Tue 6 Nov 2007
“Choices” is a buzzword in Deaf-related debates.
We see these frequently: parents’ choices, communication choices, educational choices.
However, in considering the ideal framework to present Deaf people to the world, to decide the ideal for Deaf people, to determine the position to take a stand with…
we have two choices: deafness or Deafhood.
And under them, other and related choices:
deficit thinking or possibility thinking
unexamined or examined
Which should we choose?
deafness, deficit thinking and unexamined
or
Deafhood, possibility thinking and examined?
These are not compatible. Which would you choose?
November 7th, 2007 at 12:53 am
I realise that I am off on a tangent herein, but I wonder what you think of my friend Sociologist Dr. Richard Eckert’s term, “Deafnicity” (ethnicity, including sign language and culture of deaf people). I believe that both “Deafnicity” and
“Deafhood” were coined in the late 1990s or in the early 2000s. I have not had a chance to read Ladd’s book, but, through you, I understand that Deafhood applies to the process of a Deaf person from the childhood to the adulthood.
Is Deafnicity (USA) equivalent of Deafhood (Great Britain)?
One thing I know for a fact is that my cousin considers a term, “Deafhood,” as poorly grammatical. Therefore, I would like to hear what an editor in England thought
of the term, “Deafhood”. Did the Brits
term?
November 7th, 2007 at 4:32 am
I never thought of between Deafness vs Deafhood that give me a challenge to think what means and purposes for etc… I prefer to be in deafhood more likely than deafness. I feel that people’s view on our deafhood may be much misunderstanding of our deafhood’s lives! Who cares to educate the people? This takes a long way to go forever! It will not be able to overcome yet because we live in hearing world and will always struggle to overcome the hearing world by our cultures. Will hearing people will understand this??? How long it will take to educate them??? over and over again???
November 7th, 2007 at 4:58 am
HAND WAVE HAND WAVE HAND WAVE HAND WAVE!!!
You tell it as it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree- there are only two frameworks relating to the Deaf in the world— deafness (illness, sadness, etc.) or Deafhood (neighborhood, childhood, sisterhood, etc.)!
I’ve seen some organizations operate from the deafness model, sometimes trying to mix in a bit of Deafhood… but did that triangulating accomplish anything? NO! Gotta analyze and be proud to operate on the Deafhood level.
KISS-FIST+++++ you, Ella!
DE
November 7th, 2007 at 6:29 am
Wow, a clear description in both framework. It paused me to reflect my own thoughts and attitude.. I must admit I was doing both. Not sure why, I need to take time and re-examine my own personal experiences/beliefs. It may be based on my own upbringing in 1970’s where ASL was in infancy stage and the Total Communication was in full effect in my school. I am still trying to let the “BIG LIE” go ~ I was often told that I’m smart, in top class, and etc.. When I arrived Gally, I was in a such rude awakening that I’m not that brillant. I wish someone, especially a Deaf teacher, could have been honest with me that I did (still am) have a long way to go in literacy area. I never had any opportunity reading the classics while I was in Deaf school and Gally. This is a big disappointment of mine.. I know I can pick any classic book and read at anytime now, just that I feel cheated since there are so many hearing peers of my age who already read the classics while they were in high school.
Once again, thank you for doing this Vlog. I’m thriving to be fully in the Deafhood, not being in middle of both Deafhood & Deafness.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:53 am
Thank for educating and clarifing many questions involing with Deafhood that I confront that many questions. Your msgs are very well appreciated and demonstrated!!! That msgs really help me clear understanding of what you explained!
November 7th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Your mind-boggling vlog presented both sides for us to consider on how we want to define our point of view as a Deaf person.
To me, Deafhood sounds much more positive than deafness as they are definitely placed on the opposite end of the pendulum. Deafhood is to describe a process or a journey where internal cultural experiences are accumulated whereas deafness is based on the focus of auditory stimulation that is lacking that has nothing to do with socio-cultural experience and it is attached to the concept of disability.
ASL has been trapped and tied to the disability category since ADA includes the provision to provide an ASL interpreter as a service. You raised a good point on why foreign interpreters are not perceived or associated to disability while ASL is because of “hearing loss” to compensate their communication needs as viewed by the government and the society.
About parent making choices, it bothers me since the information has not been complete to cater to parents about bilingual education. Too often they have been informed about listening devices, speech and the surface of using “sign language” without really getting into details about ASL and Deaf culture. I have presented an abstract to the Early Intervention group for an upcoming conference to address this issue and I really hope that me and a co-presenter who is also Deaf will be selected.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Ella,
Amen. I pick DEAFHOOD! I want to believe that all Deaf-ASL users and their supporters would pick Deafhood and that leaves hearing people who are ignorant to easily “by nature” pick Deafness. We need the light to shine on DEAFHOOD and dim on Deafness.
Very similiar to the Pathological vs. Cultural view. I will from now and on use Deafhood vs. Deafness.
Yes! We need to practice Possibility thinking and must be challenged and examined within our subaltern.
David
November 7th, 2007 at 7:38 am
**WAVE WAVE HAND**
I would like to show this to my hearing family. I know they will enjoy hearing this. Will it be ok if I type what you say for their benefit?
This has been very clearly expressed and hit the nail too.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:48 am
Yeah, of course, i’ll choose “Deafhood, possibility thinking and examined?”
In my opinion, thinking is very important in our life. We are always keep thinking and we cannot stop it. Though I cannot express my thinking by speaking(am deaf and almost lost my voice), I can write it on my blog (http://www.deafs.com/blog/megan) and share my thingking or feeling with my friends or others…
November 7th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Very good subject in two group Deaf Hood and Deafness …… telling the meaning of detail on focus to solve the main problem.
well one thing “if” deaf hood have a problem then fix it and other side on “if” Deafness have a problem then fix it. Both side is different group to see main line like a tree that WE ARE “DEAF” human being!
Davy
November 7th, 2007 at 8:27 am
I’m up early, might as well post first?
Good point of ASL as a language like other languages rather than a language for disability.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:51 am
Ella,
I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to have come across the concept of “Deafhood!” It has been a gift to be able to choose a word that describes the journey of “possibility” as you put it, rather than a journey of “deficit.” When a deaf person embraces this concept, their entire psyche, self-perception and world view is altered in such a magnificent and positive way! It’s hard for me to sometimes understand how deaf people could reject the concept of Deafhood, as it is so empowering and esteeming. It’s like putting on a soft, fluffy robe and slippers. It just feels comfortable and secure. I completely understand and embrace the word Deafhood! It’s an easy choice.
~ LaRonda
November 7th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Thanks for making this clear. Appricate that! I am all for Deafhood!!
~deafk~
November 7th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Ella,
Thank you for your Vlog.
Even though I am 60 years old, have a Deaf wife, two Deaf children and two Deaf grandchildren, I am still on the journey and learning many things from people like you, Ella.
The funny thing about me is that my heart knows Deafhood but it is so hard to put it in words to explain it.
Many, many deaf people grew up in a colonialism hearing culture that got into our minds and it was hard to be adapted as a true normal human being(deaf) in terms of interacting with another human being using a proper language which is a visual type and I find that ASL was what I needed in the first place.
Again, Thank you, Ella
John
November 7th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
Ella,
You nailed me. People label themselves as hearing loss is a deficit thinking. I recall that I posted my weblog about it about a year ago. I really want to erase it. Thank you for educating us.
Again, your vlog design is neat so is the color of your sweater and background fitting well with design like the tunnel. I still dig the metaphor of vehicle in the tunnel with headlight on.
cb
November 7th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
The twop cannot be mixed, cant, must pick ONE. That is your last message. Why is that so? Can be both, for example I am disabled and so what. I use ASL and that gives me possibilities in life, sure! I fist smack Deaf world annd am glad for technology that enhances my life. Both is possible. but with a healthy attitude by saying I am deaf and so what!
November 7th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
I was nodding at your vlog WHOLE time! I think my designed tee does match your vlog! If you haven’t see this one yet. Here, this link: http://lenois.com/?p=82
November 8th, 2007 at 5:38 am
Of course I am for DEAFHOOD!!!!!!! Ella, you did an awesome job to differiate the deafhood and deafness.
I would give you one unrelated example….hearing impaired ( I resent these terms so much)… deaf impaired for hearing people..to see how hearing people feel being called deaf impaired. So hearing people may stop calling us hearing impaired. Ugh! Just a thought!
Sandra
November 8th, 2007 at 6:14 am
Ella – I’m enchanted yet again
u have clearly and cleverly crafted the two frameworks
there is a great artwork by Betty G. Miller called Suppression that exemplifies the Deafness framework in my mind and the havoc it reaps on the Deaf person’s psyche
——-
Deafhood all the way
now re: the disability model – can it never be applicable? – i dont know enough about the field of disabilities studies – the little i have read in this field shows that they too reject the deficit model and embrace a possibilities / difference model
in the Deaf Studies Today conference proceedings from 2003 there is an paper by lane who says Deaf is ethnicity ALWAYS and should never call it a disability
Baynton says it is BOTH – why because disability is a “social construct” – its not an actuality – Deaf people are “disabled” by the dominant culture just as women and african americans and other ethnic / racial / etc groups have been categorized adversely and stigmatized
i kinda lean towards Baynton’s thinking but again need to read more in this area.
I do think an absence of Deafhood or the potential of Deafhood (a completely audist environment) does leave a child being disabled rather than a cultural entity
this is why veditz said of Deaf folks “They are facing not a theory but a condition, for they are first, last, and all the time the people of the eye.” – for him this condition was not to mean “a handicapping condition” but rather a HUMAN CONDITION
the PHYSICAL absence of hearing CAUSES a SOCIAL CONDITION – that of which is to be “people of the eye” why CODAs may be enculturated into Deafhood if we no longer have Culturally Deaf people on this earth – we will no longer have our beautiful sign language nor Deafhood – this is why i think the physical condition and the spiritual self go hand and hand – similarly to how being African-American or female are physical conditions that shape and inform who you are – race, ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual oreintation – none of these really FIT Deaf culture perfectly – hence the coining of new terms and reclaiming of old ones as we start to examine and clarify who it is we are
re: ASL being regulated to an access tool – usually as a “REMEDIAL” access tool – makes me sick big time
Paddy Ladd once commented on how the US does alot of advocacy re: access services (captioning, interpreting, notetakers) but little to advocate for ASL and Deaf culture in of of their own right – example UK has BCC See Hear channel – BSL on the tube everyday!
We dont have an equivalent here in the US – imagine if Deaf, Partially Deaf (i prefer this term than hard of hearing) and Hearing children grew up being able to see ASL on TV daily – talk about preservation of sign language and fostering a people of the eye and a possibilities model!
peace
pdurr
November 8th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Deafhood is the answer, the model, and the framework where all schools should work from, in the process protecting the rights of Deaf children and empowering Deaf people, and the platform from where we should be proud, not having dignity robbed from us because people pity on us. It should be the other way around, that people look up to us as able, not disabled. Deafhood provides that way. Of course we are not going to deny that we cannot hear! But is that going to stop us? Deafhood says no.
November 8th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Wow!
This really nailed it! How sad that our opposition claim we are bitter people when we had not been fighting for status quo but rather a new beginning!
Good vlog!
From a baby leader,
Oscar
November 8th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
To John (#20),
Great comment. One small re-framing at hand here… we do not “can’t” hear. We just DO NOT hear. Or even better, we SEE 100% of the time.
I just don’t want to refer to the mythical “hearing loss” anymore. For instance, hearing people cannot hear EVERYthing anyway (i.e.: their child falling from the swings in the backyard, people from across the living room, etc.). The point is- the hearing sense is very subjective and heavily depends on situational factors.
Deaf people SEE. We SEE everything, 100%, etc. It is when language is robbed from us, making it easy for our mythical “hearing loss” to be blamed as the culprit for our lack of good education, ability to learn, etc. Our “hearing loss” is NOT the source of our challenges– the language DEPRIVATION and ABUSE visited upon us on a daily basis are the culprits.
Hope to catch you soon, John, and have an in-person discussion on this!!!
DE
November 8th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I still don’t understand all your posts. But I keep rewatching them and I pick up a little bit more each time
Love the clarity of your signs. Sorry I don’t have much to comment on the content.
November 8th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I agree with Baynton. It is not a disability; rather, it is the hearing society that really really REALLY disables deaf people. I had never realised that I was disabled until I lived independently and worked in another state. Having to walk in the snow in the morning to the drugstore to ask a clerk to notify my boss that I could not go to work because of my flu hit me very hard. It was a most rude awakening and humiliating experience in the era when TTY and email had not been invented. Now is the time to tell the hearing society to stop labelling deaf people as a people with a disability as well as to let them know that deaf people are bilingual (two languages; that is: ASL and English) while most hearing Americans are XENOPHOBICALLY monolingual.
November 12th, 2007 at 5:16 am
Ella…you elaborated so well on this. Very refreshing to see the contrasts between Deafhood and Deafness spelled out clearly. It’s a constant challenge to examine our behaviors and thinking to make sure they are consistent with a Deafhood outlook on life.
Take playing the “Deaf card”, for example….how many of us would turn down a VIP pass at an amusement park (or a discounted subway ticket), offered to us because we’re Deaf (and presumably disabled) on the basis of Deafhood? Will we stand up for the principle of Deafhood by refusing the pass and standing in line for hours to get on a ride? Or will we find some way to justify accepting the pass, even if it reinforces the idea of Deafness in hearing people’s eyes? Just wondering here…
Candace
December 18th, 2007 at 8:36 am
If Deafhood is really the preferred framework, why do so many deaf people opt for receiving SSI, which is tied to deafness being a disability?
Pat
December 18th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Candace,
I guess your questions are for us who are ready to take our Deafhood journey to the next level…re-evaluating our priorities and needs. Not only that, taking a real good hard look at the SYSTEM that SSI is part of and research the history behind it and how Deaf people got caught up in it and why? A simple answer would be the Oralism Colonialism…but really maybe a better answer is: why don’t we take the concept of Oralism Colonialism and with that in mind study that part of our history, and compare ourselves with other disfranchised groups…I am quite sure we will find many parallels…. The next thing is for each of us to use a new lens and then let our new thinking lead to possible new changes.
Pat, your question is a bit unfair. There’s a difference between vision and current situation. I propose that we push for the Deafhood framework because obviously that’s much more healthier for us all AND our hearing family, friends, co-workers, etc. BUT it’s not here completely yet. We are still raising our consciousness and doing small activism to increase our confidence. I am quite optimistic that when the community is conscious and empowered enough, we all will revisit the SSI question and come up with a much much better solution…which is why we really need a GOOD VISION as soon as possible to set up our framework of thinking and action. Hope I make sense. I look forward to more vlogs on this and I hope I can share this more in mine.
December 18th, 2007 at 11:25 am
[...] I have checked Ella’s posts and she even mentioned deficit thinking with the title, “Our choices” before this debates came up just recently. Just that David E. did the excellent job in [...]
February 4th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Thank you , thank you . Thats it finally !!!
can i copy your wonderful explain about disability, Deafhood, deafness. They are very clearly. to show others
smile. I am looking foward your other ideas.
you make wonderful points and very clearly.
Thanks KH