Deaf Culture

For the past few decades, Deaf people have proudly proclaimed that they have an authentic culture to call their own. This proclamation was one of the outcomes of the legitimization of American Sign Language (ASL) as a distinct language with its own syntax, semantics, and discourse structure. Based on this finding by linguistic scholars in the 1960s, academics began to question whether ASL served as a prelude to the acknowledgment of a Deaf culture. Prior to this discovery, Deaf people had lived their lives for centuries and practiced what is now known as Deaf culture. Since then, scores of academic studies, scholarly articles, prominent books, and educational DVDs have been produced, highlighting and documenting the cultural markers of the Deaf community. In addition, colleges and universities all over the world began to offer undergraduate and graduate degrees in Deaf Studies with thousands of students studying the language and other cultural markers of the Deaf community every year. Deaf culture is now a common phrase used to describe the unique experiences of Deaf people.

[Page 162]There are many different ways to examine a culture, including its system of shared beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors that the members of a community use and practice. On the surface, the visible elements of a culture are easily identified, such as food, clothes, and other obvious artifacts. However, the heart of any culture goes beyond these observable markers and delves into deeper elements, such as membership, values, and taboos. In the case of Deaf culture, there is little to demarcate it from other cultures on the surface, because Deaf people dress, eat, and worship just like their fellow citizens who hear. Yet, when the experiences of Deaf people are examined on a deeper level, many unique cultural aspects of the Deaf community are revealed.

Traditionally, any definition associated with Deaf culture had the prerequisite descriptors—the residential school experience, the prominence of Deaf clubs, and the importance of signed languages. However, most deaf people today do not grow up with this kind of background, as they are more likely to attend a public school. If signing is used at the school, some kind of sign system based on the spoken language is often employed instead of ASL, which is typically used in the Deaf community. In addition, Deaf clubs have ceased to exist in many places, making them irrelevant in the lives of most Deaf people today.

However, this is not to say that Deaf culture has become obsolete for deaf people. Rather, Deaf culture is more critical than ever before, primarily because deaf children no longer have easy access to role models. Without access to the Deaf community, deaf children are devoid of strategies that can be used to survive in a world populated with people who are different from themselves. For example, these children often need to learn from more experienced Deaf people ways to better integrate themselves within their own families, most of which had no exposure to deaf people prior to the birth of their children. In addition to solutions for improved home life, they also need strategies to manage more effectively their participation in the school environment and in the community.

...