Auslan
Language and Culture are inseparable
You have decided to learn Auslan - Australian Sign Language - and when you learn another language, you cannot ignore the cultural values and ideas that come with that language. Language and Culture are inseparable. The reason that there are many different languages in the world results from, in large part, people's ability (and inability) to be in contact and communicate with one another. By communicating regularly, groups of people agree on how to talk about things, and develop similar habits, ideas and ways of thinking/communicating.
Languages and cultures are different because communities are separated by national and political boundaries as well as geographic obstacles, such as large mountain ranges or bodies of water that divide groups of people. This can even happen for people who live in the same country, and these barriers prevent intermingling. The opportunities to share daily living are lessened, and communication across groups is hindered, which results in two different groups of people who have developed their own agreed upon ways of doing things, and talking about things. This is how cultural and linguistic differences occur between groups of people.
While you are learning Auslan, you will also learn about Australian Deaf cultural values and how they may be different from your own. You will learn about some of the effects that result from deaf and hearing people not sharing ways of making sense of the world and daily life around them. This comes from social, political and educational factors and not only from the fact that hearing people take in things auditorily and deaf people take in things visually.
How does hearing loss relate to 'deafness'?
Overview
Being deaf is more than just a person's level of hearing loss; in fact, it is so much more than just what happens for deaf people's ears. It is about the whole person and their experiences, how a person makes sense of the world, what's important to them, their language use, and their social and community connections.
However, it is still important to understand some key information about hearing and types of deafness, because this relates to the way society and governments, educational settings, and even social services have historically, and may still in some ways, view and behave towards deaf people.
In this section, we will look at:
•a basic description of how hearing works
•different types of deafness
•causes of deafness
How hearing works
The function of hearing is a complex and delicate process. Whilst you are not expected to learn the process per se, it is useful to have a basic awareness of the function of hearing. The following short video provides a clear explanation and demonstration of hearing. To view the video with closed captions, please click on the CC button in the bottom right corner of the video screen.
Types of Deafness
There are two types of deafness - conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss, as well as a third mixed hearing loss category, being a combination of the first two. These three categories are further explained below.
Conductive hearing loss
Conductive hearing loss is caused by blockage or damage in the outer ear, middle ear or both. It leads to a loss of loudness. Some of the causes of a conductive hearing loss include ear infections, perforated eardrum or blockage of the ear canal by wax or foreign objects. The degree of a conductive hearing loss varies, but you cannot go completely deaf. A conductive hearing loss can often be treated by medical or surgical means.
Sensorineural hearing loss
This is a result of damage to, or a malfunction of, the cochlea (the sensory part) or the hearing nerve (the neural part). It results in a loss of loudness as well as a lack of clarity. It can be caused by the ageing process, excessive noise exposure, diseases such as meningitis or Meniere’s disease, and viruses such as mumps or measles. There is rarely any medical treatment for sensorineural hearing loss, so it is permanent and hearing devices are often recommended.
Mixed hearing loss
A mixed hearing loss is caused by problems in both the conductive pathway (in the outer or middle ear) and in the nerve pathway (the inner ear). An example of a mixed hearing loss is a conductive loss due to a middle-ear infection combined with a sensorineural loss caused by ageing.
Deaf people don't always talk about their "audiological" status, because it is just not as important as it appears to be to many well-intentioned, but culturally insensitive hearing 'outsiders' to the deaf community. When a hearing person asks a deaf person about their level of hearing loss, it is perceived as insensitive and almost an insult.
Identification with being Deaf may have little relationship with how moderate or severe the hearing loss is, but rather is about the use of sign language - a very valuable hint to identity.
Cultural identification as a Deaf person often is linked with value of, and the skilled use of Auslan (which you will learn more about in the lesson Deaf Community Membership).
Hearing status and culture - Big D or little d?
Appropriate terminology
Deaf people in any given country may live in a community surrounded by spoken language users, but we know that the communication between Deaf people and "hearing" people is not easy. Not being able to hear the majority language everyday has a profound effect on how Deaf people make sense of the world around them, and as a result a whole new culture and way of thinking emerges - based on being a VISUAL person rather than being a "hearing" person. Understanding what it means to be a Deaf person is not easy if we don't live day-to-day with only visual information.
It has been like this for thousands of years and has led to misunderstandings between Deaf people and "hearing" people, and Deaf people have suffered from these misunderstandings, as you will learn more about in Session 7: Deaf Identity and Oppression.
You will notice, if you have not already noticed that there are different terms used when we discuss 'Deafness'.
It is important to use terms related to Deafness appropriately.
D or d for 'deaf' - which one to use correctly?
The deaf community has appropriate terminology to use when communicating about members of the deaf community. They are:
•Deaf - with a capital - describe people who are culturally and linguistically deaf
•deaf - without a capital - this is generally used to describe the medical condition of deafness only, without making reference to cultural or linguistic ties
•HI (hearing impaired) - this term is not appreciated by the majority of Deaf people, as the word "impaired" assumes that there is something "wrong"
•HoH (hard of hearing) - this is a more acceptable term within the Deaf community to describe a person who is deaf but does not use sign language or identify with the Deaf community
•CODA (child of deaf adults) - a Coda can either be a Deaf person or a hearing person, as long as they have one or more parents who are deaf - most commonly used with people associated with the Deaf community
•People with Deaf parents - although it’s a rarely used term with no research or professional papers dedicated to it, it often refers to whoever brings up “my parents are Deaf” or “I have Deaf parents” whilst in conversations with anyone who ask about one’s families.
•hearing - without a capital "h" - this term is used to describe people who are able to hear within the audiologically "normal" range. Within the Deaf community, it can also be used to describe people who are not Deaf-aware.
•Deafblind - for people who identify themselves as both Deaf & blind and Deaf. They have varying levels of hearing and blindness.
*Note: for many people who have lost their hearing later in life and are not members of the Deaf community, the terms "hearing impaired" and "hard of hearing" may be interchangeable and both are more widely accepted, depending on personal preference. As this course focuses on the language of the Deaf community, we do not encourage or promote the use of the term "hearing impaired".
As a mark of respect, we discourage referring to Deaf people as "the Deaf" - to do so negates the person and focuses instead on the condition of deafness. Please always say or write "Deaf person/people" or "person/people who is/are Deaf", etc.
There are debates on the correct terms to use. If you Google Big D or little d for deaf you will see a number of links about this debate, which occur in other countries too!
i.e, http://deafexpressions.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/big-d-little-d-whats-it-mean.html
Deafness and "Deafhood"
The wider community tends to view Deaf people from a pathological, NON-normal, medical viewpoint. However members of Deaf communities celebrate rich linguistic and cultural differences from the surrounding spoken language communities in which they are situated.
A brilliant Deaf researcher and author Paddy Ladd wrote a book, In search of Deafhood, which elaborates on many issues faced by Deaf people. Ladd considers "Deafhood" a process, not a single state of being (like deafness implies). It is a vague concept, and will take time to fully understand, especially as you are just starting your your journey as an outsider entering into what is called the DEAF-World. (*)
This unit is called "Introduction to Deafhood", and these lessons herein will give you a background on this important concept.
Ladd writes,
"Some of you may [be] puzzled, challenged even, by the apparent celebration of 'deafness'. Indeed if by deafness one means the loss of one's hearing in adult life ...then one can appreciate why the idea of Deaf pride is confusing.
... sign language users are those who were born Deaf or became so at an early age. For them, the issue of loss has no meaningful reality. By creating their own communities, and utilising their beautiful languages, they have created a linguistic and cultural environment in which they take both comfort and pride. As will later be seen, Deaf people are easily able to adapt from one sign language to another and, as a result, to form a global 'language' of communication, to become, in effect, Citizens of the entire planet. Such a powerful experience cannot continue to be constrained by the feeble diminutive of 'deafness'; hence the concept of Deafhood seeks to encompass those larger dimensions."
Lane, H. Hoffmeister, R. and Bahan, B. (1996). A Journey into the DEAF-World. San Diego, CA: DawnSign Press.
PSPLAN003 Deaf culture & community?
Deaf Culture
In this lesson, you will be learning the following -
•What is culture?
•What is community?
•Deaf culture
•Deaf community
•Sub cultural groups
•Sociolinguistic variation
•Value of language
•Differences between organisations FOR the Deaf vs. organsiations OF the Deaf
•How to introduce yourself in a culturally appropriate way
Defining Culture & Community
One of the most effective ways to learn about oneself is by taking seriously the cultures of others. It forces you to pay attention to those details of life which differentiate them from you.
Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language
You have decided to learn Auslan, and when you learn a second language, you cannot ignore the cultural values and ideas that are threaded throughout that other language becasue language and culture are inseparable.
So....What is culture?
We may wonder what does culture really mean? Often we think of the visible examples of culture, such as differences in food and clothing. But this is really just the surface level of what we think we know about another culture.
A famous analogy for what culture involves is illustrated by the of an iceberg, explained in the video below. Most aspects of culture are not visible, and are completely out of our awareness.
You noticed in the video above that below the water's surface are many aspects of culture that we take for granted – in our own culture AND we do not notice these differences easily about other cultures.
Many of these aspects relate to norms of behavior, values and beliefs, relationships, and the ways we communicate.
These cultural dimensions impact the way that people use their language. In this Session you will better understand what the hidden parts of Deaf culture look like, because they impact the use of Auslan by members of the Deaf community.
Other scholars
Other scholars have written about 'culture'...
Banks, J.A., Banks, & McGee, C. A. (1989). Multicultural education. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon:
"Most social scientists today view culture as consisting primarily of the symbolic, ideational, and intangible aspects of human societies. The essence of a culture is not its artifacts, tools, or other tangible cultural elements but how the members of the group interpret, use, and perceive them. It is the values, symbols, interpretations, and perspectives that distinguish one people from another in modernized societies; it is not material objects and other tangible aspects of human societies. People within a culture usually interpret the meaning of symbols, artifacts, and behaviors in the same or in similar ways."
Damen, L. (1987). Culture Learning: The Fifth Dimension on the Language Classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley:
"Culture: learned and shared human patterns or models for living; day-to-day living patterns. these patterns and models pervade all aspects of human social interaction. Culture is mankind's primary adaptive mechanism" (p. 367).
What is community?
Oxford dictionary:
A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common
Baker Brownell, The Human Community: Its Philosophy and Practice for a Time of Crisis, (1950):
“I am aware that no fixed lines can be drawn in such a fluid situation. Nevertheless I can indicate to what I refer when I speak of the community. It has five essential characteristics: (1) A Community is a group of neighbors who know one another face to face. (2) It is a diversified group as to age, sex, skill, function, and mutual service to each other. (3) It is a cooperative group in which many of the main activities of life are carried on together. (4) It is a group having a sense of “belonging,” or group identity and solidarity. (5) It is a rather small group, such as the family, village, or small town, in which each person can know a number of others as whole persons, not as functional fragments. When the group under consideration is so large that the people in it do not know one another, the community disappears. These five characteristics overlap, and all might be incorporated in a single statement:
A community is a group of people who know one another well. But this is satisfactory only when ‘knowing well’ means the full pattern of functional and social relationships which people may have with one another.”
Deaf Culture and Community
Deaf people are very proud of their unique use of visual language - a sign language. Like all signed languages, Auslan is a is very rich and expressive language that is highly valued by Deaf people. Also, Deaf people do not feel like they are "disabled", as viewed by the majority community- they view themselves as comprising a cultural-linguistic minority group, because like other ethnic and linguistic minority groups in Australia, the main differences they have from majority culture is the language, and ways of thinking and behaving that comes with different language and experiences.
However, because the cultural linguistic difference arises from NOT having the ability to hear, and society's lack of understanding about Deaf people's experiences and language, they are considered disabled because of this barrier to language access.
The fact that society creates barriers to people who are Deaf is the 'disabling' aspect of deafness. Many organisations, businesses and service providers then complain about the prohibitive cost of providing access such as through interpreters and communication technologies. However they often fail to recognise the cost of providing access to people who do not have a disability. Think of the sound systems created in theatres, for examples. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent to ensure that hearing people have access to sound.
As quoted from World Federation of Deaf website:
"Deaf people as a linguistic minority have a common experience of life, and this manifests itself in Deaf culture. This includes beliefs, attitudes, history, norms, values, literary traditions, and art shared by Deaf people."
Baker and Padden (1978, p. 4):
"The deaf community comprises those deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who share a common language, common experiences and values and a common way of interacting with each other and with hearing people. The most basic factor determining who is a member of the deaf community seems to be what is called `attitudinal deafness'.This occurs when a person identifies him/herself as a member of the deaf community and other members accept that person as part of the community."
(Baker, C., & Padden, C. (1978). American Sign Language. A look at its history, structure, and community. Silver Spring: Linstok Press)
Deaf culture & community cont.
In any nation's Deaf community, members have pride and identity of their own as Deaf. Others who do not have the same life experiences are welcome to join them but there are important criteria for membership before an 'outsider' is trusted and accepted within a local deaf community. First and most important is the use of Auslan (for Deaf communities in Australia). Deaf people often talk of right 'attitude', where an outsider must have a genuine respect of deaf people and their experiences and reality- that is, not feeling sorry for them, not patronising them, and not believing that Deaf people need hearing people or outsider's help to have good quality of life. Membership criteria will be discussed in more depth in lesson 4.
Ladd (2003) outlines how Deaf culture is in fact a true, full culture, and not a sub-culture. A subculture is a type of split from majority culture; it is a group response to to not fitting structures and systems of majority culture. Subculture implies that all members of the group "have grown up with a shared national culture which the sub-group then rebels against for a variety of reasons, proceeding to create sets of cultural meanings of its own to serve a variety of purposes." (Ladd 2003; p. 222).
However, Deaf communities lack access to the majority language - the medium for understanding majority culture - therefore it is argued that Deaf communities have always inhabited a different world view (DEAFworld) and cultural traditions have been created from outside of majority cultures. This is through the organisation of Deaf residential schools and other social organisations created from within Deaf communities by way of early residential school connections with peers. By having a radically different language and world view, this places Deaf communities in a unique socio-cultural, linguistic MINORITY group. Within the Deaf minority in Australia and other countries there are also sub-groups (sub-cultures) including but not limited to - gay/lesbian/ transgender identity groups, other nation cultures, interest groups like artists, politics, environmental, music, fishing, religion, school etc etc...
In these sub-groups within Deaf Australian culture you might see sociolinguistic variation in signs. For example, religious and school groups may have their own community, where they use a small selection of their own signs (e.g., Christian group and Catholic group may have different sign of 'God', 'Holy' etc.).
One of the most common questions most deaf people (of all ages) ask when first meeting other deaf person is usually 'WHERE SCHOOL?'. Schools are often the first port of call for many Deaf people to meet their peers, and is therefore a hub of early cultural development and identity, so this question is very pertinent for Deaf people in establishing each others' social and cultural networks.
This is one example of an aspect of 'Deaf culture'. Deaf cultural norms may also relate to communication behaviour and includes: gaining a person's attention to converse by tapping on shoulder, flicking a light switch, banging on table and floor (to create a vibration across the short distance), and typically gathering to chat in the brightest lit room in the house- often the kitchen! The Deaf cultural values topic will cover this in more in depth.
The value of sign language as rich languages
The Value of Sign Languages
When any group of people get together, they find ways to communicate. Of course, it is possible to communicate with people when you do not share a common language and it can be fun to try to overcome such barriers. At least for a while. But it is far more comfortable for people to be in environments where they do share a common language with others and so can choose to communication freely with others around them.
Language is the cornerstone of any community group. It is a key component in the development of cultural values and norms. To be able to communicate with others is a natural human need, as humans are innately social beings.
For a deaf person who has no access to a signed language, each communication event is going to require extra effort. The process of lip-reading is a tiring one, as approximately only 30% of English words are distinctly visible on the lips. The remaining 70% of a lipreader's success is based on guess work, deduction from the context of the conversation and the deaf person's fluency in English (or the spoken language). The process of relying on amplified speech through hearing aids and cochlea implants requires extra effort and, again, can lead to fatigue.
A key element of Deaf culture is the view of sign language (Auslan) as the 'lifeblood' and crucial part of Deaf identity, as a badge of community membership, and ultimately as a human right. Deaf people's human right to sign language is outlined in the United Nations Convention on the rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
However, as you will learn in a later topic, throughout history, Deaf people's access to sign language has not always been guaranteed. It was only a few hundred years ago that the richness of signed language being equal to the richness of spoken language began to be recognised:
"What is more, the deaf have a language of signs which can be considered as one of the most fortunate discoveries of the human spirit. It perfectly replaces, and with the greatest rapidity, the organ of speech. . . . It does not consist solely of cold signs and those of pure convention, it paints the most secret affections of the soul. . . . If one were ever to realise the much desired project of a universal language, this would perhaps be that which would merit preference."
- Prieur (1791), at a speech given at the National Legislative Assembly of France
These early writings about sign language(s) were also slightly 'romanticised', `expressing the myth of a universal language potential in signed language. This idea still carries through today, for most lay people.
The rise of oralism
1880 and the rise of Oralism
In 1880, a world congress of educators of deaf children was held in Milan, Italy. It was attended by almost exclusively hearing educators. and there is evidence that the few Deaf people who were allowed to attend had their 'voices' suppressed. You will learn more about this Congress in Lesson 5, as it was to become a pivotal moment in the history of Deaf people's education and language use.
At the Milan Congress, the decision was made that all deaf children should be educated using oral means, i.e., that they be taught to speak and lip-read, and that signed languages were a hindrance to this process. Over the subsequent years and in different countries around the world, schools for deaf children changed their practices. Many schools banned the use of signed languages altogether, and children who were found to be using signs were frequently administered corporal punishments such as having their hands caned or physically restrained.
Signed languages were seen by educators to be an inferior language. A return to the philosophies of Ancient Greeks such as Aristotle, Plato and Socrates was taking hold again. Deaf people were now being taught, both overtly and covertly, that their own, natural languages were insignificant. The process of the devaluing of signed languages in the eyes of deaf people themselves took place over several generations. There is still evidence of this devaluation to be seen today, although it is far less common.
CASE STUDY 1
Consider the Deaf person who was educated in a system where they received praise for correct pronouncing a sound or word, for the clarity of their English, but who received no praise (or worse, were punished) for their use of signs. This person is now an adult and uses Auslan every day. They value the community in which they live. They value their identity as a Deaf person. Yet when placed into formal situations, either with Deaf or hearing audiences, they produce English-like signing. This person is not a fictional representation - there remain many individuals within the Deaf community who were taught to believe that English was superior and, despite conscious efforts to the contrary, retain this inherent belief. To many Deaf people in English-speaking countries, particularly within cohorts of people who were educated in accordance with the above description, knowledge of English can be seen as an indicator of status.
CASE STUDY 2
Now consider the Deaf person who has been educated by teachers who value signed languages; whose fluency levels are sophisticated enough that they are able to accurately understand and evaluate the language production in children who have Auslan as a first language; who express praise for positive examples of children's signing. This person has the opportunity to continue to develop within their language, and to take their language to new heights.
Stolen languages
For many Deaf people, signed languages are seen to have been "stolen" from them following the Milan Congress and the rise of Oralism. Many schools in the early-mid 1900's would inflict corporal punishment on deaf children who used sign language, particularly in classrooms. Then, with the rise of acknowledgement of signed languages being bona fide languages in their own right (from the 1960's onwards) and the understanding by some educators that oral methods of education were less than effective for many deaf children, such punitive practices were fazed out and in some schools, signed languages were reintroduced as languages of instruction.
In the 1980's and '90's, the availability of cochlear implants (CI) gave cause for concern for Deaf communities around the world. The new technology was being marketed (as it often still is today) as a "cure for deafness". The very future of Deaf communities themselves seemed to be under threat of extinction. Once again, Deaf people saw their language being "stolen" from the new generations of deaf children and so protested against implantation, particularly of young children.
Throughout history, many languages have either been suppressed or, in some cases, eradicated completely. When a country or territory is taken over by a dominant force, the local language and culture is at risk of decline. Think of the dominance of the English language across the British Isles. As England held the seat of power in the monarchy, the English language was forced upon the peoples of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Their own languages were banned from education systems at various times and so saw the decline of use and near-extinction. In the 20th century, the British government began to reverse this process of "linguistic genocide" and put in place protections for Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish. Whilst these language have survived, most have suffered considerable losses. Scottish Gaelic is now mostly only used in the Outer Hebrides, and some parts of the Inner Hebrides and western Scottish Highlands. Scots has become Scottish English. Only around 10% of the people of Southern Ireland claim to have some degree of competence in Irish, although attempts to revive the language remain in a number of educational settings and some broadcast media. Welsh has seen the greatest revival, with compulsory Welsh language education up to the age of 16, most public signage featuring both Welsh and English, and a wide a range of Welsh-language media. Despite this, still only 19% of Welsh residents reported being able to speak Welsh (UK 2011 Census).
For Deaf people, oralism has been described as a form of linguistic genocide. Philosophies which view deafness as a disability and of requiring some form of cure do not allow deaf people to realise their own identity, not as "abnormal" hearing people, but as "normal" Deaf people. For the Deaf communities of the world, the CI has been seen as another attempt to suppress deaf people's rights to be Deaf and to enjoy their own language and culture.
In the ensuing decades, it has become more apparent that having a CI does not cure deafness at all and many CI users still rely on, and value, sign language. In general, the Deaf community's views on CI have changed from those early days as it has become apparent that both signed languages and Deaf culture were able to prevail. CI users who choose to be a part of the Deaf community, to embrace their identity as Deaf people, and who value sign language are becoming more integrated into an ever-evolving Deaf culture.
Uniqueness
The Uniqueness of Signed Languages
Within the Deaf communities of the world, deafness is not a disability. It is a source of pride, a shared uniqueness of being and of viewing the world. This shared uniqueness of being exists in all countries where natural signed languages have developed and is evident in the way that signed languages share similar structures and grammatical systems. Even the newest sign languages which continue to evolve follow these same structures.
The first school for deaf children was established in Nicaragua in 1977. Prior to this, deaf Nicaraguans were a largely disparate group of people who used gestures and "home signs" to communicate with their local community of family and friends. Following the establishment of this first school, and the others that soon followed, it became apparent that the children were naturally creating a new sign language. Linguists were able to observe the birth of this new Nicaraguan Sign Language as it occurred and have confirmed that the same linguistic features known to exist in more established sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL), British Sign Language (BSL), Auslan and others, were evolving naturally amongst the groups of deaf children.
Language is at the heart of the Deaf community.
Norms of introduction in Deaf Culture
Norms of introduction in Deaf Culture
Deaf culture is called a "high-context" culture (Hall, 1976; "Beyond Culture"). Deaf people have an extensive information-sharing network among families, friends and community members. There is a great deal of shared knowledge, common experiences, goals and beliefs, common friends and acquaintances among Deaf people. In other words, their lives share a common context.
Deaf people you meet for the first time will be interested in finding out about your connection to the Deaf community. When introducing yourself, prepare to share the following information:
•your first and last name
•whether you are deaf, hard of hearing or hearing
•who is teaching you the language and culture
•where you are studying
•why you are learning the language
Citation: Hall ET ( 1976) Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday
Associations and organisations within the Australian Deaf community
One of the main criticisms of study about minority communities and cultures comes from the fact that those who write about, or create organisations for minority groups are often outsiders. They are typically in a position of power and privilege over the minority group of interest, although the aim is often to help minority groups with services and resources.
It is important that Deaf people themselves have some say in what they want or need.
Organisations FOR the deaf are often historically created by outsiders, as opposed to organisations BY the deaf, which are created by Deaf people themselves. This is a subtle difference, but it suggests between Organisation FOR Deaf people and Organisation BY Deaf people
Deaf Victoria (URL: http://www.deafvictoria.org.au/) is the state-based advocacy and information organisation of the Deaf community in Victoria. It is affiliated to it's national body, Deaf Australia. Deaf Australia is a member of the World Federation of the Deaf, an international advocacy and information organisation representing Deaf people around the world.
Organisation FOR - e.g. Victorian Deaf Society - where they provide services for Deaf people such as interpreting services, case management, Auslan training, Deaf awareness training, information sharing etc.
Organisation OF - e.g. Deaf Victoria - where they provide advocacy services for the Deaf community. They become the voice of the Deaf community where the majority of board and staff are Deaf people and who can adequately represent the views of the Deaf community to ensure equal access for Deaf people within the wider community. Some examples of advocacy include promoting the National Relay Service, Captioning, Interpreting services in Education and Medical settings, among others.
PSPLAN003 Deaf community membership
Community
Before we delve into discussions about the Deaf community, it is a good idea to make sure that we understand what the term "community" means on its own. The Oxford Dictionary defines the term as follows:
1. A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common:
•"Montreal's Italian community"
•"the gay community in London"
•"the scientific community"
2. The condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common:
•"the sense of community that organized religion can provide"
3. A group of interdependent plants or animals growing or living together in natural conditions or occupying a specific habitat:
•"communities of insectivorous birds"
Of course for the purposes of this lesson, we can discount the third definition above as being not applicable, but the first and second definitions certainly do apply when we consider how people are able to be members of a variety of communities. A person born in Australia, for example, is a member of the wider Australian community. So too, of course, people who are not born in Australia can be members of the wider Australian community. Similarly, people who are born in Australia may also be members of an ethnic minority community group, for example the Melbourne Greek community, as can people who are born in Greece but who live in Australia. Using this same example, of course, people who are not of Greek origin can become members of the Melbourne Greek community by some process of admission, typically marriage or de facto relationship with a community member. Whilst more uncommon, it is also possible for people who are neither of Greek heritage, nor partnered with a person of Greek heritage, to become admitted to the Melbourne Greek community by way of some other close association, by sharing of the values and beliefs of the community, and by acceptance from community members.
Some community groups are open to 'outsider' membership, whilst some are more exclusive. Membership of a professional community, for example the 'scientific' community in the Oxford dictionaries example above, is typically restricted to those who practice the sciences; the academic community is reserved for academics; etc. The LGBTI community typically reserves membership to those who do not identify as heterosexual, but is simultaneously welcoming to anyone who is 'gay-friendly'.
The Deaf Community
The term "Deaf community" refers to the population of people who are deaf and who use sign language, as well as friends, family and associates who use sign language and respect the values of the community. The first two definitions from the previous page both apply when examining what the Deaf community is:
1. A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common
The Deaf community exists not only in individual towns and cities, but across larger areas as well, such as state, national and even international levels. We can, therefore, talk about the Melbourne Deaf community, the Victorian Deaf community, the Australian Deaf community and the Global Deaf community.
Being deaf and/or using sign language are key characteristics when it comes to membership of the Deaf community.
2. The condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common
Beyond both deafness and/or using sign language, people are expected to hold similar values and demonstrate "the right attitude" when it comes to deafness. Attitude, of course, is always challenging to qualify but will hopefully become more evident as you continue to work through these Lessons.
Given the information above, and just like membership in other cultural-linguistic groups, not everyone can be categorised as a member of the Deaf community. What makes a person a member of the Australian Deaf Community includes (but is not necessarily limited to) the following characteristics:
-shared experience (whether educational or social, or other)
-deafness (not having access to the 'hearing' environment around us, although this is not an absolute pre-requisite)
-social networks (friends, family, colleagues with whom we socialise)
-commitment to shared goals (wanting to promote respect of Auslan, gain equal access to educational and civic life, and enjoy a good quality of life)
-fluent Auslan users (language use is a critical part of identity and membership in a group)
-cultural knowledge (knowing what is important, and how to behave that recognises a 'visual' way of living)
-attitude/respect (pride in one's identity, having respect and non-judgmental acceptance of Deaf people: not that "Deaf people can't do X, Y or Z because they cannot hear", but rather "Deaf people can do ANYTHING, except hear".)
-‘authentic loyalties’ (Padden, C. (1998). From the cultural to the bicultural: The modern Deaf community. In I. Parasnis (Ed.), Cultural and language diversity and the Deaf experience (pp. 79-98). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
The characteristics listed above can be loosely divided into four main paradigms (Baker, & Cokley, 1980):
•Social
•Audiological
•Linguistic
•Political
NB: This next section has been adapted from the website: Start ASL (https://www.start-american-sign-language.com/deaf-community_html).
Social You need to join in the social life of the community of the Deaf for this characteristic. This means having attended a Deaf residential school, or having Deaf family members, spouses, or friends. A hearing person who uses [Auslan], regularly attends Deaf community events, and advocates Deaf issues (a sign language interpreter, for example) will come as close to the center of Deaf culture as a person can who does not have a hearing loss.
Audiological You MUST have a hearing loss to get credit for this characteristic. It doesn’t matter if you are deaf or hard-of-hearing, to a Deaf person, hearing loss means deafness. Deaf is a term used in the community of the Deaf to mean a life experience instead of a hearing loss.
Linguistic You must use and advocate [Auslan]. You not only need to memorize vocabulary, but also learn how to ask questions, make sentences, carry on a conversation, and provide information. You need to learn and respect the signing customs and etiquette of Deaf culture and use them to properly sign in [Auslan].
Political You need to be a passionate advocate of Deaf issues and [Auslan]. Political members of this community are usually Deaf people who hold positions in Deaf organizations like the National Association of the Deaf [American peak political, advocacy and information organisation representing Deaf Americans - run and lead by Deaf people. The Australian counterpart is Deaf Australia].
Attitude
All of the characteristics of the Deaf community are linked by attitude. You need to love the Deaf experience. If you have the proper respect, the willingness to learn about Deaf issues and deafness, and are enthusiastically involved, you [can] be accepted by the Deaf community whether you are deaf or hearing.
The center of the diagram represents Deaf Culture. To be accepted and fully participate in Deaf Culture, you MUST possess all four characteristics that define the culture: social, audiological, linguistic, and political. The Deaf community is illustrated by the other shaded portions of the diagram. You must have at least TWO of the characteristics to participate in the community of the Deaf.
More about the Deaf Community
So, we now know that to be accepted as part of the Deaf community in Australia, a person needs to possess at least two of four general characteristics:
•Audiological - being Deaf
•Linguistic - knowing Auslan
•Social - being a part of the social aspects of Deaf life
•Political - passionate about Deaf issues
...and also to have "the right" attitude.
Now let's explore the Deaf community in a little more detail.
Levels of membership
As with most types of community, there are levels of participation or membership of the Deaf community. Where one fits within the Deaf community is essentially limited by a range of factors, which again go back to the four characteristics reiterated above. An additional layer, however, is that of heritage. Where a deaf or hearing person is born into a Deaf family, the chances of them being raised with Auslan as their first language is significantly increased than for those born into families of hearing parents. Of course, not all deaf people use Auslan, so a child born into a deaf family who do not use Auslan is less likely to learn Auslan as well. Also, a significant number of hearing children who are born into a Deaf family (that use Auslan) are not raised to learn Auslan as their first language; who may indeed not learn Auslan well, or even at all. But for the purposes of this discussion, heritage is an important factor.
Image: Melbourne Polytechnic, 2022
The diagram above represents different "spheres" of entitlement of membership. The red centre is the core of the Deaf community. At least three of the four characteristics listed above are required to be considered to be part of the inner core. The blue middle circle is an 'inner' circle, still close to the core but not of it. The yellow outer circle is the periphery of the Deaf community, and the white space outside represents no membership of the Deaf community.
NB: We do not condone referring to Deaf people as "the Deaf" or just "Deaf". The word 'deaf' should be treated as an adjective, not a noun. Please always say or write "d/Deaf people" or "people who are d/Deaf". The examples in the diagram above are referential abbreviations for diagrammatic purposes only.
Levels of membership
Levels of membership within the Deaf community
"Deaf of Deaf"
Deaf people born into Deaf families that use Auslan have an automatic passport to the core of the Deaf community. These people are typically raised with Auslan as their first language. Auslan is acquired naturally, from birth, and so to this cohort of Deaf people, Auslan is truly a native language. This cohort are the true custodians of the language.
Deafblind people
The situation for people who are Deafblind is extremely complex. For people who are born deaf, or who become deaf early in life, they may have place at the core of the Deaf community. Over time, as they lose their sight, that position within the community becomes increasingly challenging to maintain. Auslan is a visual language, as you already know. As someone's ability to use their sight diminishes, the method of Auslan perception may need to change from visual to tactile (receiving information by touch). Social interaction changes from multi-party to one-on-one, making such interactions more challenging for all concerned. Oftentimes, Deafblind people withdraw from social life. Understandably, this would be an extremely challenging experience. Whilst Deafblind people will always have a place within the Deaf community, the practicalities of communication challenges can have detrimental effects.
For Deafblind people who do not start as members of the Deaf community, the question of membership depends on whether or not they choose to seek participation
CODAs
Children Of Deaf Adults (CODAs) are often raised with Auslan as their first language. Many CODAs identify as being culturally and linguistically Deaf, despite the fact that they are also able to hear.
Not all CODAs are raised by their Deaf parents to be culturally and linguistically Deaf, however. Many do not learn to sign at all, or learn a variety of 'home sign' rather than Auslan. Deaf parents may choose to raise their hearing children using English. For this reason, it is not correct to assume that all CODAs can sign, or can sign fluently - hence the label for CODAs in the diagram crosses through different circles, from the core out to the white space.
"Deaf of hearing"
The vast majority of Deaf people are born to parents who are not d/Deaf. For those who are given access to learning Auslan from a young age, with appropriate supports, Deaf community access and highly fluent Auslan role-models, these Deaf children are typically able to develop native-like fluency in Auslan and a strong sense of themselves as a Deaf person. They, too, can be considered to sit within the very core of the Deaf community.
Of course, not all Deaf children have access to Auslan, or to the Deaf community, until later in life. Their first language may therefore be English (irrespective of their degree of fluency). They may still develop Auslan fluency and a strong sense of their Deaf identity. How firmly they have a foot in the core will depend on a range of factors. Of course, there are no "absolutes" here.
Auslan/English interpreters
This category refers specifically to interpreters who are not born into Deaf families, as they have effectively been covered in the CODA category above (yes, there are interpreters who have Deaf siblings or cousins, etc., but there are too many varying possibilities to be able to cover every unique combination of factors here).
Exactly where, within the circles of the Deaf community, an interpreter sits depends on their level of involvement in the Deaf community; their level of involvement with Deaf people. An interpreter who has a native-like fluency in Auslan, socialises heavily with friends who are Deaf, attending Deaf events regularly, who essentially spends the majority of their lives within the "Deaf space", would be seen to sit firmly within the inner circle. Conversely, an interpreter who spends little time outside of working hours engaging with Deaf people would sit more accurately within the periphery.
More levels of membership
Parents/siblings of Deaf people; Hearing partners of Deaf people
These categories have been grouped together for the purpose of this discussion as they all signify a familial relationship to a Deaf person which is either greater than (parents), or equal to (siblings, partners), the Deaf person, genealogically speaking. Of course, there are vastly differing social circumstances that could be discussed regarding each, but they are discussions for another day.
These people may have no connection to the Deaf community, and so sit outside of each of the spheres, or they may have varying degrees of involvement with the community, which would determine into which of the inner or peripheral circles they more commonly fit.
Deaf sector professionals
This category includes those people who have chosen a career of service to people who are Deaf (other than Auslan/English interpreters). They include Teachers of the Deaf, Audiologists, Social Workers, Administrators, etc., and their position within the Deaf community will depend on their involvement with Deaf people outside of their working lives, much as it does for Auslan/English interpreters. The difference between interpreter and other professionals is that it is possible for other professionals to have no genuine position within the Deaf community itself.
Friends of Deaf people
This category has been listed as there are a number of hearing people who have perhaps grown up being friends with a Deaf child. They may attend events within the Deaf community, such as private parties, which they attend with their Deaf friends. Were it not for this friend, these people would not attend Deaf community events. They rely on their Deaf friend to enable them to participate. As such, these people sit on the outskirts of the periphery.
Auslan students
As new students beginning to learn Auslan, you currently have no real status within the Deaf community (unless you already fit into one of the other categories listed above, as a number of students do). This is not something to take offense at, and it is likely to change as your role changes. Many students will go on to become interpreters, or to choose another profession within the Deaf sector. Some may become partners of Deaf people, or even parents of Deaf children. Most of you are just at the start of your journey.
Hearing people
Of course, it would be remiss to not mention the majority of the world's population. These people have no association with the Deaf community whatsoever. From the Deaf community perspective, they are considered to be "hearing" people, even though this is not a label that they would naturally apply to themselves. To be 'hearing' outside the context of the Deaf community, is not an identity label that is usually considered in the same way that people may identify themselves by their gender, sexuality, marital status, parental status, etc.
Deaf community groups
Deaf community groups
Let's consider some of the groups that exist in the Deaf community of Australia, with a focus on either Victorian groups or national groups, and how they fit into the Deaf community.
Service Providers:
Deaf Victoria - not technically a service provider, Deaf Victoria is an advocacy and information organisation that is governed and operated by Deaf people. Deaf Victoria meets all four of the criteria: audiological, linguistic, political, social.
Expression Australia (previously known as Vicdeaf) - Expression Australia is a service provider who deliver a range of services to Deaf Victorian and Tasmanian adults, including community services (case management, independent living skills training), supported accommodation, counselling, information, interpreting & note-taking, audiology, employment services, community social events, and many more. Expression Australia is governed and operated by a combination of hearing and Deaf people (the majority of governing and management roles are currently held by hearing people). Expression Australia meets, essentially, three of the four criteria: linguistic, political, social. Many staff members and some Board members individually meet the fourth criterion, audiological.
Deaf Children Australia - DCA is a service provider who deliver a range of services to d/Deaf children around Australia. Such services include case management, transition programs, recreational support, information, parent groups, consultation to education providers, and more. Additionally, they operate an employment agency for Deaf adults. Like Vicdeaf, DCA is governed and managed by a combination of (primarily) hearing and Deaf people, and meet three of the four criteria: political, social. Many staff members and some Board members individually meet one or both of the third and fourth criteria, linguistic, audiological. In early-mid 2016, DCA appointed a Deaf CEO.
Victorian College for the Deaf - VCD is one of the only remaining schools exclusively for Deaf children that operate in Victoria and is the only one that offers education from P-12. Others, such as Furlong Park Primary School and Aurora School offer a more limited focus of provision, such as primary or early primary only. Other Deaf children are educated in mainstream schools, or mainstream schools with a "deaf facility" (known by various titles, depending on the school). All schools operate as education providers under the state Department of Education and are therefore ultimately governed by hearing people. Some schools, such as VCD, include Deaf people in the school governing body and as teachers and teacher aides. There are currently no schools in Victoria with a Deaf person in the role of Principal. VCD meets three of the four criteria: linguistic, political, social. Some of the staff members and some School council members individually meet the fourth criterion, audiological.
Sporting and Recreational Clubs:
Deaf Sports Australia - DSA is a national organisation supporting the sporting aims of Deaf people around the country. They are governed and operated by Deaf people and so meet all four criteria: audiological, linguistic, political, social.
Deaf Sports and Recreation Victoria - DSRV is the Victorian branch of DSA, focussing on the sporting and recreational pursuits of Deaf Victorians. They are governed and operated by Deaf people and so meet all four criteria: audiological, linguistic, political, social.
Individual Deaf sporting clubs - there are a range of sport-specific or recreational-specific clubs which are run by and for Deaf people, again, meeting all four criteria.
Religious Groups:
John Pierce Centre - JPC are a Catholic-based service provider that offers interpreted mass services, pastoral care and a range of community activities and events. They are governed, essentially, by the archdiocese and operated by both Deaf and hearing staff and volunteers
A number of churches, of varying denominations, strive to ensure that church services are interpreted in Auslan. It is usual that one or a few members of the congregation provide such interpreting on a volunteer basis and many are not accredited interpreters but dedicated individuals who aim to provide access to Deaf members.
Special Interest Groups
There are a range of special interest and social groups which serve to provide Deaf people opportunities to meet with like-minded individuals. These are predominantly driven by and for Deaf people, therefore meeting at least three of the criteria: audiological, linguistic, social, and sometimes also political, depending on the nature of the group.
Some examples are:
•Deaf TV
•Deaf Senior Citizens Club
•and others...
NDIS providers - deaf businesses
•DeafNav - DeafNav is a neutral, national and centralised online platform for information about the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities in Australia.
•Deaf Services - Deaf Services is the prominent service provider for Deaf and hard of hearing community members across all ages, with a focus on community and empowerment. (QLD)
•Deaf Can:Do - the only South Australian provider of community support options for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing (from NDIS planning, crisis support, Auslan/English interpreting services, etc.)
•information about NDIS - history, how it works, etc. in Auslan https://www.ndis.gov.au/contact/information-auslan ;
Ask your teacher about more examples of community groups!
PSPLAN003 Deaf cultural values
Deaf cultural values
Overview
In this Lesson, you will learn more about some of the values of the Deaf community, including:
•The value of Auslan
•Attitudes towards other manual systems of communication
•Important historical events
•Defence and promotion of beliefs
The Value of Auslan
In previous lessons, we have covered what Auslan is (the natural language of the Deaf community of Australia). We have touched upon the fact that it is the language of natural perception for the majority of Deaf people, meaning that they are able to see the language being produced rather than having to try to listen to a language being spoken (if they have some residual or augmented hearing) or decipher mouth patterns through lip-reading, both of which require significant concentration levels and can became exhausting.
But the value of Auslan to the Deaf community extends beyond these things.
Auslan is a rich and endlessly expressive language. An artful Auslan storyteller has the ability to transform viewers into visions of other worlds. Auslan is poetic, and complex, and technical, and precise. Auslan is performative.
For Deaf people who use a signed language such as Auslan, their language is their own. Their language is at the heart of their life. Their language is their means of expression, of communication, it is the core of their identity. Their language is unique.
Since the early works of sign language linguist, William Stokoe, in the 1960's, signed languages have been studies by a growing number of linguists around the world, both hearing and Deaf. The study of signed languages has extended the understanding of spoken languages, as well as the ways in which the human brain functions. Sign languages have value from a scientific perspective to the whole world, not only to Deaf people, and this can be a source of great pride.
As you are learning, Deaf people around the world have suffered from oppression and repression for thousands of years. Throughout history, they have been largely defined by others, educated by others, miseducated by others, seen as "less than", labelled as "defective" and "impaired", thought to be uneducable, been denied access to human rights, been denied access to legal rights, and so much more. (This will be covered in more detail in Lesson 7). But with the ever-growing awareness and acceptance that deafness is not "less than" - it is merely "different than" - comes the increasing awareness and acceptance of deafness as something to be valued. Deaf people themselves have known this forever, as have many hearing allies to Deaf communities around the world. Deaf people, rather than being labelled as people with a disability, identify themselves as being members of a cultural and linguistic minority.
Sign Language Recognition
Signed languages have been officially recognised in a number of countries around the world. The European Parliament first passed a declaration asking all member countries to recognise their native sign languages as official national languages in 1988, and then again in 1998. Canada (in the state of Manitoba) appears to have been the first to legally recognise a signed language, ASL, as an official language, affording it's users legal linguistic rights (other states have followed, as have several states in the USA). Other countries that have recognised their native sign language in legislation or their constitution include: Austria, Belgium (both French-Belgian and Flemish Sign Languages), Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Kenya, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, Northern Ireland (interestingly, both BSL and ISL, but not Northern Ireland Sign Language), Norway (in education only), Portugal, Russia (for inter-personal communication only), the Slovak Republic, Spain (Catalonia, Andalusia and Valencia), Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Each country/state has varying degrees of recognition and legal support.
One of the earliest countries to acknowledge a signed language by a government, Auslan was deemed to be a "community language other than English" in a policy statement in 1987, and then again in 1991. This level of recognition offers no guarantee of the provision of interpreters, nor the requirement to provide services in Auslan. That being said, however, the practice of providing Auslan/English interpreters for Deaf people is commonly in place. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992, as well as a number of other pieces of federal and state regulatory documents, including the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities 2006, offers a range of protections and provisions for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
But again, the value of Auslan to the Deaf community extends beyond these things.
Stolen Language
We often talk about about signed languages as having been "stolen" from Deaf communities. The rise of Oralism in the education sector for Deaf people, following the 1880 Milan Congress, meant that many schools denied access to a signed language for Deaf children. Corporal punishments were often applied to children who were caught signing to each other. For several generations, the push for oral education meant that signed languages sometimes were forced "underground". During these times, unless a Deaf person was born into a Deaf family, they had little or no opportunity to learn their natural language until they reached adulthood and discovered the Deaf community. Even within the adult Deaf community, however, the status of Australian Sign Language (remember, the term "Auslan" did not come into play until the late 1980's) took a beating as more and more of it's members had been educated to believe that spoken language was far superior to "deaf signing".
Recent generations of Deaf people have come to view the rise and force of the Oralist movement as an attempt at linguistic and cultural genocide. The term "genocide" is more commonly regarded in reference to the intentional attempted destruction of an ethnicity, a nation or a race of people, or of a religious group. However for Deaf people, attempts by oralists to force them to assimilate into hearing society, to deny their Deaf identities and values, cultural beliefs and languages, are seen as attempts of eradication.
Philosophical and educational oralists claim that sign language will encourage a Deaf child to be "lazy" in their learning of speech, or that learning a signed language actually impedes the ability to learn speech (such claims will be addressed in more detail later). Medical oralists work hard to find "cures" for Deafness, most recently in the form of implanted devices to simulate sound, as well as research into the use of stem cells. Political oralists define Deaf people as "hearing impaired" and "hearing disabled".
Attitudes towards other manual systems of communication
Other types of manual communication systems
Since the beginning of education programs for deaf children, approaches have existed which try to "make deaf people into hearing people". Majority hearing society has always felt that, for a deaf person to be able to succeed in a hearing world, they need to be able to speak and either hear or read lips. At the same time, many educators (though surprisingly, not all, it would seem) have acknowledged that being able to hear is not available to deaf people, and so have devised a range of strategies to try to teach deaf children to speak, to learn the language of the society in which they live.
Over the years, it has been a rare thing for educators to try to teach English, for example, to deaf children through their first language, Auslan. Instead, they have tried to discourage parents from allowing their children to learn
Signed English
A number of countries created versions of signing that follows the word order of the spoken language, borrowing signs from the native sign language but also devising new signs for words with no equivalent sign. The sign language syntax and grammar were abandoned and the signs applied to, for example, English syntactic and grammatical rules. Often, different signs were created for different tenses of verbs. In Australian Signed English, there are signs for "is", "are", "was", "were", "do", "did", "done", "he", "him", "she", "her", etc., which do not exist and are not required in Auslan.
Each word ending needs to be added by fingerspelling the letters of the ending (e.g., E-D, I-N-G, etc.) after the sign. Additionally one sign is chosen to represent one word, even if the word has multiple meanings in English. The Signed English sign for "can" is the Auslan sign for CAN (as in "able"), irrespective of it's meaning in context (click on the word to see the sign).
"Can I have a can of lemonade?"
There are two distinct meanings for the word "can" in the above sentence. In Auslan, two different signs would be produced to differentiate the meaning of each. The second instance would "mime" a soft drink can being opened (note: this is an example of a "handling" Depicting Sign).
There appear to be no videos of Australia Signed English available in the public sphere. However, this website (Sign.com.au) has a section where you can type in a phrase or sentence and it will show a sequence of the signs that you would need to use.
AUSLAN SIGNED ENGLISH DRINK-CAN LEMONADE ME CAN? Can I have a can of lemonade? SHOP ME GO I am go+i-n-g to the shop+s BROWN FOX SEE DOGS-LYING JUMP-OVER The quick brown fox jump+e-d over the lazy dog+s
NB: The Auslan written above has been written what we call "glosses". They are words that represent the sign being used, but do not necessarily equate to a true translation of the sign itself. "DOGS-LYING" does not directly translate to "lazy dogs", for example, however the laziness of the dogs would be shown in the signer's facial expression and body language. The Signed English example does not use glosses, because each sign represents an English word. Note that word endings, (-ing, -s, -ed) are fingerspelled after the sign).
At a glance, it might appear that Auslan is a short-hand version of English, however this is a misconception. Linguistically, grammatically, there is lot more going on in the signs than can easily be represented in a string of words!
Other forms of manual communication
Cued Speech/Articulation
Cued Speech and Cued Articulation are both methods of making speech sounds visible. Cued Speech is based on the phonetic aspects of spoken words, whilst Cued Articulation focuses on the articulation of spoken words, how the sounds are produced by the mouth and tongue. Both use a small number of handshapes or gestures, combined with a small number of locations around the mouth, as well as the spoken word itself. Please note that neither of these methods can be produced, and convey any semblance of meaning, without the presence of the spoken word/s.
https://youtu.be/h7DclY3gw4o
An example of the nursery rhyme, "Jack Be Nimble", using cued speech. (SoCalCuedSpeech, 2012)
https://youtu.be/EGvXxvBzLTg
An example of some sounds using Cued Articulation. (clairebmilligan, 2012).
Paget-Gorman Signing System
The Paget-Gorman Signing System (PGSS) was originally created in the 1930's by Dr Richard Paget, then expaned upon by Lady Grace Paget and Dr Pierre Gorman (who, incidentally, was a deaf man from Melbourne, Australia, who studied in the UK and became the first deaf person to be awarded a doctorate from Cambridge University).
The system was developed for use with children who have speech or communication difficulties, and comprises 37 signs, combined with 21 "hand postures" to represent English vocabulary, including tenses and word endings. PGSS was used in Deaf schools for a while in the UK and some parts of Australia, but is no longer something that is used to teach Deaf students. It remains a system for children with specific communication disorders.
Rochester Method
The Rochester Method, as its name suggests, was devised as an educational tool in Rochester (New York, not England). It is simply using fingerspelling, exclusively. Each letter of each word is spelled out. It was used for some time in many Deaf schools in Australia around the 1920's, including St Gabriel's, Waratah, Portsea, Claremont and what is now the Victorian College for the Deaf (VCD), as well as others.
Different schools used different fingerspelling alphabets here in Australia. St Gabriel's, Waratah, and Portsea all used the Irish Sign Language one-handed alphabet; Claremont and the "old VCD" used the two-handed British and Australia alphabet. There was even a school in Perth, for a short time, that used American Sign Language when it was first established, but quickly changed to Australian Sign Language.
Whilst this method is no longer used in schools in Australia, a lot of older Deaf Australians still communicate predominately using fingerspelling.
Deaf community attitudes
You are likely to meet a number of Deaf adults who have experienced one, or more, of these alternative manual methods of communication during their school years. One of the main "problems" with these methods is that they are not natural language.
People, in general, tend to innately want to communicate using natural means. For people who can hear and are able to speak, and who do not experience conditions which manifest in social avoidance or withdrawal, that usually means listening and speaking. For those with social avoidance or withdrawal issues, other forms of expression may be preferable and for some, no communication is desired.
For Deaf people, particularly those who are either deaf from birth or with early onset deafness (i.e., pre-lingual), natural communication is through visual perception and manual production. Natural communication is with a natural language. And as natural languages exist in signed languages around the world, it is natural that Deaf people want to be able to use them, to be educated in them, and to be educated about them.
For many Deaf people, as mentioned earlier in this lesson, attempts to divert deaf children from learning their natural sign language are understood to be attempts akin to linguistic and cultural genocide. That is not to say that there are no Deaf people within the community who are extremely grateful for their speech abilities, and who may praise a particular approach to speech teaching which has been successful for them. Of course there are. On an individual level, certain methods have had success for certain people. Every method has also had a great deal of "failure" for many people who simply were unable to master speech for a variety of reasons. Collectively, however, as previous discussed, speech is not a valued commodity within the Deaf community, especially if it comes from forced attempts to deny Deaf people their identity as Deaf, and especially if it comes from methods of teaching which do not enable access to meaning.
Important historical events
Important events in Deaf history
Throughout the history of the world, there have been many significant events that have effected Deaf people around the world - too many to list here. We will touch upon a few of the most significant, however, to give you an insight into some of the things that have happened to Deaf people as well as some of the things that Deaf people have done.
The links will take you to various websites (Wikipedia and others) for more information. All pages are set to open in a new window of your web browser.
1760 -The first public school, Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris, for Deaf children established in Paris, France, by the Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée.
1817 - The American School for the Deaf, the first Deaf school in America, was established by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in Hertford, Conneticut. Gallaudet had travelled to Europe to learn about education methods for Deaf children. In Paris, he met Deaf teacher, Clerc, and convinced him to return to America to establish the school.
1860 - Australia's first school for the Deaf was opened by Thomas Pattison, a deaf teacher from Scotland. The Deaf and Dumb Institute of NSW was established originally in Liverpool Street as a predominantly boarding school. Over the years, it moved to locations in both Paddington and Newtown, before finding it's final home in North Rocks. The Institute is now called the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC).
1860 - Just 21 days after the Deaf and Dumb Institute was opened in NSW, the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution was opened by Frederick John Rose, a Deaf teacher from England who was living in Bendigo at the time. The school was opened in a house on Peel St, Winsdor, before moving to a cottage on Henry Street and then to a house on Nelson Street, then again to neighbouring Prahran where it took residence in Leal House on Commercial Road. In 1865, the government granted the use of the land on the corner of St Kilda Road and High Street, and the now iconic blue-stone building was opened in 1866.
1864 - Gallaudet University, the world's first (and only) university for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, was officially born in Washington, D.C. Originally named the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind since it's inception in 1857, it was granted the authority to issue college degrees in 1864.
1880 - The second International Congress on Education of the Deaf (ICED) was held in Milan, Italy. It is commonly known as the "Milan Conference" and was organised by the Pereire Society, a group that was against the use of sign language. The conference ran from September 6th - 11th and declared that oral education was superior to manual education. They took the decision to ban the use of sign language in schools. All delegates to the conference were by invitation only, and only one was Deaf.
1884 - The Victorian Society for Promoting the Spiritual and Temporal Welfare of the Adult Deaf and Dumb was originally established, but then changed it's name the following year to the Adult Deaf and
Dumb Mission. Several moves and name changes occurred over subsequent years to it's current name, the Victorian Deaf Society, better known as Vicdeaf.
1913 - The Education Department took over the responsibility of employing the staff at the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution, effectively dividing the institution into two bodies. Deaf Children Australia (DCA) maintained the residential care and education support of the students.
1949 the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution became the world's first organisation to drop the word "Dumb" from it's title. It later became the Victorian School for Deaf Children and then, later, the Victorian College for the Deaf (VCD).
1951 - The first World Congress of National Deaf Associations was held in Rome, Italy. From this event, the international peak body representing the rights of people who are Deaf, the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), was established under the auspices of the Italian Deaf Association. It's head office is currently in Helsinki, Finland.
1954 - The Columbia Institute for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb was renamed as Gallaudet College.
1982 - The National Accreditation Authority of Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) accepts Deaf Sign Language into its list of testable languages and conducts its first testing of sign language interpreters.
1986 - Marlee Matlin, an American Deaf Actor, wins the Oscar award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal of Sarah Norman in the film, Children of a Lesser God. The role also won her the Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Drama.
1986 - Gallaudet College underwent another name change, becoming Gallaudet University.
1988 - The Deaf President Now student protest campaign, demanding that the next president of Gallaudet University be a Deaf person, was staged in and won. The Board of Trustees had elected a hearing person, Elizabeth Zinser, to the presidency, despite the fact that there had been calls for a Deaf president for some time, and that Zinser was the only hearing candidate out of three possible contenders. The protest went into full swing and four days after her appointment, Zinser resigned. Soon afterwards, I. King Jordan was elected as the eighth president of Gallaudet University. He held the position until his retirement in 2006.
2011 - At the 16th World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) General Assembly, held in Durban, South Africa, Mr. Colin Allen of Sydney, Australia, was elected as the WFD President. He was re-elected to continue the role at the 17th WFD General Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2015.
2013 - Thamsanqa Jantjie angered the Deaf world by appearing as the "interpreter" at the Nelson Mandella State Memorial Service in Johannesberg, South Africa. Deaf people around the world claimed that he was not using any known sign language and that he was, in fact, making it all up. Jantjie later claimed to be suffering from schizophrenic hallucinations at the time. The agency that booked him effectively vanished and could not be questioned. The event gained worldwide media attention.
2015 - Nyle di Marco, an American Deaf model, actor, and Deaf activist, wins the reality TV competition, America's Next Top Model. In 2016, he also won Dancing With the Stars.
Defence and promotion of beliefs
Deaf people are a highly active group when it comes to defending their right to be Deaf, to maintain and nurture their own languages and culture, and the promotion of their beliefs. There is a long history of self advocacy groups, political involvement, public protests and the production of Deaf film, arts and literature. In many universities around the world, Deaf Studies facilities have been established and the best of these are lead, or heavily staffed, by Deaf academics.
The list of activities, groups and individuals on this page is by no means exhaustive. It is intended to show only a selection of examples of how Deaf people have either defended their rights or promoted their beliefs.
Advocacy
Many countries of the world have established National Associations of the Deaf (NADs). These are advocacy and information organisations that are founded, governed and operated by a majority of Deaf people. NADs differ from service organisations, which are often run by majority hearing people with the aim of providing welfare and community services to Deaf people, although there is an increasing trend for many such organisations to employ more Deaf people at senior management and board levels.
Where an NAD fits the description above, i.e., majority Deaf leadership, it is eligible to become a member of the international body, the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and to vote at its quadrennial General Assemblies. WFD have advisory status with the United Nations in matters relating to Deaf people globally and have worked with many UN committees and flagships to develop a number of conventions, declarations, etc. WFD also works closely with many other international non-government organisations (INGOs) on projects of joint interest, including the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI), the World Federation of the Deafblind (WFDB), the World Blind Union (WBU), and Disabled Peoples International (DPI), to name but a few.
Australia's NAD is called Deaf Australia (DA), which has state branches including Deaf Victoria (DV; not to be confused with Vicdeaf, a service provider). DA, formerly known as the Australian Association of the Deaf (AAD), are a member of WFD and former President, Mr. Colin Allen, has been the WFD President since 2011.
In the mid 1990's, AAD decided to take on Telstra in the federal court system because Deaf people did not have equitable access to telecommunications services. After a lengthy battle, AAD were successful and the result was new legislation stating that telecommunications providers within Australia be responsible for funding the provision of a relay service, not only for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, but also for others with impaired speech. The National Relay Service (NRS) was established as a result of this advocacy.
Deaf Australia continue to advocate on a wide range of issues that effect Deaf people, including the Action on Cinema Access (AOCA) campaign to get captioning into mainstream cinemas, allowing Deaf people to serve as jurors, and many, many other issues.
Disabled Peoples International (Australia) Limited supporting a profoundly Deaf Australian man in a case against Telstra that was heard at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in
1995. Geoffrey Scott argued that he was being discriminated against as a Deaf person because he was not provided with a telephone typewriter to access telephony services, in the same way that hearing customers were provided with a rental telephone. The case was won and Telstra, as well as other landline telephone providers now manage a rental scheme, at the same costs as a standard telephone, to customers requiring adaptive technologies to access landline phone services. Devices now include telephone typewriters (TTYs), large button phones, braille TTYs, etc.
Political involvement
Over the last few decades, Deaf people have begun to make their way into public politics.
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In the UK, liberal democrat Councillor David Buxton is Deaf and uses interpreters.
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There are currently two Deaf Members of the European Parliament, Ms Helga Stevens of Belgium, and Mr Ádám Kósa of Hungary.
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Mr Raghav Bir Joshi was elected as an MP in Nepal in 2008.
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Ms Mojo Mathers is a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and was elected in 2011. She grew up with an oral education but began to use New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) in 2000.
There are likely other Deaf people in elected offices in other countries of the world. These happen to be the ones that we know of here. If you discover any others, please post a discussion in the Forums section of this site.
Public protests
Leading up to the early 1980's, Channel 10 ran an annual telethon to raise funds for Deaf children. Their depiction of Deaf children was as pitiful, desperate, helpless beings that needed "your help". The Deaf community in Australia rallied against such negative portrayals and the telethons were stopped. More information is being sought into this action and will be made available when found.
1988 - Deaf President Now (Washington DC)
The previous page presented a link to the Deaf President Now Wikipedia page. This link will take you to the Deaf President Now pages within Gallaudet University's website.
2003 - BSL Recognition Day
In 2003, Deaf people in the United Kingdom rallied in huge numbers in London to call for the recognition of British Sign language (BSL) as an official language. As a result, the UK government enacted the BSL Act 2003.
2012 - Save Auslan Courses (Melbourne)
The Deaf community of Victoria banded together with a group of concerned Auslan students when Kangan Institute decided to close the Diploma of Auslan program following significant funding cuts. Take a look at this article from ABC News online. As a result of their efforts, the Victorian government put out a tender for a new provider and the successful bidder was the Victorian Auslan Training Consortium (VATC), comprising NMIT (training provider), deafConnectEd (contract manager), LaTrobe University (workforce development) and Vicdeaf (community connection). The contract was announced in mid 2013 and the first classes started at NMIT (now Melbourne Polytechnic) in July of the same year.
2015 - Deaf Work Now (Washington DC)
In 2015, Deaf Americans organised a march to the steps of the White House to raise awareness of the over-representation of Deaf people in unemployment figures. Check out this article in the Huffington Post.
Deaf Arts
Deaf people have always expressed themselves through a variety of art forms, including fine arts such as painting and sculpture, etc., to performing arts such as theatre and dance, to writing. Film, of course, has become a popular medium as well, as it is able to document the languages and experiences of Deaf peoples around the world.
Click on any of the following to find out more about each:
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National Theater of the Deaf - USA
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Australian Theatre of the Deaf - Australia. This group has now disbanded, however the name has been granted to a new group of artists based in Victoria, see next link)
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Australian Theatre of the Deaf - Australia. Auspiced by Arts Access Victoria
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RIT/NTID Deaf Artists directory
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RIT/NTID Deaf Theatre Companies directory
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Quintus Pedius (first named deaf person in recorded history, in Pliny's Naturalis Historia, c. 79 AD)
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Deaf Arts NSW, auspiced by Accessible Arts
Deaf films
A couple of examples of Deaf films. There have also been Deaf television programming in some countries such as USA, Canada, UK and Australia, and likely others. Many programs have limited lifespans. However, with the advent of online media, more opportunities exist for Deaf programming from personal vlogger channels to the more polished productions. BSL Zone is one such site which has produced lot of content that is accessible to both Deaf and hearing audiences.
Through Deaf Eyes
https://youtu.be/tJeAG8tZyf4
PSPLAN003 You as a student: "where do I fit in?"
Where do I fit in?
...it's a difficult question to answer, but one that can be explored. This lesson will cover the following:
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You as a student
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Reasons for learning Auslan
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How to forge a pathway to the Deaf community
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Event etiquette - do's and don'ts
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Final thoughts
You as a student
By now you have probably realised that learning Auslan is not the only thing that is important on your journey. The door to the Deaf community has been unlocked in your introduction through this course and so now the challenge is how far you wish to open it. Moreover, how far do you want to step through it?
Language and culture are inseparable so how does one navigate the "jungle" that is before you? As a student of Auslan you bring a range of skills, experiences and assumptions about the Deaf community and its language with you. Accessing the language as used by the community is a challenging prospect and will no doubt require a level of persistence and self-reflection. Only when one looks through the lens at another culture can you then begin to learn and reflect on your own culture. These points of acquisition are the stepping stones for understanding your place in the Deaf community.
Membership to the community does not begin the moment you enter an Auslan classroom. Certainly learning Auslan is an important part of the equation but is only one part of the bigger picture. It will take time for you to be accepted if that is your aim. Your teacher is an important part of this gateway but more importantly the connections you make along the way will hold you in a good position for your future.
So ask yourself, what is your reason for learning Auslan? How do you intend to use the language throughout the course and into life after your have graduated?
Reasons for learning Auslan
As you've no doubt started to learn by communicating with your fellow students, people come into this course to learn Auslan for a wide variety of reasons. Let's explore some of them now:
Deafness/Deafblindness: There are a number of students who identify as people who are either deaf/hard of hearing, Deaf and Deafblind. For whatever reason, they have not had previous access to learning Auslan and have chosen to do so now.
Deaf family member: Quite a few students have one or more members of their family who are Deaf. We have children of Deaf adults (also known as CODAs, or even MOTHER-FATHER DEAF); we have parents of Deaf children; we have siblings of Deaf people; we have students with a more distant relative who is Deaf, possibly an aunt or cousin, etc.
Friends of Deaf people: A few students have come to this course having already had some connection with Deaf people, either as friends or partners, or who perhaps attended school with one or more Deaf people
The curious: A high number of students come to learn Auslan for no particular reason other than an interest. They might have seen Deaf people in public using the language, or learned to fingerspell as a child at school to have those secret chats with friends. Some have seen Deaf people on TV, or interpreters at public events, and this has sparked an interest.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many sign language education programs around the world notice a spike in the number of students who enrol after a significant Deaf person attracts media attention. For example, strong Deaf celebrities such as Drisana Levitske-Gray (Young Australian of the Year, 2015), Nyle di Marco (America's Next Top Model and US Dancing with the Stars winner) have sparked the interest of many people to learn sign language, as did Marlee Matlin (US Actress) when she won the Oscar for Best Actress. Conversely, negative press can also attract people to learn, as was evidenced with the whole Fake Interpreter scandal at Nelson Mandella's memorial service.
The career-minded: A lot of students are learning Auslan because it will either benefit their existing career (for example, as a speech pathologist or teacher of the Deaf), or because they are interested to build a career within the Deaf community or working with Deaf clients. There are sometimes employment opportunities at organisations within the deaf sector that require people with particular skill sets - finance, administration, project management, marketing, IT, etc., where competence in Auslan would certainly be of great benefit. There are a number of professionals who would benefit from knowing Auslan to better enable them to communicate with clients who are Deaf - audiologists, speech pathologists, teachers of the deaf, specialist psychologists, social workers, etc.
However there is only one career path where it is compulsory to develop Auslan fluency and that is to become an interpreter. A significant number of students begin Auslan studies because they are interested in pursuing an interpreting career. Some change their minds along the way; others, who had no intention of becoming interpreters have somehow been bitten by the "bug" and abandoned previous career goals altogether!
Signing vs Interpreting
Consider what it means to be able to sign in Auslan (or another signed language) compared with what it means to be able to interpret.
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What are the linguistic and non-linguistic attributes required for having a conversation about an event on the weekend?
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What level of fluency do you think is required to be able to interpret effectively?
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Are there other skills sets and knowledge requirements needed to be able to interpret between two languages simultaneously and effectively?
Sadly, many people in the wider community still think that knowing a second language equates to being able to interpret into that language but this is simply not the case. Interpreting between any two languages requires a whole range of skills and attributes that are not necessarily used when only conversing in your second language. The purpose of this unit is not to explore the issues of interpreting between Deaf and hearing people, rather for you to shine a light on your own progression through this course to enable you to help you decide your future path.
For some people learning Auslan is all they wish to do. Their reasons for study may be personal, work related or simply out of interest. Not everyone intends to go to the next level and study interpreting. No doubt you have plans to put the signing skills you acquire to good use.
Across the breadth of the Deaf community there are many non-deaf people who are very capable signers. They possess fluency in Auslan as well as demonstrating the appropriate attitude towards Deaf people, their culture and the community. Some may have learnt Auslan in a formal setting whilst others may have family connections. Not all can claim to be able to interpret well between Auslan and English. At the same time the opposite is somewhat true. Some interpreters may not possess native like Auslan skills but are able to traverse the communication gap that is presented when Deaf and hearing people need to communicate with each other. Their attitude, manner and respect are the attributes that set them apart.
So at what point will you identify as bilingual? Was it after week one of your Auslan course? Will it be after semester one? Or maybe at the completion of your course? In Lesson 9, we will explore the notion of bilingualism in greater detail but for now, what does bilingualism mean to you?
How to forge a pathway to the Deaf community
Access to the Deaf community
For Auslan students, gaining access to the Deaf community can be a difficult path, and to be honest, for good reason. You should be starting to build an awareness of the historical and continued oppression of Deaf people. We have touched upon the fact that Deaf people have usually had their identities defined by others and those others have invariably been hearing people who have taken some kind of interest in people who are deaf.
Throughout time, philosophers, law-makers, religious leaders, educators, medical professionals, welfare workers and even family members have made decisions about Deaf people's lives. These decisions have, quite literally, denied them access to even the most basic of human rights including food and shelter, as well as education, employment, legal status, freedom, inheritance, the right to marry and/or procreate, and in the worst cases, the right to life itself.
In many instances, the decisions that have been made that have affected the lives of Deaf people in these ways have been made by people with "the best of intentions". And so it is easy to see, then, why many Deaf people can be wary of new people who are not, themselves, Deaf.
That being said, it would not be true to say that Deaf people are unwelcoming towards hearing people who are learning to use sign language. But to be truly welcomed, you need to be able to demonstrate your alliance with the values of the community, with the values that Deaf people share and with the genuine belief that Deaf people are in no way "less" than hearing people.
There are a number of pathways that may allow access to membership within the Deaf community for people who are not Deaf. Let's explore some of these pathways:
Friendships
Be friends with people who are Deaf. This does not simply mean to be friendly towards people that you meet, but to genuine form relationships that are meaningful and mutually beneficial, born out of respect and connection. Of course, this is easier said than done if you don't actually know anybody outside of the teaching and tutoring staff of the course! Hopefully, over time, you will find more opportunities to meet Deaf people in the community and your teachers and tutors will try to facilitate such access wherever possible.
To be able to socialise with people who are Deaf will allow the most valuable learning experiences that you can ever experience. By socialising with Deaf people, you gain insight into the ways that they use their language in daily life as well as the ways that they live out their culture and values. A classroom can teach you about these things but nothing can replace genuine experience. If you've ever learnt a spoken language in a classroom setting, and then gone to the country where the language is spoken, you will probably understand the difference.
Volunteer
There are sometimes opportunities for students to volunteer with Deaf sector organisations (though of course such opportunities can be limited). There are some organisations, such as Able Australia, who regularly seek keen volunteers to, once trained, provide communication and guidance support for people who are both deaf and blind (Deafblind). At this stage, if accepted, you would not likely be asked to work with Deafblind people who use Auslan, as your language skills would not yet be sufficient to benefit the client, however you may be able to work with Deaflind people who have access to speech and hearing.
In addition to Able Australia, Vicdeaf, Deaf Victoria, Deaf Children Australia (DCA), Deaf Sports Australia (DSA), Deaf Soprts and Recreation Victoria (DSRV), the Deaf Arts Network (DAN), and the John Pierce Centre (JPC) are all good places to make enquiries about volunteering opportunities that may arise from time to time. You will find all of their contact information online.
Also, Melbourne Polytechnic Auslan Program are sometimes contacted by specific event organisers who are looking for volunteers, and where appropriate, will make such information available to you.
Forge a pathway
Join a group
There are a number of social and sporting groups within the Deaf community and some would be welcoming to hearing people as well. Be mindful when considering joining a social group, though, because Deaf people often enjoy being able to simply socialise with other Deaf people, without having to modify their language to accommodate non-fluent signers. It is recommended, therefore, that students consider joining special interest social groups, rather than general social gatherings. In a special interest group, the interest itself is often the drawcard more than pure socialisation aspect alone. If you share that common interest, you may find it easier to gain an entry ticket to the group...where you will hopefully be able to develop some genuine friendships.
Some Deaf sporting clubs welcome non-deaf members, either as volunteers or as players. Some clubs run specifically mixed teams. Contact Deaf Sports and Recreation Victoria for more information.
For those of the Catholic faith, the John Pierce Centre (JPC) hold mass in English and Auslan on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month, as well as providing an interpreter for the 2nd Sunday mass at St. Francis' Church in Melbourne. JPC also hosts a number of special interest groups and activities on a regular basis.
Look at Vicdeaf's "Your Community" webpages to see a very comprehensive list of groups, organisations and events. These pages are updated regularly.
Attend Deaf community events
Increasingly, there are a number of events that are held which are either aimed at the Deaf community, or are made accessible for Deaf audiences or participants.
A note to point out: there are some events which are openly available to hearing people but only occasionally made available to Deaf people, e.g., captioned movie screenings, interpreted theatre performances, etc. On the one hand, they could be great opportunities to mix with Deaf people in environments that aren't too confronting and after the movie or show, you have an easy topic of conversation to start with. But on the other hand, you taking a seat at a captioned cinema screening may be denying a seat to a Deaf person, who cannot simply attend any session and be able to access the film; you booking a seat in the reserved section of an interpreted theatre performance could mean that a Deaf person is going to miss out on what could be their one and only chance to see the show.
Rule of thumb: unless you are invited by your Deaf friend/s or family members, be mindful of taking up a Deaf person's seat. This does not apply to parents of Deaf children - if you are taking your child to an accessible event, then you are automatically invited.
If you're interested in the Arts, then you should keep an eye out on the webpages of both the Deaf Arts Network and Auslan Stage Left (as well as the Vicdeaf Your Community pages, of course).
Watching interpreters at work
There is an increasing number of public events that are interpreted by one or more Auslan/English interpreters. For hearing students, watching interpreters at work can be a great way of extending your learning of Auslan because you have both the English and the Auslan available to you. This means that you can see how interpreters choose to interpret between the two languages.
On the next page, we will discuss some points of etiquette to consider when you are attending either Deaf community events or interpreted public events.
Event etiquette
The welcome outsider
On the previous page, you read about the fact that Deaf people can be wary of new people who are wanting to gain entry into the Deaf community following hundreds, if not thousands of years of oppression in various forms. The same is true, of course, for almost every community of people around the world, of course, in particular those which are considered to be minorities.
A minority group is a group of people who are smaller in number than the majority society. Many minorities exist because of displacement from their homelands through acts of war or colonisation, natural disaster, etc. Others exist because of the promise of a better life. Yet others exist by way of shared experience. All minorities experience oppression, typically both as individuals and as collective communities. It is possible, therefore, to draw some parallels between the experiences of Deaf people to those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, migrant communities, LGBTI communities, etc. (whilst acknowledging and respecting the differences as well).
Entering a minority community space
When entering any space that is "owned" by a minority community, it is courteous to observe a range of behaviours that is respectful to members of that community, that reflect the values and cultural beliefs (or at least demonstrate a willingness to learn them). This is also true of the Deaf community. As an Auslan student, you are undoubtedly keen to learn as much as you can, as fast as you can.
Dos and don'ts
Some do's and don'ts:
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DO think about the purpose of the event, and whether or not it might be appropriate for "an outsider" to attend
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DO put yourself out there! Staying at home won't get you there
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DON'T expect to be invited into a group of people who don't know you
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DO try to make friends with new people
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DON'T gawk!
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DO be authentic
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DON'T barge into conversations
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DON'T be an "intruder"
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DO be patient, building relationships takes time
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DON'T be quick to help out, unless asked to do so (or in a genuine emergency for which you are trained)
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DON'T ask a group to slow down so you can keep up - keep those requests for one-on-one conversations
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DON'T approach your teachers/tutors and talk about class - this is social time!
Attending an interpreted event
Many hearing students find that a great way to increase your learning of Auslan is to watch interpreters at work. The reason for this is that you have access to both language channels, English and Auslan. It's important to know, however, that interpreters are not only people who can sign, they are also trained to perform a task which is highly complex and demanding. They are likely to make choices of signs or words in their interpretation that may differ from those that you know or might expect. They may even make a professional decision to omit or add some information. Not only are interpreters dealing in language, they are also dealing in a process of cultural bridging.
Just as there is etiquette to consider when attending an event in the Deaf community, there are certain protocols that are worth mentioning when you find yourself watching interpreters at work.
Some do's and don'ts:
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DO introduce yourself to the interpreter/s before the event starts, if it's a "good time"
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DON'T be offended if it's not a good time and the interpreter does not have time to chat
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DO watch the interpreter/s work
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DON'T gawk!
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DON'T sit immediately in their line of sight (remember that point about taking a Deaf person's place)
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DON'T have a chat about an interpreter whilst they're working - it's extremely distracting and they will see you
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DON'T expect an interpreter to work at a public event if there are no Deaf people present - interpreters provide access, not a performance
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DO have a chat with the interpreter after the event and ask them questions about the assignment, their interpreting choices, ethical considerations, etc.
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DON'T be offended if the interpreter doesn't want to chat
Final thoughts
Whatever your pathway into the Deaf community, it is important to be patient. Membership to the Deaf community, as with any community membership, is heavily built around relationships. Relationships are built around trust. Trust takes time. Trust in someone who "represents the oppressor", as it were, takes more time.
Be patient. Be respectful. Be authentic.
As you work your way through the remaining lessons, consider your own personal values in relation to those of the Deaf community, as well as the role(s) that hearing people should play within the Deaf community. You will be asked to reflect on both of these issues in the final assessment task.
PSPLAN003 Deaf identity and oppression
Introduction
Deaf identity and oppression
In this lesson, we will delve a little further into the questions of Deaf identity and the history of oppression that Deaf people have experienced around the world. For many of you, this may be an emotional journey as Deaf people have been made to suffer in many ways. Please take your time and, if needed, speak to your fellow students and teachers about any issues you may experience. Remember, it's not all doom and gloom, by any means, and a growing awareness in Deaf identity and the concepts of Deafhood continue to enable Deaf people to reclaim their lives, their futures and their true potential.
Identity, as defined by others:
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Religion
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Law
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Philosophy
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Society
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Science
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Family
Identity, as defined by themselves:
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WFD
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Deaf Clubs
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Self Advocacy Groups
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Disability movements
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Deaf academics and professionals
Parallels with other minority groups:
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LGBTQI people
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and other First Nation peoples
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Disability groups
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Migrants populations
Identity defined by others
Since some of the earliest times of humans creating records, there have been references made about people who are deaf. To date, the earliest known reference appears in the Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550), an ancient Egyptian medical scroll which contains a number of paragraphs pertaining to treatments and cures for the "ear that hears badly". Such treatments, according to a translation by Cyril P. Bryan (1974) from the previous German translation (Bles, 1930), which was itself a translation from the earlier Joachim (date unknown) interpretation of the scrolls, include injecting certain substances into the ear:
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olive oil
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red lead
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ants eggs
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bat wings
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goats urine
For as long as we can tell, from the earliest healers to current medical professionals, deafness has been seen as something to be cured and/or overcome.
NOTE: In the sections below, references to people who are deaf or who have a disability are, unless otherwise stated, made in respect of people who are deaf or disabled from birth. There are often distinctions made, or which can be inferred from the literature, with respect to those who become deaf or disabled later in their lives.
Identity - philosophy & education
Identity, as defined by others - continued
Philosophy & Education
In ancient Greece, the philosopher Aristotle (c. 364 BC) claimed that "Deaf are born incapable to reason", and then in 355 BC, further stated that "Deaf people could not be educated [since] without hearing, people could not learn". He also declared that "the blind are more intelligent than the deaf". Deaf people in ancient Greece were denied education.
Aristotle's views seem to have been indicative of the global beliefs of the time, and for many years to come, as Deaf people were not known to have been given access to education until 1550 AD, when Dom Pedro Ponce de Lyon, a Spanish Benedictine monk, is reported to have successfully taught several deaf people to speak, read and write. His methods included the use of the Spanish monastic "hand alphabet" system (or possibly an adaptation thereof) used by monks during periods of religious silence. This is reputed to have been the introduction of "fingerspelling" into the signed languages of deaf people. Ponce de Lyon is often credited as being the "first teacher of the deaf".
Juan Pablo Bonet published the first book on the education of deaf people, Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos ("Summary of the letters and the art of teaching speech to the mute") in Madrid in 1620. His methods, which were allegedly based on those used by Ponce de Lyon (uncredited) used signs and gestures, as well as fingerspelling, with the aim of teaching deaf people to speak. One of his early motivations was to enable deaf sons of rich families the ability to inherit, which legally required that the inheritor be literate.
Following the Milan Congress in 1880, whereby educators of Deaf people decided that oral approaches to education should be favoured above signed approaches, the quality of education standards rapidly declined. As the focus became speech rather than academics, most Deaf people were completing their school years with poor education, which in turn relegated them to limited work options, often in manual trades. Those for whom oral education was successful would have had more options than those for whom oral education was not. Many schools for Deaf children became more like institutions, usually with children living in boarding accommodation and away from their families, and children were not encouraged to aspire for much.
Boarding life would have been hard for children who were away from their families. However, at the same time, being in boarding schools also meant that Deaf children were being raised with other Deaf children. In spite of the oral education approaches, they usually still used sign language together (even if they sometimes had to do so in secret). Friendships were forged and communities were created amongst peers. Deaf children in these settings were able to develop a sense of belonging, of sameness shared with others who were like them.
Identity - religion
Identity, as defined by others - continued
Religion
The Halakhah, or Hebrew Laws, were taken from the written and oral Torah and comprise 613 commandments (mitzvot) and both Talmudic and rabbinic laws, customs and traditions. The Torah, in the book of Leviticus (which is also one of the books that appears in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible), declares that “you shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the LORD”.
Shai Held (April 29 2015) writes:
Maimonides interprets the prohibition on cursing the deaf as a signature example of the Torah’s concern with human character and virtue. “We might have thought,” he writes, “that . . . since a deaf person does not hear [the curse] and is not pained by it, there is no sin involved in that case.” [But] our verse works to undercut that line of thought. . . Why? Because the Torah “is concerned not only with the one who is cursed, but also with the one who curses.” The potential character flaw the Torah worries about in this instance, according to Maimonides, is “gearing oneself up for revenge and growing accustomed to being angry" [...]
In this context, it is important to pay careful attention to the Hebrew word for insult, killel. The root k-l-l also means to be light [in weight]. In its prohibition of verbally abusing the deaf, the Torah is also . . . warning us not to treat the deaf person “lightly,” as if he or she has no importance. The opposite of k-l-l is k-v-d, to treat as weighty, or, more conventionally, to treat with respect. What the Torah seeks to instill, in other words, iskavod, respect, for the deaf, the blind, and those with any one or more of countless other disabilities.
http://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2015/04/why-does-the-torah-prohibit-cursing-the-deaf/
Despite this so-called "respect", deaf people were restricted by Hebrew Law from participating fully in Temple rituals, being witnesses in court, and had restrictions on their marriage and divorce rights. Those who were "deaf-mute" were described as having severely limited mental capacity (sitting between the descriptors of "minor capacity" and "imbecile").
The Islamic text, the Qur'an, includes various passages pertaining to "the deaf, dumb and blind", including references to Allah seeing them as "the worst of beasts", and that "their abode will be hell" (http://quranindex.net/kelime.php?id=8070). It is possible that such references are less about people who are actually deaf, cannot speak, and/or are blind, and more about those who turn away from their Islamic faith, using the images of deaf and blind people as metaphors to represent those who cannot receive Allah's guidance.
The passage from Leviticus (above) is also reflected in the Old Testament section of the Christian bible. Most other references to deafness are either metaphorical (i.e., representing those who turn away from God) or as people who are cured by God's blessing or, more directly, by Jesus' touch. However, the behaviours of many Christians reflected the belief that deaf people were inferior,
blasphemous, unable to attain salvation, etc. Augustine of Hippo (c. 430 BC), later referred to as St. Augustine, tells early Christians that deaf children are a sign of God's anger at the sins of their parents.
"Sometimes ‘worthiness’ triumphed over impairment: Ethiopian Christians preserve an early tradition that worthy men may become bishops of the Church even if lame or one-eyed, for "a defect of the body does not corrupt him, but a defect of the soul [does]". Yet a worthy man could not become bishop if he were deaf or blind, not from any imputed unworthiness in these conditions, but on pragmatic grounds: it would be harder for such a man to see for himself what was going on, or to hear all sides of a story" (Schodde 1885).
http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/1/
"Scepticism is often justified, but sometimes creates barriers to rehabilitation progress. For many centuries, it was ‘common knowledge’ that people born deaf were also mute, and incapable of rational thought, understanding or moral responsibility. Any evidence that might seem to contradict this ‘knowledge’ was dismissed as a pretence or delusion. The Encyclopaedia Judaica notes a "first breakthrough in the attitude previously adopted", when a Jewish scholar visited the Vienna ‘school for deaf-mutes’ during the 19th century, and discovered deaf children being taught, and giving evidence of comprehension. His report was slowly joined by similar evidence, and a century later scepticism gave way to the weight of experience, in Jewish teaching (Rabinowitz 2007; cf Marx 2002, 114-117, and Abrams 1998, 168-190). Luther in the 1520s similarly had personal acquaintance with one deaf young woman who gave evidence of understanding the Christian message; so he directed that she and other deaf people showing such evidence must be accepted as full participants in the church ceremonies (Luther, edition 1883-1983, vol. 6: 377-378). Some detailed recent religious rulings by Saudi Arabian authorities, translated by Rispler-Chaim (2007, 97-134), while in many ways kindly and enlightened, seem hardly aware of several centuries of development in deaf education, or other capacities of modern disabled people in a well-designed environment. A willingness exists to engage in legitimate updating of religious law; but the process remains slow. "
http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/1/
It has been generally believed, across all major faiths, that people born with disabilities of all kinds are so born to serve a purpose, either to themselves (through karma) or to others (by teaching them humility and compassion, for example). In all of these belief systems, however, people who are deaf or disabled are not traditionally viewed as being equal or as having value in their own right.
Identity - law
Identity, as defined by others - continued
Law
Some examples of religious laws have already been outlined above, however there are many examples of legislature which have restricted the freedom and rights of people who are deaf. The Corpus Juris Civilis (a.k.a., The Justinian Code) is a collection of laws under the rule of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (529 - 565 AD). Many were interpretations of previously existing laws dating back to the Roman Empire (c. 100 BC - c. 400 AD).
The Justinian Codes were the first to legislate that deaf people who could not write had no legal standing in society. According to John Van Cleve, the Romans had "inherited from Greek philosophy the unfortunate that thought occurred only through the articulated word and that the ability to speak was instinctive rather than acquired" (Deaf History Unveiled, 1999, p. 239). Again, deaf people were not being given access to education, as they were thought to be uneducable.
People born deaf, along with those having serious mental disabilities, might be deemed to have no moral or legal standing and therefore could not enter legal contracts, nor could they be punished for breaking the law, though their family might be held responsible for failing to supervise them.
(Woodbridge, as cited in Miles, M. (2010). Religion and Spirituality. In J.H. Stone, & M. Blouin (editors), International Encyclopedia of Rehabilitation. Retrieved from http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/1/).
The above article is a fascinating read which explores the perspectives of people who are disabled, including deaf people, throughout the histories of many major religions and societies around the world. Click on the link in the reference above to read this interesting, if lengthy, article. You may have noticed a few other quotes from the same article throughout this lesson.
Identity - society
Identity, as defined by others - continued
Society
The common beliefs within societies are often driven by a combination of current philosophy, religion and/or legislature. Sometimes, these aspects governing society are in conflict with each other as morality and changing philosophies battle with religious and legislative tenets. The prevailing perceptions of deaf people throughout time and in most countries of the world has been of pity, or of shame, even of persecution. But there have frequently been individuals, or small groups of people, who have not always believed the prevailing perceptions.
Some of the first people of note are people such as Geronimo Cardano (c. 1500 AD), who was the first physician to suggest that deaf people are capable of reason, to Dom Pedro Ponce de Lyon in 1550, to the Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée who opened the world's first public education institution for deaf people in Paris in 1760, as well as others. By accessing education, deaf people themselves began to gain knowledge and confidence, belief in themselves as valuable and contributing members of society. But even as such gains were becoming possible, perhaps for the first time in recorded history, there were (and still are) others who seemed determined to rebel against deaf people's progress.
Since the earliest days of education for deaf people, there has been a raging debate by hearing people over languages of instruction: speech or sign? One of the society's strongest advocates for speech was none other than Alexander Graham Bell, the much-beloved "inventor" of not only the telephone, but also the telephone typewriter, among other things (the quotation marks around the word "inventor" have been included because there continues to be much debate as to the authenticity of Bell's invention being truly original). His mother lost her hearing while Bell was in his youth and he learned a manual finger "language" so that he could tap out conversations to her. His father was a phonetician and elocutionist who devised a system called Visible Speech, which Bell learned and taught to deaf people when he was a young man. He married a woman, Mabel Hubbard, who had been one of his deaf students.
Despite both his mother and his wife being deaf, Bell became a strong advocate against the right of deaf people to marry each other. He believed that to allow deaf people to marry each other would result in higher numbers of deaf children being born, which he believed was undesirable. His views stemmed from, or were perhaps resulted in, his belief in eugenics.
The term "eugenics" was coined in 1881 by Francis Galton, although the concept and practice dates back at least to the times of Greek Philosopher, Plato (c. 320 AD), who is said to have recommended the creation of a "guardian" race by positive breeding action. Charles Darwin's On the Origins of Species, published in 1859, gave rise the the ideas of "natural selection" in relation to plants and animals. Darwin differentiated natural selection from that of "artificial selection", which is essentially the premise of many eugenicists. Francis Galton, who devised the term 'eugenics', was also Darwin's half-cousin and Darwin is said to have disagreed with Galton's ideas.
Scientific pursuits into "positive eugenics" have given us advances such as reproductive technologies and medical contraception, to name a few. However, there have been many notable eugenics extremist viewpoints which have been hugely detrimental to many peoples of the world, resulting in ethnic cleansing and genocide. One example of this (but by no means the only example) is that
of Hitler's Nazi Germany and the Holocaust of World War II. Hitler's ideal of an Aryan race belied his extremist eugenic beliefs. He not only targeted Jewish people, but also Poles, Slavs, Romani and Russians, as well as homosexuals and people with mental and/or physical disabilities. This included people who were Deaf. In fact, it is estimated that around 17,000 Deaf Germans were sterilised, imprisoned or killed during the Holocaust.
Bell established a number of organisations, institutions and funding programs. One of the was the Volta Bureau, in Washington D.C., which has gone on to become the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (a.k.a., "The AG Bell"). The AG Bell continues to exist today, and strongly argues in favour of the exclusive use of speech and listening for deaf children. They have been publicly critical of the promotion and use of sign language (namely ASL, in the American context) because they believe that it reduces a child's ability (or perhaps willingness) to learn to listen and speak (NB: there are no academically reliable studies which support this claim, and several which refute it).
The legacy of Alexander Graham Bell and his beliefs on disallowing deaf children access to a natural language continues on in the AG Bell. This is one example of a prominent member of society whose beliefs become so influential on a society at large, and which have, for more than 150 years, had an impact the lives of so many people.
Note: It has not been the intention of this section to single out the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing as such. This is simply illustrative of the fact that there are organisations that do not share the views of Deaf communities of the world and this organisation can trace its roots back to single historical figure. It would appear to be extremely rare that organisations like this are created, governed or managed by people who are themselves born deaf.
Closer to home, Hear and Say is a Queensland-based speech and listening program for deaf children. Hear and Say was established in 1993 by speech therapist, Dimity Dornan, who won the Telstra Businesswoman of the Year award in 2011. At her acceptance speech, she claimed to represent all deaf people, that she understood how they all felt, and likened deafness to polio, "a scourge in our world but it can be almost completely eradicated" (she has since claimed that the word "scourge" was used to describe polio, and not deafness). The Deaf community, both through it's Australian peak body, Deaf Australia, and it's global peak body, the World Federation of the Deaf, as well as on social media, expressed its outrage at her comments and demanded an apology.
•
Ms. Dornan has since stated that her comments were taken out of context and misunderstood.
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Click here to read an article about Dornan's speech from The Brisbane Times
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Click here to read a response by a Deaf woman to Dornan's speech on ABC's RampUp website
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Click here to read another media response to Dornan's speech
Identity - science
Identity, as defined by others - continued
Science
In the Society section above, we touched on the science of eugenics which is, of course, a field of science. Sometimes, it can be challenging to separate science from these other categories because a branch of science (or religion, or both) often fuels the prevailing thinking with society.
Medical sciences such as Audiology (the study of the sense of hearing) and Otology (the study of the anatomy and diseases of the ear) see all types of deafness as things to be cured. On the one hand, some incredible technologies have been developed from these sciences to enable people who experience deafness to have access to sound, to various degrees, and there are many Deaf people who value these technologies. On the other hand, Deaf people have also been subjected to experimentation, promises of false cures and victims of unsuccessful operations in the name of science. Today, the majority (though certainly not all) of the medical professionals who work to "cure" deafness do not appreciate the value of signed languages and, in many cases, actively discourage parents from allowing their Deaf children access to sign. There are many who claim that learning a signed language will encourage the child to be lazy when it comes to learning how to make the best use of any residual hearing and learning to speak.
Identity - family
Identity, as defined by others - continued
Family
The vast majority (90-95%) of Deaf children are born into families where both parents are hearing. In most cases, it is likely that both parents have little or no awareness of deafness, of the Deaf community, or of what it is like to grow up and experience life as a Deaf person. Early screening tests are conducted on newborn babies in most hospitals and in many countries of the world, usually within a few days of the child's birth. When faced with the news that their baby does not have "normal" hearing, it is natural for parents to experience a sense of shock and loss, and many later describe the experience as a process of grief. During this time of grieving, parents are then asked to make some very weighty decisions regarding their child's future and are surrounded by medical professionals, in the main, offering advice and guidance.
Any parent wants their child to be as they are. Any parent wants the best for their child. Any parent wants their child to have the best opportunities available. It is easy, then, to understand why so many hearing parents of Deaf children, so being advised by doctors and allied professionals, choose to raise their children using oralist approaches. Of the four early intervention programs available in Victoria for children who are either born or who become pre-lingually (i.e., before learning language) Deaf, only one offers a bilingual approach. Aurora School is a statewide service which offers bilingual early intervention to children and their families if the parents choose, although they also allow parents to opt out of the use of Auslan. There is a fifth early intervention service available to children in Victoria, which is provided by the NSW-based Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC). Their services are only available via video-conference and they offer Auslan as an option.
The experiences of many Deaf people growing up in hearing families are of isolation and loneliness, or of being wrapped in cotton wool and over-protected. If the family does not choose to learn to sign, meaningful communication is a challenge. If the child manages to learn to lip-read and to speak, then communication on a one-on-basis is possible. The attention of the child must first be sought and secured for one-on-one communication to occur. It is a concerted effort for both the hearing and the Deaf child and this effort means that communication events are not as naturally occurring as they are with hearing children. Of course, all parents will spend time communicating with their child, Deaf or hearing, on a one-on-one basis. However the majority of family communication occurs in multi-party settings - in the kitchen over breakfast; around the dinner table; watching TV; going out. The Deaf child is required to maintain one-on-one communication with several people at once, who will invariably speak over each other from time to time and who cannot realistically be expected to take turns and indicate their intention to speak before they actually start so that the Deaf child has time to shift their attention to each new speaker. The result is, therefore, that the Deaf child misses out on a significant amount of family conversation. A common experience from Deaf adults who grew up in such household was that, when they asked what people were talking about, were either given short summaries or simply told "I'll tell you later"...and that 'later' rarely ever arrived.
Identity defined by themselves
As you can see from the previous page, Deaf peoples' identities have been defined by hearing people in almost every aspect of life since the earliest records of history, and there is no reason to suspect that things were any different prior to that. As with any group of oppressed peoples, however, Deaf people have been working to redefine themselves on their own terms, rather than the terms of the mainstream hearing communities of the world.
Re-Defining D-E-A-F video
https://vimeo.com/12817361
Identity - WFD
Identity defined by themselves - continued
WFD The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) website.
WFD was first established on 23rd September 1951, at the first World Congress of National Deaf Associations, in Rome, Italy. Over the years, the head office of the WFD has moved throughout various European cities and currently resides in Helsinki, Finland. WFD is governed by a Board of members from various countries, all of whom are Deaf. For his second term, Australian Deaf leader, Mr Colin Allen, is serving as the WFD President.
Their current areas of focus are:
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Improve the status of national sign languages
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Better education for Deaf people
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Improve access to information and services
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Improve human rights for Deaf people in developing countries
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Promote the establishment of Deaf organisations where none currently exist
In addition to their ongoing work, WFD hold a world congress every four years, held in a major city of one of its member countries who bid for the opportunity to host the event. Brisbane hosted the XIII (13th) World Congress in 1999. The most recent, the XVII (17th) congress was held in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2015, where it was announced that the XVIII (18th) congress will take place in Paris, France, in 2019.
Unfortunately [...] the rights of Deaf people are often overlooked, especially in developing countries. Societal prejudices and barriers prevent Deaf people from enjoying full human rights; for Deaf people the major barrier is lack of recognition, acceptance and use of sign language in all areas of life as well as lack of respect for Deaf people’s cultural and linguistic identity.
Most of the Deaf people do not get any education in developing countries and approximately 80 % of the world’s 70 million Deaf people do not have any access to education. Only about 1-2 % of the Deaf get education in sign language. Particularly situation of Deaf women and children is weak. Legal development and recognition of sign languages promotes Deaf people’s equal participation in the society.
https://www.nad.org/resources/international-advocacy/
Identity - Deaf clubs
Identity defined by themselves - continued
Deaf Clubs
Many Deaf communities around the world have established social and sporting clubs where Deaf people are able to gather together. It seems that such clubs began to be formed in cities where Deaf schools were established, as well as in cities where a religious mission (the early iterations of the Deaf Societies in Australia) was operating. It was around these schools and missions that Deaf people formed communities and from such communities sprang a number of social and special interest groups.
In Australia, many Deaf clubs were run under the auspices of a Deaf Society, though commonly managed by a committee of Deaf community members. Both the Victorian Deaf Society and the NSW Deaf Society operated large properties which housed welfare and administrative services, hostels, social and sporting clubs and grounds, however in the 1990's and 2000's the economic climate no longer supported the maintenance of such large properties. The Deaf Society of NSW sold their Stanmore property in 1994 and relocated to an office building in Parramatta. Ten years later, the Victorian Deaf Society sold their Jolimont Square property and moved to an office building in East Melbourne. Both of these moves led to the closure of the main Deaf Clubs of these cities, places where Deaf people and their allies, of all ages, could congregate on a weekly basis. Both properties operated a licensed bar and usually had recreational activities such as pool tables, etc.
Other Deaf clubs were, and are, less "pub-like" and are often held in community halls, church halls, etc. Often, people bring food and drink to share (sometimes arranged by a sub-committee). There may be a presentation or discussion based on a theme, the club serves simply as a place to meet with friends.
As technology, and therefore access to information and telecommunications, has increased, there has been a decline in the popularity of large, centralised Deaf clubs. Clubs were always a place where Deaf people could go to catch up with friends. It wasn't possible for a Deaf person to simply pick up the phone and call someone for a chat. They had to physically meet in person to communicate. Closed captioning was not available on news and current affairs programs, so Deaf clubs were often also a source of current information for many. When telephone typewriters (TTY) became widely available, many Deaf people gained access to telephony to a certain extent, as long as they wanted to talk to someone who also had a TTY. Several states in Australia ran small-scale, often time-limited TTY relay services, usually from the offices of the state Deaf Society. This opened telecommunications a little more broadly to Deaf people. However TTYs did not serve the same purpose, usually, for many Deaf people, to the same extent that telephones did for hearing people. Conducting a social interaction on a keyboard with a small text-only screen was awkward in and of itself, but also challenging for people for whom English was not their first language.
The internet, social media and mobile phones, especially smartphones, have taken telecommunications to a new level. Deaf people no longer need to catch up on all of their news at a Deaf club. The once infamous "long Deaf goodbye", in which people had to farewell each of their friends individually, making plans as to when they would next see each other, is less becoming relevant nowadays because people are so much easier to contact in an instant. With increasing
internet speeds and video-capable telecommunication technologies, text-based communications are not the only option.
Indeed, technology has given rise to a new kind of "Deaf space", particularly for younger and middle-aged populations of Deaf people. There are myriad online sites and pages where Deaf people are now able to keep in touch, to share their thoughts and ideas, to share information and to learn. They are arguably less social than Deaf clubs in terms of face-to-face interaction, but as society at large changes, so too do Deaf communities.
Increasingly, opportunities exist for Deaf people to meet up in a wider variety of public places. In addition to events that are organised by organisations such as Vicdeaf, Deaf Children Australia, the John Pierce Centre, Deaf sporting clubs and others, Deaf Victorians have much greater access nowadays to interpreted events such as theatre, public forums and festivals, as well as captioned cinema, etc. These places do not constitute "Deaf spaces" as such, where Deaf people are able to feel entirely free and culturally "safe".
Identity - self advocacy
Identity defined by themselves - continued
Self Advocacy
In the late 20th century, a series of events transpired that have given rise to what is often known as the "Disability Rights Movement" or the "Disabled People's Movement", predominantly led by people in America and several countries in Europe, as well as Australia. People with disabilities have begun to stand up to have their human rights recognised and accepted.
The disability rights movement began in the 1960s, encouraged by the examples of the Civil Rights Movement and women’s rights movements.
It was at this time that disability rights advocacy began to have a cross-disability focus. People with different kinds of disabilities (physical and mental disabilities, along with visual and hearing disabilities) and different essential needs came together to fight for a common cause.
In 1948, a watershed for the movement was the proof of the existence of physical and program barriers. The proof was provided as a specification for barrier free usable facilities for people with disabilities. The specifications provided the minimum requirements for barrier free physical and program access. An example of barriers are; providing only steps to enter buildings; lack of maintenance of walkways; locations not connected with public transit; lack of visual and hearing communications ends up segregating individuals with disabilities from independent, participation, and opportunities. The ANSI - Barrier Free Standard (phrase coined by Dr. Timothy Nugent, the lead investigator) called "ANSI A117.1, Making Buildings Accessible to and Usable by the Physically Handicapped", provides the indisputable proof that the barriers exist. It is based on disability ergonomic research conducted at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign campus from 1946 to 1986. The research was codified in the ANSI A117.1 standard in 1961, 1971, 1980, and 1986. The standard is the outcome of physical therapists, bio-mechanical engineers, and individuals with disabilities who developed and participated in over 40 years of research. Easter Seals Education Committee Chairman Harold Wilke was tasked with assembling that diverse group in 1959. The standard provides the criteria for modifying programs and the physical site to provide independence. Applying the researched standards criteria presents reliable access and non-hazardous conditions. In October 2011 the standard turned 50 years old. The standard has been emulated globally since its introduction in Europe, Asia, Japan, Australia, and Canada, in the early 1960s.
Wikipedia 2019, Disability rights movement, viewed 18 December 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_rights_movement. Copied and communicated under Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike (CCBYSA 3.0) 3.0 Licence.
The self-advocacy movement began to gather momentum in the 1960's and 1970's, whereby peoples with disabilities' voices were starting to be heard. Moves were put in place to change the way that disabled people were treated in society. Standards and statutes were established to enable increased access to public life. Laws were enacted to prohibit discrimination against individuals or groups based on their disability/ies. Changes in the common language used in mainstream society to describe people with disabilities began to change, at the insistence of disabled peoples themselves.
For Deaf people, the associated terms of "dumb" and "mute" have all but died out, and descriptions of deafness that contain negative connotations (such as 'handicap' and 'impairment') are actively discouraged.
Whilst Deaf people as individuals do not identify themselves as people with a disability, rather as members of a cultural and linguistic minority, it cannot be denied that, in terms defined by mainstream society, Deaf people are indeed a part of the Disability Rights Movement. Within the Movement itself, the distinction is often recognised with many referring to the collective group as being comprised of disabled people and Deaf people. Of course, outside of the Movement, such distinctions are often not made. The media, and in particular the more "tabloid" style outlets, often perpetuate negative terms and images of people who are both Deaf and who have a disability.
There were no noticeable protests by blind people's organisations against the various measures to reduce blindness [in reference to scientific methods of reducing the incidence of illnesses such as smallpox which often resulted in blindness]. On the other hand, various measures to eliminate deafness from infancy onward have been contested by some Deaf people, as a form of ‘genocide’ against people who consider themselves to have no disability but merely a different form of communication. There are ongoing and intricate ethical debates about the rationale for, and legitimacy of, using scientific means to avoid the conception and birth of people with significant impairment, or difference from a supposed ‘norm’ (see e.g. Anstey 2008, for a recent critique of some arguments).
http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/1/
Identity - Through Deaf Eyes
Identity defined by themselves - continued
Through Deaf Eyes, 2007
"'Through Deaf Eyes' is a two-hour [...] documentary[...] exploring nearly 200 years of Deaf life in America. The film presents the shared experiences of American history—family life, education, work, and community connections—from the perspective of deaf citizens" (www.pbs.org/weta/throughdeafeyes/about).
Get yourself a cuppa and some popcorn, and watch this very interesting documentary.
https://youtu.be/PL5d8kyZUQk
Identity - Asphyxia
Identity defined by themselves - continued
Quote from an Australian Deaf artist, based in Melbourne (reprinted with permission):
Even though it's really hard being Deaf at times, if I could choose to be hearing, I wouldn't. Let me tell you what I love about being Deaf.
I can claim sign language - the most beautiful and expressive language ever - as my own, and use it whenever I want. I can sign songs, and that is visual poetry, I tell you.image
I can sleep through anything.
Snoring doesn't bother me.
When I work with power tools, I don't need to wear earmuffs.
I can go shopping in complete silence if I take off my hearing aids. No couples bickering, children's tantrums, blaring announcements or background music.
I noisy environments, I am serene.
I have a fantastic visual memory and am very observant.
I'm granted an automatic passport to the Deaf community.
People give me free things, discounts and little extras all the time.
I read people's faces and body language better than most.
I communicate well with people who don't speak English, as I know how to get messages through visually.
Everyone remembers me.
When I meet others who are 'different' in some way, we share an instant kinship and openness with one another.
I can get away with almost anything by smiling sweetly.
I can ignore you when you speak and you'll never suspect I heard.
Share this post and spread around some Deaf pride!
Asphyxia (10/09/2016, Facebook) - www.asphyxia.com.au
Parallel with other minorities
Oftentimes, Deaf people will refer to their situation of being Deaf in a mainstream world as being similar to the situation/s of other minority groups. Rather than present a lot of information about this topic, here is an activity for you to do.
Choose at least one cultural minority community that exists in Australia (see below for some possible examples to consider). Do a little research into your chosen community in terms of their struggle for recognition, for equality, for acceptance, or for existence. Are you able to see any parallels with what your chosen community faces and what Deaf people face? Do you agree that there are parallels faced by different minority communities, regardless of the differences between such communities?
Some examples:
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
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LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) people
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Established immigrant communities (e.g., Italian, Vietnamese, Greek, etc.) within Australia
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New migrant communities within Australia
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Religious minority groups
PSPLAN003 The history of Deaf communities
Completion requirements
8.1 Overview
Overview of this lesson
In this lesson, we will continue to delve into the history of the Deaf community, predominantly in both Europe and the United States of America, looking at the period between 1550 A.D. and the present day. We will touch on Australian history a little bit, but you will have the opportunity to focus more on Australian Deaf history in the Certificate III program.
In the previous lesson, we covered much of the information that is known about Deaf people prior to 1550 A.D.. We introduced the overarching philosophies of Aristotle and Plato, as well as the leading religious texts of Western civilisations. Of course, we also looked at some more recent historical influences on the lives of Deaf people after 1550 A.D. as well.
In this lesson, we will cover the following:
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Social conditions for Deaf people in Western civilisations at key points in history
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Deaf communities before 1760
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Deaf communities - 1760 - current
8.2 Social conditions for Deaf people
Social conditions for Deaf people in relevant Western civilizations at key points in history
This slideshow shows a potted history as presented by Dr. Lisa Koch, PhD, from the University of Ohio. Dr Koch is a Deaf Adjunct Professor or American Sign Language.
Much of what is covered here has been presented in the previous Lesson, or will be expanded upon during this lesson.
https://youtu.be/s7tOwDYIWMY
8.3 Deaf communities before 1760
Deaf communities before 1760
Here are the places of major significance in the progress of Deaf communities, signed languages and social conditions for Deaf people in times and places before 1760. For each locale, there is substantial evidence of their importance as landmarks in Deaf history. Have a look at the presentation in Resources below.
Places before 1760:
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Italy
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Spain
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Enlightenment France
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Ottoman Turkey
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New England and Martha’s Vineyard
Earliest Deaf people
There are historical records of Deaf people who hold significant places in world history. These include Deaf members of Royal families, connections to other significant (hearing) historical figures as well as Deaf individuals holding positions in professions.
8.4 History - Spain & France
Deaf communities before 1760 - continued
Spain and France
Inheritance restrictions existed for Deaf people who could not speak (this was typically the case for people who were born Deaf or became Deaf prior to learning speech). As the prevailing thought was still typically that Deaf people could not be educated, Deaf sons of wealthy families were not eligible to inherit.
Key figures:
Pedro Ponce de Leon (1520–1584, Benedictine monk and teacher) - Ponce de Lyon was introduced to educating Deaf people when he taught Gaspard Burgos how to speak his confession so that he may gain acceptance as a member of the Benedictine order. He later established a school for private Deaf students of wealthy families, as is often credited as the "father of Deaf education:.
Francisco and Pedro de Valesco y Tobar - these two Deaf brothers were sent to Ponce de Lyon to be educated. They already had a system gestural communication, presumed to be home signs (they had two other Deaf siblings as well) and so they, with Ponce de Lyon (who was familiar with the Spanish monastic sign system that allows monks to communicate during periods of religious silence) learned to communicate together relatively quickly, by all accounts. The Velasco brothers were descendants of the office of the Constable of Castile (the second in charge in the Castilian Kingdom of Spain).
Etienne Defaye (1669 – 1749) is the first recorded Deaf teacher
Jacob Pereire (1715–1780) is the first know teacher of Deaf pupils in France.
8.5 History - Ottoman
Deaf communities before 1760 - continued
Ottoman Empire - Turkey
There were accounts of deaf people in the court of the Ottoman Empire from around 1500-1700 in various roles, including:
•Executioners(?)
•Entertainers
•Companions
It is unknown as to what education these Deaf people may have had, nor if they were born Deaf or acquired their deafness after they had learned speech.
Miles, M. (2000). “Signing in the Seraglio: mutes, dwarfs, and jesters at the Ottoman Court, 1500-1700”. Retrieved from http://www.independentliving.org/docs5/mmiles2.html (accessed 5/9/2011)
Sarah Pratt
Prior to the establishment of a Deaf education system in the USA, the story of Sarah Pratt has emerged from the writings of Increase Mather in An Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences (1684).
•Born 1640 in Weymouth, Massachusetts.
•Deaf “through sickness” from age 3
•Married Matthew Pratt (also Deaf) in 1661
•Had nine children who “...learn to speak by their eyes and fingers sooner than by their tongues.”
•Was a full member of her church (unusual even for a hearing person)
•Could write a little, and sign, and understood “as much of the state of the Country as anyone of her sex”
Carty, B., Macready, S., & Sayers, (2009). A grave and gracious woman: Deaf people and signed language in Colonial New England. Sign Language Studies, 9(3) pp. 287-323.
8.6 History - Martha's Vineyard
Deaf communities before 1760 - continued
Martha’s Vineyard
There have been, from time to time throughout history, records of Deaf "villages" that have appeared and disappeared. Such "villages" have occurred typically through widespread hereditary deafness within an isolated and relatively small population over a period of generations. One of the most famous, for it's appearance in a Western civilisation, is that of Martha's Vineyard, a small island in the USA between mainland Massachusetts and the island of Nantucket.
•First Deaf person known to have lived on the Island, Jonathan Lambert, moved there in 1694
•Hereditary deafness appears to have come from an area in Kent known as the “Weald”
•Recessive gene – therefore appeared “random”
•Deaf population grew to 0.7 %, 1 in 155 people, 37 times higher that the national average
•Many hearing people could sign
•Being deaf was not general seen as a great disadvantage
•Martha’s Vineyard Deafness slowly dwindled through the nineteenth century after the opening of the American School for the Deaf in 1817
Groce, N. (1984). Everyone here spoke Sign Language. Harvard University Press.
For more information about Martha's Vineyard and its significance in the Deaf community, watch this video. It is presented in ASL (American Sign Language) and is captioned into written English.
https://youtu.be/_Ioi7COpA7A
8.7 Deaf communities 1760 - current
Deaf communities 1760 - current
Read about some of the general characteristics of the social conditions for Deaf people, and Deaf community development from 1760 until the present day. General characteristics include:
•Development of community networks
•Changes in attitudes and community development following the acceptance that Deaf people could be educated
•Changes in the political involvement of Deaf people
•Establishment of social, welfare, political and sporting organisations of and for Deaf people
1760 - Braidwood's Academy - Edinburgh, Scotland
Thomas Braidwood opened ‘Braidwood’s Academy for the Deaf and Dumb’ in 1760 in Edinburgh, Scotland, though moved his family and his academy to Hackney, England, in 1783. He used a combined system of lip-reading, signs, finger spelling, writing and pictures. Unfortunately his school was only intended for children of wealthy parents until his grandson Joseph Watson opened the first public school in Bermondsey, England in the late 18th century
Pritchard, D. (1963). Education and the Handicapped. London: Routeledge & Kegan Paul.
1760 - Paris School - Paris, France
Information to come.
1817 - American Deaf School - Hartford, USA
In 1817, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a recent Yale graduate and ordained clergyman, met the Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell family and their deaf daughter, Alice. Embarking on a voyage to Europe to learn the art of educating deaf children, Gallaudet encountered the exciting work of l'Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris (school for the deaf in Paris, France). He then enlisted Laurent Clerc, a talented, young, deaf teacher to join him in a historic journey back home to establish the first permanent school for the deaf in the United States.
Over the years, this school has served as the "Mother School" in providing an exemplary model educational program; a site for teacher training and practicum; and as a springboard from which trained and experienced educators of the deaf went forth to educate and to start other schools for the deaf all over the country and to help found a college in Washington, D.C. Source: http://www.asd-1817.org/page.cfm?p=1160
8.8 History - the Holocaust
Deaf communities 1760 - current - continued
1939 - 1945 - WWII & Holocaust - Nazi Germany
https://vimeo.com/81166797
8.9 History - DSNSW
Deaf communities 1760 - current - continued
Deaf Society of NSW established (1913) (previously Deaf & Dumb Society)
Public meeting in the Sydney Town Hall resolved to form an association, the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of New South Wales “to take on the spiritual, intellectual, moral and social needs of these afflicted people.” http://deafsocietynsw.org.au/about/page/our_history
Breakaway Deaf Society formed (1929)
In the turbulent 1920s and 1930s, relations between the hearing administration of the Deaf Society of NSW and the Deaf community broke down almost completely, and a breakaway group, the NSW Association of Deaf and Dumb Citizens was established in 1929. The Association published The Deaf Advocate, an extraordinary newsletter which became the voice of disaffected deaf people not only in NSW but throughout Australia. The two rival organisations continued until 1937 when, following the Charitable Collections Act of 1934, the state government negotiated a forced merger. The board of the Deaf Society regained control of the resources (and clientele) of both organisations. http://deafinnsw.com/ds-history/
8.10 History - Milan Congress
Deaf communities 1760 - current - continued
Milan Conference (1880)
http://www.bslzone.co.uk/watch/history-of-deaf-education/history-deaf-education-1/?subs=subs
BSL Zone - The History of Deaf Education, part 1.
Unfortunately, the video above cannot be shared and therefore appear within this page. Please click the link above to be taken to the BSL Zone website and view the video there. If the link does not work, please copy and paste the link into a new "tab" on your browser.
Paris Conference (1900)
"Half a dozen international Deaf congresses were held in the USA and Europe between 1880 and 1900, culminating in the Paris 1900 conference intended by the oralists to ratify Milan. More than 200 Deaf teachers, headmasters and delegates turned up, but since they outnumbered the oralists, they were not permitted even to attend that conference, having to spend the week holding their own conference next door!" - (Ladd, 2003, p.128)
Ladd, P. (2003). Understanding Deaf culture: In search of Deafhood. U.K.: Multilingual Matter Ltd.
8.11 History - Deaf President Now
Deaf communities 1760 - current - continued
1988 - Deaf President Now - Washington D.C., USA
In March 1988, Gallaudet University experienced a watershed event that led to the appointment of the 124-year-old university's first Deaf president. Since then, Deaf President Now (DPN) has become synonymous with self-determination and empowerment for Deaf and hard of hearing people everywhere.
http://www.gallaudet.edu/dpn-home.html
https://youtu.be/El_qTr3L0G0
2008 - Ratification of the UNCRPD - Australia
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRDP) is a document that details the human rights of people with disabilities. Australia ratified the UNCRPD in 2008, meaning that it agreed to follow the terms stated within the articles of the Convention. It is being monitored by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
http://deafaustralia.org.au/advocacy/un-convention/
Additional Resource
Sarah Giorgis-Pratt's Prezi - Deaf history timeline:
https://prezi.com/ftmar6ztqkgd/american-deaf-history-timeline/
Mrs. Giorgis-Pratt is a Deaf ASL teacher in the Canyons School District in Salt Lake City, Utah.
PSPLAN003 Deaf education
Deaf Education
Deaf Education - an historical overview
Throughout several of the previous lessons, there have been various references to the education of Deaf people throughout history. This lessons will recap on some of what has been learned already, with the aim of bringing it all together in a single focus site, as well as fill in a few additional gaps which may not yet have been covered. This lesson will cover the following:
•Deaf education prior to 1550 CE
•Deaf education in the Western world from 1550 - 1760 CE
•Deaf education in the Western world from 1760 - 1880 CE
•Deaf education in the Western world from 1880 CE - current
•Educational methodologies for Deaf people
•Educational rights of Deaf people
•Current Victorian schools and services
History of Deaf education before 1550
There's not much to tell about the education of Deaf people prior to 1550 CE, to be honest, because it would appear that there was little, if any, formal education available at all.
There is some evidence that Deaf people were revered and educated by use of hieroglyphics in Ancient Egypt but there is insufficient information to be able to share here in any detail.
As previously mentioned, the philosopher Aristotle (c. 364 BC) had claimed that "Deaf are born incapable to reason", and then in 355 BC, further stated that "Deaf people could not be educated [since] without hearing, people could not learn". He also declared that "the blind are more intelligent than the deaf". The Greek physician, Galen (c. 160 CE), believed that the ability to hear and the ability to speak were linked, which added further fuel to Aristotle's views.
These views seem to have been indicative of the global beliefs of the time, and for many years to come, as Deaf people were not known to have been given access to education until 1550 CE, when Dom Pedro Ponce de Lyon, a Spanish Benedictine monk, is reported to have successfully taught several deaf people to speak, read and write, including two Deaf brothers from one of the wealthiest Spanish families of the time (Pedro and Francisco Fernandez Velasco y Tovar). Ponce de Lyon's methods included the use of the Spanish monastic "hand alphabet" system (or possibly an adaptation thereof) used by monks during periods of religious silence. This is also reputed to have been the introduction of "fingerspelling" into the signed languages of deaf people.
Ponce de Lyon is often credited as being the "first teacher of the deaf", although this has also been contested by John Van Cleve and Per Eriksson who claim that others, either an unnamed monk from La Estrella in Colombia (date unknown), or St. John of Beverley in England (c. 700 CE), were the first to question Aristotle's views and begin to educate Deaf people. St. John was also apparently credited as having caused a Deaf boy to speak by making the sign of the cross over his head.
Whatever the case, any educational opportunities for Deaf people during the period before 1550 CE were scant, ill-documented, and of a private nature, available only to children (most likely sons) of rich families. There have been reports of Deaf individuals who have achieved status or notable employment at various times throughout history and it could reasonably be assumed that they must have received some form of education, though specific details are not known.
For example, the first Deaf person known by name, Quintus Pedius (1st century BC) was born Deaf and was granted permission by Emperor Augustus to be taught to paint. He was known to be a very talented painter, but died at the age of 13 yrs. Nothing is known of his education.
Another Deaf painter, Juan Fernández Navarrete (also known as El Mudo), was born in 1926. Unable to speak, he began to express himself through charcoal drawings and was is known to have been taught art. He went on to become the court painter for King Phillip II of Spain. Much of his work has been destroyed but a few of his works survive, including the baptism of Christ which is housed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. Other than art, little is known about the education of El Mudo although it is known that he was able to express himself in specific terms through known petitions made to Phillip II.
Western civilization's Deaf education between 1550 and 1760
Deaf education from 1550 - 1760 CE
Following on from Ponce de Leon's work, Manuel Ramírez de Carrión also taught Deaf pupils in Spain. He published a series of books, The Wonders of Nature, in 1599 CE, in which he stated that Deaf people were not incapable of reason and could be taught, though his methods were not revealed and his focus, much like Ponce de Leon's, was on the development of speech.
Juan Pablo Bonet, in 1620 CE, published his book, Summary of the Letters and the Art of Teaching Speech to the Mute. He had taken over the work of de Carrión and is widely believed that Bonet's methods were those of both de Carrión and Ponce de Leon before him, although neither were credited in the publication. This book is the first detailed documentation of a signed language, which was the primary method of instruction used (again, with a focus on teaching speech).
In 1644 CE, an English physician and philosopher by the name of John Bulwer was inspired by Sir Francis Bacon to study the use of gesture. He published two works, known as Chirologia & Chironomia, which documented what Bulwer believed were universally understood gestures. Whilst the works were not written about a signed language - indeed, Bulwer only made a passing comment about the usefulness of gestural communication for Deaf people - many of the handshapes that were documented can be seen in today's British Sign Language (and therefore in Auslan).
NB: There were no specific education programs for Deaf people in England until 1760 CE, when Thomas Braidwood set up the Braidwood Academy in Edinburgh (with just one pupil). The school grew in size and later moved to Hackney, in London. After Braidwood's death, the academy was run by his family until it closed in the early 1800's.
Jacobo Rodríguez Pereire is credited with bringing the Spanish education system into France when he moved to Bordeaux in around 1741 CE. He used Bonet's published works and added around 30 new handshapes to represent various sounds. Periere's sister was deaf, which was the inspiration for his work. His family later developed the Periere Society which, in 1880, hosted the infamous Milan Congress (more information to follow)
In 1754 CE, Samuel Heinicke, of Germany, took his first Deaf pupil and, after considerable success, became a full-time teacher to Deaf children. Heinicke was a strong advocate for oralism as the only appropriate method of instruction (although he did use the manual alphabet, i.e., fingerspelling, in part).
So education for Deaf people seemingly began in Spain and was spread to in the mid 18th century CE. Germany began teaching a few years later. The United Kingdom and America were both yet to establish any kind of education program, and little is known about other countries of the world during this period.
Deaf education in the Western world between 1760 - 1880 CE
1760 CE became a significant date in the progress of Deaf education in Europe. As mentioned on the previous page, it was the year of the establishment of the first Deaf education program in the United Kingdom. It was also the year that the world's first public school for Deaf people was created, in Paris, France.
Thomas Braidwood was a writing teacher, born in Scotland. Prior to 1760, he tutored hearing children and taught them to write. He was then asked to teach a Deaf child, which sparked his interest and he established the Braidwood Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in 1760, with just one student, an 11 year old boy named Charles Shirreff. As the school grew, Braidwood's method (a highly guarded secret that Braidwood insisted can only be taught following several years of private tutelage) proved highly successful and many of his students went on to achieve success in their own lives, including:
•John Goodricke, astronomer;
•Francis Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth, MP and governor of Barbados;
•John Philp Wood, author, genealogist, editor and Over Deputy of the Scottish Excise Office
It was discovered, years later, that what became known as the Braidwoodian method was in fact a combination of sign language and English, the "combined" method.
Also in 1760, in Paris, a man named Charles-Michel de l'Épée opened the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris, more commonly known now as the Paris School. Within the first few years, the Abbé de l'Épée opened the school to the public, thereby becoming the first public school for the Deaf in the western world, if not the whole world. De l'Épée had become inspired to teach Deaf children after meeting a pair of sisters who communicated using sign language. He went on to learn this language, which he used in the school as well as devising his own signs to enable access to learning French. Whether or not this was an equivalent to what we now know to be Signed English is uncertain, however there was most definiately a cross-over between the natural signed language that Deaf people were using and the French language.
As Deaf students learned and grew, several were appointed as teachers so that there were now opportunities for Deaf peole to work as teachers with Deaf students. The pupils thrived, as did the local Deaf community. Many Deaf people gained positions of professonal status in society and it was here that the international Deaf community began to develop over time.
It was also during the late 18th century that de l'Épée and Samuel Heinicke led a heated debate amongst educators regarding the appropriate method of education - using sign language or by oralist methods - and many letters were exchanged. The debate has continued beyond the live spans of either educator and still continues today!
In 1783, Thomas Braidwood and his family moved to Hackney in London and the Braidwood Academy moved with them. After his death in 1806, his daughter, Isabella, continued to run the school until it closed around four years later.
In 1792, Rev. John Townsend established the first public school for Deaf children in the United Kingdom, the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. It's first head teacher was a man named Joseph Watson who had studied the Braidwoodian method (he was also related to Braidwood).
1815 - John Braidwood (Thomas Braidwood's grandson) was asked to establish a new Braidwood Academy in Virginia, America. Three of the Bolling family children had been sent to the Braidwood Academy in Edinburgh. When they and their siblings had Deaf children, they wanted for them to be educated in America, so they approached John Braidwood, who had arrived in America in 1812. The school was established but only survived for a few short years before closing.
Deaf education in the Western world from 1880 CE - current
The Milan Conference
Towards the end of the 19th century, the debate about oral education versus signed education methods was raging strongly, and in several countries of the world. The Periere Society, strong advocates for the practice of oral education, hosted the first and second events of the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED).
The first event was held in Paris in 1878. But it was the second event, held in Milan, Italy, from the 6th - 11th September, 1880, that changed the face of education for Deaf people across the globe.
The conference was attended by 164 delegates from a variety of countries. Of the 164 delegates that were admitted, only one was Deaf, a man from America named James Denison. He was the Principal of the Kendall School and traveled with the Gallaudet College delegation, including both Thomas Gallaudet and Edward Miner Gallaudet.
Eight resolutions were passed at the Milan Conference which, amongst other things, determined that the education of Deaf children should be by the Pure Oral Method only, to the exclusion of the use of signs. Some delegates from both America and the UK were the only ones to oppose the resolutions proclaiming oral education as the preferred method of education. Their numbers were insufficient to make a difference to the outcome. In response to the resolutions of the Milan Congress, the American Deaf community established the National Association of the Deaf, the first national organisation of Deaf people in the world.
The result of the conference was that the majority of schools around the western world phased out the use of signed languages in the education of Deaf children. Deaf teachers lost their positions and the quality of education for Deaf people suffered immensely. For the many Deaf people who were not able to succeed under the Pure Oral Method, educational achievements declined rapidly and so too did employment outcomes. Sign languages, which were now banned in most schools, went largely underground. The successes that Deaf people had experienced over the previous 100+ years were significantly eroded.
Australia, post-Milan
At the time of the Milan Conference, only two schools for Deaf children existed in Australia - the Deaf and Dumb Institution of NSW (now the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children - RIDBC) in Sydney, NSW, and the School for the Deaf and Dumb (which quickly became the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institution in 1862 and is now Deaf Children Australia - no longer a school, since the Victorian government assumed responsibility for education in 1916) in Melbourne, Victoria, both of which were opened in 1860. Both schools had been established by Deaf teachers who had come from the United Kingdom and who used British Sign Language (BSL). Thomas Pattison was from Scotland and opened
the school in Sydney just a few days before F. J. Rose, from England (who had been living in Bendigo trying his hand in the Gold Rush) opened the school in Melbourne. He started with just one pupil, Lucy Ann Lewis.
Over the next few decades, schools for Deaf children opened in most other capital cities of Australia, though most of these have now closed again. In some states, more than one schools was established, giving parents with Deaf children some choice. Many of these schools maintained a degree of visual communication, such as the use of fingerspelling (only - i.e., the Rochester Method) or cued speech. Few retained Auslan, many preferring instead to use a blended form of Auslan and English (known as total communication) or even Signed English (1970's onwards).
In the 1980's and early 1990's, the disability movement in many western countries campaigned for Education for All - a move to close down segregated schools for children with disabilities. Whilst this was seen to be a positive move for children with physical and intellectual disabilities, there were many in the sensory disability sector who sought exemption from the campaign, most vocally, the Deaf community and people who are blind or visually impaired*, because their "disabilities" produce specific communication requirements which were unable to be met well in mainstream school settings. Governments, however, have often not recognised the distinction and the decision was made for many Deaf schools to be closed down, with most children then being moved in local, mainstream schools.
In Australia as well as many countries around the world, the "norm" is that Deaf children are educated in mainstream school settings. Some schools have a significant number of Deaf children and so have developed specialised "units", employing teachers of the Deaf and educational interpreters - to varying degrees of success. The Education Department in Victoria, and indeed most states of Australia, does not require teachers of the Deaf to be trained in Auslan, nor are education interpreters required to be qualified as interpreters (in some schools, Certificate II or III in Auslan is seen to be sufficient - despite the obvious unlikelihood that Deaf children who use Auslan cannot possibly hope to receive quality interpretation or educational access from people whose language skills are still in their infancy and who have no training in interpreting practices).
* Visually impaired - whilst the Deaf community typically reject the term "impairment" (i.e., it is seen as offensive to call a Deaf person "hearing impaired"), the same is not true for people who are blind or have a visual impairment.
Methods of Education
Methods of Education
Philosophical debates have raged about the most appropriate ways to educate Deaf children. At the head of both sides of the debate about "oralism" vs "signing" have been people who are not actually Deaf. Hearing people have dominated the debate since the beginning of recorded history.
•Socrates (and others) - "they cannot be educated"
•Ponce de Leon (and others) - "teach them to speak, but use visual communication"
•Heinicke (and others) - "teach them to speak"
•De l'Épée (and others) - "teach them to speak and sign"
•Braidwood (and others) - "teach them to speak and sign (sort of)"
•Bell (and others) - "teach them to speak...oh, and don't let them marry each other!"
•Milan Congress - "teach them to speak"
•Cochlear Implant Clinics - "teach them to speak"
•Audiologists - "teach them to speak"
•Speech & Language Therapists - "teach them to speak"
•Governments - "teach them to speak...unless they really can't..."
Deaf people have, until relatively recently, had little or no input into the debate. Over the past 30-50 years or so, some pockets of the education sector have started to listen more to the voice of the Deaf community and we are seeing more and more opportunities for Deaf children to be educated in Auslan as their first language, with English as their second language. From and educational perspective, speech is sometimes seen more as a skill that may or may not be learned, rather than as a primary educational aim. The increased prevalence of cochlea implants counteracts this to some extent, as many Deaf children have increased access to speech in some settings than in previous years.
There was a page in Lesson 9 that talked about bilingualism in education, so we do not need to cover that again here. We have also talked previously about a variety of education methods that have been tried (e.g., cued speech, articulated speech, the Rochester Method, etc.).
Historically, both in the case of Deaf people in France between 1760 - 1880, as well as in the last 50 years or so, we have seen that the most beneficial method of education for Deaf people is their natural language, a signed language. Deaf people who have been educated by skills signers have, and are achieving more in their academic and professional lives than during periods of time when oral education was in control. But the landscape continues to evolve with new technologies and with slowly increasing awareness of the needs of Deaf people, as defined by Deaf people themselves instead of by hearing people who assume that they know better.
PSPLAN003 Deafhood
Deafhood
Deafhood - a summary
Deafhood is all about self-identity. Deafhood is all about self-pride. Deafhood is all about deafness being "normal". Deafhood is all about self-discovery.
Throughout history, hearing people have sought to define people who are Deaf, and have seen them as "broken" hearing people. Deafhood is about Deaf people reclaiming, and redefining, their own identities as fully functional, "normal" Deaf people.
This is a short video about Deafhood from Expression Australia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWfKkkc5YME
Click HERE to watch a short documentary about Paddy Ladd and Deafhood on BBC See Hear's Facebook page. You can also watch a longer version of this video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpEoUmHUB48
(Deafhood+introduction.docx) is a copy of the English transcript that accompanies the following video. Please note, this transcript was written by the presenter in his own words. With his permission, it was decided not to edit the text into a form of written English that would be more 'familiar' to hearing people.
https://vimeo.com/193009873/2dacbac60d
In the video, the presenter refers to the Paris Banquets. These were a series of annual events organised by leaders of the Deaf community in France in the early-mid 1800's. They were international festivals where Deaf men (it was the 1800's!) from many countries came together to celebrate their signed languages and culture. These events were much celebrated, not only within the Deaf world but by mainstream media at the time. The speeches (all signed), toasts and poems were highly eloquent, and the events were sometimes attended by international luminaries from hearing society.
Deaf culture protocols
Completion requirements
Examples of correct and incorrect Deaf community social protocols
Getting attention
Tapping
•Wrong hard tapping - https://youtu.be/1h19o0XmN_A
•Wrong tapping - https://youtu.be/mEsfRi1-THE
•Correct tapping - https://youtu.be/9bPasfjlskE
Throwing
•Wrong throwing - https://youtu.be/KXUazOHcAxw
Waving
•Wrong getting attention - https://youtu.be/UZibdKHi1LI
•Wrong waving too close - https://youtu.be/1LJ7c2Q6Wco
•Right getting attention - https://youtu.be/Yw2hSBC1Cc8
Personal space
•Wrong invading personal space - https://youtu.be/R4XfkrYrQzI
Switching lights
•Correct way to approach - https://youtu.be/qDOyuu_reP4
Interrupting
•Right way to interrupt - https://youtu.be/LI7AHpjK_vE
•Wrong way to interrupt - https://youtu.be/erE0XnUtcJo
Asking for a clarification
•Correct way to clarify - https://youtu.be/FTQWeUhX0ms
Walking through
•Wrong way - walking under https://youtu.be/cFNy3vV2Fes
•Right way - walking through https://youtu.be/pi-MoTNbNGQ
Looking away
•Right way to look away - https://youtu.be/A5ih5E9GN7I
•Wrong way to look away 1 - https://youtu.be/4trEFU48wBo
•Wrong way to look away 2 - https://youtu.be/kRmjNwwdPDY