Deaf Identity

Forward by John A. Hay. In my annual lecture to the Psychology of Deafness course at Edinburgh University I am invited to launch the course by describing the life-style of deaf persons from the inside, instead of the usual textbook descriptions at second-hand from hearing 'experts'. In the 1989 class, one student in particular seemed to understand the need to respect this 'consumer view'. In the following monograph Anna shows how well she appreciates the deaf viewpoint.....

Identifying and examining political, socio-psychological and symbolic borders, Language, Borders and Identity encompasses a broad, geographically diverse spectrum of border contexts, taking a multi-disciplinary approach by combining sociolinguistics research with human geography, anthropology and social psychology. The book illustrates a representative range of methodological approaches used by researchers in the field and examines regional and local borders alongside the political borders that divide monoglossic and heteroglossic territories.

This exploratory study examined the relationship of self-concept and school belonging to the identities of young people who were d/Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing in Australian secondary schools.  Data for this study were collected online and through interviews and involved a nation-wide sample of 25 d/Deaf and HH individuals between the ages of 12 and 19 years old.  Measures used include the Deaf Acculturation Scale, Self-Description Questionnaire II- Short, and the School Belonging Scale.  Results show a significant main effect of identity-on sub-domains of self-concept and school belonging.  The study revealed that in some domains of self-concept, hearing acculturated d/DHH individuals had higher levels of self-concept compared to Deaf and Bicultural individuals.  Insofar as school belonging, it was found that hearing acculturated students had higher means for total school belonging, school support and school attachment than bicultural students, though there was no statistical significance for Deaf acculturated students.  Interviews revealed that many young people experienced alienation in mainstream settings.  Directions for future research and implications for education are discussed.

<p>Deaf academics who navigate aspects of their professional lives through signed language interpreting services face a range of issues, including handling perceptions of their Hearing peers, identifying and negotiating their own communication preferences, and balancing personal and professional relationships with their interpreters. Interpreters bring individual sets of schemas and skills to their work, which impacts the interpreted interaction. In this paper, a Deaf academic and her interpreter/colleague discuss various challenges in having an interpreter—and being an interpreter—in academia. Topics include being “outed” as a person with a disability because of the presence of an interpreter; the need for interpreters with specialized academic vocabulary; the responsibilities of the Deaf academic and the interpreter in interpreted interactions; and the sense of vulnerability, intimacy, and autonomy experienced by the Deaf academic and the interpreter. The article is a shared reflection about the evolution of a relationship, beginning with the authors’ respective roles as client and interpreter, and leading into to their present alliance as colleagues and friends.</p><p>Key words: interpretation, Deaf, academic, ethics, disability, autonomy, vulnerability, intimacy, philosophy, hard of hearing, hearing impaired, sign language, oral interpreting, American Sign Language</p><p>  </p>

Le combat contre l’exclusion prend pour les organisateurs communautaires une forme
originale dans les débats identitaires contemporains. L’enjeu n’est plus seulement de
soutenir les différents groupes d’exclus dans leur quête d’empowerment, mais
également de nourrir les points de contact entre les revendications de ces groupes et
un système qui s’efface au fur et à mesure que l’État se désengage. Cet article vise à
examiner les possibilités et les impasses que la reconnaissance des différences pose
aux intellectuels et aux intervenants oeuvrant avec des communautés identitaires
comme celle des Sourds. Comment être à la fois respectueux des différences sans
tomber dans certains pièges du différentialisme ? Cette question, qui appelle une
position mitoyenne, ouvre sur un compromis nécessaire entre les conceptions
communautarienne et intégrationniste concernant la place des Sourds au Québec.

Working against exclusion in the actual identity claim context for community organizers is calling
for new ways to do things. Even if the empowerment of excluded populations is still at stake,
there is an urgent need for bridging their claims with the always less supporting system created
by state disengagement. This paper wants to highlight deadlocks and possibilities of promoting
differences for intellectuals and community organizers how works with strong identity based
groups such as the Deaf. How to build links between “them” and “us”, and considering with
respect their differences without over emphasizing them? There is a need for an intermediary
perspective, over passing differentialism and integrationism, to understand how it is possible to
include Deaf in Quebec.