Post #28: Chapters 58 & 59

Chapter 58:

                This chapter of the book really got me thinking. Of course deaf people don’t think of being deaf as a disability. It is all they really know unless they were late-deafened. Just because it is different from what hearing people consider “normal” doesn’t mean they are defective or damaged. It is sad that people could really look at a group of people as just being broken or defective. I too think that those people who look at them as being defective don’t “take into account what we do with our remaining senses, how creatively we cope, how we communicate, and, most significantly, the richness and color of our lives- as deaf people” (pg.343).

                I think that deaf people have formed their own culture. “ASL-Deaf people certainly do have a distinct language, folklore, literature, art, and social customs” (pg. 344). Just because they don’t have a “distinctive religion, cuisine, or costume” (pg.344), doesn’t mean they aren’t a culture.

                I always wondered why deaf people don’t consider themselves as having a disability but want to be a part of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I learned that, “They want inclusion. Bring down the barriers” (pg.345). It was a little complicated to understand but I also read that, “While those with physical disabilities are concerned about mobility, for example, our concerns focus more on communication” (pg. 345). So I guess it is more to raise awareness? I don’t completely understand it. I do understand however how some people think it more accurate to consider it both a disability and a culture.

 

Chapter 59:

                The first response written by the hearing person I thought was insanely selfish and showed how uneducated they were on the deaf community. I also didn’t agree with the Canadian cochlear-implant surgeon. I do think that the cochlear-implant industry has negatively affected the deaf community but I disagree with his statement that it “will lead inevitably to the extinction of the alternative culture of the Deaf, probably within a decade” (pg. 347).  I didn’t like that he compared the deaf culture to the Yiddish culture because while I agree that “people who have devoted their lives to creating these alternative cultures deserve our highest respect and deepest sympathy” (pg. 348), I disagree that they will be unsuccessful in remaining a culture. I do think that both the responses “are indicative of the hostility with which some hearing and oral-deaf people view ‘Deaf Culture’” (pg. 348).

                This chapter talked a lot about the Deaf Community being compared to the ghetto. I didn’t really understand this comparison. I never would have compared the two. I learned how more wealthy families are choosing to get cochlear implants while a lot of the lower class families are not. “That means that we will end up with a ‘class’ of un-deafed deaf people who are financially comfortable, and a class of poor folks with strong Deaf identities (and, as it looks, substandard educations)” (pg. 351).

                I never considered how new implants are to our society. Our generation is kind of the guinea pigs for cochlear implants. We haven’t had an older generation with them. I find it interesting that the authors predicted that “there will be a vigorous anti-implant backlash-spearheaded by deaf adults who were implanted as children, and who have long since stopped using their implants” (pg. 351).

                I agree that “Prejudice and ignorance are still wide-spread” (pg. 351). I am glad that I took ASL and learned about the Deaf Culture. I think more people need to be aware of this culture.