition (deafness) and as a distinctive linguistic, cultural, and social identity (Deafness). The characteristics and attributes of the Deaf cultural community (called the DEAF-WORLD in American Sign Language) will be explored: the role and place of its vernacular language (ASL), the awareness of group identity shared by its members, its distinctive behavioral norms, its endogamous marital patterns, the cultural artifacts that are most closely associated with it, its shared, insider

Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2005

Born-deaf, sign-language-using people have for the past two centuries been placed within a succession of externally constructed models, notably the traditional ''medical'' or pathological model. This perceives them primarily as biologically deficient beings in need of cures or charity in order to be successfully assimilated into society. This paper proposes that the concept of colonialism is the one that most appropriately describes the ''existential'' reality of deaf communities, and offers instead a deaf-constructed model. Utilizing recent confirmation of the existence of bona-fide feaf cultures, it highlights the extent to which these communities have resisted such models, maintaining their own beliefs concerning their validity and quality of their existence, and what they offer to non-deaf societies. This ''vulnerability as strength'' is manifested through the concept of deafhood, which is presented as the first move towards a formal narrative of decolonizing and liberatory possibilities.

Sage Publiciations, 2011

Summary of modern viewpoints from Deaf authors collaborated with a Hearing ally.

Dolentium Hominum

The psychological world of deaf people… what is it? What type of world? A world of visual language, culture, education, psychology, sociology, biased testing, pathological perspectives, oppression, prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, linguistic centrism, audism, solidarity, customs, traditions, families, abuse, addiction, faith, amazing stories, authentic love, identity, a deaf identity, and simply stated: being deaf is a way of being. In viewing the psychological world of deaf people, we will explore various perspectives in this world; deaf people’s perspectives on deaf people; deaf people’s perspectives on hearing people; and hearing people’s perspectives on deaf people. As we begin this exploration into the psychological world of deaf people, basic information needs to be outlined; i.e. deaf versus compared to Deaf, pathological/medical versus culture/ cultural, and ethnocentrism and audism.