Intro: Deaf People in America
The deaf community in America is a very tightly knit group. Deaf people care for other deaf people and are just in general very friendly when they run into each other. Despite this, they don’t see themselves as at a disadvantage because of their condition, unlike the majority of the population. It’s not as though they face treatment similar to racism or other discrimination. They just don’t want being deaf to be qualified as a disability. Being without one of your senses just seems like something that would hold you back, and that mindset just grew in people’s minds. Similar to how Edward Said describes colonialism setting in because when it was written about it was treated as the norm (Said 12). Both cases can be described as no more than a seed that grew into a massive tree, with reach across the world.
Intro: Language Delay
There is a term used in the education system for children who aren’t developing language skills at the rate they should be in the early foundational years of schooling. The main concern for these students is that they won’t be able to communicate at the level they need to to advance in other subjects. The term used to describe this situation is language delay.
Intro: Language Deprivation
Over 90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents (Quick 1). When this happens some of the parents reach out to the deaf community and get their child involved with learning sign language at an early age. However, some parents choose to teach their child to read lips and communicate with hearing people in other non-sign language ways. Some parents even give their young children cochlear implants, (a brain implant that gives a hearing impaired person a modified sense of hearing) if it’s in their price range. These parents don’t choose this method because they have malice toward the deaf community, (I can’t speak for everyone, but this is the case for most parents) they just think that this is what’s best for their children.
When these parents choose to not teach their child sign language they become some of the students classified with language delay because sign language is an acceptable form of communication, and much more efficient than the other methods parents teach. At this point, the children taught other forms of communication are incorrectly classified as language delayed. Considering their past, a more accurate title would be language deprived.
The Injustice
Again, it isn’t like deaf people are treated like people who are victims of racism or sexism. They simply just want to be considered normal people. Hearing parents of deaf children teach their children ways to communicate with hearing people, instead of teaching them sign language not out of malice, but because they think it’s what’s best. They think being deaf is a disability and they want their child to be normal.
This kind of mindset is just a natural opinion of hearing people. From the perspective of a person who relies on their hearing every second that they are conscious it makes sense that they see a lack of that sense as a disability.
This causes deaf people to be almost ignored. Especially in situations where a hearing person is trying to communicate to a deaf person and a hearing person at the same time. The deaf person is “spoken” to after the hearing person is. This is a common trend, and while it may not seem to be that terrible, just imagine being treated like an afterthought every time you try to have a conversation.
The G Word 