AD an accurate sample of the deaf population?

Daredevel7

Daredevel7

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We see a lot of diversity here in AD. Different races, different cultures, and even different ways of being brought up (ASL, orally, etc).

I am wondering if AD is somewhat an "accurate" sample of the deaf population.

The deaf population I am talking about would not have the following groups:
1) People who do not have or use the internet.
2) Older people who lost their hearing over the years.

Are there any other "types" of deaf people who would not use AD?

I am also wondering if AD also somewhat filters out deaf people who have poor English skills due to wordy posts that are often made here.

The reason why I ask is because a lot of deaf people on AD have good English skills, but a lot of deaf people on Facebook have poor English skills.

Or perhaps I just happen to make a lot of deaf friends who have poor English skills?

What do you think?
 
Wirelessly posted

AD is excluding the YouTube population.

And I wouldn't say AD is a bastion of good grammar, nor would I hold a candle to Facebook's hearing population.
 
I happen to make a lot of deaf friends who have better english skills than I am.
 
Frisky Feline said:
I happen to make a lot of deaf friends who have better english skills than I am.
Click to expand...

Well, do they frequent AD or on FB or neither or both? Just trying to get an idea if AD is an accurate sample of the deaf population in our generation.
 
If the inference is shooting for a level that has backing from a scientific community.. I think you have to include groups from different variations and use these variations to weed out the deviants depending on what you intend to do.

Earlier today I was reading a psychological article based on people's instabilities in life determined by simple choices of words that can show this.
I found it really interesting that it included variations for the sampling - IE: an online forum consisted of 15% of the data, people who went to the office were 20% something, 20% university students, stuff like that.

I'd personally think it is a recipe for a good research if that's the scope.

But the answer to that question seems too hard to say straight off.

I would think there is a good percentage of the deaf who don't read here and they pass on grammar. Then there is a chunk who probably don't participate here at all because they might not want to be reading all the words or prefer sign instead. Or some people who just don't socialize on the internet, period. As small as that population may be, it also represents the deaf.
 
Daredevel7 said:
Well, do they frequent AD or on FB or neither or both? Just trying to get an idea if AD is an accurate sample of the deaf population in our generation.
Click to expand...

Outside of AD, FB mostly that i met them through my old college and old schools who i know them about 20 yrs or so. SOme of them can speak and some of them do not have speech skills and their english skills are pretty good.

In fact, i did make friends from AD and mosf of them have pretty good english too. :D
 
Clarification of the original post:

When I talk about English skills, I am talking about written English skills. Nothing to do with speaking or oral skills.
 
Daredevel7 said:
Clarification of the original post:

When I talk about English skills, I am talking about written English skills. Nothing to do with speaking or oral skills.
Click to expand...

Yes that's what I mean that most of my friends who have very well written english skills than I am. I added about oral or not that means nothing for better written english skills. :)
 
Interesting question. I don't know the statistics of the current diversity to compare with the representing members on AD.

Oral-deaf folks may lack a community to share their fustrations so they may be more inclined to find resources online, but those (Deaf or deaf-oral) who live in a deaf populated area, may be less likely to seek a community online.
 
Frisky Feline said:
Outside of AD, FB mostly that i met them through my old college and old schools who i know them about 20 yrs or so. SOme of them can speak and some of them do not have speech skills and their english skills are pretty good.

In fact, i did make friends from AD and mosf of them have pretty good english too. :D
Click to expand...

I notice a good part of RL friends I met who are deaf post a few times or once here and then moved on. Their written english is pretty good, they just don't seem to like habit of reading forums and go elsewhere to socialize.
 
I know many deaf people who either don't use computers at all or use them in a very limited way; they don't participate in on-line forums.
 
Wirelessly posted

naisho said:
Frisky Feline said:
Outside of AD, FB mostly that i met them through my old college and old schools who i know them about 20 yrs or so. SOme of them can speak and some of them do not have speech skills and their english skills are pretty good.

In fact, i did make friends from AD and mosf of them have pretty good english too. :D
Click to expand...

I notice a good part of RL friends I met who are deaf post a few times or once here and then moved on. Their written english is pretty good, they just don't seem to like habit of reading forums and go elsewhere to socialize.
Click to expand...

The truth hurts so ----ing much!

Make it stop!
 
My older sister is deaf and on FB... Good writing English, better than mine (although very blunt... She hurt my feelings today).

She made several deaf friends from her state, and they were about her age or older (30's and 40's) and one of them wrote to me years ago, and he didn't have a very good writing skill. Hardly any of them could write. I didn't think much of it though. This is when Yahoo video chat came out. She would sign to them through that. Anyway, I didn't like him because he kept harrassing me about her...
 
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Don't know if we are accurate representation here, but there is a much huger participating deaf population on Facebook.

And that Facebook population fights much less, and has broader interests than here.

Worse writing skills in general on Facebook from my observation.
 
Is AD an accurate sample of the deaf population? No.
I found out that almost all of my deaf friends never heard of AD, let alone participate in it. Even though their written skill levels vary, I wouldn't feel comfortable in portraying this site as the norm, since there are so many variables to take into consideration.
 
Like Reba, many of the Deaf that I have recently met in person are not computer-users.
Now if we had a sms-ing forum, that would probably get more counts. :)
 
My local deaf center offers computer classes and some of the "more mature" deaf people are getting online. Stereotypes don't apply.
 
BecLak said:
Like Reba, many of the Deaf that I have recently met in person are not computer-users.
Now if we had a sms-ing forum, that would probably get more counts. :)
Click to expand...
Maybe but I know some deaf who don't text either.
 
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