\☛What do you know about d/Deaf people?☚//

[Irako of the Desert]

Answer the quiz and engage in discussion.

[size=11][b]Are you d/Deaf or hearing?[/b]
[b]Is sign language universal?[/b]
[b]What language(s) do Deaf people in the United States use?[/b]
[b]What's the difference between a deaf person and a Deaf person?[/b]
[b]Would you rather be blind or deaf?[/b]
[b]What does [u]NAD[/u] stand for?[/b]
[b]What's the difference between Hard of Hearing and Deaf?[/b]
[b]What would you do if your baby was born deaf?[/b]
[b]Should d/Deaf people learn how to speak? Why or why not?[/b]
[b]Have you heard about cochlear implants?[/b]
[b]What would you do if you became deaf?[/b]
[b]Do you know anything about Gallaudet University?[/b]
[b]Define audism.[/b]
[b]What makes a language a language?[/b]
[b]Have you ever taken any ASL classes or Deaf Studies classes?[/b]
[b]What do you know about Deaf culture?[/b]
[b]What does [u]DPN[/u] stand for?[/b][/size]

 

[Irako of the Desert]

David2074

What is the point of this?
It sounds a bit like you are wanting people to do your homework or something. smile
But, I'll answer your questions. lol

No particular reason except that I made this thread during my DEAF404 class break last week. We were having a class discussion about audism and what was the difference between manifestations of audism and audism itself. We were also talking about ways to identify audistic behaviors in ourselves. It was just a bunch of questions that I thought would be fun to stick in the Quizzes and Spam subforum and kind of get a feel for what other guild members know about Deaf people and Deaf culture. Don't worry, nobody's doing my homework.

I liked some of the stuff you put in yours, and I'm going to respond to particular parts.

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What language(s) do Deaf people in the United States use?
Most use American Sign Language (ASL) but some use Signing Exact English (SEE). On the whole a lot of deaf people kind of look down on SEE but it has its uses where exact verbal to sign language translations are necessary such as in court.

In terms of written or spoken (yes, some deaf people can speak) I'd say mostly English but then I'm English speaking so my observations may be biased by who I hang out with.

It bothers me that courts have such a rigid protocol about interpreting sign (And I use sign here to cover all signing methods as well as ASL). I wish they would get it that ASL=/= English exactly and that insisting that interpreters sign only what has been said exactly is impossible. We talked about that in another Deaf Studies class as being an area that needed improvement. I sometimes wonder if other minority language interpreters in courts have the same sort of difficulty.

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What's the difference between a deaf person and a Deaf person?
IMO nothing except for the beginning of a written sentence. I'm guessing you had something in mind when asking such as attitude or something. The capitalization is not something I've seen deaf people use.

Really? I think it's used more in academic discourse about Deafhood than everyday conversation (unless, of course, your conversation is about Deafhood). Have you ever seen the sign that's the 5-handshape with the thumbs on the ears, palms front, and the hands rotate backwards, meaning "deaf and proud of it"? That's Deaf as opposed to deaf. Deaf is used to talk about people who have a strong connection with Deaf culture, whereas deaf people have very little relationship to Deaf culture.

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What would you do if your baby was born deaf?
I'd do my best to raise it in both worlds. Deaf kids raised all hearing often feel disconnected from their own kind. On the other hand kids raised totally deaf often end up lacking communication skills that help them succeed in a predominantly hearing world.

What do you mean?

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Should d/Deaf people learn how to speak? Why or why not?
If they can, yes. They end up living in a mostly hearing world and the reality of life is it helps even though some deaf folks would get indignant by hearing me say that.

How easy or practical it is to learn to speak depends on the deaf person. Were they born deaf? Just a year or two makes a huge difference. Are they 100% deaf or can they hear some sounds / tones with amplification? Is the schooling available? And so on...

I would disagree with you on the first part. Rather than having Deaf people accommodate the ways of hearing people, hearing people should try to adjust their ways to fit Deaf people. And when I say that, I really mean "go learn some ASL!" I encourage all my friends to do so, because I think that if the whole world signed, that'd be a huge step in solving a lot of the issues plaguing Deaf education.

The second part I do agree with, though I would argue that the difficulty of learning speech is not completely dependent on the Deaf person's deafness. It would also depend on how the program they select goes about teaching speech and whether the program matches the Deaf person's educational requirements.

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Define audism.
Audism describes the mentality that to be able to hear and to speak is necessarily better and leads to a higher quality of life.
(Though I had to look it up to be sure)

It is also associated with having a superior attitude.
The first part of it (without the attitude) I agree with. I think on the whole people who possess all of their senses often have a better quality of life. I bases this on the many deaf people and some blind people I have known. It does not mean they are inferior but I do often see them struggle a bit in life.

That definition is the one we were discussing in class last week. My professor ended up sharing a definition that he'd thought up for some project he's working on, and it was this: "Audism is the process of humanizing the ability to hear and speak while simultaneously dehumanizing the inability to the hear and speak." He has some pretty extreme opinions, though he tells us that outside of that classroom, he moderates them so as not to cause unnecessary conflict with other people who generally don't have the same amount of education and experience he has. I prefer to think of audism as discrimination based on one's ability to hear so it gets put in with all the other -isms (classism, racism, sexism, etc.)

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Have you ever taken any ASL classes or Deaf Studies classes?
Technically no since I learned my ASL from deaf people.
I have TAUGHT ASL classes though. lol! And done interpreting for the state.

Really? What level do you teach? Are you a certified interpreter? What program did you go through?

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What does DPN stand for?
Had to look it up but assuming you are referring to -
DPN may refer to: Deaf President Now, a 1988 student protest at Gallaudet University to force the university to hire a deaf president

I threw this question in because it always pops up in some form or another in all my Deaf Studies classes. I know about it. I also know that the last kerfuffle about a president of Gallaudet was about whether she was Deaf enough. Most hearing people who have no clue about ASL or anything Deaf-related seemed to think this meant that she still had residual hearing, but my understanding of it was that she wasn't culturally Deaf enough for the protestors.  

[Irako of the Desert]

Kitalpha Hart

Have you heard about cochlear implants? i wrote a paper on 'em

Cool, what for?

Quote:

Do you know anything about Gallaudet University? not off the top of my head

It's the Deaf liberal arts college in Washington, D.C. Very famous among the Deaf community.

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Define audism. study of hearing, my mom thinks XD

I described a couple definitions of it in my post responding to David2074. One of my professors defines it as humanizing based on the ability to hear and speak while simultaneously dehumanizing the inability to hear and speak. I prefer discrimination based on hearing ability. Maybe audiology is what your mom was thinking of?

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What do you know about Deaf culture?ASL is based off of signs from Martha's Vineyard and i believe the French sign language
secrets are fairly hard to keep, cuz to hide it, you gotta shove your hands up a person's shirt (Keith Wann ftw)

cat_rofl That's funny.  

[Irako of the Desert]

Ghost_Rios

Is sign language universal? Different aspects of sign. So one might be able to. But otherwise no.

When you say "one might be able to, what do you mean?

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Define audism. Hearing, speaking with mental challenge

I don't get this one either. Can you explain what you mean a little more?

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Have you ever taken any ASL classes or Deaf Studies classes? Yes. I am currently taking ASL

What level are you currently at?  

[Irako of the Desert]

Ghost_Rios

After a few guesses other Deaf languages can get each other. They just figure similar signs. Audism is still above me. And I'm in ASL 2.

You should check out the British Sign Language alphabet, it's crazy.

I gave a couple of definitions to the other two people who replied. One is the definition my professor gave us for his class, which is humanizing the ability to hear and speak while simultaneously dehumanizing the inability to hear and speak. The one I like is discrimination based on one's hearing ability.

Cool for being in ASL 2. What are you taking it for?  

[Irako of the Desert]

Kitalpha Hart

show spoilerhide spoiler

Irako of the Desert

Kitalpha Hart

Have you heard about cochlear implants? i wrote a paper on 'em

Cool, what for?
my ASL class. watched a YouTube video and got all the notes from that...and in the vid, they were conducting the surgery to implant one

Quote:

Do you know anything about Gallaudet University? not off the top of my head

It's the Deaf liberal arts college in Washington, D.C. Very famous among the Deaf community.
yeah, i remembered when i remembered DPN. just didn't bother changing the answer

Quote:

Define audism. study of hearing, my mom thinks XD

I described a couple definitions of it in my post responding to David2074. One of my professors defines it as humanizing based on the ability to hear and speak while simultaneously dehumanizing the inability to hear and speak. I prefer discrimination based on hearing ability. Maybe audiology is what your mom was thinking of?
maybe

Quote:

What do you know about Deaf culture?ASL is based off of signs from Martha's Vineyard and i believe the French sign language
secrets are fairly hard to keep, cuz to hide it, you gotta shove your hands up a person's shirt (Keith Wann ftw)

cat_rofl That's funny.

i've seen Keith Wann live before owo

btw, most of my replies are up in your quote o3o

That's so cool! I'm guessing it was a lot of fun, then?  

[Irako of the Desert]

Ghost_Rios

Irako of the Desert

Ghost_Rios

After a few guesses other Deaf languages can get each other. They just figure similar signs. Audism is still above me. And I'm in ASL 2.

You should check out the British Sign Language alphabet, it's crazy.

I gave a couple of definitions to the other two people who replied. One is the definition my professor gave us for his class, which is humanizing the ability to hear and speak while simultaneously dehumanizing the inability to hear and speak. The one I like is discrimination based on one's hearing ability.

Cool for being in ASL 2. What are you taking it for?

I've seen it. We might have covered Audism. And My sister took ASL and my friends mom is Deaf.

You know what I mean, then, yeah? It's really interesting to watch someone who's fluent in BSL use it. I get the same feeling when I listen to somebody speak Spanish, too.

That's a good reason to learn. Better than mine, anyway. When I first started learning, I thought I wouldn't have to stand up and speak in front of the class, since it was all on the hands. Much to my dismay, mode makes no difference to my stage fright.