General
As a very important one I feel that two decisive factors must always be considered. The first factor is that deafness in society is mostly classified and viewed as a disability and the second factor is that Deafs are a linguistic minority and not as a hindrance. This can’t be presented as a contradiction. I, as a deaf person, I do have no barriers in my language community. On the other hand, disability is a sociological construct and a social reality. In many cases I do have no access to an acoustically oriented language community.
I think it’s about allowing people to be different. It’s worthwhile reading Paddy Ladd’s book on Deaf Culture (Unterstanding Deaf Culture: In search of deafhood). Ladd is himself deaf and teach at the University of Bristol. He describes among other things how the movement against the autonomy of the deaf was characterized by colonial thinking in the late 19th century. Today, in the times of post-colonialism, we try to see the culture of the deaf new with a freer look, also as a contribution to the cultural diversity of our society.
The cochlear implant (CI) as a solution?
Personally, I reject any genetic discussion of these questions because it’s only for me to be able to honor and protect human life. The diversity of living being must be protected at all costs. We must not ask who is worth living and who isn’t. Can we question the existence of African pygmies, for example, because they are small? That would be absurd!
In this context, it should also be mentioned here that people who grew up with the existing sense of hearing and lose their hearing due to external influences, see a solution to regaining their hearing identity, is perfectly legitimate.
Hearing parents, deaf child.
About 98% of deaf children have hearing parents. A number of parents hearing it is hardly a fantastic message to learn that their own child is deaf and sometimes the grief over the missing and absent hearing is so deep that they and the child take a great painful path and trust in themselves give wrong hands.
Careful listening parents turn to the doctors faithfully. School medicine has its own view of dealing with this topic. It’s rational and mostly they doctors see the deaf child as something that needs to be fixed in order to remedy a damage.
The advice on a CI (Cochlera Implant), speech therapy and voice training so that the deaf child can be integrated into the majority listening society to reduce the future social suffering. In order for the child to achieve an optimal learning success, it’s recommended not to educate the child with sign language, as this is very hindering for the course of the language development.
Many unenlightened people still associate in 2023 with the word „mute“ discriminating images of a person like „a derrick’s chapel“ or „a deaf nut“ that grew up in the acoustic forest of the phonetic language. This is not correct, for linguistic minority also offers it’s adventurous, equivalent and equitable world and fabulous colorful culture to live.
The first language of deaf persons is the respective national sign language. In the Austrian Federal Constitutional Law, the AUSTRIAN sign language has been recognized and registered as an official language since 2005. It states:
„The Austrian sign language is recognized as an independent language.
The details determine the laws.“
The challenge we face is that it’s recognized and registered but there are no laws that safeguard, protect and regulate our cultural human rights and the right to education.
The motto is not to give up because it’s about our deaf world and our deaf children, who should definitely have absolute human rights and every conceivable and given measures to understood in their first language how the world is turning!
written by wolkenpirat | All rights reserved.