I have some questions about audism. I've had extensive conversations with people in the past, both live and on this and other forums, and I hate to ask, because I know even in the asking ... well, it's a very tricky subject ... but I'm finding myself baffled by some of the uses of "audism" elsewhere on AD and would like to get some perspective.
I've generally thought of audism as being like pornography in that its something not always easy to define -- I've seen the struggle here in this thread and elsewhere -- but you generally know it when you see it. Typically, the object of audism is a deaf person, as perceived by a hearing person who thinks or otherwise acts in a way that indicates that the deaf person is inferior to a hearing person (smarter, better, what have you) based solely on that difference in hearing.
I've seen situations in which this concept is applied within the deaf world, too, and there it gets a little bit murky. Do you think audism applies to the medically-defined hearing loss levels as well (mild deaf look down on moderate deaf who look down on severe deaf and everyone looks down on profoundly deaf)? Is there a common issue with profoundly deaf seen as 'lesser' or inferior? Either by other deaf in a different place on the spectrum or by the hearing world? If so, how does this play out in practice?
Or is the reverse the reality: are those with milder hearing loss seen as not deaf enough, not really deaf, lesser than those who are profoundly deaf? And is that concept of being 'fully' deaf an example of audism?
If you bring in hearing technology, how does that affect the dynamic: is there more likelihood that the profoundly or severely deaf suddenly perceive themselves or are seen as superior because they have more complex or powerful equipment and increased access to sound, even though they have less actual hearing ability, unaided? Is there a comparison of hearing aids in which one might think his hearing aid is more powerful than another, has more bells & whistles? Is there a brand war, in which some people have high-end brands, and others are wearing, for all intents and purposes, 'off the shelf' aids, that define an individual as being superior on the basis of having access to more high tech or expensive equipment and programming? Is there an audism component in this case?