Disability - Deaf Studies: A brief literature review

Sign Language Studies, 2017

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.

Sociology, 2014

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.

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...

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.

Canadian Journal of Disability Studies

I am one of a handful of signing deaf tenure-track or tenured professors in Canada. To my knowledge, I am also the only one who teaches a stand-alone university course in Deaf Studies that is not part of a sign language interpreter or teacher of the deaf training program. As such, I was delighted to read Innovations in Deaf Studies: The Role of Deaf Scholars edited by Annelies Kusters, Maartje De Meulder, and Dai O’ Brien. In this work I find many of my scholarly experiences and concerns reflected on an international scale.

2019

This paper discusses four issues regarding the potential for research to be misguided when white, hearing persons, who are members of the majority culture, conduct investigations on members of two minority cultures, deaf and Asian-Padfic people. One potential danger is that researchers may draw conclusions that facilitate inappropriate stereotyping of deaf and Asian-PadfLc persons. In addition, there are potential problems regarding credibility when researchers who are members of the majroity culture write about individuals in a minority culture. Misguided work is less likely to occur when researchers who belong to the majority group are involved in the minority culture. However, involvement by such researchers is not enough; it is also important to have more researchers who are themselves members of deaf and Asian-Padfic minority groups. The papers by Akamatsu (1994) and Foster (1994) provide fascinating discussions about researchers who are "outsiders,*' that is white, he...

Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf …, 2010

The focus and concerns establishing Deaf Studies in the 1970s have rigidified into a reactive stance toward changing historical conditions and the variety of deaf lives today. This critique analyzes the theoretical foundation of this stance: a tendency to downplay established research in the field of Deaf Studies and linguistics, the employment of outdated examples of discrimination, an uncritical acceptance of Derrida's phonocentrism, flawed uses of Saussure's linguistic theory, and reliance on the limiting metaphor of colonialism. The purpose of the critique ultimately is to point Deaf Studies in a new direction. Issues with conceptualizing an expanded Deaf Studies are the focus of a companion article (this issue), “Inclusive Deaf Studies: Barriers and Pathways" -- at http://jdsde.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/1/17.full

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

2019

Names are both personal and political, as they relate to identity. Woodward’s 1975 etic article first mentioned a naming convention for D/deaf and prominent scholars have debated the issue since. To evaluate current preferences, the research team used an online questionnaire to gather emic insights and opinions from the community, as well as a more etic perspective from hearing individuals for work with these issues. Data from these three self-identified groups of participants, Deaf, deaf, and hearing, were analyzed. Results found high variability among responses related to the terms, D/deaf, and whether or not certain terms should remain in the lexicon. Results are discussed and presented both to contribute and to further research in the field. It is recommended that the usage of existing term(s) be adhered to and that an individual’s preferred naming conventions be respected and utilized whenever possible.

Développement humain, handicap et changement social, 2022

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