I was sitting in church today when I noticed a man sitting all alone. A lady wearing all black walked up to him and she started to move her hands. They seemed to be having a conversation without sound. The lady took a seat in front of a row of chairs that said Deaf Seating. The church service began and I was intrigued as her hand and facial expressions changed. When she was done I noticed that no one tried to have a conversation with him. I walked up to the man and said “Hi.” That was the only sign language I knew. The lady walked over seeing me struggle. “Would you like an interpreter?” I smiled and nodded. The man seemed happy to have someone to talk to. I talked to him and I started to learn that there is a whole Deaf community with a culture of its own and they define themselves as more than just their inability to hear.
The Deaf Community is very self sufficient. Many hold the same jobs as you and I. Deaf individuals excel in diverse fields, from teaching and medicine to serving in the military. Their inability to hear does not limit their contributions to society, and they take pride in their accomplishments. These people are American citizens. The only difference is the inability to hear.
While some people view this as a disability the Deaf Community is actually very proud of the community they have built and do not feel like they have a disability. They have no problem communicating within their culture with others who speak the same language. The inability to do something is not seen as a problem when you have lived with it your whole life and have developed means of doing whatever the rest of the population can do. For example, if I lived in the United States my whole life and never learned how to speak Chinese it wouldn’t hinder my ability to communicate. However, if I went to China that would be disabling for me because I could not communicate. The Deaf community sees themselves like that. They can communicate with no problems within their community and are also quite good at expressing themselves with the general population through visual gestures. The problem comes when others who are not a part of their community want to communicate with them but do not know their language or when others who are not a part of their community assume that it is pointless to even try to communicate with them because they are deaf. The Deaf culture often has their voices silenced. This can feel demeaning. It is very common for people to automatically assume that they know what is best for people before listening to what the person actually wants.
There are Deaf communities across the world with languages of their own. This means that American Sign Language or ASL is not a universal language. While initially there was a group of deaf individuals working to make one universal language, it was unsuccessful. The idea failed because people across the world felt like it was an infringement on their culture. For every culture there is a sign language that captures their unique sayings and phrases. There is even a difference between races. For example, the black community uses BASL which stands for Black American Sign Language with slang that a black person may use that a white person would not. Other deaf communities also exist which share their own idioms relative to their specific community.
The Deaf Community pulls together while they face adversity which makes their community stronger. Just as our forefathers fought together to make our country great, the Deaf community has done that too. They have defended their cause in many different ways. One example of this was on March 6, 1988, when a hearing person was hired as president of Gallaudet University, one of the few Deaf Colleges in the United States. The Deaf Community felt that a hearing president would not adequately serve their community well and that a deaf president would be the better qualified applicant for the job. This was met with rebellion and protests. These protests were extremely effective and the hearing president resigned. From that point forward only Deaf individuals could hold the possession of the President of Gallaudet. Just as America could not be ruled by King George the Third, an ocean away, a hearing person will never have the understanding of what a Deaf person experiences. This example shows how strong the Deaf community is and that they do not want hearing people to speak on their behalf unless it is through an interpreter.
The Deaf community has faced a lot of adversity over the years. One of the main struggles that they have experienced is when the general population automatically assumes that the Deaf community wants to be fixed, or that they want the ability to hear. It is a typical response for a hearing person who has a Deaf baby to be told options by the doctor to try to fix the problem. Typically the solutions that the doctors provide are hearing aids or cochlear implants. The parents are sometimes even discouraged from learning sign language to communicate with their child. While the intention is to get the child to learn how to talk and work with the hearing world, this technology is faulty. Some children learn to talk with the hearing world, but others struggle and experience language deprivation; this can cause the child to develop slower than their peers and not have the same advantages that a child in the deaf culture would have had. If their parents just learned sign language these problems would have been avoided. This causes the Deaf Community to get upset because they feel like there is no need for this.
The Deaf community actually believes that there is a gain to being Deaf. Since the Deaf Community is proud of their accomplishments, they know that there are some things that they will be better at than a hearing person because their brains think more visually. This is called Deaf Gain. They often pick up on social cues that a hearing person would miss. There is a common joke among the Deaf community that they are really good at Poker because they can read other’s expressions. People who are not aware of the advantages that the deaf community has and how proud the Deaf community is miss out on the whole picture.
The man who went to my church was just like you and me. We both have wants, hopes, and dreams. The Deaf community has a lot more to it than just their inability to hear. They have a rich culture with a history that they are proud of and accomplishments that they sport with pride. These people are living in our community and while they are audibly silent, their voices matter and they should be seen for more than their inability to hear.
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