Discussion (Key Tensions)

Projects

deaf and dumb, deaf mute, hearing impaired.jpg

Audist attitudes of deaf people seen in deficit and outdated terminology

Labels such as:

"deaf and dumb"
"deaf mute"
"hearing impaired"
"normal"
"silent"

Some of these terms still used in the 2020s.

Discrimination and stereotypes of deaf people in employment and education.

Deaf people are evaluated through the standards of hearing society such as whether they can speak like hearing people in order to access opportunities such as enrichment classes.

Internalised audism in deaf people

- belief that success is achieved by adopting hearing norms such as speech and technologies such as cochlear implants.

- deaf person believing they are better off having mostly hearing people as friends and can learn more from them.

-deaf people adopting hearing cultural norms and rejecting sign languages and deaf culture.

Inspiration porn and benevolence porn

Inspiration porn - Positioning the deaf person as exceptional for doing ordinary everyday things that hearing people do such as working a job, going to the shops, etc...or having an exceptional achievement such as becoming a doctor or winning a medal to make hearing people feel better (masks structural failures)

Benevolence porn - when employers are praised for diving disabled people opportunities OR when a hearing person is portrayed as a hero for volunteering to help a deaf person such as interpreting or writing notes. Often the deaf person is overlooked or backgrounded in this narrative without much agency.

Organisational language policing and Institutional Authority

Deaf representative from the deaf association and deaf individuals censure over incorrect signs taught on TV by unqualified hearing trainer.

Association presenting itself as an authority over sign language classes, curriculum, and interpreter training and certification.

Language tensions in deaf education

Sign Language ideologies in practice:

Oralism versus sign language

Signing Exact English (SEE) versus Singapore Sign Language (SgSL)

Media can promote misinformation, inaccurate terminology and amplify incorrect signs

Television and newspapers reach large audiences. Therefore, mistakes and outdated terminology can reinforce misconceptions, deficit thinking and discriminatory attitudes.