Deafness

psychologist are not adequately prepared to provide linguistically and culturally competent care for deaf patients3. Also, the deaf community experience many obstacles to get the help: language barriers, low health literacy and small-community dynamics4. Deafness is a very heterogeneous concept, because being deaf can be the result of the combination of different factors. Classifications can be made according to various criteria,…

Jane Fernandes has an interesting and dynamic history in the Deaf community. In Worcester, Massachusetts, she was born Deaf to a Deaf mother and hearing father. She did not immediately start to learn American Sign Language – her mother taught her how to speak, and she became a very proficient lip-reader. It wasn’t until she entered graduate school at the University of Iowa that she began to learn how to sign. Fernandes has overcome a lot of adversity in her professional life. Surprisingly enough…

Turning the Tables Throughout the course of history, our world has been majority hearing, which in turn makes the Deaf community a minority. However, after learning about Deaf culture you can see that Deaf people are able to “turn the tables” by making themselves the majority, and the hearing community the minority. The first demonstration of how the Deaf community can turn the tables is by using humor. One joke called “The Bar Phone” tells of a a group of Deaf people signing in a bar while a…

This survey was developed to investigate the public opinion of American Sign Language (ASL) as a true language. Because ASL is not a spoken language, the public may be inclined to believe that it is not a true language. Understanding public opinions of ASL as a true language is important when considering community access for individuals who use ASL. Additionally, for individuals who use ASL to feel more comfortable communicating, it is essential to understand how the public views ASL and whether…

Andrew J Foster was an amazing man that just might have changed the world of deaf culture. Foster was born on June 27, 1925, in Ensley, Ala. However, growing up was hard for Foster because he confronted segregation and prejudice growing up as an African American. As a kid, he confronted school isolation, and additionally managing sub-human acts and laws. For example, having separate reading material for blacks and whites, and not having the capacity to place money into the hand of a white store…

When people think about Deaf people, the first word that comes to mind is disabled. The word disabled has a negative connotation. Although the Deaf may not be able to hear, they are very capable of communicating either by spoken words or American Sign Language (ASL). The Deaf have a very rich history just as other cultures do. Just like many other cultures, the Deaf have their own sets of traditions and values. Questions have started arising on whether the Deaf should be considered a disability…

373). There are two main categories of a hearing impairment: deafness and hard of hearing. In our textbook, they define deafness, according to Northern & Downs, as a loss of hearing “so severe that a child experiences difficulty in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification” (pg. 373). In a classroom, much…

hearing community, who, unfortunately do not understand the beauty of the culture and the ignorance that deaf people go through daily. Justin explained, “I’ve been in several predicaments with my parents being blatantly disrespected because of their deafness.” He knows that he cannot fully empathize their situation but he does understand what oppression actually feels like. The hearing population just assume that if you are communicating with your hands, then you must be Deaf. They do not…

As happens with any minority, the media misrepresents Deaf people. They have been portrayed as disabled or isolated, for example, in Switched at Birth, a deaf character gets nearly hit by a car, starts a kitchen fire, and is robbed while her nearby deaf friend doesn’t help because he can’t hear her cries for help. In Bones, a teenage deaf girl is treated as a homicide suspect because she doesn’t immediately speak to the police (Foss 437-438). As a result of this representation, hearing people…

Due to such brutal and negative image the child is either exposed to the intense therapy to cure the deafness or get as close to hearing person as possible or complete neglect by other children and even the education system. The first case, where the child is exposed to treatments as getting on the airplane, shock or hearing aid. Some of them are ridiculous…