Lecture 24 - The Future of the Deaf Community

Question 1

Thriving Deaf community

Answer 1

• Signing becomes: a common sight in public.
• Communication access: text, email, VRS, etc.
• TV captions
• Anti-discrimination laws, Disability rights, civil rights give Deaf people: opportunity for equal opportunity for jobs, education, etc.
• Cultural pluralism in society helps people: become more accepting of Deaf culture and language.
• Deaf Gain concept sees Deaf as: an asset to humanity.

Question 2

Vanishing Deaf community

Answer 2

• Medical community is bent on: promoting only the pathological viewpoint and the need to fix deafness.
• They have 1) the most power and 2) and first access to parents of deaf children
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communicative Disorders: has a budget of 400,000,000 dollars to eradicate deafness.

Question 3

Cochlear Implant corporations and Listen and Speak (formerly Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf) are working together to spread:

Answer 3

• the philosophy or oralism
• paired with CI for children
• genetic counseling, screening, regeneration,
  neo-eugenics, and inclusiveness movement

Question 4

A growing multi-handicapped community

Answer 4

• 33% of Deaf children are “Deaf plus…”
• Children who are deaf for reasons other than heredity are: twice as likely to have concurring disabilities
• Deaf culture unlikely to be celebrated or embraced at least due to: the severity of disabilities
• Inclusivism requires a deaf school to: include deaf with all kinds of multi-handicapped (MH) kids.
• Curriculum: now changed to accommodate them

Question 5

Future trends

Answer 5

• Holcomb’s timeless solutions” by Deaf people in history: Will society listen to Deaf leaders who possess Deaf life wisdom or ignore them?
• More economically and politically powerful are: CI corporations, Hearing legislatures ignorant of Deaf culture, Medical community and hearing parents far outnumber the Deaf community.
• English discourse on the internet and in the media determines: the course

Question 6

Hopes and dreams of the Deaf community

Answer 6

• Next generation of deaf children will: not suffer the same thing as many have in the past.
• Model after: strong bilingual deaf schools in California, Maryland, and Texas.
• Not oppression but: political support, cultural acceptance, technology for access.
• Celebration and growth of Deaf culture and ASL
• Tom Holcomb, PhD: “Because the solutions of Deaf culture exist to allow Deaf people to lead productive lives, many of them feel that their own childhood was made unnecessarily difficult by parents who were misled by professionals and industry into believing that these solutions were undesirable.”

Question 7

Reviewing the goals of this course

Answer 7

• understand, appreciate, and respect Deaf culture and ASL.
• Recognize evidence of Deaf culture through all common cultural elements found in the Deaf community.
• Examine: hearing privileges, dynamics, causes and consequences of cultural oppression.
• Mature and enrich: your life experiences as a human being in a diverse society.
• Learn what you can do as: an ally to the Deaf Community.