EXPLORING THE DEAF COMMUNITY

Exploring the Deaf Community: The Struggles and Joys of Living Without Hearing
Shelby King
University of Kentucky CIS 110

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Abstract

In this paper we will look at the deaf community through many different eyes. We will
explore what it is like to be deaf and the struggles that come with the loss of your hearing; we
will also look at the celebrations that these people have. Through this paper you will be able to
get first hand information from deaf people as well as family members and others who are just
involved in the deaf community as a third party. Without even knowing it you probably have
many stereotypes about deaf people that we will talk about in this paper, and confirm or deny
whether they are truth. The deaf community is an anomaly to many people; they dont feel
comfortable around deaf people, and they dont know how to react or communicate with a deaf
person. Through this paper you will learn first hand everything you will need to know to about
interacting with the deaf community.

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Exploring the Deaf Community: The Struggles and Joys of Living Without Hearing
The ability to hear is a quite amazing and complex .The outer ear collects sound waves in
the form of vibrations and directs them into the external auditory canal. The ear canal carries
sound waves to the eardrum which cause the eardrum to vibrate the way the head of a drum does
when you beat it. The bones in the middle ear pick up vibrations from the eardrum, and amplify
the sound and transmit it to the inner ear. Vibrations pass through the oval window to the inner
ear, setting the fluid inside the cochlea in motion. Special nerve cells (hair cells within the
cochlea) turn the sound waves into electrical impulses.The auditory nerve sends these electrical
impulses to the brains central auditory cortex, where it is processed as sound, and this all
happens within milliseconds- probably even faster than that (1). Hearing is an incredible skill
that our bodies were born with and it is something that we take for granted every day. Close your
eyes, and simply imagine what it would be like if you couldnt hear. What if you didnt know
what music sounded like? What if you have never heard your mothers voice? The pitter patter of
the rain on the roof? The gentle sound of babbling brooks, birds singing, and breezes blowing
gently in the breeze? The cry of your child? This is not something we think about every day but
it is an everyday reality for over 70 million people globally (2), and around 30 million in the
United States. That is one in every eight people (3). Some of these people were born deaf and
have no idea what it feels like to hear while others were able to experience the beauty that is
sound but lost it later in life. However, if you were to offer someone who was deaf a way to hear
around 85% would say refuse (3). As a community they have one strong belief- Deafness is not a
disability: it is a trait. (4)
We grow up learning about stereotypes that everyone has some of them are insensitive
and offensive, for example that asian people are bad divers, while others are mere observations

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of a group of people, such as that asians are generally smaller than the rest of the population.
Have you ever considered the stereotypes that come with being deaf, or wondered if there were
any at all? Even without noticing it we assume things about the deaf community with out any
solid any evidence behind it. In fact, many of the things we claim to know about deaf people is
based on rumors, jokes, and tall tales that we grow up hearing. One of the most popular, and far
fetched, misconceptions that surround the deaf community is that when a deaf child signs a curse
word their parents wash their hands out with soap as opposed to their mouths. This old myth is a
joke that many people make but deaf blogger Deaf Girly says that it is a surprisingly common
question she gets. I can never tell if they are saying it as some sort of odd, and not very clever,
joke or as a serious question, (5) she writes. While this stereotype seems funny (regardless of
how not clever it is) there are other serious misconceptions about deaf people that they take
serious offense to and have been working for years to put an end to. Such as that they can only
perform lowly or low-paying jobs. Some of the most successful people in the world are deaf and
being deaf does not inhibit your ability to do anything. In history there have been a large number
of hugely successful deaf people from business C.E.O.s to athletes to pilots famous dancers,
musicians, and actors and everything in-between. People such as Lou Ferrigno (the original
Hulk), Jeffrey Float (a gold medalist olympic swimmer), and Heather Whitestone (the first deaf
Miss America) are just a couple of examples of the vast amount of influential and powerful deaf
people in our world (6).
Another huge misconception about deaf people is that they are not allowed to drive or
that they are unsafe drivers (6). In some countries they do not allow deaf citizens to drive a car,
however, this is not the norm. According to statistics from the World Federation of the Deaf
(WFD) there are only 26 countries out of 196 that do not allow deaf citizens to operate a motor

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vehicle (7). Here in America there are very few restrictions on deaf people driving in fact, there
the only restriction is that some states require that you state on your license that you are deaf.
Peoples first question when I tell them I drive is always If you cant hear horns and sirens how
can you be aware of everything that is going on around you, says Liz Fisher a deaf blogger (8).
Many deaf people get devices in their cars that alerts them when there is a siren or another noise
(such as a honk) around them. Now a days we have things for just about everything to help us
live whatever you refer to as a normal life, Liz writes.
To me the most captivating and amazing thing I have come across in the deaf community
is the dancers in the that are deaf. Many people think that if you are deaf you automatically miss
out of the two most beautiful things in the world: the ability to hear music and the ability to
dance to music. This statement could not be more untrue! There are more and more deaf dancers
entering the dance world every day. There are even companies, such as Deaf Men Dancing, that
are exclusive for deaf individuals. In an interview with Mark Smith the founder, director, and
choreographer speaks about how the walls are being broken down for deaf dancers everywhere.
No one used to let deaf people into dance classes because they said if we couldn't hear the
music (the way they did) we could not properly dance to it, (9). In fact in 1965 Nina Falaise a
young deaf dancer was cut from the Royal Ballet School in London because she was deaf. She
was completely proficient in dancing and in fact received an extremely high compliment from
the founder of the Royal Ballet, and one of the best dancers in the world, Dame Ninette de Valois
saying that she would go far in ballet. However upon getting a physical they did not accept her.
Nina eventually went on to be accepted to The Ballet Rampert where her deafness went
undetected for several months. I feel that dance is one of the most natural things for deaf
people, because deaf people are visual and more attuned to body movement, (10) she says. Deaf

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people use the vibrations they feel through the floor and through the speakers to get the timing in
dances, but it seems as though their bodies almost have a sixth sense and heightened body
awareness that plays as an advantage. I never thought of the music as a problem, I just wanted
to dance, and any sound I could hear just carried me off into this other world of my imagination.
If the soundwaves of the music soared, I soared up into the air, like a bird. If the music was wild,
I would spin round like a tornado, (10) she says. These artists prove that it does not matter how
you experience the world it is simply that you discover it. The deaf community as a whole does
not limit themselves in anyway. They use their very special trait to move forward in life and
instead of letting it hold them back they allow it to help them sore and succeed in everything they
do.
The deaf community lives by one idea: being deaf is not a disability it is a trait. This to
me was the most amazing way to look at life. In a journal Dr.William G. Vicars, Associate
Professor of Deaf Studies at California State University-Sacramento, asks readers to imagine you
are normal hearing, seeing, and vocal humans. You then move to a planet where everyone has
ESP; everyone on this planet views you as having a disability and tries desperately to get you to
learn ESP and tries to insert you with an expensive device that will provided you with a very
limited and fuzzy ESP. The way you view it you are not disabled you simply use a different
means of communication than they do. (11) That is how the deaf community views themselves.
Not being able to hear does not hold them back in any way shape or form. They do have to find
ways to adapt in certain situations but as Dr. Vicars puts it Being deaf is not about being
disabled or limited it is about being about to giving your hands and eyes more freedom to
explore the world, (11). If as human beings we could look at all of our differences this way I
believe that we would be a much more successful planet. After completing this project I think

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that we should take the word disability out of our vocabulary. Everyone is born with their own
special sets of differences and short comings thats others view as disabilities or inabilities, but
who are we to decide what normal is? Learning about and talking to the people in and
associated to the deaf community has given me a new sense of perseverance and a whole new
outlook on life. They are amazing people with the most persevering attitudes I was very lucky to
talk to them.