Deaf Culture

Through extensive research, I realized how closed-minded people could be about deaf people. On one website I read, the author talked about people that have a "pathological view" of deaf people and those that have a "cultural view" of deaf people. Each group of people believes different things when it comes to deaf people, their habits, lifestyle, and culture.

Those people with the "pathological view" of deaf people believe that deaf people have something wrong with them. These people are very closed-minded and refuse to believe that deaf people are normal. They believe that those that are deaf must be "fixed" in order to be normal. These people also believe that those in the Deaf Community have learning disabilities and psychological problems due to the loss of hearing.

The other group, those with the "cultural view" of deaf people, believes that deaf people are as normal as any other human is. They believe that American Sign Language is a form of communication and that deaf people can communicate as well as anyone else. The people with this view also realize that deaf people have a community made up of people that share a common language and a common culture, just as ethnic groups or people who share a passion.

Personally, I follow the "cultural view" of deaf people. Deaf people are just like anyone else, but they just have a handicap. They are like people paraplegics. Both have something that they cannot do, but they still have feelings, thoughts, and ideas. They can still communicate, just in a different way than everyone else.

In my opinion, sign language is more detailed and more emotion-filled than any other language I have ever seen. Every word's and sentence's meaning is determined by the movement of the speaker's hands or arms. Many signs can be interpreted in different ways just by how a person moves their hands. For example, if the speaker moves his hands slower, it usually means that it is more of something. If the speaker moves his hands faster, it means that it is less of something. It really amazes me to see such a wonderful display of thoughts and ideas.

It makes me angry to see that there are people who believe that deaf people need to be "fixed." They are not broken. They are not like dolls that don't function properly. People who think this are ignorant and quite possibly should be "fixed" themselves. I have several deaf friends and they are just as well to do as anyone else I have met and talked to.