Deaf American

Deaf Americans
Total population
500,000 to 2 million (100,000 to 500,000 primary ASL users out of nearly 2,000,000 profoundly deaf persons (1988), 0.8% of the US population. 15,000,000 hard of hearing persons in the US (1989 Sacks) (from SIL Ethnologue)
Regions with significant populations
 United States 500,000 to 2 million
Languages
American Sign Language, occasionally spoken or Signed English in mixed company

A Deaf American is defined as a member of the American Sign Language linguistic minority. Though they are medically deaf, children of Deaf people and a few hearing people who learn ASL can become adopted into the wider Deaf community. Inversely, "Deaf American" is not inclusive to all people with hearing loss but only those who use ASL as their primary language.

History

The history of Deaf Americans, for the most part, parallels that of American Sign Language (ASL).

Although Deaf American identity is now strongly tied to the use of American Sign Language, its roots can be found in early Deaf communities on the American East Coast, including those that communicated using Martha's Vineyard Sign Language. Martha's Vineyard Sign Language bloomed from necessity due to an unexplainably high number of hereditarily Deaf Americans in the area. The language became so popular, even the hearing Vineyard workers adopted it. The Vineyard language contributed hundreds of signs to the modern ASL we utilize today.[1]

An important event in the history of Deaf Americans was the introduction of French Sign Language to the Deaf community at the American School for the Deaf in 1817. The many different cultures met at a confluence and formed one Deaf American Deaf culture centered around ASL. The culture transferred from student to student and from alumni to their respective home communities.

This tradition continued until 1880 when oralism began to replace manualism as the dominant approach to Deaf education, almost obliterating ASL and Deaf culture in America. Oralism was the main philosophy in Deaf education until 1965 when the linguist William Stokoe argued that ASL should be regarded as a full language with all of the expressive power of any oral language. Deaf Pride began to shoot higher than it had in a century and Deaf education returned to manualism for the most part.

Culture

Norms of Deaf American culture

Rejection of cochlear implants

Within Deaf communities, there is strong opposition to the use of cochlear implants and sometimes also hearing aids and similar technologies. This is often justified in terms of a rejection of the view that deafness, as a condition, is something that needs to be 'fixed'.

Others argue that this technology also threatens the continued existence of Deaf culture, but Kathryn Woodcock argues that it is a greater threat to Deaf culture "to reject prospective members just because they used to hear, because their parents chose an implant for them, because they find environmental sound useful, etc."[2] Cochlear implants may improve the perception of sound for suitable implantees, but they do not reverse deafness, or create a normal perception of sounds.

Rejection of oralism as a teaching method

There is strong opposition within Deaf communities to the oralist method of teaching deaf children to speak and lip read with limited or no use of sign language in the classroom. The method is intended to make it easier for deaf children to integrate into hearing communities, but the benefits of learning in such an environment are disputed. The use of sign language is also central to Deaf identity and attempts to limit its use are viewed as an attack.

References

  1. 'For Hearing People Only' (3rd Addition) By Matthew S. Moore and Linda Levitan
  2. Woodcock, Kathryn (1992). Cochlear Implants vs. Deaf Culture? In Mervin Garretson (ed.), Viewpoints on Deafness: A Deaf American Monograph. Silver Spring, MD: National Association for the Deaf.
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