What does Deafhood mean to YOU?

a repeat from another thread i thought was worth including it here...
Deafhood have two main aspects of even components if you will.

Firstly, it is for self empowerment as in the venue of self-identity (broader than Deaf culture - Deafhood is more powerful for it serves a secondary, but has a more potent element into it, that is to generate the statement of Deaf people to be recognised as a ethnic group. Disabled people are PLENTY = they have an amount of power mainly because they are HEARING, using spoken/written English, they know how to fight it because they 'usesthe same expressiom' where as the population whose have waning levels of hearing which drastically affects the livihood/ er 'functioning in the hearing world' <not entirely comfortable to say this but (so dont get caught up in functionalism, or medicalisation, or assimilation, this is NOT where im going to)...the point im getting to, is the whole range of those from mild to severe to profound 'hearing losses' do struggle, but we also have found OUR OWN way to live/deal with it, by living our lives in a good unique way, which embodied the characteristically different mode of living, that is we happened to have evolved our own culture, and culture is good enough to be qualified as a basis for ethnic identification. NoW come to the Broad recognition of d/Deaf people belonging to the ethnic group (has to sign to more or less degree and/or have some levels of 'cut off/unable to fit in 100% in hearing world, to 'qualify' (also to have williness to embrace others in a the deaf/slightly outside or really outside the hearing world), thats the fellowship.

Now, having (like i said before) numbers is strenght, that is referring to the numbers of wide range of d/Deaf pelople share the belief 'I am Deaf, and We are Deaf"

That's the crux ; I am Deaf, and We are Deaf, by that, we can then demand my equity on OUR terms not hearings, or hearing's funded insitutions...this would /could also bring force that we *could* have laws to enforce the put-downs/ignorace of d/Deaf people to be forbidden same way touch women's bottom could lead you to be fired from workplaces...that's the similar level which hearing (and some of us deafies?) dont the seriousness of they way they behave towards us. We know its not on, and hence we will say Enough, we have Rights (not just as individuals (because hearing people would look at it as 'isolated cases' ...
i'd stop there now i think i said plenty for now, but i hope this helps the clear the idea of
identity and group identity. self and ethnic, that would also change the way hearing world respect or judge the idea of bi-bi' concepts , put differently I've always suspected the -bi-bi is flawed in the way its presented because it seems to be the 'new fall-back' , that is , according to the hearing...just my suspicious, hope im not the only one who wondered about this...

my 2 cents
 
jillio said:
If you are focused on the hearing people around you, you are focused on the wrong thing. You make decisions regarding how to deal with your deafness based on what is best for you, not them.
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Right and some deaf people came to the conclusion that it's best that they obtain better hearing. As long there's no one right way to do it.
 
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Hohtopics said:
Right and some deaf people came to the conclusion that it's best that they obtaining better hearing. As long there's no one right way to do it.
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That's fine. It is their choice. But it is also based on the audist belief system inherent in hearing society.
 
shel90 said:
Why not make the hearing person do all the accodomations to meet YOUR needs? Why MUST you meet their hearing needs all the time?
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What are you talking about? I do not meet the hearing person needs, I wear a HA for my own benefit! And the only way a hearing person could do all the accommodation is by yelling at me and I hate to be yelled at!
 
whatdidyousay! said:
What are you talking about? I do not meet the hearing person needs, I wear a HA for my own benefit! And the only way a hearing person could do all the accommodation is by yelling at me and I hate to be yelled at!
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I wear a HA for my own benefit, too.

But I find it's much easier to lipread when I have some sound to go with it. Otherwise I miss too much. So if I want to understand a hearing person by lipreading, I'm more or less wearing my HA for their convenience so they don't have to repeat, which they have to do if I don't have my HAs on.
 
Grummer said:
a repeat from another thread i thought was worth including it here...
Deafhood have two main aspects of even components if you will.

Firstly, it is for self empowerment as in the venue of self-identity (broader than Deaf culture - Deafhood is more powerful for it serves a secondary, but has a more potent element into it, that is to generate the statement of Deaf people to be recognised as a ethnic group. Disabled people are PLENTY = they have an amount of power mainly because they are HEARING, using spoken/written English, they know how to fight it because they 'usesthe same expressiom' where as the population whose have waning levels of hearing which drastically affects the livihood/ er 'functioning in the hearing world' <not entirely comfortable to say this but (so dont get caught up in functionalism, or medicalisation, or assimilation, this is NOT where im going to)...the point im getting to, is the whole range of those from mild to severe to profound 'hearing losses' do struggle, but we also have found OUR OWN way to live/deal with it, by living our lives in a good unique way, which embodied the characteristically different mode of living, that is we happened to have evolved our own culture, and culture is good enough to be qualified as a basis for ethnic identification. NoW come to the Broad recognition of d/Deaf people belonging to the ethnic group (has to sign to more or less degree and/or have some levels of 'cut off/unable to fit in 100% in hearing world, to 'qualify' (also to have williness to embrace others in a the deaf/slightly outside or really outside the hearing world), thats the fellowship.

Now, having (like i said before) numbers is strenght, that is referring to the numbers of wide range of d/Deaf pelople share the belief 'I am Deaf, and We are Deaf"

That's the crux ; I am Deaf, and We are Deaf, by that, we can then demand my equity on OUR terms not hearings, or hearing's funded insitutions...this would /could also bring force that we *could* have laws to enforce the put-downs/ignorace of d/Deaf people to be forbidden same way touch women's bottom could lead you to be fired from workplaces...that's the similar level which hearing (and some of us deafies?) dont the seriousness of they way they behave towards us. We know its not on, and hence we will say Enough, we have Rights (not just as individuals (because hearing people would look at it as 'isolated cases' ...
i'd stop there now i think i said plenty for now, but i hope this helps the clear the idea of
identity and group identity. self and ethnic, that would also change the way hearing world respect or judge the idea of bi-bi' concepts , put differently I've always suspected the -bi-bi is flawed in the way its presented because it seems to be the 'new fall-back' , that is , according to the hearing...just my suspicious, hope im not the only one who wondered about this...

my 2 cents
Click to expand...
Interesting.. The group ID, individual ID and rights makes sense to me.

I'm not 100 percent comfortable with bi-bi, because the term makes it look like ASL and english are going to be used in the same way for the same purposes. This is probably easier to do in a hearing bi-bi program, but I question if it's the same in deaf program because they are bimodal in addition. With the word bilingual alone, hearing people can replace ASL with english in everyday communication, arguing that kids need to communicate in both languages.

Not sure if this is what you meant with the "new fall-back".
 
jillio said:
That's fine. It is their choice. But it is also based on the audist belief system inherent in hearing society.
Click to expand...
The Deaf identity is also somewhat peer influenced as well. I've seen some of the Deaf impose that on one another that if they were to do anything that'll supposedly stray away from their Deaf identity, "What will your Deaf friends think?".
 
AlleyCat said:
I wear a HA for my own benefit, too.

But I find it's much easier to lipread when I have some sound to go with it. Otherwise I miss too much. So if I want to understand a hearing person by lipreading, I'm more or less wearing my HA for their convenience so they don't have to repeat, which they have to do if I don't have my HAs on.
Click to expand...
Good point. Although some would say it's not for their, but rather your own convenience.
 
flip said:
Interesting.. The group ID, individual ID and rights makes sense to me.

I'm not 100 percent comfortable with bi-bi, because the term makes it look like ASL and english are going to be used in the same way for the same purposes. This is probably easier to do in a hearing bi-bi program, but I question if it's the same in deaf program because they are bimodal in addition. With the word bilingual alone, hearing people can replace ASL with english in everyday communication, arguing that kids need to communicate in both languages.

Not sure if this is what you meant with the "new fall-back".
Click to expand...

ok, im not entirely comfortable with bi-bi either. what i meant by the 'new fall back' is that as Jillio said that 'fall back'
Jillio, a member of this forum remarked clearly;

I believe you have hit the nail head on. ASL is generally thought of as a "fall back on" language. It took years for it even to be recognized as a separate language. Unfortunately, there are still many who have not read the linguisitic findings from the 60's and still hold that old belief that a language based on gesture is inferior to a language based on voice..

for bit more on this, we had been discussing some in the thread titled; Dual Language Immersion under 'The Deaf cummunity', 'Our World, Our Culture' section of thsi forum..

Fallback is part of the hearing peoples/teachers excess control on d/Deaf education. You'd see it quite plain, I actually liked that description of 'fallback' because this is a good start of the fleshing out the what's really going on...what is happening to us and why we're in a such a mess....
 
Grummer said:
ok, im not entirely comfortable with bi-bi either. what i meant by the 'new fall back' is that as Jillio said that 'fall back'
Jillio, a member of this forum remarked clearly;

I believe you have hit the nail head on. ASL is generally thought of as a "fall back on" language. It took years for it even to be recognized as a separate language. Unfortunately, there are still many who have not read the linguisitic findings from the 60's and still hold that old belief that a language based on gesture is inferior to a language based on voice..

for bit more on this, we had been discussing some in the thread titled; Dual Language Immersion under 'The Deaf cummunity', 'Our World, Our Culture' section of thsi forum..

Fallback is part of the hearing peoples/teachers excess control on d/Deaf education. You'd see it quite plain, I actually liked that description of 'fallback' because this is a good start of the fleshing out the what's really going on...what is happening to us and why we're in a such a mess....
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Ah, ok. Reminds me of deaf schools as a waste dump for mainstream failures. Definately a huge issue, yep.

Using ASL as a fallback tells me it's valued more as a tool, on par with CI, and less as a language and cultural contribution to humankind.
 
AlleyCat said:
I wear a HA for my own benefit, too.

But I find it's much easier to lipread when I have some sound to go with it. Otherwise I miss too much. So if I want to understand a hearing person by lipreading, I'm more or less wearing my HA for their convenience so they don't have to repeat, which they have to do if I don't have my HAs on.
Click to expand...

Hohtopics said:
Good point. Although some would say it's not for their, but rather your own convenience.
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Not going to engage in a discussion over what *I* think is a convenience to me or to the hearing person.

However, if you would read the last line, MY not having to ask them to repeat themselves (which they would have to do if I don't have my HAs in) conveniences THEM. Have you never had anyone who sighed or rolled their eyes or said "nevermind" when you had to ask them to repeat? They don't want the inconvenience of having to do so. So I'm accommodating them by trying harder to understand them the first time around WITH my HAs.

:)
 
Hohtopics said:
The Deaf identity is also somewhat peer influenced as well. I've seen some of the Deaf impose that on one another that if they were to do anything that'll supposedly stray away from their Deaf identity, "What will your Deaf friends think?".
Click to expand...

Everything is peer influenced.

Audism is a widespread societal norm, not peer influence.
 
Being legally deaf prevents me do things that I would like to try to do. Cant join the military services, cant be a firefighter and other things b/c of oppression and discrimination. I am a very physical person.

Im so ok who I am. I enjoy life and try to be happy. I do not get any support for my deafness but that is ok. I find hearing people who like to stereotype and judge deaf people cruel,cowards and weird.
 
DeafTim said:
Being legally deaf prevents me do things that I would like to try to do. Cant join the military services, cant be a firefighter and other things b/c of oppression and discrimination. I am a very physical person.

Im so ok who I am. I enjoy life and try to be happy. I do not get any support for my deafness but that is ok. I find hearing people who like to stereotype and judge deaf people cruel,cowards and weird.
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Yeah, there are a lot of jobs the hearing world tells us we can't do, and it's very frustrating because we CAN but they won't give us the chance to prove it.
 
DeafCaroline said:
Yeah, there are a lot of jobs the hearing world tells us we can't do, and it's very frustrating because we CAN but they won't give us the chance to prove it.
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Plus not having any support for us to use the accommodations like ASL interpreters or TDD/VP, even a note taker to help us understand what is going on. Discrimination is really bad enough for us to find a good jobs that we are capable of to work in the field. :(
 
That is a new one-"legally deaf". Haven't considered going to court to be legally declared deaf. Advantage?

I have been bilaterally deaf since December 20, 2006

Implanted Sunnybrook/Toronto Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
DeafTim said:
Being legally deaf prevents me do things that I would like to try to do. Cant join the military services, cant be a firefighter and other things b/c of oppression and discrimination. I am a very physical person.

Im so ok who I am. I enjoy life and try to be happy. I do not get any support for my deafness but that is ok. I find hearing people who like to stereotype and judge deaf people cruel,cowards and weird.
Click to expand...

Actually, Kokonut is a firefighter. You can ask him about his experience. :)
 
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