This past month, I’ve been exploring Deaf experiences in the US, both in the context of individual lived experiences and Deaf culture as a whole. Genetically and linguistically, signed languages, including ASL, are a bit of an anomaly as deaf children are more than half of the time born into hearing families. This means that many deaf children are not learning sign as a first language, and are often asked to adapt to the hearing world while being distant from a sense of belonging in Deaf communities.
This theme is explored in Gallaudet University’s documentary, Through Deaf Eyes, as well as the book Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture by Carol Padden and Tom Humpries. In both the documentary and the book, we hear first hand accounts of Deaf adults coming into their Deaf culture with a particular emphasis on the complex relationships to residential schools of the Deaf. These schools have been funded in all 50 states and Canada and often prohibit sign in classrooms, teaching students speech and lip reading instead. In the documentary, we hear students discouraged and frustrated by their academic performance being equated to how well they could present as “hearing.”
It was in the dorms of these schools, however, where students stayed Monday through Friday, that many interviewed described having their first senses of belonging in a Deaf culture. It was here, from one another, that they learned to sign, gave each other sign names, and had the freedom of communication without barriers. Many described a conflicted feeling around returning home for the weekends, often to homes that were not willing to learn sign.
Padden and Humphries also go on to describe an irony around the familial aspect of deafness in that hearing CODAs (children of Deaf adults) often have a more immediate exposure to Deaf culture and learn sign as an L1, which is not the case for many Deaf children.
Moving forward in my cultural studies, I want to explore best practices in language acquisition and schooling for Deaf children, as well as learn more about other ways in which Deaf people come into community.
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