I learnt a new word today.. Audism, it is a term used to describe prejudice against a deaf or hearing impaired person. A belief that hearing is superior to being Deaf.
This is an interesting word.. what a wonderful resource the Internet is. As I'm writing this post I'm grinning from ear to ear, as I normally do when I learn something new and stimulating.
Tony had recently made some wonderful cosmetic changes to his blog and saw the links to deaf related material (He possibly discovered them while doing research for his assignment at Uni). Amongst the links on Tony's blog is http://www.deafread.com/, which I will include in my list of links as well.
It is an extremely valuable resource for deafies. It was in this website I discovered a post on the Reunify Gally blog titled "Deaf rejecting deaf" (note the capitalisation of the two words).
This post is a well articulated piece describing a typical experience of a deaf† person. What was written in this post had generally matched my own experience when I first discovered the Deaf‡ community (see explanation of terms at the end of this post) in 2001.
Those experiences had a role to play in shaping my decision as to whether or not to get a Cochlear Implant in 2004. I made a brief mention about this in April 2006.
It's ironic that the Cochlear implant community is growing partially due to the Audism that exists in the Deaf community. At a time where the Deaf community in Australia itself is struggling to survive because their numbers are dwindling and the number of institutions who support the Deaf community are also closing in greater numbers.
I'll be honest with you because I do have some friends who are a part of the Deaf community and they do regularly attend community events in an effort to support the community. They will not like what I'm about to say. I'm unable to contain my glee (Schadenfreude is a lovely word isn't it) that this is happening.
All is not entirely lost, today I went to a Cochlear Implant community event and discovered that there are a few young people who have implants are organising social events inviting Deaf & deaf people to come together in a neutral environment in an effort to reduce Audism.
A lofty goal for sure, can such initiatives succeed ? All it will do is slowly help mend the rifts between the two groups but I don't believe it will completely eradicate Audism. But it will go a long way towards minimising it in both camps.
I can honestly say that I've no regrets about getting the implant, in fact the only regret was that I didn't get it done earlier. Oh well there's no point in worrying about it now. It's changed my life for the better, so much that I'm seriously considering getting another implant in my other ear.
Now I'm off to do some interesting reading about Audism.....
† deaf: a word to categorise a deaf person who does not participate in cultural events within a sign language community. Generally these people have a spoken language as their "mother tongue" and do not use sign language on a regular basis.
‡ Deaf: a word to categorise a culturally deaf person, who use a sign language on a regular basis and they generally participate in cultural events within a sign language community. Generally these people have a sign language as their "mother tongue".
This is an interesting word.. what a wonderful resource the Internet is. As I'm writing this post I'm grinning from ear to ear, as I normally do when I learn something new and stimulating.
Tony had recently made some wonderful cosmetic changes to his blog and saw the links to deaf related material (He possibly discovered them while doing research for his assignment at Uni). Amongst the links on Tony's blog is http://www.deafread.com/, which I will include in my list of links as well.
It is an extremely valuable resource for deafies. It was in this website I discovered a post on the Reunify Gally blog titled "Deaf rejecting deaf" (note the capitalisation of the two words).
This post is a well articulated piece describing a typical experience of a deaf† person. What was written in this post had generally matched my own experience when I first discovered the Deaf‡ community (see explanation of terms at the end of this post) in 2001.
Those experiences had a role to play in shaping my decision as to whether or not to get a Cochlear Implant in 2004. I made a brief mention about this in April 2006.
It's ironic that the Cochlear implant community is growing partially due to the Audism that exists in the Deaf community. At a time where the Deaf community in Australia itself is struggling to survive because their numbers are dwindling and the number of institutions who support the Deaf community are also closing in greater numbers.
I'll be honest with you because I do have some friends who are a part of the Deaf community and they do regularly attend community events in an effort to support the community. They will not like what I'm about to say. I'm unable to contain my glee (Schadenfreude is a lovely word isn't it) that this is happening.
All is not entirely lost, today I went to a Cochlear Implant community event and discovered that there are a few young people who have implants are organising social events inviting Deaf & deaf people to come together in a neutral environment in an effort to reduce Audism.
A lofty goal for sure, can such initiatives succeed ? All it will do is slowly help mend the rifts between the two groups but I don't believe it will completely eradicate Audism. But it will go a long way towards minimising it in both camps.
I can honestly say that I've no regrets about getting the implant, in fact the only regret was that I didn't get it done earlier. Oh well there's no point in worrying about it now. It's changed my life for the better, so much that I'm seriously considering getting another implant in my other ear.
Now I'm off to do some interesting reading about Audism.....
† deaf: a word to categorise a deaf person who does not participate in cultural events within a sign language community. Generally these people have a spoken language as their "mother tongue" and do not use sign language on a regular basis.
‡ Deaf: a word to categorise a culturally deaf person, who use a sign language on a regular basis and they generally participate in cultural events within a sign language community. Generally these people have a sign language as their "mother tongue".
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2 comments:
The use of cochlear implants is not growing because of Audism in the Deaf community, but the result of parents who want their children to hear, or adults like yourself, who make an informed decision to have one.
Deafies don't practise Audism, how can they? They don't consider Hearing to be superior to Deafness. deafies on the other hand..can't speak for all of them, may.
Keep up the reading tho... and read widely, and know your history. Too many Deafies and deafies do not know their history.. so we end up with all these words that fly thick and fast filled with rancour and recrimination, and just sheer ignorance.
Quote: It's ironic that the Cochlear implant community is growing partially due to the Audism that exists in the Deaf community.
Note the use of the word partially in my post. It is one of the causes of why some adults who make the decision to get a Cochlear Implant. The other major reason is better employment & relationship prospects.
I agree with you that one of the major cause of why CI's are growing is due to hearing parents wanting their children to hear.
There is also a fairly large proportion of the CI community who are late deafened, that is they had acquired a hearing loss later on in life.
Your question "Deafies don't practise Audism, how can they?" is like saying "Black people don't practice racism, how can they ?".
Perhaps I didn't explain the definition of the term clearly enough. I'll have another crack at it in my next post after I've read a bit more about this topic.
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