Deaf Culture Essay

The nature in American sign language is to create signs to add to deaf people signs for communicating. Deaf education is the same as the hearing education because it incorporates the

Sign language is one most common ways for deaf individuals to communicate without using of their voices. Different cultures and languages will typically have their own version of sign language so signs are not always universal, just like gestures are not universal. Signs are culturally bound in communication just like verbal languages and gestures are culturally bound. I will examine the history of American Sign Language, as well as how it has been viewed culturally with positive and negative social implications in the U.S.

Winn, J. (2016, November 3). The importance of early exposure to american sign language with deaf Children. Signing Savvy Blog. Retrieved February 09, 2018, from

The technique that Clerc taught was by the use of his hands, which he communicated with French sign language, blended with a bit of signs used by students in the United States. To Gallaudet the language was a inspiration which he called it, “Highly poetical,” but to Clerc and many of the deaf people, the using of sign was natural and useful. This was a result of a created acculturated nonverbal language known as American Sign Language (ASL). As new schools for the deaf spread west and south, American sign language also evolved as well in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois. By the year of 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed a law constituting the first college in the world for deaf students called Gallaudet University and all these schools used sign as a curriculum.

In the United States, culturally deaf people are joined together by a common language (American Sign Language, or ASL), a common history, and many common traditions. Most culturally deaf people are deaf or hard of hearing from birth or a young age. They also grow up using sign language for most of their lives. Between 21 million and 28 million people in the United States are hard of hearing or deaf. However, only a relatively small number of people (between 100,000 and 200,000) consider themselves culturally deaf. Most other deaf people either lose their hearing after childhood or grow up without using sign as their primary language.

The Book I decided to read is called “Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf”. In this book the author Oliver Sacks basically focuses on Deaf history and the community of the deaf developed toward linguistic self-sufficiency. Sacks is a Professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He became interested in the problem of how deaf children acquire language after reviewing a book by Harlan Lane. The book was titled “When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf”. This book was first published in 1984 and was published again in 1989. Before reading Harlan’s book Sacks did not know any sign language. The book encouraged him to begin studying sign language. Sacks became extremely interested on how the deaf learn to communicate with the ability of sound being nonexistent. He wanted to know what this process may tell us about the nature of language. Seeing Voices is made up of three chapters, the history of the deaf, a discussion of language and the brain, and an evaluation of the problems behind the student strike that occurred at Gallaudet University, in March of 1988.

The deaf culture has often been labeled as the deaf- and- dumb culture. This is not only an insulting term it is also very inaccurate. Deaf people are just as intelligent as hearing people. In the early 1800's when ASL was first brought about in the United States Being deaf was considered shameful

Aside from communication and language, there are also such things as beliefs and customs that have lent towards the deaf and deaf-blind cultures. A positive attitude toward being deaf is typical in Deaf cultural groups. Deafness is not generally considered a condition that needs to be fixed. Culturally Deaf people value the use of natural sign languages that exhibit their own grammatical conventions, such as American Sign Language and British Sign Language, over signed versions of English or other spoken languages. Deaf culture in the United States tends to be collectivist rather than individualist; culturally Deaf people value the group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_culture#Values_and_beliefs). Culturally Deaf people have rules of etiquette for such things as, getting attention, walking through signed conversations, and otherwise politely negotiating a signing environment. It is also commonplace for them to arrive early for certain events, to ensure an optimum

Most states had a school for the deaf. I was surprised to learn that many of those deaf schools had completely banned American Sign Language. The reason for this was because of Alexander Graham Bell. He was against sign language and taught the oralist method. He thought a world without signing

I think about all these things, and I always come back to the thought of, if you could walk a mile in their shoes, you may see things differently. The deaf community has been embracing, and the experience has been absolutely phenomenal. I would continue to recommend the experiences which I am experiencing from learning American Sign Language, and the experience of meeting new people within the deaf community to any and every

It is easy to see why Deaf culture is so critical of those who assimilate with hearing culture because the Deaf have had a history of struggle and discrimination. Hearing culture has been critical of what Deaf people are able to do and have denied their existence. In the past American deaf people have been denied the right to vote, to marry, and to raise children (Halpern). Deaf children often were denied education, grew up illiterate, or grew up with no real language because at one point in time sign language was not allowed (Halpern).

Deaf children born to deaf parents have the advantage of being exposed to gestural language from birth. American Sign Language (ASL) is the system used by the Deaf community in the United States and Canada. Although, Deaf children with Deaf parents are not receiving sensory input for spoken language, they are exposed to a language that will enable them to fully communicate meaning. Through the use of ASL, Deaf children have the ability to learn a language without the need for oral communication. In fact, there is evidence that suggest Deaf children acquire their first words before hearing children. Orlansky’s and Bonvillian’s study (1985), found the following information:

I attended Kathryn Davidson’s lecture about deaf children and the association with American Sign Language. Kathryn discussed experiments with deaf children, their education options, and the level of their language development. The experiments compared deaf children that were educated strictly through the oral philosophies and deaf children that only learned through American Sign Language. These experiments also compared the ages at which the children were introduced to these education styles and how it affected them. It’s fascinating to associate the lecture to ASL 102; because throughout this quarter there were discussions revolving around education options for deaf children. Before this quarter, I never thought about deaf children and their

ASL became prominent in the 1800's thanks to Thomas Gallaudet. He wanted to help Alice Cogswell who was his neighbor's deaf daughter, so he travelled to Europe to study how to communicate with deaf people. From there, he met Laurent Clerc who was a deaf instructor of sign language, and the two of them returned to America to found the first school for the deaf. From there they began to teach deaf Americans how to learn sign language and began establishing a unique sign language in the United States. ASL was then invented using signs from French Sign Language, as well as signs from the community in Martha's Vineyard, and

When the deaf Miss America spoke to a crowd of thousands about overcoming her handicap, deaf people across America were disgusted. Deafness is not a handicap, I have been told again and again. It is a cultural identity, a way of life, a choice, even (some hard-of hearing people speak of the time when they had to decide, deaf or hearing), but never a handicap, never something to be overcome. The sign for people like Miss America is the sign for hearing, with the forefinger circling up by the forehead instead of down by the mouth. She thinks she's hearing, is what it means. There is also a sign for the reverse: some hearing people get so involved in the deaf community that they think they are deaf,