Are Deaf People (from birth) Disabled?

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blonde1

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Hi. I am a junior in high school and right now we are working on our junior paper. My topic is, "Are Deaf people disabiled." I would like to get some insight about the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and how Deaf people feel about being put under that act. Do Deaf people concider themselves disabled? Why or Why not? Thank you for your opinion and info. It will help me a lot with my paper.
 
They are disabled not so much by the fact of their deafness as by the social construction of communication barriers put in place by hearing society.
 
I asked my deaf students to write an opinion paragraph on this very topic. (It had come up in class so I went with it.) The very interesting thing was, some people's opinion was that because deaf people have to rely on HAs, CIs, interpreters, assistive devices, and so forth, this means they are disabled. Other people's opinion was that because deaf people are able to utilize HAs, CIs, interpreters, assistive devices, and so forth, this means they are not disabled.

Just goes to show you, there will never be a consensus on anything in the deaf community! :giggle:
 
jillio said:
They are disabled not so much by the fact of their deafness as by the social construction of communication barriers put in place by hearing society.
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I feel disabled in the hearing community and I dont feel disabled in the deaf community so we, deaf people, are disabled cuz the hearing community are so resistant to make accodomations for us. It is not really that hard to do it! We live in a very self-centered society, huh?
 
shel90 said:
I feel disabled in the hearing community and I dont feel disabled in the deaf community so we, deaf people, are disabled cuz the hearing community are so resistant to make accodomations for us. It is not really that hard to do it! We live in a very self-centered society, huh?
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Absolutely. Sad that we, as a society, find it acceptable to engage in practices that disable individuals simply for the sake of convenience of others.
 
blonde1 said:
Hi. I am a junior in high school and right now we are working on our junior paper. My topic is, "Are Deaf people disabiled." I would like to get some insight about the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and how Deaf people feel about being put under that act. Do Deaf people concider themselves disabled? Why or Why not? Thank you for your opinion and info. It will help me a lot with my paper.
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You might want to add Martha's Vineyard to your report. There was a time when everybody there knew sign language. On that island, Hearing people don't see the deaf people as disabled back then. That is why I see that people's refusal to learn sign language disable us. I don't see us as disabled as we won't have to depend on CI, HA, interpreters, etc if everybody know sign language.

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
More in Nora Ellen Groce's book, "Everybody Here Spoke Sign Language"
 
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jillio said:
They are disabled not so much by the fact of their deafness as by the social construction of communication barriers put in place by hearing society.
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jillio,you hit the nail on the head. :applause:
 
jillio said:
They are disabled not so much by the fact of their deafness as by the social construction of communication barriers put in place by hearing society.
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Jillio & Pepsi Lover ... Yep, I second that! :applause:
 
Well, the word disabled has a stigma. People normally view that as being unable to function in many ways. Whereas, we are able to do anything except hear like normal hearing people, but we can work, go to school, etc., etc. I think it's simply the word disabled has a stigma to it.
 
shel90 said:
I feel disabled in the hearing community and I dont feel disabled in the deaf community so we, deaf people, are disabled cuz the hearing community are so resistant to make accodomations for us. It is not really that hard to do it! We live in a very self-centered society, huh?
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But Shel, if we didn't have the disablity (loss of a sense) we wouldn't need to have the accomation. Thus we are disabled.
 
jag said:
But Shel, if we didn't have the disablity (loss of a sense) we wouldn't need to have the accomation. Thus we are disabled.
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Ah, but the disability is situational. To illustrate, put a hearing child in a classroom in a deaf school, and they will require accommodation in order to access the curriculum, and to socialize with their peers. In this case, being hearing could be considered as having a disability.

So, is it actually the deafness that creates the disability, or is it societal barriers that create the disability? And having a disability in some situations cannot be equated to being disabled. Being disabled implies that one experiences the same functional limitations in ALL situations.
 
blonde1 said:
Hi. I am a junior in high school and right now we are working on our junior paper. My topic is, "Are Deaf people disabiled." I would like to get some insight about the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and how Deaf people feel about being put under that act. Do Deaf people concider themselves disabled? Why or Why not? Thank you for your opinion and info. It will help me a lot with my paper.
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I may only consider my deafness a different hearing situation .. it isn't wrong to consider it a physical disability ,however, it is more appropriate to accept it as a different lifestyle .
 
jillio said:
Ah, but the disability is situational. To illustrate, put a hearing child in a classroom in a deaf school, and they will require accommodation in order to access the curriculum, and to socialize with their peers. In this case, being hearing could be considered as having a disability.

So, is it actually the deafness that creates the disability, or is it societal barriers that create the disability? And having a disability in some situations cannot be equated to being disabled. Being disabled implies that one experiences the same functional limitations in ALL situations.
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Exactly. Martha's Vineyard proved us that if everybody sign as part of everyday life, then there won't be any accommodation for the Deafs (or a single hearing in a Deaf school, either).
 
jag said:
But Shel, if we didn't have the disablity (loss of a sense) we wouldn't need to have the accomation. Thus we are disabled.
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I just dont feel disabled at my job among with other signers. That's what I mean.
 
If you're writing a subjective essay about it, then my own answer would be no, deaf people are not disabled. It's just a question of the Other - the dominant culture sets the definitions for everything and this goes for pretty much all cases, not just hearing/deaf.

Interpretator mentioned the use of assistive devices... take the TTY for example, deaf people use TTY's to communicate/call other people, so in a hearing culture this can be seen as an assistive device for a disability. But if you just look at it as a form of technology then it's really not that different from a telephone. If everyone in the world had TTYs instead of phones, they wouldn't be assistive devices. If everyone had vibrating alarm clocks, or flashing light smoke detectors instead of ones that made noise, then same thing. It's just a question of majority vs minority... what makes people disabled in the first place. I have to admit, there are a few lame-ish exceptions to this I've come up with, like the cost of different kinds of technology, hearing environmental sounds/signifiers of danger, and the benefits, or maybe lack thereof, that the use of "deaf" technology would provide to hearing people. For the most part, though, I don't think deaf people are disabled apart from the pathological definition.

I wish I could get a topic like that for a paper at my school. It'd be nice to shock my professor with my 20-something pages I'd end up writing...
 
jillio said:
They are disabled not so much by the fact of their deafness as by the social construction of communication barriers put in place by hearing society.
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you get my vote for saying the coolest thing i have heard all day.:bowdown:
 
Well, I think we have a hearing disability that allows us to receive accommodations that most people don't need.
 
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