What is the commonground here? Where would you meet halfway? If we all know english and how to read and write. Wouldn't that be a good halfway point. Or is it wrong to expect deaf people to have to read and write english? Or is expected that all hearing people know how to sign in english and ASL? What in your opinion would be the best solution?
First and foremost, we need to stop equating the use of English with speaking and listening. And no, it is not wrong to expect that deaf inviduals will learn English skills. I don't think you will find a deaf person who has refused to learn English skills. However, it is wrong to expect that they will use English in its spoken form whenever the need to communicate with a hearing individual arises. It is wrong to expect that they will speech read everything in that exchange, and it is wrong to expect that they will respond with voice in that exchange.
Where do we start? Starting with hearing parents of deaf children would be a good place. Rather than expecting the child to adapt to the hearing parents mode of communication completely, how about the parent adapting to the child's needs? Hearing parents, by and large, expect a deaf child to wear hearing aids or to be implanted and then to use their auditory function and their voice to adapt to the parents' preference for spoken communiction. What about the parent meeting the child halfway, and providing manual communication, as well?
In the classroom, an interpreter does not just provide information from the teacher. The terp also provides information to the teacher, and to the other class members that is coming from the deaf child. How about if we stop insisting that the terp is an accommodation for the dea child only, and start to accept that the terp assists the teacher and the other students as much as he/she assists the deaf individual.
When accommodations are made in the workplace, how about if we stop viewing them as accommodations serving the deaf person alone, and realize that those accommodations serve the hearing members of the workforce, as well.
How about if we stop seeing the communication difficulties between deaf and hearing as a deaf problem. It is just as much a hearing problem. If a deaf person doesn't use voice, and chooses to sign, the hearing individual doesn't use sign, then the hearing individual is just as impaired communicatively as the deaf individual.
How about if we accept English in the form of writing or typed into a Blackberry is every bit as viable communicatively as is the same words used in spoken English?
How about if, instead of just throwing deaf kids into the mainstream, we take the time and make the effort to educate the hearing members of that mainstream environment so that everyones needs are addressed appropropiately. I personally feel that not equipping the hearing students in a mainstream environment to understand and accommodate the fact that comminication is a 2 way street impedes their social development, as well. The hearing student misses the opportunity to actually interact with the deaf student in a way that could be as beneficial to the hearing student as the deaf student. Interaction widens the hearing student's perspective and provides them with a learning experience.
How about if we stop looking at communication difficulties as being the deaf individual's problem and understand that a failure to communicate is everyone's problem.
I could go on and on, but this is a beginning.
