Video: "I am Deaf Enough"

Seattle-area deaf actress and YouTuber Cheyenna Clearbrook has put together a video for her more than 100K subscribers called "I am Deaf Enough." Born deaf, she was featured in a TEDx talk while a student at Gallaudet University student.

The Rise of DeafSpace

Hansel Bauman, the architect who established the DeafSpace Project at Gallaudet, "is adamant that DeafSpace is very different from ideas such as 'human-centred design' and 'universal design.' Architecture for the deaf community should go beyond the goal of producing a design that simply suits its users well, he says. Instead spaces built for the deaf should understand and promote their community’s culture, too." Read more in an Economist article about "the rise of buildings for the deaf and blind" here. Below is a TEDx video featuring Bauman.

'America's Deaf Team' Tackles Identity Politics

The Atlantic has published a long piece about Gallaudet, its football team, and the issues that divide and unite the culture. Matthew Davis writes:

I have met mainstream-educated hard-of-hearing players who say they have found their true selves and a true home at Gallaudet. I have met similar players who say they feel like more of an outsider within Gallaudet’s gates than outside them. And I have met completely deaf, deaf-school-educated players who are both welcoming to their mainstreamed brothers and also skeptical of their commitment to ASL. But football unites them—in fact, football seems to unite everyone. Nothing celebrates the myriad layers of the deaf community quite like Gallaudet’s Homecoming game, a Saturday afternoon that is the largest annual gathering of the deaf and hard-of-hearing anywhere in the world.

Read the full article here.

deaf or Deaf? Academics weigh in

Academics argue over when and whether to capitalize "deaf" in a Chronicle of Higher Ed stories. The author of the article says the question is "whether students should be encouraged to capitalize 'self-defined references for specific groups,' as Penn State’s office puts it, in order to convey respect—or whether such capitalization implies advocacy and is inappropriate in an analytical paper." In the comment section, there are academics taking both sides. Read the story here.

Prediction about the future of Deaf Culture

One of the contributors to the Auslan dictionary, Trevor Johnston, who is a Professor of Signed Language Linguistics at Sydney's Macquarie University says "There will be a time in the next 50 years where I feel comfortable to say the deaf community won't exist." Find out why he says this in an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

How Technology Threatens Deaf Identity

New York writer Patrick deHahn says, "When cochlear implants are no longer visible, the solidarity of a deaf community may be lost." He writes in an opinion piece for The Atlantic:

The Deaf subculture is able to separate itself from the lowercase “d” deaf group by spotting speaking individuals with hearing aids and cochlear implants. When no one is able to see these hearing devices, internal implant adoptees will likely be seen as purely hearing people. This isn’t going to improve the divide in the deaf population. If anything, hidden hearing technology could further estrange the two groups.

Read more here.

Straddling two worlds

A Washington Post columnist explores the play Tribes (which is now playing in DC) and other occasions she's come into contact with Deaf Culture in an article titled Straddling two worlds — deaf and hearing — on and off stage. Read the column here.

5 myths about being deaf

Justin Leblanc

'Project Runway' alum Justin Leblanc shares 5 myths about being deaf with the Chicago Tribune. Number one is that "hearing-impaired" is the preferred adjective. Leblanc says, "A lot of deaf people get offended when they're referred to as 'hearing-impaired. For me it's not an impairment. It's a way of life. I was born this way. Deaf is appropriate. I'm a proud deaf person." Read more of Leblanc's myths here.

Thesis on Deaf Culture wins Award

A masters student at Cal State Fullerton has won an award for his thesis titled Lend Me Your Eyes: Attending to Deaf Culture and the Maneuverability of Identity. The award committee called Ian Barraza's work “excellent, lucid, interesting, well-written and exceptionally well-researched.” For his effort, Barraza will receive the Giles T. Brown Outstanding Thesis Award which is named in honor of Giles T. Brown, associate vice president emeritus for academic programs and graduate studies, professor emeritus of history and recipient of the university’s Outstanding Professor Award. Here's a video from a few years back of Barraza when he was first learning to sign.

Andrew Solomon on Deaf Culture

A TED talk in which Andrew Solomon talks about "plunging into the deaf world" (closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages here).

Deaf culture seeks respect, empowerment

An Illinois newspaper takes a look at what makes Deaf culture unique and thriving in an article here.

Deaf with a Capital D

An Iowa mom explains her role in the Deaf community. Read her story here.

Newspaper: Why Not All Deaf People want to be Cured

The U.K's Telegraph has published a provocative article titled Why Not All Deaf People want to be Cured. You'll find it here.

Deaf Culture's Origins

The concept of Deaf Culture was first introduced in 1965 in the Dictionary of American Sign Language by William Stokoe, Carl Croneberg, and Dorothy Casterline. Before this time deaf people were looked at by medical and educational professionals only in terms of their deafness or hearing loss, not in terms of having their own culture.

UCLA & ASL

The campus newspaper at UCLA takes a look at progress toward offering ASL classes at the school in an article here.

Deaf Culture Differences

• To get someone's attention, hearing people will call out someone's name. Deaf people may flick a light, stomp their feet or even toss something in the line of vision of the person,

• Hearing people shake hands. Deaf people hug.

• It is rude in hearing culture to point. In Deaf culture pointing is acceptable and quite helpful.

• Hearing people have short goodbyes. Deaf people enjoy and cherish greetings both coming and going.

• Hearing people find talking with your mouth full as very rude. Deaf people can talk with their mouth full.

• The hearing world is often in a rush to get to the point. For Deaf culture, no detail is unimportant! Every captivating story is told in vivid visuals.

The Issue of Deaf Culture

The Boston Globe offers an interview with Professor Harlan Lane author of People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry here.

Talking to Yourself

Some hearing people wonder if the deaf talk to themselves. The answer is obviously “yes”. The only difference is that while hearing people will talk to themselves in speech, the deaf will do it in sign language if that is how they communicate. They may rehearse a speech, mull over a conversation in their head or simply ramble internally about the day’s happenings. Imagine waving good-bye or blowing a kiss. That’s a ways hearing people talk with gestures. Imagine expanding that into a whole language of signs with grammar and its own set of rules, the greater your ability to talk to yourself without verbal expressions.

Getting to Know.. Deaf Culture

Deafness is one of the only medical conditions associated with its own set of cultural traditions. Many are concerned that technology will water down the use of sign language and minimize social interaction between deaf people. Some even shun devices designed to help them hear to protect the sanctity of deaf culture.

Kansas Musuem

A museum in Kansas is teaching the public about sign language and the Deaf culture the William Marra Museum of Deaf Culture is located in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe. The facility is the result of a cooperative effort between the Kansas Educational Foundation for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Kansas School for the Deaf. One of the goals of the museum is to help deaf children appreciate their rich culture.