Ronald Rothstein
January 25th, 2015
Lyra Behnke
ASL 102
Reflection Paper
Deaf Awareness Paper
In 1996, Carla A. Halpern wrote an article called “Listening in on Deaf Culture”, which talks about the word “deaf” in two different senses; referring to a physical characteristic and to a cultural identity[1]. Halpern dives right into the discussion with readers and talks about how being deaf is not a defect but it’s a source of connection[2]. For instance, Halpern explains how its not just deaf people who are connected in an environment, but it also ranges to people who are hard of hearing in many levels. This isn’t a group of those who are sorrow about having a disability/defect, but people who are proud to be using what they have as a gift to communicate with hearing people. Perhaps one of the most important facts that Halpern describes is that sign language is not “universal”, because it seems to people who are unaware of deaf culture only think that there is one sign language such as ASL, when really there are several different kinds of sign language[3]. This spectrum of different sign languages ranges from countries with their own such as Great Britain, German, French, etc.
There is one part in the paper that talks about how the deaf culture is harsh on “traitors”, which are deaf people who are necessarily not deaf people. Specifically I think that is identifying people who are deaf that trying to act like people who can hear. One person that comes to mind when I think about this, is Marlee Matlin, who is a deaf actress that won an academy award for best actress. However, she was shunned in deaf community, when she signed and spoke in front of a big group of people at an award ceremony. My question would, be why is it so bad for a deaf person to try and talk?
One thing about reading this article that I was surprised about, was the percentage of people who are born from hearing parents but are deaf people was about 90 percent[4]. I took a Deaf History course here at WOU last year, so I am familiar with deaf history and society. But that last statistic must of passed through my mind, but knowing this article was written in 1996, I feel the stats have changed a little bit, as I know some deaf couples are having children and having them become deaf after being born.
The very last paragraph in the paper strikes home really well for me. What I am talking about is how the Deaf community is genuine about hearing people to join their community so that there is no animosity between wither group. Perhaps what really serves more of a statement is the last sentence; which states, “Our role is not to give Deaf people a voice; it is to make sure that the voice already present is heard. And we can do that. We can teach other hearing people to listen.[5]”.
[1] Introduction
[2] Second Paragraph
[3] “Not a Disability” paragraph 7
[4] Eighth Paragraph “Deaf Culture”
[5] Last Paragraph