Since Paddy Ladd has conveniently dismissed us as 'deaf' it is time us worms turned and put some perspective on what being deaf is. Write Hear (AN text page on the BBC's ceefax), which I still find usually the font of real issues mostly, had a letter today from Jimmy Craw, a man I have had great respect for years, who has contributed solidly to awareness issues of acquired deaf for near a lifetime in the UK.
I think, reading in reading his latest letter, in that he highlights yet again the drastic state of unawareness and support for acquired deaf people, is that the problem is that 85% of the support, is being directed at 5% of the problem.
There is clearly an over-emphasis on sign language and on sign users, (No fault of theirs), to the detriment of the majority, culture is a buzz term, minority a bigger one. Cultural deaf are a minority, who are lucky enough to be fully able to capitalize on 'minority power' and via providing work for many hearing people whom they depend on, it is arguable this sits uncomfortably with some but that's the reality. Acquired deaf cannot do that unless they adopt the same things cultural deaf do, indeed, and not unless they are the same people, so its a non-starter. The only truism in Ladd's opus is we are nothing at all like cultural deaf and never will be. Whether this is a positive spin, I'd disagree.
Cultural deaf are however, NOT the majority of those affected by deafness and loss issues that require support. This is a total truism in every country of the world, so why don't we hear more about their needs ? Acquiring deafness can often happen when a person is starting on a working life, just ending school, or during it, people may well assume if they have an hearing aid they are cured, they can hear everything, and there is nothing really wrong with them that needs more support.
There is no priming for the ultimate reality, most will go deaf. How many times do I have to respond to people who ask "Why can't you lip-read instead ?" This causes huge problems, broken marriages, loss of friends, jobs, and stresses that drives people to acute mental health issues, an issue Mr Ladd clearly thinks doesn't happen because this undermines his Utopian view of deafness as a 'non-issue' we are living and majority proof he is out of the loop, that deafness can be a medical issue. I'd prefer to think he is out of the loop, because I don't want to think he couldn't care less unless they sign...
We will of course on going deaf, get no sympathy or empathy, we will more likely to be told to 'cope', get on with it, and quit the whining... LOOK ! deaf in culture do OK... get a grip ! There is too, isolation, (NO comfort zone of 'community' for them), and of course, and despite the RNID's and NADP's and every other blinkin 'p' in the United Kingdom, there is no real or national set up dedicated to help them. There are only two main drives in the UK (1) Is to support the sign using deaf, and (2) To cure or warn everyone else. There is no addressing the now.
They cannot offer support services because there is no consensus on how to approach going deaf and what modus to use to offer the most alleviation and communication options. So nothing happens. At the other end of the spectrum there are about 3 MILLION elderly people here, to all intents and purposes profoundly deaf with no sign language, no lip-reading, and no nothing really, with people living longer it can just mean another 20 more years of misery. You could go into an old people's home, and find the TV has no titles on either, or others refusing to turn it up because of noise so... nothing. For their sins of not hearing, it will be dismissed as "All old people will go deaf", or perhaps they will affectionately label you as an old eccentric, so long as you never ever complain that is, life is hard... mostly it is plain ageist.
Perhaps it is time the focus changed from cultural deaf, to address the most with hearing issues ? There are facts that 'exclusive sign dependents' (Wherever they are), have one terp for 200 or so deaf people, I acknowledge that, even if I am doubtful on the statistic...but it pales into real insignificance, when we read the mind boggling figure of 3 MILLION people who don't even have that, and 5 million more well on the way, walking like lemmings to a profound hearing loss, and with no way of knowing how they will cope with that. Maybe we will just drown.
Just because someone is getting older or has the curse of good speech, they are dumped to fend for themselves, we read of people being turned down for CI's because they could still speak, 'too old' maybe in America an old person or couple can get an CI each, it won't happen here..... we read too of other DEAF people attacking them as frauds for the same reason. It is an old chestnut now, but none-the-less true, deaf awareness is not, and never has worked. I googled online, dismal reading, even acquired deaf areas were blanketed with BSL and ASL plugs, yet we hardly ever use it, they have tagged on to our sector and painted us as them.
Can I respectfully suggest, less on the culture perhaps, and more on the those suffering huge daily issues ? There is no 'school' for them, no social service support, no trained support workers in sign that would be any use to them either. Simply because there is not a single class in the UK, or course, (Including the fabled deaf awareness ones !), that approach the issues of someone gone or near deaf with little or no avenue to follow anything.
Because they have none of this back up, they are despite being a huge majority, unable to concentrate that fire power on a decent lobby, they are too wrapped up in surviving day to day.. Jimmy is much like myself and often has to resort to writing things down, even after many many years being deaf and trying to come to terms with it, we aren't impressed with those who see BSL as a magic bullet... and concerned no-one has noticed the misery that is occurring to those who have no means to effectively communicate outside a pencil and paper.. These are erstwhile hearing people holding down professional jobs, just dumped.
We both sign a bit, both lip-read a bit, both write a LOT, but in the main all we get for it is 'get a grip'. Mr Ladd's opus neatly ignored the realities of deafness to portray a sector virtually unidentifiable to all but a few.... it may well be very now to oppose the medical models of things, but these are real people in real time, doing real suffering...and cultural deaf are batting well above their usual average. So please spare a thought for those not as fortunate as the they are...
Deaf culture has no monopoly on misery, we wuz here first !
8 comments:
That's very true, there is a huge divide between the culturally Deaf and the adventitiously deaf who are in greater numbers. And it's true that the Ladd book leaves out this majority.
How about you working on this companion book that covers the late-deafened, coming to terms with it, coping with it, and living with it? Would it be a positive and uplifting book, or a dry medical monograph? Would it have the rich history that the Ladd book does? There's so much one can think about including!
Whatever I wrote would just be seen as an attack on the sacred altar of deaf culture sadly. I am not promoting any 'models' as such just not the cultural/social one, which I think irrelevant to the deaf majority sector.
One thing I wouldn't do is start my opus with a shedload of defintions of who is or isn't deaf as Ladd did. Most history belongs anyway to acquired deaf. Only signing history belongs to the rest, although mostly sign itself is as a result of hearing creating a viable language of it to enable deaf to move outside their own little area.
Ladd was quite willing in part to use acquired and deafened, where it proved his points, but he never acknolwedgd their part in the preservation of culture, or the acquired deaf part of major lobbying for access for deaf people either.
His deafhood omitted the deaf majority, how can it be viable, historically or otherwise ? It is why at the first pages in, he drew up lines of division to cover his back. You accepted them definitions he put out, or you could not proceed to disseminate the rest without looking bad.
I don't posess academic credibility to write a book like that, I know what I feel is right, and what is inherently wrong. Do I want to be seen as an attacker of everything cultural in the deaf world ?
Because that is all they will say. But then you are right, they are only a small minority we should appeal to the acquired/deafened/HI majority, we have enough numbers to counter any misleading statements they put out, we have too the luxury of being deaf too ! so we cannot be targetted as they would hearing people. Not that some haven't tried.
I often wonder why we don't do that a lot more, and not just let it roll right over us.... why DON'T acquired deaf speak out ? There are none in a better position to name the point.
MM, you the man! This has been a message that has been told over and over again. But you really do show it as it is.
Kepp up the good work!
Brian L. Mayes
Very good posting. That's what a few of us have been saying... look at the demographics.
MM --
What you're overlooking is that most of the focus on "deaf" people IS on late-deafened or those with more hearing ability -- whether in the form of hearing aids, speech therapy, blending in with the Hearing majority (mainstreaming, assimilation, etc.).
You guys have had your perspective presented in the media, education field, and pretty much everywhere.
Think about that.
Our perspective is honed by your opposition and mainstream's ignorance, it's all guesswork, since no-one has ever consulted the acquired or deafened in any real area. I don't have to justify to anyone my hearing has been acquired or what I would prefer to see as an alternative to that.
What you read is the anti-thesis view of culture, nobody portrays acquired deaf as they really are, what they really think, and deaf culture only focus on the oral, hearing aid, and CI or speaking side, mostly with 100% negativity, this is not all we are, no more than Milan is all you are.
Acquired deaf do not HEAR, they are deaf people. The clue is in the title really... What you pointed out is the suggestion we 'harp on' about being hearing, but we no more 'harp on' about our lot than the cultural deaf 'harp on' about theirs.
We need to educate people like you as well as educate the mainstream. I feel 'Deaf' are often 'deaf unaware'. I pointed out as did others, Mr Ladd was out of our loop anyway, no real point you trying to justify him and his 'definitions' now. Let him label his jars.
As acquired deaf I have no 'ability' to hear at any level, and not going to say sorry I can still speak. Who are you talking about ? and why make us out to be the enemy ? are hearing not enough for deaf culture to attack ?
We've been 'out there' and actively coping with deafness all our lives and in history too, accept we know what we are talking about. We've HAD to cope, we never had the cushion you did, and we STILL get the ignorance.
Why does it have to be either? Why can't it be both? Pay attention to all populations' needs? We gotta stop thinking in "yours or mine" parameters and begin thinking, "You and I have different needs - cool! Let's campaign together for our needs."
Don't know how I missed this great post, except I was out of town a couple weeks ago. . . Great post!
Probably the best thing to ever happen to the acquired deaf community in the US was organizing through Hearing Loss Assoc. of America and also Assoc. of Late-Deafened Adults. We're so huge and powerful now and becoming even more so by the day.
What you say is true about the public not realizing that most deaf ppl don't sign. It's like they think you either have to be born deaf and never learned to speak, or you have just a wee hearing loss that can be corrected with a teeny aid. There's no in-between. I've met a few people who were shocked to learn a person could become totally deaf in early adulthood. Well DUH! Anything can go at any time.
And that's the beauty of being deaf at a young age. You get it. Life is unpredictable, and health is not guaranteed. Everything can change in less than a second.
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