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natalyadDeaf, deaf, Hard of Hearing (HOH), even the dreaded Hearing Impaired..... There's a lot of divisions in 'deaf communities' and a fair bit of fighting. I don't join 'deaf' spaces without expecting to need a fairly thick skin.
Yet every individual I speak to Deaf, deaf, HOH, deafened, deaf-blind says they don't like the division and fighting either. In fact I'd go so far as to say people HATE it. I know I do.
Just hurling this blogpost out now in reply to a tweet really, cos 140chars isn't enough. Someone suggested we had too much uncommon ground to do deaf unity...
That's almost the opposite conclusion to what I was noodling with the other day.
The entire deaf world seems to be split into BSL signing culturally big D deaf and oral/aural non-signing small d deaf (hard of hearing, hearing impaired etc)...
You're either or.... Apparently.
And even if you do accept a D/d deaf divide we seem not to be able to work together on anything and there's epic amounts of grudge bringing up, "you were mean to me about X, so I'm not being nice to you about Y"...
And I can understand that. Cos what it says to me is we're all hurting. Paddy Ladd on See Hear talking about CIs discussed bullying amongst "deaf" people of all deafnesses and talked about how it was caused by structural audism...
So assuming there's 3 loose groups of deaf-signing, deaf-oral and then the inbetweeny group of deaf signing & oral cos an astonishing number of people seem to have some level of sign language skills...
I tried to work out some basic choices and which groups would choose what. And actually very few fell into either the deaf-signing or deaf-oral only camps. Most fell somewhere in between.
I also tried to add deaf-blind and deaf+other-impairment to that cos many of us do have sight impairments and I hear deaf-blind people talking about inclusion or exclusion within the deaf community. My own "additional impairments" affect how much I physically CAN sign...
So here's my startng venn diagram.
What have I missed? I'm sure I have missed stuff, will modify this as needed.
But I think we can all agree that we support access to
* Appropriate and full access to language during the critical early-years window
* Healthcare via deaf awareness and communication support
* Education, cos right now for deaf children it's not good
* Employment support in the workplace with deaf awareness, less structural prejudice,
* Access to Work support whether it be for BSL terps, lipspeakers or radio aids
* Entertainment with subtitles for cinema and DVDs and videos on websites etc
* Funding for access to support for every day life like Finland has for deaf people
* Some stuff under legal, social, moral, medical models of disability.
* Assistance animals like hearing dogs or guide dogs
The only thing I could find which I think some people want and others don't is culturo-linguistic recognition of British Sign Language. Which arguably even those who don't sign don't lose out from, and could benefit from if we wanted to learn/improve our sign language and could apply to other things...
What are the other differences we have amongst ourselves?
Clarifications and possible modifications
Firstly in the Venn Diagram I have simplified all "deaf" identities into 'deaf' for reasons of space and simplicity. If I filled the Venn diagram with deafened/HOH/Deaf/sign language user etc it wouldn't be as easy to read. What I might do in a better draft of this entry is specify I am going to do that alongside a description of the image for people who can't see it.
I also haven't talked about deafness levels in any way. Nor have I attempted to define the sign language group as profoundly or severely deaf and the oral group as anything else cos level of deafness in my experience is less relevant than upbringing, culture, personal choice etc. I know of "profoundly deaf" people who are only oral and do not sign. I know "moderately deaf" people who are culturally Deaf and who do sign. I know "slightly hard of hearing" people who have chosen to learn sign language etc etc.
I haven't talked about CODA/KODAs. We hear a lot about signing CODAs, but not a lot about oral CODAs yet many of us non signing people will have children who are "children of deaf adult(s)". I am too ignorant on this to say if there is info out there but it's on my think and read a bit more about list.
Yet every individual I speak to Deaf, deaf, HOH, deafened, deaf-blind says they don't like the division and fighting either. In fact I'd go so far as to say people HATE it. I know I do.
Just hurling this blogpost out now in reply to a tweet really, cos 140chars isn't enough. Someone suggested we had too much uncommon ground to do deaf unity...
That's almost the opposite conclusion to what I was noodling with the other day.
The entire deaf world seems to be split into BSL signing culturally big D deaf and oral/aural non-signing small d deaf (hard of hearing, hearing impaired etc)...
You're either or.... Apparently.
And even if you do accept a D/d deaf divide we seem not to be able to work together on anything and there's epic amounts of grudge bringing up, "you were mean to me about X, so I'm not being nice to you about Y"...
And I can understand that. Cos what it says to me is we're all hurting. Paddy Ladd on See Hear talking about CIs discussed bullying amongst "deaf" people of all deafnesses and talked about how it was caused by structural audism...
So assuming there's 3 loose groups of deaf-signing, deaf-oral and then the inbetweeny group of deaf signing & oral cos an astonishing number of people seem to have some level of sign language skills...
I tried to work out some basic choices and which groups would choose what. And actually very few fell into either the deaf-signing or deaf-oral only camps. Most fell somewhere in between.
I also tried to add deaf-blind and deaf+other-impairment to that cos many of us do have sight impairments and I hear deaf-blind people talking about inclusion or exclusion within the deaf community. My own "additional impairments" affect how much I physically CAN sign...
So here's my startng venn diagram.
What have I missed? I'm sure I have missed stuff, will modify this as needed.
But I think we can all agree that we support access to
* Appropriate and full access to language during the critical early-years window
* Healthcare via deaf awareness and communication support
* Education, cos right now for deaf children it's not good
* Employment support in the workplace with deaf awareness, less structural prejudice,
* Access to Work support whether it be for BSL terps, lipspeakers or radio aids
* Entertainment with subtitles for cinema and DVDs and videos on websites etc
* Funding for access to support for every day life like Finland has for deaf people
* Some stuff under legal, social, moral, medical models of disability.
* Assistance animals like hearing dogs or guide dogs
The only thing I could find which I think some people want and others don't is culturo-linguistic recognition of British Sign Language. Which arguably even those who don't sign don't lose out from, and could benefit from if we wanted to learn/improve our sign language and could apply to other things...
What are the other differences we have amongst ourselves?
Clarifications and possible modifications
Firstly in the Venn Diagram I have simplified all "deaf" identities into 'deaf' for reasons of space and simplicity. If I filled the Venn diagram with deafened/HOH/Deaf/sign language user etc it wouldn't be as easy to read. What I might do in a better draft of this entry is specify I am going to do that alongside a description of the image for people who can't see it.
I also haven't talked about deafness levels in any way. Nor have I attempted to define the sign language group as profoundly or severely deaf and the oral group as anything else cos level of deafness in my experience is less relevant than upbringing, culture, personal choice etc. I know of "profoundly deaf" people who are only oral and do not sign. I know "moderately deaf" people who are culturally Deaf and who do sign. I know "slightly hard of hearing" people who have chosen to learn sign language etc etc.
I haven't talked about CODA/KODAs. We hear a lot about signing CODAs, but not a lot about oral CODAs yet many of us non signing people will have children who are "children of deaf adult(s)". I am too ignorant on this to say if there is info out there but it's on my think and read a bit more about list.
