Deafness in Society

Session 3

DEAF COMMUNITY

1. WHAT IS A COMMUNITY?

1. Community is a very complex term to define
2. We start with the traditional type of definition -

The definition of George Hillery (1974) :

i) A community is a group of people who share common goals and cooperate in achieving these goals. Each community has its own goals. A goal may be equal employment opportunities, greater political participation, or better community services

ii) A community occupies a particular geographic allocation. The geography of a community determines the ways in which the community functions

iii) A community has some degree of freedom to organise the social life and responsibilities of its members. Institutions such as prisons and mental hospitals bring together groups of people in one locality, but the people have no power to make decisions about their daily lives and routines. Thus we cannot call these types of groups "communities"

Padden(1980, p 3)
3. Padden's own additional definition is better:

"A community .... is a general social system in which a group of people live together, share common goals and carry out certain responsibilities to each other." (p. 4)

4. Traditional ideas of communities do not match the industrialised world we live in:

"Instead of being a full-time member of one 'total and whole' society, modern man is a part-time citizen in a variety of part-time societies. Instead of living within one meaningful world system to which he owes complete loyalty he now lives in many differently structured 'worlds' to each of which he owes only partial allegiance. Most of modern man's existential universes are single-purpose communities."

Luckman(1970, p 317)

5. Perhaps events like village fetes are still aspects of "community life" but the commitment of each person in the community varies greatly

6. Because of easier transport, we now find that people living next door to each other may exist in very different "everyday life worlds"
7. Possibly much of the above is also true for other linguistic and ethnic minorities in the UK today.

2. THE DEAF COMMUNITY

1. The Deaf Community is not a single society with one purpose. It is a diverse meeting of individuals who come together for many purposes but who share some basics of experience, communication and commitment

2. A most effective definition is provided by Baker and Padden (1978):

"The deaf community comprises those deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals who share a common language, common experiences and values and a common way of interacting with each other and with hearing people. The most basic factor determining who is a member of the deaf community seems to be what is called 'attitudinal deafness'. This occurs when a person identifies him/herself as a member of the deaf community and other members accept that person as part of the community."  Baker and Padden (1978, p. 4)

3. DESCRIBING THE DEAF COMMUNITY

1. Some people are born into the Deaf community as the children of Deaf parents. These are the minority . Only 5% of the Community will have both parents Deaf and a further 5% may have one parent Deaf

2. Up to 20% will have a Deaf brother or sister (Kyle and Allsop, 1982)

3. This means that for most of the Community , fluency in their first language may come later than is usual for spoken languages

4. The basis of positive Deaf community life is the Deaf school

5. BSL is the bedrock of Deaf community

Kyle and Pullen(1985) found that 90% of profoundly Deaf young people had learned sign by the age of 12 years and 48% of partially-hearing had learned while at school

6. The second basis for Deaf community life is the Deaf club

4. WHO ARE THE MEMBERS?

1. Kyle and Allsop (1982) asked 175 Deaf people about what Deaf community membership meant:

Of the population interviewed,

• 58% attended the Deaf Club once a week or more
• 29% went very rarely

Those who did go were reckoned to be:

• "proud to be deaf" (81%)
• liked other Deaf people's company (97%)
• and because they were treated as normal there(97%)

2. Who could be members of the community ?

• 74% felt it was possible for those who became deaf to join
• 70% felt it possible even for those who did not sign , so long as they had the ‘right attitude'

There was no place for those whose identification was with hearing people. Nor, surprisingly, for those who had been to hearing school, although this may well have changed with the last decade of mainstreaming

3. In a sample of 421 Deaf people, Jackson(1986) reported similar findings, with attitudes being most important

5. IDENTIFYING WITH DEAF PEOPLE

1. Thus, the sharing of experiences in childhood and adolescence, the commitment to a community and club, and the use of BSL , all go towards the building of Deafhood-community membership

2. But the ease with which Deaf children move from deafness to Deafhood varies. In a USA study , Harris and Stirling ( 1986 ), found those with Deaf parents were much more certain of their Deaf identity and knew they would grow up to be Deaf
Those from hearing families were more likely to believe that they would become hearing or hard-of-hearing
When these young people do start to consider Deaf community membership, it is fascinating to see that they actually begin to talk of "coming to terms with their deafness"
Robinson (1989), educated orally in mainstream schools describes her first steps:

"It was when I started sixth form college and made friends with another Deaf girl that I finally began to learn to accept my deafness. I began to go to classes in BSL with my mum and my sister. Through the teacher I began to understand Deaf culture. Recently I went to a Deaf Club. I was really at ease and felt that I did not have to put on a front as with hearing people. It's helped me to gain confidence........"

Always having been in hearing schools I have never actually belonged to the Deaf community. Now I want to discover my roots by finding out more about what it means to me to be Deaf and how it affects other people...." (ECRS Journal, July 1989, p. 7)

3. Lawson (1981) has described these young people as the "latecomers" to the Community
Young (1989) in his response to Robinson illustrates how pleased the Deaf Community is when Deaf people begin to discover their identity:

"I congratulate Joanne on her victory. She has become part of the Deaf community with its own language, values and heritage. The pride and confidence which she now feels is an important element in the struggle which Deaf people face in gaining equality."(ECRS Journal, July 1989, p.7)

4. A similar description of coming to the community , more particularly, the language, is provided by Pierre Desloges, the first Deaf author, in 1779

6. RESIGNING FROM THE COMMUNITY

1. It is difficult for Deaf people to then stop being members of the community

2. People living in isolated parts of the country would still be considered as part of the Community even if they are very rarely seen by others
3. However, some Deaf people who wish to be part of the community are rejected by other Deaf people "They have a hearing attitude" is a typical response

4. Attendance at Deaf Clubs may be declining because of attractions such as subtitled television and because of the use of Minicoms to keep contact by telephone. But these reductions in face-to-face contact are not seen as resignation from the community. While Baker and Cokely (1980), felt that the American Deaf Clubs were declining in importance, the Community itself is still alive