the Audist Network

The Audist Network by KEVIN MCLEOD



The concept of dyconscious audism has dominated discussion in the deaf community for several years now. But what, exactly is dyconscious audism?



Audism is a belief, a way of describing what someone thinks. An audist believes that oral communication - the ability to speak, hear and converse easily with hearing people - is superior to ASL and deaf culture.



It will not shock you that most hearing people agree that their way of communicating is best.

By definition, most hearing people are audist - they are oriented toward voice and hearing, and prefer that mode of communication because it's what they know.



Ask a hearing person in any country, anywhere on earth who has no experience with the deaf community if they think it's best to be deaf or hearing, they will overwhelmingly choose hearing. This is their comfort zone, this is where they live.



There's also this - oral communication is used by 99.99% of the people on the planet. We can look at the audist viewpoint and the deaf community viewpoint as two networks, one oral, and one visual. This difference is mirrored by the devices we use - voice phones vs video phones.



People value large networks because they provide access to more resources. Walmart crushes small businesses in every town they open in because people like the convenience of having so much available in one place. Home Depot destroys local hardware stores with the same advantage. For centuries now people have been flowing from small communities and villages to large cities, because they enjoy the networking advantages that cities offer.



Audism has a BIG network - over six billion nodes and growing.



Dyconscious is a word that describes how someone thinks. In this case, it's when someone has a belief that is so deeply part of them, they may not even recognize it exists.



Your heart and lungs work constantly day and night, but you seldom think about it. You know they're there, you know what they do and you know you can't survive without them. But they run automatically, so you focus on other things.



Some of our views are similar. They are thoughts that are part of us. They affect our behavior, they color our attitude toward others, and they sometimes create problems because we are unaware they exist. The term dyconscious was first used to describe racism among people who were not aware their behavior was racist. They had adopted an attitude, an assumption of superiority, and didn't even know it.



When such people are confronted with evidence of racist behavior, they often deny any racist motive or thoughts, and they may well be sincere. They can't see themselves from the outside, at least not without feedback. Dialogue can be like a mirror, showing a person their true image rather than the image they imagine of themselves.



Dyconscious audism describes people with a deeply held assumption that being hearing and communicating orally is superior to being deaf and communicating via ASL. They may not even know this is their working assumption, but it affects how they behave and respond to others.



So who's right? What IS superior?



Like so many other things, it depends. If you live in Spain and don't know Spanish, you're definitely at a disadvantage. So it is with French in France, Russian in Russia, Italian in Italy, and so on. Hearing people have their own linguistic sub-groups, complete with their own cultures and viewpoints. If you want to fully participate in the daily life of that nation, if you want to connect to that country's linguistic network, you need to know the language.



The deaf community is a linguistic group and culture. It has some geographical centers of dominance, mainly at deaf-related schools. People entering the deaf culture network need a working knowledge of ASL to fully participate. Not knowing ASL is a clear disadvantage.



The deaf network is tiny. The audist network is huge. The Hawaiian islands are tiny compared to the huge continent of North America, but if size is the only important measure, why do people still pay big sums to vacation there?



There are advantages and disadvantages to small and large networks, small and large communities, small and large teams.



A small investment in connecting with both oral and visual networks can earn a large return in the benefits of both.

31 August 11

Click to expand...

jillio said:

These are all points that have been made on AD at one time or another. I agree that the vast majority of hearing people are audist, even though many fail to recognize their audist thought process and the ways in which they demonstrate their audism.

Click to expand...

Grummer said:

its like back in the 19th century when racism was unheard of and yet it was vastly widespread

Click to expand...

ash345 said:

came accross this the other day... thought it was a good read. what do you think? do you agree with it?

The Audist Network by KEVIN MCLEOD



The concept of dyconscious audism has dominated discussion in the deaf community for several years now. But what, exactly is dyconscious audism?



Audism is a belief, a way of describing what someone thinks. An audist believes that oral communication - the ability to speak, hear and converse easily with hearing people - is superior to ASL and deaf culture.



It will not shock you that most hearing people agree that their way of communicating is best.

By definition, most hearing people are audist - they are oriented toward voice and hearing, and prefer that mode of communication because it's what they know.



Ask a hearing person in any country, anywhere on earth who has no experience with the deaf community if they think it's best to be deaf or hearing, they will overwhelmingly choose hearing. This is their comfort zone, this is where they live.



There's also this - oral communication is used by 99.99% of the people on the planet. We can look at the audist viewpoint and the deaf community viewpoint as two networks, one oral, and one visual. This difference is mirrored by the devices we use - voice phones vs video phones.



People value large networks because they provide access to more resources. Walmart crushes small businesses in every town they open in because people like the convenience of having so much available in one place. Home Depot destroys local hardware stores with the same advantage. For centuries now people have been flowing from small communities and villages to large cities, because they enjoy the networking advantages that cities offer.



Audism has a BIG network - over six billion nodes and growing.



Dyconscious is a word that describes how someone thinks. In this case, it's when someone has a belief that is so deeply part of them, they may not even recognize it exists.



Your heart and lungs work constantly day and night, but you seldom think about it. You know they're there, you know what they do and you know you can't survive without them. But they run automatically, so you focus on other things.



Some of our views are similar. They are thoughts that are part of us. They affect our behavior, they color our attitude toward others, and they sometimes create problems because we are unaware they exist. The term dyconscious was first used to describe racism among people who were not aware their behavior was racist. They had adopted an attitude, an assumption of superiority, and didn't even know it.



When such people are confronted with evidence of racist behavior, they often deny any racist motive or thoughts, and they may well be sincere. They can't see themselves from the outside, at least not without feedback. Dialogue can be like a mirror, showing a person their true image rather than the image they imagine of themselves.



Dyconscious audism describes people with a deeply held assumption that being hearing and communicating orally is superior to being deaf and communicating via ASL. They may not even know this is their working assumption, but it affects how they behave and respond to others.



So who's right? What IS superior?



Like so many other things, it depends. If you live in Spain and don't know Spanish, you're definitely at a disadvantage. So it is with French in France, Russian in Russia, Italian in Italy, and so on. Hearing people have their own linguistic sub-groups, complete with their own cultures and viewpoints. If you want to fully participate in the daily life of that nation, if you want to connect to that country's linguistic network, you need to know the language.



The deaf community is a linguistic group and culture. It has some geographical centers of dominance, mainly at deaf-related schools. People entering the deaf culture network need a working knowledge of ASL to fully participate. Not knowing ASL is a clear disadvantage.



The deaf network is tiny. The audist network is huge. The Hawaiian islands are tiny compared to the huge continent of North America, but if size is the only important measure, why do people still pay big sums to vacation there?



There are advantages and disadvantages to small and large networks, small and large communities, small and large teams.



A small investment in connecting with both oral and visual networks can earn a large return in the benefits of both.

31 August 11

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

RachelRene said:

I think this dysconcious audism is what holds some of us back from accepting our deafness... what keeps us feeling like broken hearing people.
When you grow up in the hearing world, with so much emphasis placed on oral communication, on hearing and speaking and working to fit in to that culture, it's hard not to adopt some of that attitude that something's wrong with you because your ears don't work . I think a lot of us have to work to overcome that dysconcious audism. I see it in the threads, I see it in myself.

Thanks for sharing this, Ash.

Click to expand...

drphil said:

A check of the dictionary-Oxford Canadian- there is NO such word as "dysconscious".
From psychology there is a word-"unconscious". Same meaning?

Implanted A B Harmony activated Aug/07

Click to expand...

DeafCaroline said:

Many compound words in Alice in Wonderland didn't exist at the time that book was written, they were made up by the author and yet they've been assimilated into the English language, same for other words like "newspeak" which was coined from the book 1984. The English language is the most flexible and evolving language in the world. It adopts new words all the time.

dysconscious is a relatively new word but it does exist and it's officially recognized in the academia world.

Click to expand...

StevieMont927 said:

Similar to the many terms, words, and usages of words found in Shakespeare's works, which are now an accepted part of everyday language. Also, the many words we've gleaned from other languages. English is full of loanwords, that nowadays people don't even realize weren't originally English.

Click to expand...

DeafCaroline said:

If you ever come across a book called "The Miracle of the English Language" - get it! It's a really interesting overview of the English language and its history.

Click to expand...

StevieMont927 said:

I will!! I geek out about those kinds of things!!

Thanks for the recommendation!!

Click to expand...

StevieMont927 said:

Similar to the many terms, words, and usages of words found in Shakespeare's works, which are now an accepted part of everyday language. Also, the many words we've gleaned from other languages. English is full of loanwords, that nowadays people don't even realize weren't originally English.

Click to expand...

Bottesini said:

"dyconscious" does draw big laughs as one of the new created buzzwords of academia. It was first applied to racism.

This perfectly valid concept would do better if it used more accepted language.

Click to expand...