The Launching Point

Another semester, another voice journal...
This semester, it took me awhile to think about what voice I wanted to investigate and learn more about this semester.  In the end, I ended up with a deaf woman.  I came to this conclusion rather unexpectedly.  I was sitting in my apartment, idly flipping through my mental catalog of possible voices and nonchalantly looking around my apartment at my various movie, art, and musician posters, when I realized how much of my experiences were based on sound.  Being a music major, music is clearly something that is dear to my heart and thinking patterns, and something I take for granted, and so, an appropriate challenge for myself would be to attempt an experience without sound.
It also made me realize that I actually know many people who have deaf friends or siblings or study American Sign Language, which means that it can't be that uncommon.  Which means that there must be several in higher education today.  I'm trying to find more hard facts/ statistics about the actual number of college students who are deaf.
I have a plan of action.  First of all, I'm going to speak with my friends and read material about deaf culture in general.  Then I'm going to make more definitive decisions about my student.  Then I can tackle reading journal articles, setting up some interviews with personnel in the Office of Disabilities, and investing in deaf community in Bowling Green or a student organization.
I know that there are many facets within deaf identity (as in all identities), which include whether the student was born deaf, the age in which she lost hearing, whether or not she is competent in ASL, if any one else in her family is deaf, how involved the student is in the deaf community, and the degree of deafness.  I found this article, while searching for basic statistics:  Deafness and the Riddle of Identity
I found this article particularly insightful for many reasons.
1.) It defines people who are deaf as a colonized, ethnic, linguistic minority
2.) It scratches the surface that there are different forms of sign language: ASL (a critical piece of the deaf identity) and Pidgin Signed Language (PSE)- a mixture of ASL and English (an equivalent to "broken English").
3.)  It covered some of the history of the deaf identity and the prejudices that have come with it, such as being "dumb without a language" and until very recently being ignored by society.
4.) It identifies the flaws of attempting to define deafness into a particular identity BECAUSE there are so many different factors.  The point the author focuses on particularly is whether or not a person is a native user of ASL, which marginalizes so many others that "happily consider themselves" as deaf.
5.)  This quote: "While it is true that many deaf people share a common culture, history, language, and social behavior, with the advent of the Internet, the mainstreaming of deaf students into regular classrooms, the decline of residential schooling for the deaf, and the demise of deaf clubs (where deaf people in large cities gathered regularly to socialize), it is harder to argue that the deaf are significantly different from the nondeaf... Changes in the overall culture have to some degree erased the sense of "otherness" that the deaf historically have held on to as a way of defining themselves. That is why places like Gallaudet have come to be seen nostalgically as the "home" of deaf people and deaf culture: They continue to define the deaf as a separate cultural group."
6.) Often times being deaf is only "one generation thick", meaning more often than not, a person's hearing ability differs between generations, as it is often not something that gets "genetically passed on".


The article included some other factors that are considered "crucial to pure deafness", such as a certain amused/ cynical attitude toward the "hearing world".  One of my best friends from college is currently becoming certified in ASL, and I remember her explaining this contempt for the hearing through her many encounters with the deaf community, and how as her skills improved, the contempt lessened, though never fully went away.  I am interested in hearing more insights from her as a hearing person in the deaf community and also to connect with the friends that she has made in the deaf community.


I found MANY articles on the Chronicle concerning the issues of students who are deaf in higher education and the institutions that serve them (or the ones that do not).  I am excited to begin this journey.


Some decisions I can make about my voice.  She is a woman.  Her parents and siblings are hearing.  She uses ASL fluently, but also lip reads and speak a little.  Her family is supportive and learned ASL in order to communicate with her more efficiently.  I feel that I will need to learn more about deaf culture before I can move much further from here.  I am unsure of how involved she is with her deaf community or if the deaf community even accepts her and/or her family fully because she lip reads and speaks.