Audism

Individual Audism

Humphries defined audism as an individual’s belief that the ability to hear or behave in a way consistent with those who hear is superior. This focus on the individual’s attitudes and beliefs is parallel to the definition of individual racism, in which an individual holds beliefs and exhibits racist behaviors, ranging from assumptions about the intelligence of Ebonics speakers to racist jokes to the most extreme act of hate crimes.

Humphries’ examples of individual audism included those who determined intelligence and success in terms of a deaf individual’s skill in the language of the hearing society. Deaf people often [Page 64]perpetuate oppression with expectations that deaf people act in the manner of hearing people; this phenomenon is referred to as “dysconscious audism” (see below). Thus, the initial discourse of audism began by examining individual audism as it manifests in the beliefs of individuals.

Institutional Audism

In 1992 the term audism reappeared in Harlan Lane’s The Mask of Benevolence, in which he examines how organizations that attempt to care for Deaf people actually perpetuate the conditions of disability. Lane states that since the beginnings of deaf education and the science of audiology, educational and medical institutions have assumed authority over deaf people, claiming to act in their best interests while not allowing them to have input. Deaf people have been physically and pedagogically coerced into adopting hearing norms, through oralism, cochlear implants, mainstreaming, and other practices, regardless of their wishes.

This systematic perspective of audism suggests similarities to definitions of structural or systematic racism. Studies of institutional racism demonstrate that while racism has roots in individual prejudice, it is reinforced through the dominant culture’s system of policies and practices meant to grant privilege to members of the dominant group, and oppress members of minority groups. In Critical Race studies, this has been referred to as “a system of advantage.” This identification of privilege allows us to recognize the benefits allotted to white individuals within a white system of advantage. Such advantages range from the ease with which many white people obtain housing, to freedom from surveillance when entering a store. A similar system of advantage exists for hearing people, even in settings intended for deaf people. Hearing privilege may come in the form of unrestrained access to information, for which they cannot be faulted; however, even schools for deaf people usually create barriers to communication by denying deaf persons access to sign language and a visually-rich learning environment. This system of advantage based on hearing ability is aptly described as institutional audism.

As Deaf individuals do not experience systematic privileges, only hearing individuals may be labeled as audists. When Deaf individuals do internalize audist beliefs, they engage in dysconsious audism explained more below.

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