Lecture 15 - Audism Flashcards
(43 cards)
You must have ____ _______ to understand audism
deaf people
evidence of audism
- Product of history
- Divisions in Deaf community
- Mental Health statistics
- Do not have 100% access to: services, education, and technology
- Documentary evidence:
- ASL literature
- ASL poetry
- De’VIA
De’VIA audism
- Nancy Rourke: focuses on the ear and the lips, doesn’t show much of the face; talks about how we are identified by our ears and our inability to hear and speak.
- Jotanta Liptak: is the hearing device audistic? It’s the power attitude behind the hearing aid that is audistic, not the device itself.
Dr. Dirksen Bauman on audism:
“… the long-range goal is to diminish audist beliefs and practices. To do that, we must gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of audism. To begin, we must be able to identify it”
audism definition
- audire: to hear
- ism: a system of practice, behavior, belief, or attitude
Tom Humphries’s definition of audism
The notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears.
1) Audism is in people who
continually judge deaf people’s intelligence and success on the basis of their ability in the language of hearing culture.
2) audism appears when
the assumption is made that the deaf person’s happiness depends on acquiring fluency in the language of the hearing culture.
3) audism appears when deaf people
actively participate in the oppression of other deaf people by demanding of them the same set of standards, behavior, and values that they demand of hearing people.
Audist establishment
the corporate institution for dealing with deaf people
– dealing with them by making statements about them, authorizing views of them, describing them, teaching about them, governing where they go to school, and in some cases, where they live; in short, audism is the hearing way of dominating, restructuring, and exercising authority over the deaf community…
Traits used to refer to Deaf people in professional literature:
- Social: asocial, childlike, weak conscience, dependent, disobedient, irresponsible, isolated, morally undeveloped
- Cognitive: concrete, egocentric, poor conceptual thinking, unintelligent, no language, poor language, naïve, poor self-awareness
- Behavioral: aggressive, immature, lacking initiative, impulsive, possessive, stubborn, few interests, undeveloped personality
- Emotional: depressive, explosive, emotionally disturbed, irritable, paranoid, neurotic, lack empathy, psychotic reactions
Audist specialists:
… it includes such professional people as administrators of schools for the deaf children and of training programs for deaf adults, interpreters, and some audiologists, speech therapists, otologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, librarian, researchers, social workers, and hearing aid specialists.
Audism is like
sexism and racism: an attitude based on pathological thinking which results in negative stigma toward anyone who does not hear, like racism or sexism, audism judges, labels, and limits individuals on the basis on whether a person hears and speaks.
Phonocentrism
- Term from: Jacques Derrida
- Not necessarily ableism but favoring or more emphasis on hearing over other senses
- Hearing still have privileges even if: they have many intersections of membership of minority groups.
- Dr. Bauman: compared it with audism. Similarities and differences like with ableism.
Bahan and Bauman (2000)’s definition:
a metaphysical orientation that links human identity with speech.
- Logic:
- speech = language
- language = human (to differ from animals)
- Therefore: to be human, you have to speak.
Three definitions simplified: Audism
1) Individual, physical: the notion that one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or behave in the manner of one who hears.
2) Institutional, system: a system of advantage based on hearing ability.
3) Internalization: a metaphysical orientation that links human identity with speech.
adding audism to dictionary
- Fourth definition: proposed 4th definition adapted from other words with isms in the same dictionary
- Only in two dictionaries: Merriam Webster and American Heritage (online). Urban Dictionary (online)
- “Audism” on Wikipedia: apparently typed in by Deaf in Wikipedia.
Behaviors that show audism
1) jumping in to help a deaf person communicate
2) asking a Deaf person to read your lips or write when s/he has indicated this isn’t preferred
3) making phone calls for a deaf person since they “can’t”
4) refusing to call an interpreter when one is requested
5) assuming that those with better speech/English skills are superior
6) Asking a Deaf person to “tone down” their facial expressions because they are making others uncomfortable.
7) Refusing to explain to a Deaf person why everyone around him is laughing -
8) developing a significant amount of instructional time for a Deaf child to lip-reading and speech therapy rather than educational subjects.
Audism in Deaf education
- Hearing faculty: talking to each other without signing in front of children
- Correct English but not ASL
- No ASL assessment needed for teachers for the deaf or even deaf students.
Simultaneous Communication (SimCom). [audism ex]
- English > ASL = Linguicism
- Linguicism is one form of Audism
- Hearing > Deaf = Audism
- Therefore SimCom = Audism
Asking hearing people for: English correction advice like they ask Deaf people for advice with ASL (audism ex)
- Power issues
- hearing privileges
With hearing technologies audism examples
1) Giving (forcing?): deaf children to receive Cochlear Implants
2) Removing Cochlear Implants = Deafism?
3) Opposed to CI = Deafism?
4) Desire to: to hear better
5) CI signs: v-vent, U, or “C.I”
Associating CI with Audism
cannot compare a technological device with philosophy or attitude. But many Deaf people associate CI with audism.
Push for CI is involved with:
audism motives, money, politics, pathological mentality
- Dilemma: child has no choice but they benefit best from CI at early age
- Hearing professionals recommend: deaf children be taught in an oral environment exclusively
