Deaf International Development

The concept of “development” is generally viewed as an economic process. Countries with access to economic resources are considered “developed” while those without access are considered “undeveloped” or “underdeveloped.” There are many theories about why this divide happened and, similarly, there are many theories motivating development practices and processes. These range from theories that focus on economic development to those focusing more explicitly on social development. Social development means focusing on human rights and social justice for marginalizd people.

Roughly stated, there are two models utilized in development assistance for people with disabilities (including deaf people). These are the medical model approach and the social model approach (not to be confused with social development). The medical or rehabilitation model approach focuses on disability as “deviant” and focuses on eradicating it and/or to rehabilitate and normalize people with disabilities. In contrast, the social model addresses social, political, and economic barriers that people with disabilities face in order to ensure that they might be included in everyday life.

Adopting either one (or both) of these models, different countries’ governments and state agencies fund disabled and deaf people’s organizations and encourage participation by such people through microfinance initiatives, sign language training, interpreter training programs, advocacy organizations, educational institutions, and community- based rehabilitation. In addition to focusing on economic concerns, there is thus also a focus on political mobilization and capacity building (i.e., social development).

On the international level, development-focused institutions include the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labor Organization (ILO), and last but not least the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD). The WHO has a medicalized perspective on deafness, but in its recent World Report on Disability in 2011, it has adjusted its definition of disability to also include political and social factors. The UN has been instrumental in raising awareness with its UN Decade of Disabled Persons held from 1983 to 1992 and more recently, in 2008, its development of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The CRPD is an example of a social model approach to disability and development and it takes a holistic approach to disability. (There are some concerns though, about its universalist nature and its treatment of deaf people as deaf individuals within a overwhelmingly hearing community, as opposed to members of a specific deaf or linguistic minority community.)

The CRPD is the first international treaty that recognizes sign language as a human right for deaf people. This is an important step toward human rights for deaf communities all over the world. The human rights approach contrasts with the more traditional charity-based approach. It translates into recognition of communication access, appropriate education in sign language, and inclusion in local and national communities as basic human rights for deaf people. This supports bilingual and bicultural discourse that states deaf people’s language and experiences are essential to human diversity and that the development of deaf people will result in the development of human diversity.

In the following sections, we discuss specific organizations working on deaf development initiatives.

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