Big "D" little "d" oppinions and poll

How much does ASL matter in the culture? Can hearing also be “culturally Deaf”?

  • Yes you must know ASL and be part of us to be culturally Deaf

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • No it ASL doesn’t matter if you are deaf, you are Deaf and that is all there is to it

    Votes: 2 12.5%
  • Yes ASL and in the Deaf community matters and yes hearing can be culturally Deaf too.

    Votes: 13 81.3%
  • Only Deaf can be culturally Deaf

    Votes: 2 12.5%

  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .
I'd consider myself a big "D" - but not necessarily a "deafie."

ponder that. :io:
 
shel90,

That was deliberately an exaggeration to try to make a point, [sorry for not pointing this out! ;)] but it doesn't seem too unlikely that hearing people can receive between 5-20 times more information than a deaf person in hearing culture. I have yet to see a study done on this, though, so it's up for educated guessing.

But here are some citations I just came up with:
*Speech synthesizer: Information from Answers.com - "A typical spoken conversation takes place at a rate of 150–200 words per minute." For a 12-hour period that would be between 108,000-144,000 spoken words with constant exposure.

*Past Issues - UI Design Newsletter - "The average adult reading speed for English prose text in the United States seems to be around 250 to 300 words per minute." For a 12-hour period that would be between 180,000-216,000 visually observed words with constant exposure.

*Speed reading - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - "the World Championship Speed Reading Competition stresses reading comprehension as critical, and that the top contestants typically read around 1000 to 2000 words per minute with approximately 50% comprehension." From this, it is obvious some people can read between 500-1000 wpm with fairly good comprehension, reading more than double the words some people do on average.

Thus, it wouldn't be too far from reality to say hearing people can get about 150,000-200,000 words/day.

However, deaf people have to turn and face something to get information, so I'd guess it could be anywhere between 5-20 times less information received by deaf people based on setting (work, school, etc) and lipreading skill.

200,000 / 10 = 20,000 words/day seems probable for many deaf people in hearing culture. Between 15,000-50,000 words/day seems like a reasonable estimation. It's relative to how one spends time... reading or whatever. That's still a huge difference.

Southern, if I'm going off topic, sorry about that. I wanted to stress the importance of having Deaf culture and make it clear that it has relevance to meeting D/deaf people's needs, so Deaf culture is basically for any deaf person, regardless of degree of hearing loss.
 
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Well after 21 votes 90% think a hearing person can be culturaly Deaf. That is a cool thing to know. Most groups would say no you can't be part of us. Maybe Deaf are more open minded? Or maybe the Deaf here on AD are. =)
 
Southern,

That's what I was taught by my sign language instructor (i.e. hearing people can be culturally Deaf). I guess she was right! (although when the poll first opened, I was a little worried she might be wrong. LOL)
 
my vote says yes

im been gone ASL sign languages class when i was 5 years old and more learn smart words and lots of mores but my parents took me to ASL sign languages when i was little girls and my parents learn ASL but not 100%
 
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