Ronald Rothstein
January 25th, 2015
Lyra Behnke
ASL 102
Reflection Paper
Deaf Awareness Paper
In 1996, Carla A. Halpern wrote an article called “Listening in on Deaf Culture”,
which talks about the word “deaf” in two different senses; referring to a physical
characteristic and to a cultural identity1. Halpern dives right into the discussion with
readers and talks about how being deaf is not a defect but it’s a source of connection2. For
instance, Halpern explains how its not just deaf people who are connected in an
environment, but it also ranges to people who are hard of hearing in many levels. This
isn’t a group of those who are sorrow about having a disability/defect, but people who are
proud to be using what they have as a gift to communicate with hearing people. Perhaps
one of the most important facts that Halpern describes is that sign language is not
“universal”, because it seems to people who are unaware of deaf culture only think that
there is one sign language such as ASL, when really there are several different kinds of
sign language3. This spectrum of different sign languages ranges from countries with
their own such as Great Britain, German, French, etc.
There is one part in the paper that talks about how the deaf culture is harsh on
“traitors”, which are deaf people who are necessarily not deaf people. Specifically I think
that is identifying people who are deaf that trying to act like people who can hear. One
person that comes to mind when I think about this, is Marlee Matlin, who is a deaf actress
that won an academy award for best actress. However, she was shunned in deaf
community, when she signed and spoke in front of a big group of people at an award
ceremony. My question would, be why is it so bad for a deaf person to try and talk?
One thing about reading this article that I was surprised about, was the percentage
of people who are born from hearing parents but are deaf people was about 90 percent4. I
took a Deaf History course here at WOU last year, so I am familiar with deaf history and
society. But that last statistic must of passed through my mind, but knowing this article
was written in 1996, I feel the stats have changed a little bit, as I know some deaf couples
are having children and having them become deaf after being born.
The very last paragraph in the paper strikes home really well for me. What I am
talking about is how the Deaf community is genuine about hearing people to join their
community so that there is no animosity between wither group. Perhaps what really
serves more of a statement is the last sentence; which states, “Our role is not to give Deaf
people a voice; it is to make sure that the voice already present is heard. And we can do
that. We can teach other hearing people to listen.5”.
1
Introduction
Second Paragraph
3
“Not a Disability” paragraph 7
4
Eighth Paragraph “Deaf Culture”
5
Last Paragraph
2