We Do Not Want to Hear, We Want a World Where We Do Not Have to Hear
While researching assistive technologies and ITCs for the presentation on hearing disabilities I noticed many articles referring to the Deaf civil rights movement. As Halpern writes in her article Listening In on Deaf Culture “I write this article for other outsiders--hearing people who may never have realized that there is such a thing as Deaf Culture.” Halpern gives a synopsis of misconceptions surrounding Deaf culture and ends by encouraging “Hearies” to support people who are deaf in their civil rights movement by educating people about sign language and Deaf culture.
In Deaf culture, people who are deaf are not hearing impaired. They do not hear, but they do not lack anything. Halpern writes “Finally, when we hear about devices such as the cochlear implant, we joyously hail them as hopeful signs that we can some day eradicate deafness altogether.” Deaf culture is deep and rich and the thought of eradicating a culture is not usually a joyous one. In this blog post I will discuss the Halpern article as it relates to some of my personal experiences first with the language commonly used by people who are deaf and then in discussing civil rights and rights documented in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
People who are deaf may use sign language. In the United States the most popular sign language is American Sign Language or ASL. There is a common misconception that ASL is silent English. ASL has a different structure and Halpern likens it to Navajo “Rather than the standard "he","she", "it", and "they" of English, Navaho and ASL use a much wider array of pronouns that match the person or object they refer back to. These are known as "classifiers." For example, ASL has no discrete sign for "it" but instead uses any of a series of classifier signs which vary with the category, size, and shape of the object referred to. In this way, ASL pronouns carry much more information than do English pronouns.” Where I work we communicate via email extensively. I have advocated for our co-workers who are deaf in the areas of “communicating effectively in writing” which is one of our job requirements. When a supervisor put a co-worker who was deaf on a discipline path for not being able to communicate in English. I helped her explain the differences between English and ASL to the supervisor. I taught the supervisor how to read ASL. We have a wide variety of first languages among staff and lack of English skills was never questioned before. It was questioned because the supervisor assumed that ASL was silent English. People who are deaf do not gather information the way people who are hearing gather information. Especially evident in the workplace, people who are hearing gather most information from brief conversations, over-hearing the conversations of others and by workshops/meetings/trainings. Unfortunately sign language interpreters cannot know all of the terminology for every field. There is no one-to-one English to ASL correlation, so during lectures or trainings it is hit or miss whether the person who is deaf is getting any intelligible information at all. Because I know sign language, I have been able to advocate for my co-workers who are deaf to get them interpreters that suit their personal styles and demand to have the same interpreters come to our workplace so they can learn our concepts and terminology in order to interpret library information successfully. The person who is deaf does not know what is being said to know whether they or other speakers are being interpreted well. I sit next to our co-workers who are deaf to quickly give the interpreter an agreed upon sign on the fly during meetings, presentations and trainings. This is not very successful and we are always looking at ways to improve information gathering. The signs our co-workers who are deaf use for our terminology are simply agreed upon as they come up, and may or may not correlate with the signs used for those terms signed by library employees who are deaf at other locations. The common misconception that ASL is silent English poses problems for people who are deaf.
Halpern writes, “The Deaf civil rights movement is the political arm of the Deaf community. Throughout history American deaf people have been denied the right to vote, to marry, and to raise children. The Deaf civil rights movement is dedicated to fighting this kind of discrimination and raising awareness of Deaf history and Deaf culture within the Deaf community. “ The best advocates for Deaf culture are its members. Just as hearing people may not know about their history and culture, people who are deaf may not know theirs. Deaf history and culture is not usually taught in schools whether mainstream or residential facilities. A person who is deaf may not know all of the history, culture, laws and policies regarding persons who are deaf. Halpern writes, “Therefore, another major goal of the Deaf civil rights movement is parity in education--development of an educational system where deaf children can become both Deaf and literate.” With regard to the ADA, the common misconception I would like to dispel is that as co-workers, supervisors or friends we are not allowed to ask a person who is deaf if s/he would like accommodation. I have had issues with this in my workplace. I have heard supervisors say that they do not have to provide accommodation unless it is asked for specifically each time an event, training, meeting etc takes place. I learned a few years ago that one supervisor was making a co-worker who is deaf submit a request via email 48 hours prior to each standing meeting she was required to go to each month. Standing meetings should be standing interpreter requests, that is the way it is now. When the co-worker casually mentioned this to me, she didn’t think it was strange that the supervisor was making her do this. She did not know any differently because her prior work places had not provided interpreters using the loophole in the ADA by claiming that is would be a hardship. I do not claim to be a law expert, but I do know that the ADA is the least we can do, we can do what ever we want above that level. We could hire an interpreter to walk around with our deaf co-worker interpreting all of the side conversations and information that the person who is deaf misses each day. We could do that, there is nothing stopping us. We can support members of the Deaf community in their work for civil rights and their rights under the ADA.
Educating both Deaf and Hearing about sign language, Deaf history, culture and laws regarding people who are deaf can broaden understanding and strengthen Universal Access goals.
REFERENCES
Halpern, C. A. (n.d.). Halpern, "Listening in on Deaf Culture". University of
Colorado Boulder. Retrieved March 13, 2012, from
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