Unifying Two Cultures

In the Experiential term I had to work with a group and make a micro-mentary, which is a small documentary. We had to create a guiding question and then go off that, telling historical events, current events, and what we want to see. The purpose of this was to see what question we could raise about the deaf community and telling different things to answer it. The challenge of this was, the communication within are group. The one fun thing was finding out more about the deaf challenges.

 

 

Introduction

Our group of freshman and sophomores students studied ASL and Deaf culture this term. We were most interested in exploring one question: How might we reform education to promote maximum unity between the DHH & hearing communities? To do this, we looked at three domains of Deaf culture which impact a student’s life: Community, Language, & Education. In each domain, we will highlight some history within Deaf culture, articles which discuss current debates, and Field Experiences with partners who practice transformative solutions. By collecting, profiling and sharing examples of people unifying young people in the DHH and hearing communities, our group becomes one.

1. Community

In the past Alexander Graham Bell wanted to ban intermarriage of Deaf men and women to stop the procreation of deaf children and close residential schools to prevent a stronger community and culture from forming. When the deaf had no sign language they turned to art work as a way to express their feelings. (De’VIA ). The community now is very isolated from the mainstream world, which is a big issue. Sports, Churches, and Meetings have made their community larger. Cochlear implants are threatening the existence of Deaf culture. We want to see the DHH and Hearing community interact with each other more. We had a chance to visit a local Starbucks and interact in a deaf conversation. It was a shock to see how they were the ones helping us more than the other way around. 

2. Language
In schools, and in the world, there is a communication barrier between hearing and DHH students : DHH students cannot speak and hearing students cannot sign. This barrier is significant because language is the central means of communication, interaction, and education.

Sign language is the 3rd most used language in the US . There are now schools for just deaf people because using interpreters became an issue. We would like to see the mainstream world become more supportive and informed about these deaf programs and school. We talked to Jill Sahakian, a Chicago Hearing Society staff member, who talked about interpreters and how they have truly bridged the gap between the deaf community. We also talked to Erenie who talked about project Aspire, which helps deaf kids with cochlear implant.

3. Education
Education is one of the biggest barriers that many Deaf people face. Everyone has the right to be successful, but why is it so hard for deaf students? That all started when Bell worked to eradicate Deaf culture in education by seeking the removal of deaf teachers and closing residential schools. Well, the problem isn’t the way that people are educated but rather the standards that are set for hearing students are different from the standards of Deaf people. Through education we can change the way that the Hearing and DHH communities come and work together


We can do this by having more schools offering ASL as a foreign language in High School. This will show the world the truth about Deaf culture.