if its entirely dependent on society for $$$, then its pretty hard to be impressed with the results.
You're assuming with that statement that all Deafies are on SSI/Disablity. You are assuming (like so many newly dx hearing parents of deaf/hoh kids who choose oralism ) that knowledge of ASL= a poor education/less oppertunties in life/ that their kids will become those peddlers who sell ASL cards/or that it automaticly means that they'll be on SSI/Disabilty for life.
However, in this day and age, those who depend on the healthcare system and sophiscated healthcare technology in order to function in day to day life. (read oralists) are probaly the ones most likely to have to go on SSI/Disabilty b/c they cannot find a job that pays enough money for both basic costs of living AND healthcare expenses and the additional expenses that their disabilty incurs. Even a lot of hearing/otherwise able-bodied people have trouble finding good healthcare. My sister who has absolutly no disabilties, and went to a VERY good competive school (Boston University) and who isn't one of those people who live large,(read two SUVs) or has trouble with money, has trouble finding access to good quality healthcare! I don't even WANT to think about what it's going to be like for me (hoh, and many other disabilties) when I get out of school!
Yes, a lot of us deaf/hoh are unemployed/underemployed...but so what? Many other groups of disabled ( blind,low vision, wheelchair users, etc) are unemployed/underemployed or live off of SSI/Disabilty. It's not just those of us who are profoundly/extremely severely effected by our disabiilties.(eg a quaduplic or someone who is profoundly/severely/extreme profoundly <eg someone in a coma or a persisant vegetaive state> mentally effected, or someone who has ten gazillion serious medical probs.
It's not just those who've gone to schools for the deaf or who use ASL who are unempolyed/underemployed. Even mainstreamed and oral are unemployed/underemployed. As a matter of fact, nowadays the gross majority of deaf/hoh students have been mainstreamed. Very few of us have gone to schools for the deaf. Besides if schools for the deaf are a key culprit, then how come employment levels were so high among deaf/hoh folks before IDEA was enacted? In 1970 the employment levels for deaf white males were HIGHER then for the HEARING population! This is when most deaf/hoh students attended schools for the deaf, and only a small percentage of deaf/hoh were mainstreamed!
Maybe it has to do with methodology...I know that for example, Braille is really out of fashion in blind education, just as ASL is out of fashion in deaf education.
The blind/low vision community has simliar unemployment/underemployment problems. Yet of those who are employed, most of them (80%) are literate in Braille. Maybe there's a simlair correlation with ASL and the number of deaf/hoh who are employed. I know also, most mainstreamed teachers (including special ed teachers) are not adquatly trained to teach deaf/hoh and actually they are not aquatly trained to teach most kids with classic disabilties. Most of their training is spent on learning disablities! I gotta run...will return later!
Thanks Sabby! Actually, I don't think Boult is Anti-Deaf, just that he's fallen into the trap of thinking that the oral route is the best thing in the world! I HAVE experianced growing up oral...I HAVE experianced the "oralist dream" of a deaf/hoh child returned to "normal" hearing society. It's NOT all it's cracked up to be! I am very glad that I have the skills to function somewhat in the hearing world. I am NOT advocating throwing out the hearing aids/CIs/oral training with the bathwater. I think that oral training and oral skills are something VERY valuable. However I don't think that most pro-oral people aquatly understand/express to parents the downsides of the oral movement. Most oralists have this "high and mighty" attitude that the oral route is FAR superior to the ASL and English route b/c ASL is a "crutch" and "speshal needs". I also don't think it should be an "either or" choice when it comes to language use. It is the parents responsibilty to ensure that deaf and hoh kids grow up with fluency in BOTH ASL and English, so that the child has the option to choose later, which world (s) they want to be a part of! I just know far far far far too many deaf AND hoh kids who were raised oral and discovered ASL/Deaf culture relatively late and who wish that they'd been raised with both English and ASL! I actually even know MANY PARENTS of adult deaf/hoh kids who grew up oral, and who now say that they wish they'd pursued ASL AND English, instead of falling into the trap of thinking that ASL is a "crutch"(like Jake does) My OWN PARENTS say this! They are actually VERY hardcore about this....at conferences of people with my syndrome, my parents are always talking to parents of kids with my syndrome (most kids and people with my syndrome are deaf/hoh) encouraging them to go with BOTH ASL and English. My parents aren't the only ones doing this....most of the parents of adults with my syndrome strongly encourage parents of the younger kids to learn ASL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dr. Lane !!