Well, deafness goes across a wide spectrum: from mild to profound and within that spectrum are many different levels, and every individual's needs regarding deafness is unique. Some people choose to use BSL, some choose to speak and some choose to use a combination of both. There are hearing aid users, cochlear implant users, BAHA users and some who choose not to wear anything. Unfortunately Cochlear Implant's do spark a bit of controversy within the deaf community, but I'll leave that for another post! As you can tell, the deaf community is diverse, so being deaf doesn't always necessarily mean that you cant hear-full stop.
So why do we have to tick the disabled box on forms, just because we're deaf-we can still do everything that hearing people do so why should we let our deafness get in the way. We're not disabled, we're able to do anything. I personally think that deafness is separate to disability, we should be allowed to say that we're "deaf" and not "disabled" when applying for jobs,for uni etc. Another label we have to put up with; Special needs. Many people associate special needs with being stupid, that they can't do anything. Well I for one know that's not true because I volunteer with them, I have a family member who has Down's Syndrome and they're a pleasure to be with. But why should people associate deaf people with the word stupid? This relates back to the old saying 'deaf and dumb', many deaf people are on par with hearing peers,some above average and yes some are below the national average but that's not because they're dumb, it's because they haven't been provided with the necessary amount of support to enable them to achieve their potential. And yes we may need to have support and resources in an educational and work environment, and we may use a different language. But Special needs?! What happened to being "deaf"?
To end on a positive note I'm proud to deaf, proud to be a part of the deaf community, proud to say to people "I'm deaf."
3 comments:
I very much agree with you there. I am also proud to be deaf and say that I am deaf. But then, in reality, it can be frustrating that deafness can get in the way sometimes because it stops us in some things that can be distracted because we're deaf. For example, we can't choose ALL jobs we want in the future otherwise we will have lower chance to succeed. I just think the world needs to be more aware of deafness but they see us as disabled because we have 'disabled' ears. Also, special needs, I just thought they meant people who needs special help, like translators, assistants, audiologists and all that.. But overall, I agree with you there :)
Hi Kat, I think this is a really good topic and you've summed it up really brilliantly especially with the steriotype of deaf people being stupid which they are not! Good work :)
[Here via Ni Gallant's blog.]This was a fascinating, articulate, and concise post. I completely agree with you for the first part, i.e. deafness really is a very vague term that can cover pretty much any level of hearing (or lack thereof) and a variety of communication needs.
However, re: ticking the 'disabled' box, I can speak from a slightly different angle. I work as a TA in a primary school, and by ticking the disabled box on forms it just tells the employer/educator that somebody has different needs, significant enough to require some adjustments. The same holds true of somebody who has Asperger's, say, who might not view themselves as disabled - they are perfectly capable of doing the same job or having the same level of education as a non-Aspie - but it might mean that they need instructions to be really clear and step-by-step, for example. So in terms of ticking the 'disabled' box, it's not actually implying that one is incapable of certain things, but simply that one requires specific support to access whatever it is - education, or to be able to do their job, etc. (It also helps institutions to see whether there is any area in which they might be inadvertently discriminating against a group of people - e.g. if a company's only deaf employees were cleaners, they would have to seriously consider why that is.)
As for 'special needs', I think on the whole that's kind of disappearing - officially, anyway. Well, except in the context of SEN, but that specifies educational needs and on the whole has a positive connotation of 'this is how we can help this person'*. Of course, what starts officially does tend to take time to trickle down into general usage, but I think we're moving in the right direction.
*Although granted, that positive connotation may not hold for high school - where I work we have many children with SEN and it's seen by the kids as fairly normal, and for the staff it is very much a case of 'great, we know why they're struggling so we can help them!'. But I know things change after primary school. It's up to us to help educate people and eliminate prejudice!
[Also, 'deaf and dumb' originated way before even the first hearing aids, when deaf people didn't learn to speak orally - the original usage of 'dumb' was literally 'speechless'; e.g. 'struck dumb' -> 'rendered speechless'. However, over time the term 'dumb' came to mean what we would think of today. Alas, people generally are unaware of the original meaning and thus misunderstand the archaic term 'deaf and dumb' (which is now irrelevant anyway!). That said, I do agree that there is still a misconception amongst far too many members of society that deaf = stupid, which is, in itself, just stupid.]
... I think I may have left a comment longer than your original post. Oops. But as you can tell, it really got me thinking!
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