...Nika Pickwoad Ms. Ruiz Deaf Culture November 18, 2013 Deaf culture #1) Sign language has been around for as long as its existence of deafness. Deafness, in the early centuries of American life caused many problems for those that were deaf. Doctors did not understand the root causes of deafness and books were rare at the time. Until the most recent years, doctors finally understand why deafness occurs and the deaf communities in the world today are being respected and admired, with the aid of American Sign Language. “ASL has many roots not only is it rooted in the French ideas, but also the ideas of the Great Plains Indians in America” (Butterworth & Flodin, 1995).The man responsible for bringing sign language to light in the United States is Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Gallaudet studied the French ways and returned to America in 1817 where he founded the first school for the deaf in America, near present day Hartford, Connecticut. The college was appropriately named Gallaudet College, after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. ASL is starting to be referred to as a foreign language. The reason for this growing idea stems from colleges and universities recognizing ASL as a success for foreign language credits in many college degree programs. “Gary Olsen former Executive Director of the National Association of the Deaf, referred to this notion of ASL as a foreign language as an American ground swell” (Butterworth & Flodin...
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...Introduction to Deaf-World 1. The meaning of Deaf Culture is exactly what is stated- Culture of the Deaf. Traditions of the Deaf Community, appropriate behaviors, morals, as well as the use of ASL. Deaf who are oral, and a bigger part of the hearing community are not considered to be a part of the Deaf Community, since they do not practice Deaf Culture. Not only are these traditions and behaviors apart of the Deaf Culture, one must participate as well as be active in the culture to be considered Deaf. Also, there is a difference between Deaf and deaf. Deaf is culture, while deaf is physical. As with any other culture, customs are taken seriously, and to be considered part of the culture, one must believe, and be committed. 2. To gain membership into the Deaf-Community is not as simple as purchasing a membership. One must be active in Deaf events, know/ learn ASL, and actually want to become a part of the community. One must be very very active in the Deaf community. One must want to learn, and actually take the people, and culture seriously. Hearing people can become a part of the community, but it is much harder to gain access, since hearing people are not born into the community. Becoming a part of any other community takes time, but if one is committed they can definitely take part. 3. Video Relay Service is a communication device made for people who are Deaf, hard of hearing, or mute, to communicate with people who are hearing. If a hearing person...
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...and to be able to communicate with others who have similar interests, values and beliefs, we create communities around these shared interests, values and beliefs. This is why I believe Deaf culture has come about as Deaf people within the wider community have formed their own communities based on a shared understanding of the challenges faced by those with hearing loss in a world that is predominately geared to hearing people. Deaf culture is the way in which the Deaf community connects with each other allowing them to share their experiences with each other and also those who are not a part of the Deaf community. As seen in the video it is often easier for a Deaf person to communicate with other Deaf people then it is for Deaf people to communicate with non-deaf people. Deaf people have their own language called Auslan and even if they do not use this to communicate they understand the need to make sure they gain the...
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...Comparison of Deaf Culture and Hearing Culture in the USA | |(Using the Hofstede Cultural Comparison Assignment as a guide) | |Where Deaf Culture Would Score If Included in the Geert Hofstede™ Cultural Dimensions | | | |Nathaneil Godfrey | | | PDI Power Distance Indicator Power distance This dimension deals with the fact that all individuals in societies are not equal – it expresses the attitude of the culture towards these inequalities amongst us. Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. It has to do with the fact that a society’s inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. http://geert-hofstede.com/ Deaf culture I think Deaf culture would score...
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...On Deaf Culture Deaf culture is usually found in Deaf schools, and Deaf Clubs. Having Deaf culture depends on the person and how they accept being deaf. This is different for every deaf person, depending on their situation. At Deaf school is where culture begins. Here everyone is equal and they can interact with other deaf kids. This gives them a since of actually belonging somewhere. Hearing people see the Deaf schools as a dumping ground for deaf kids. When in actuality it is a place for the Deaf to identify themselves. Deaf of Deaf acquire their culture from infancy, but only about 10% are Deaf of Deaf, others get this culture from attending Deaf schools. And yet there are still others who are put in mainstream schools who aren’t exposed to Deaf culture until college or even when they start attending Deaf Clubs. Deaf communities consider themselves family and believe in taking care of each other, Deaf take care of Deaf. Deaf value Deaf of Deaf, they want to preserve deafness. While hearing people want to do away with deaf by cochlear implants and even hearing aids, are hearing people’s way of fixing their deafness. Deaf people do not need to be fixed. They are very capable of leading a normal life. They think this would destroy Deaf culture; besides cochlear may improve only environmental sounds but it does not cure deafness completely. To go with cochlear, oralism is not thought highly of either. Being forced to speak or learn to lip read is a waste of time to a majority...
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...it is implied that Deaf people are an inconvenience and that they are broken and need to be fixed. Deafness is not a disability, a disability is considered to be a physical or mental condition that limits a person's movements or activities. The ADA (Americans with disabilities act) goes on to add that a disability “includes individuals who do not have a disability but are regarded as having a disability”. This means that disabilities are not necessarily a set concept rather it is largely influenced by the attitude towards whatever “disability”. People that are Deaf have become a proud culture, refusing to consider themselves handicapped because they can do anything any hearing person is capable of besides hear. The Deaf culture in America begins in the nineteenth century when French Deaf educators, Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, came with the...
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...Deaf Culture and History “Deaf culture is exactly what Carol Padden defines as a culture: a set of learned behaviors of a group of people that share a language, values, rules for behavior, and traditions.” ("Deaf Culture” ¶4). Deaf people of the world have lived in a secret shroud for quite some time. Less than centuries ago, deaf people didn't even have an official language. Over time those who were deaf created their own culture and language. Deaf people have had their beliefs and language evolve throughout history into something that can allow people to break communication barriers. Contrary to popular belief, sign language is not universal. Different languages have different forms of sign language and here in America, deaf people use ASL (American Sign Language). American Sign Language derived from French Sign Language, which was brought to America to help teach deaf people (“History of American Sign Language”). Today, ASL isn't just a language, but it is a culture of people who care for each other. Deaf people encourage people to use ASL as it is...
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...SILA 306 ASL 2 What is Deafhood as respecting in the deaf culture? Deafhood is a term that loosely means a Deaf person finding and understanding their Deaf culture. This is not a static term and it usually refers to a process by which a Deaf person must go through in order to discover themselves and their roles in the Deaf community. Deafhood is a word that was coined by the author of Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood, by Paddy Ladd. With regards to deafness, the people of the past felt lost or upset with being deaf. The families of the deaf would force their children to go to a hearing school and assimilate with their culture. Schools would have to put labels on the children’s clothing to differentiate them. I think that these measures would make a child uncomfortable with his deafness. There were not many schools that a child can have access to so it would be understandable that the child will feel frustrated with himself about his situation. Ladd’s book asserts that deafness is a positive thing and that one should embrace their deafness. On a similar note, the deaf should not consider their inability to hear as a disease or handicap that needs to be cured. Deafhood is the understanding of how remarkable it is to be Deaf and be okay with that. These days with the internet and technology, it is easy for a child and his family to find a community near them. It is a lot easier to have a deaf person reach Deafhood, much like a normal child would reach...
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...cultural space there are certain aspects of the culture and its relationship to nonverbal activity. Personal–contextual and the static–dynamic dia- lectics. Although nonverbal communication can be highly dynamic, personal space, gestures, and facial expressions are fairly static patterns of specific non- verbal communication codes. Their interpretation will vary depending upon its context and culture that it is being communicated to. The chapter talks about how different the dynamics of intercultural nonverbal communication are across different cultural groups. In this ICC artifact assignment we will examine and look at the topic of The Cochlear implant controversy. The controversy involves the scientific hearing assistance breakthrough device for the deaf community, and whether or not its use and development will be the ultimate removal of and extinction of the deaf community as a culture. The following essay will examine the relevance and truth to this argument and examine the negative and positive manifestations to the Deaf culture from the development and use of the Cochlear Implant itself. The Chapter talks about several research findings about nonverbal communication. Research investigating the universality of nonverbal communication has focused on four areas: (1) the relationship of human behavior to that of primates (particularly chimpanzees) (p. (2) nonverbal communication of sensory-deprived children who are blind or deaf, (3) facial expressions, and (4) universal functions...
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...Amber Kiker Kiker 1 Professor McCarthy English 102 August 12, 2015 Deaf Employment in the Professional Sector Profound hearing loss affects millions of people in the United States today. According to the Gualledette Research Institute there are currently over a million people between the ages of 6 and 65 who are Deaf (Harrington 1). While several state and federally funded programs have been implemented to support early and post-secondary education for the Deaf, evidence points to a significant lack of job placement assistance for Deaf young adults transitioning from college to independent living. Deaf graduates often return home to live with family due to an inability to obtain employment reflective of their academic achievements. Currently in America the most common type of employment held by Deaf individuals is limited primarily to the service and manufacturing industries. The objective of this research is to investigate the professional sector of employment in the United States to uncover the driving mechanisms behind the non-presence of the Deaf Community, specifically those with post-secondary education, and to examine what steps are being taken to resolve this apparent disparity. In the hearing world, graduating from college is the beginning of an exciting chapter of a young adult’s life as it represents the transition from higher education into the world of professional employment. It is the time one gets to put into practice the skills they have...
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...Labeling deafness as a disability fails to acknowledge the social process through which a Deaf child could become ostracized and excluded from society. It is commonly argued that if a child becomes isolated, it was the fault of the disability itself, not the society as large. Historically, the dominant hearing culture has demoted Deaf people to social categories such as handicapped, disabled, and outsider (Kelleher, 2017). An ever-increasing number of Deaf people do not consider themselves to be handicapped or disabled, but demand to be recognized and respected as a distinct cultural group with its own beliefs, needs, opinions, customs and language (Padden, 2006). The Deaf Community disputes deafness as a disability and they are currently...
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...Deafness as Culture In this article, by Edward Dolnick, it is made clear the view points of the Deaf community toward medical procedures “curing” there lost hearing. The Deaf community is strongly knitted together supporting one another and helping each other to communicate with others outside the community who isn’t deaf. I liked how they said Deafness is not a disability but a subculture. This statement really signifies there union as a community and culture. The significance between the terms “deaf” and “Deaf” is that the upper case D is significant that the “deaf share a culture rather than merely a medical condition.” In the article it states many deaf parents cheer on having a deaf child just like any hearing parent would cheer on having a hearing child. The Deaf society have a strong pride in themselves and being deaf and do not want to change that feature about them ever even if there was a procedure. That is why many Deaf people get frustrated with hearing parents who have deaf children when they first go see doctors and audiologists before actually trying to talk with a Deaf person who will be more understanding a willing to help there child be a part of the community. Some differences between deaf minorities and other cultural minorities is that deaf minorities choose not to change who they are because they see themselves as not having a disability, while other cultural minorities might want to change either through medical procedures like blind people wanting...
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...incapability to hear. But being Deaf is about more than the ability to hear or not. The Deaf Culture is a contributed institution of communities that are impacted by deafness and use sign languages as the leading method of communication. It is a set of social beliefs, behaviors, morals, values, and art. American Sign Language, or ASL, is one of the most widely used languages in the United States. ASL is not universal and is used differently around the world. General languages use voice and lip movement to communicate, signers use their hands and facial expressions, along with body language in order to convey accurate meaning. Members of the Deaf community take pride in their identity and...
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...Effective communication based on culture Effective communication requires fully understanding of the culture that is involved. That means to pass your message effectively, one needs to know their rules and values, languages that they speak and even gestures that they use to communicate. Different people think differently and therefore to effectively communicate with them, knowing their history is vital. The best way to understand this is to research on several different groups of culture that has sufficient information. In this case, deaf culture, whiteness and Arabic culture is considered. Deaf culture consists of a set of behaviors, beliefs, literary traditions as well as the institutions that are shared by communities affected by deafness. They use sign languages to communicate. Members of this culture, has an impressive way of viewing their condition. They term it as a different human experience rather than disability. Looking at them in the sense of a community or culture, they are often seen as a team of minority. This makes some of these communities to feel like they are ignored by the group that don’t understand their sign language. On the other hand, deaf people face another challenge when it comes to acquiring education. Institutions are primarily of hearing people and therefore, special institutions which are often not enough have to be constructed. So in case a deaf person is among the family of hearing people, they are forced to learn the language so that their...
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...with a deaf girl who had a cochlear implant, but she lived with a hearing family so they only used ASL sometimes. I also played basketball with three kids who had deaf parents. As a kid, I watched DVDs called Signing Time that taught kids sign language. Overall, I was not oblivious of the Deaf community, but I never really thought about what it would be like to actually live in it, besides thinking about how things would be different when you cannot hear things like doorbells. My opinions have changed after only taking two ASL courses. For some reason I assumed that deaf people just functioned in the hearing world and congregated together for convenience. I had no idea how much culture there was in the Deaf community. I’m not really surprise, just unaware of how much was out there. Personally, I believe people should be completely free to make the decision for themselves. Some people are perfectly content being Deaf and do...
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