As I’ve mentioned before, the Deaf community is large and active in Columbus. Ohio State has a fairly good community partnership with this community by advertising their events on the ODS website. Many OSU students, especially those in the American Sign Language club attend their many events, including Silent Weekends, which are very large events.
In a previous post, I had mentioned that Lindsay would likely get involved with the Deaf Women of Ohio organization. It just seems like a good place for her to meet other DHH women in the area. As I touched on last week, I really feel that the location of Ohio State is ideal because it offers her a chance to bond with predominantly hearing students, but really gives Lindsay the opportunity to interact with DHH individuals, which is not something she has really gotten to do before. She has the opportunity to really interact in a different culture, particularly one that is a defining identity, though she may not have been as impacted by it before coming to Ohio State.
As Lindsay becomes more immersed in this community, I wonder if she will feel the pressure to adopt many of the Deaf community’s hallmark beliefs of Deaf as not a disability, hearing as a negative experience, or if she will become more negative about hearing culture in general, and how that would play out with her family. I am unsure if she does not adopt these mentalities, how truly accepted she would be in the community. However, even if she does not fully immerse in this particular community, she is still likely to meet other DHH people or students that are not as extreme and can still provide that support and help with development. There are also interpreters or other hearing people connected to the Deaf community because of family or interest, and so they could also help her transition and stay balanced in her ideas and beliefs, as she figures out “who she really is”.
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