Deaf Culture In American Culture

Culture; it can a pop culture, an American culture, traditions, values, expectations, it can be anything that you claim. Culture has been defined by many different terms and ways. In this case we as a class or individual have been learning about Deaf Culture and if it is truly a culture. Learning this, yes, Deaf culture is a culture; it is excepted by society, it’s their values, beliefs. Just like the American culture it is accepted by people everywhere, in fact people want to be a part of the American culture. Culture can be used so broadly that it is almost impossible to define that people put together this idea of culture and they come up with their own definition of what culture truly is.
Me? I have still been discovering who I am so I …show more content…
Although I cannot relate to the Deaf Culture I have done research that I feel like in some way I can relate to them. Deaf Culture, just like any other culture, has its own traditions, values, and almost expectations. For example, to be in the USADSF you have to be hard of hearing or Deaf (USADSF 1935) that is an expectation they require. In my household pretty much the closest “tradition” we have is getting together on holidays, but what I stated before I am more closely related to the Academia culture and for Deaf students it is more difficult to go to an all Deaf school just because the closest one could be 300 miles away. “Literacy, as a defined here, includes not only reading skills but also skills required to become a literate user of the American Sign Language (ASL)” (Chamberlain). This is how the Academia culture and Deaf culture are similar, students need to be literate in order to go to school, just like in ASL, but one difference could be, is that children who are learning ASL don’t have to be proficient whereas the standard for going to school now is you have to know a certain amount of words and numbers to even begin school. “People deafened in adulthood are more likely to have good English skills, as well as hearing friends and a hearing spouse or partner. Having …show more content…
Parents who have a Deaf child or even disabled child may have a harder time trying to provide resources for their children. Right away, if a child is Deaf and their parents do not have health insurance to get them hearing aids, speech classes, or even ASL classes that can put them behind in school. This is how me being a part of the Academia culture is different from the Academia culture in the Deaf Culture. I never had to have major health insurance as an adolescent, but it was always there if I needed it. This is also why these two cultures differ because if parents have a disabled child and not health insurance it puts more pressure on the parent. On a side note Holcomb states on pg. 244 “that Deaf individuals are not disabled at all.” Even with that being said children and adults who are Deaf or hard of hearing they still have resources out there to help them and most of them are free. “Despite the importance of sign language interpreting for many deaf students, there is surprisingly little research concerning its effectiveness in the classroom” (Marschark). Explaining this further, this is just in the classroom with a Deaf student and not at an all Deaf school. Granted, there might be check ins on the student to see how they are doing, but what if there are multiple students in the same school different ages and only one