S, M, L, XL

Paal Richard Peterson from Norway discussed his thesis about Deafness and Deaf Culture that was completed in 2001. He sent out questionnaires to the Deaf Community and collected approximately 300 replies; the thesis is based on information from this research. Paal was able to determine Deaf Identities based on questions relating to background and behavior.

Background: belonging to a Deaf organization or club, attended a Deaf school, fluent in Sign Language and have family members who are Deaf.

Behavior: read Deaf Magazines regularly, active in the Deaf Club and have Deaf friends.

Using a points system, Paal determined if a person’s Deaf Identity is S (1-2 points) all the way to XL (7-8 points). He cautioned that the results may be different now than in 1999 where there was less media, less internet use and limited texting. The Deaf Community depended more on the Deaf Club as an information centre in the past.

Paal discussed the different ways we are involved in politics: election, organizations, media and protest actions. In today’s age, media is involved in all aspects of politics and is usually the best way to get “attention” about an issue. In 1949, the UN Human Rights convention included the freedom of opinion and expression and the right to receive information from more than one source.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1949

Do the members of the Deaf Community enjoy this privilege? Compared to the majority, Deaf people tend to receive less information because of problems with captioning/subtitles, interpreters and not getting the whole information. As a result of this, less Deaf people participate in the elections and voting. Other factors such as employment and education also have an impact. Paal found that Deaf people with S and XL identities have the highest percentage of voting.

Compared to the majority, as well as other minorities, the Deaf Community has the highest percentage of participation in Deaf organizations. A higher percentage of Deaf people are also involved in activism and protests. Paal concluded that Deaf people who are involved in organizations and activism are more likely to vote. He also stressed that the Deaf Community is still very much involved in politics but in mediums where we have control. Deaf organizations and protests allows more authority and control for the Deaf while elections and media still exclude us. Communication and information are very important for Deaf people to become involved in the general society. If we can improve access to communication and information, such as interpreters and more sign language usage, we will be able to participate more as natural citizens.

Paal discussed with us our goals after completing the Frontrunners programme. Many of us are interested in working with Deaf youth and strengthening their participation in the Deaf Community. In doing so, we need to increase awareness, networking, membership and teach leadership, provide more information and improve the education system. All this needs to be done within the Deaf Community as well as in the general society.

In determining and achieving goals, the following steps should be followed:

1. Find out what you want
   Determine what is most needed and what goals you need to make.
2. Find out where you stand
   Using the new goals you made, see what aspects you need to focus on.
3. Find out what you need to do to reach the goal
   Create steps in determining how the goal can be achieved.
4. Do it!
   Take action and complete all the steps for achieving your goal!

Politics and Activism

Tomato Lichy from England spent two days with us sharing information about activism in the Deaf Community. We opened our discussion by examining political systems and how we can work with politics.

The personal is political.

We, as Deaf people, are constantly working with the government for different issues such as sign language, discrimination and disability laws, monetary support and so on. The government has power over many aspects in our life relating to education and sign language, BUT can they control our hands? Do they have a right to decide if we want to express ourselves through sign language, the most accessible and natural language of the Deaf?

Everything we do in life CAN be political. The philosopher Foucault makes this point so beautifully:
The war between the state and the individual is fought on the battleground of the skin. The state can be the government, society or religion and constantly fights with the individual regarding their human or personal rights relating to their body (skin). That is what happens with government/society and Deaf people- we are constantly fighting for our rights to use sign language and to have fully accessible bilingual education. We are also constantly fighting organizations who are focused on "fixing our problems" relating to hearing loss.

One way for the Deaf Community to fight for more rights and protection is through activism. Activism can include protests, demonstrations, marches, blocking access to a building or street, distributing posters and flyers, etc. There are different levels of activism; it can range from a non-violent small group of people handing out flyers in a public park to a massive demonstration with hundreds of people that results in the use of violence. Tomato Lichy has had experience with activism, including working with the Deaf Liberation Front in England. This group focused on British Sign Language (BSL) and demanded that the government make BSL an official language of the UK. Tomato shared his experiences and showed us pictures of different marches and demonstrations in England. You can read more about the Deaf Liberation Front and see pictures at www.deafpowernow.org. The group was successful and England approved BSL in March 2003.

For a demonstration or protest, it is best to have 3 to 9 people so the action is more clear and there is less confusion. However, for a march, the more, the better! In preparing for a march or demonstration, the group must have a clear objective, to understand clearly and agree what their demands are. It is also important and more effective if the group is non-violent. Is it almost always unnecessary to resort to violence during a protest or demonstration and will protect the group from arrest or a court visit. It is also important that the group forms affinity groups, almost like a buddy system where two or three people watch out for each other and provide support when needed. If the group needs to split up, the affinity groups stay together. It is extremely important that no trespassing or theft happens during a protest/demonstration. If entering a building or office, it is important that nothing is touched or moved and caution is taken with photographing and the use of a video camera.

There are many different kinds of activism that the Deaf Community can participate in. It is important that we stand up for our rights and the best method for each situation needs to be assessed. Some will be successful but others may not be; support and determination is essential.

Never doubt that a small group of individuals can change the world,
for it’s the only thing that can.

Bhutan

A fascinating two days!

Joe Murray from America, currently residing in Norway, worked with us for two long days. We covered a wide range of subjects such as eugenics and genetic engineering, what it means to be a Deaf person and Deaf history. We also presented three articles that shows different perspectives about the Deaf Community as a whole and had a great discussion!

First, we focused on the history of Deaf people and eugenics, how intermarriage between Deaf persons were discouraged. Alexander Graham Bell, ironically the inventor of the telephone, was a pioneer in the eugenics movement against Deaf people. Joe shared some personal information about Bell and his life; it was amazing to actually view Bell as a human being who himself had personal doubts about what he was doing. It was also interesting to learn about the reactions Deaf people had toward the eugenics movement and campaign to keep Deaf persons from marrying one another. The movement can be considered a failure because approximately 90% of Deaf still marry other Deaf, one of the highest ratings of a minority group. As I said before, in order to understand life as it is now, it is important to understand the past, to learn from mistakes and to find strategies for the future.

My group presented Harlan Lane's article Ethnicity, Ethics and the Deaf-World. This was a fascinating article where the argument that Deaf people belong to an ethnic group is a strong one. He explained how we can't be identified with other disability groups because of several reasons: our needs are very different, we have a high percentage of intermarriage and we do not view ourselves as disabled. After presenting this article and learning about different perspectives as presented by the other groups, we had a heated discussion about which group we should belong to: Disabled or Minority (linguistic, ethnic, etc). We also discussed whether we can belong to BOTH. Some of us were unsure what we could do- like me for example. In America, we've been classified as disabled for many years- many of our privileges, rights and protection are under disability laws. I can't help but wonder if it IS possible to make a transition from being a disability group to a minority group completely. What would happen with all the laws that protect us from discrimination and provide us with access to interpreters, captioning, etc. When I think about it... almost everything I do in America is somehow related to being "disabled"- at the University, I use Disability Services, my government monetary support is from Disability funds and I am a licensed Special Education teacher, meaning I teach "disabled" children. I feel the concept is already so much rooted into the system that I must wonder how we can make the transition to being protected as a minority group. What about using both labels? Harlan Lane argues against using both labels; he believes that would make our fight weaker and offers those involved in oralism/pathology the opportunity to continue and try to fix our disability. What a dilemma!

We ended our two rewarding days with Joe by discussing how we should view ourselves and what argument we should use against the oralism/cochlear implant movement. Many Deaf activist groups have steered away from the ear, having nothing to do with our inability to hear. Many people supporting oralism tend to focus on the 5 senses and how Deaf people lack one sense: hearing. We discussed embracing this concept and using it against them! Why don't we declare that YES, we do lack one sense but that does not make us any less than anyone else. Our other senses are enhanced and we have adapted to living without the sense of hearing. We ARE different and there's nothing wrong with that! I must agree with this... I was raised with this perspective. My parents always told me that EVERYONE is different or unique in their own ways. If it is not deafness, it could be a particular skill or ability to do something. For me, I am a visual person who uses a beautiful visual language and live in a rich culture. I am different and accept myself just the way I am! Maybe if we used this perspective and jumped over to the same "side" as our enemies, we would be able to accomplish much more. Maybe we would be able to preserve our rich heritage, culture and language, helping countless Deaf children have a positive view of themselves!

Deafism and Philosophy

Whew... what an interesting couple weeks we've had here! I've absorbed so much information about a variety of topics relating to the Deaf World. I've learned so much but my list of research topics has been expanding ever so rapidly! I wonder if I'll ever have time to just sit at my computer and surf the web!

Learning about Deafism, we had a crash course in Philosophy and I really became interested in learning more about the field of Philosophy. Foucault's name is constantly mentioned and his work seems to "help" our cause so I find it important that we know about this philosopher. Also, in fighting for the preservation of our culture and language, we need to know the different perspectives and sciences that are harmful to us. One such theory is Positivism, the field of positive sciences. This includes biology, the area in which the Deaf community has suffered greatly. With the biological view of us and our community, the focus becomes narrow and more specific on the problem of hearing loss. From this point-of-view, our hearing loss is a problem that needs to be repaired; this perspective has persisted for centuries. How can we aid the transition from this view to a more postmodernism view, one that focus on the whole human and the betterment of human life?
I also find it extremely important that members of the Deaf Community understand and are able to discuss different topics such as phonocentrism (the discriminatory focus on spoken language), audiocentrism (the excessive and demeaning focus on hearing) and audism, oppression related to sign language and visual communication. Deafism, Deafhood and other information about minority/ethnic groups are also important. In knowing this information, we are able to defend our community and culture, provide viable arguments and basically show that we "know what we're talking about!" Armed with this information, we can help protect our community from ethnocide that may result from cochlear implants and genetic engineering.