Abstract
Since the 1960s, there has been a vast amount of research conducted, both on different linguistic aspects of sign languages and on the cultural of Deaf people. As a consequence of this work, the traditional disability-based perspective on d/Deafness has been widely rejected, and there is no longer any question among linguists about the legitimacy of sign languages. In this chapter, which focuses primarily on American Sign Language (ASL) and the DEAF-WORLD as it exists in the US, the on-going misunderstandings, erroneous beliefs, and misinformation about ASL (and by extension other sign languages) are addressed. The case is made for many d/Deaf people as a distinctive linguistic and cultural community, and the educational implications for such a view are outlined.
Lyric taken from Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Sounds of Silence’ (originally performed in 1965), which was written by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
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- 1.
The phrases ‘Deaf culture’, DEAF-WORLD, ‘Deaf community’, and (somewhat less commonly, at least in the US) ‘Deafhood’ are all used to refer to the distinctive Deaf social and cultural community. I have followed the common practice of indicating ASL signs by using capital letters here; the hyphen indicates that the sign is a compound sign. Thus, DEAF-WORLD is the compound sign used in ASL to refer to the Deaf cultural community.
- 2.
Historically, the term ‘deaf’ was virtually always used to described individuals with audiologically ‘impaired’ hearing. As awareness of both ASL and the DEAF-WORLD grew, it became more common to adopt a distinction between ‘deaf’ and ‘Deaf’: the former referring to deafness solely as an audiological condition, while the latter referring to Deafness as a linguistic and cultural condition. Although this is a valuable distinction, it oversimplifies and dichotomizes d/Deafness. I have chosen to follow this usage when either purely audiological deafness or purely sociocultural Deafness is clearly intended. When a more inclusive sense seems appropriate, or where the meaning is ambiguous, I use d/Deaf and d/Deafness, which is the increasingly common form used in writing about d/Deaf people.
- 3.
The focus of this chapter is on ASL, but the fundamental points it raises would apply to other sign languages as well.
- 4.
The best-known sign language family is the French Sign Language Family, which includes not only French Sign Language, but also Dutch Sign Language, Danish Sign Language, Italian Sign Language, and Russian Sign Language, among others. ASL is also a member of the French Sign Language Family, as are the many sign languages that are derived from it.
- 5.
I am stressing this point here because it remains a common—albeit completely erroneous—belief among many people that there is a single, universal sign language shared by all d/Deaf people.
- 6.
Natural sign languages such as ASL are also often the native languages of the children of Deaf adults (CODAs).
- 7.
This list is by no means exhaustive; to some extent, there are as many ways to be d/Deaf as there are d/Deaf people.
- 8.
Cochlear implants have been an incredibly controversial issue in the DEAF-WORLD. As Harlan Lane has commented, “If the birth of a Deaf child is a priceless gift, then there is only cause for rejoicing, as at the birth of a black child, or an Indian one. Medical intervention is inappropriate, even if a perfect ‘cure’ were available. Invasive surgery on healthy children is morally wrong. We know that, as members of a stigmatized minority, these children’s lives will be full of challenge but, by the same token, they have a special contribution to make to their own community and the larger society” (1993, pp. 490–491).
- 9.
Two of these terms require explanation. HEAFIE is the sign used to indicate a deaf person ‘who thinks and attempts to act like a hearing person’; this is a very offensive and pejorative sign in the DEAF-WORLD. On the other hand, the sign HEARING-BUT is used to refer to a person who is hearing, but who understands the Deaf culture and is sympathetic to its core values and beliefs.
- 10.
The lack of recognition of ASL at the federal level is hardly surprising, since the United States does not have a de jure official language of any sort (though of course English is its de facto national language). The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has, nevertheless, been working to a number of years to gain such status for ASL—though even if such efforts ultimately prove to be successful, it is likely that the same fundamental problems discussed here with respect to the recognition of ASL at the state level will also apply to federal legislation.
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Reagan, T. (2019). Sign Language and the DEAF-WORLD: ‘Listening without hearing’. In: Linguistic Legitimacy and Social Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10967-7_5
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