Deaf People and Society Psychological, Sociological, and

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Third edition published 2023
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© 2023 Irene W. Leigh, Jean F. Andrews, Cara A. Miller, and Ju-Lee A. Wolsey
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Second edition published by Routledge 2016
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Leigh, Irene W., 1944– author. | Andrews, Jean F., author. | Miller,
Cara A., author. | Wolsey, Ju-Lee A., author.
Title: Deaf people and society : psychological, sociological and educational
perspectives / Irene W. Leigh, Jean F. Andrews, Cara A. Miller, and
Ju-Lee A. Wolsey.
Description: Third edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022030617 (print) | LCCN 2022030618 (ebook) | ISBN
9781032025124 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032025117 (paperback) | ISBN
9781003183686 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Deaf. | Deafness—Psychological aspects. | Deaf—Means of
communication. | Deaf—Education.
Classification: LCC HV2380 .L35 2023 (print) | LCC HV2380 (ebook) | DDC
305.9/082—dc23/eng/20220712
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030617
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022030618

ISBN: 9781032025124 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781032025117 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003183686 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003183686
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Contents

List of Figures xi
List of Tables xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxi
vi Contents
Conclusions 65
Audiology Appendix 66
The Basics of Audiology 66
The Hearing Mechanism 66
Four Types of Hearing Loss 67
The Measurement of Hearing: Audiometry 67
Hearing Aids and Cochlear Implants (CIs) 69
Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience (ACN) 69
Conclusions 69
Contents vii
viii Contents
Communication and Language Assessment 230
Conclusions 232

11 Deaf-Hearing Relationships in Context 233

Chapter Objectives 234
A Look at Attitudes 235
The Influence of Perceptions 236
Meanings of Disability and Deaf 237
Professional Attitudes 239
The Other Side 241
Oppression 243
Healthier Ways of Relating 244
Interpreter Issues 247
Attitudes within Deaf Communities 252
Conclusions 253

12 From Now to the Future 255

Changes in the Deaf Community 256
American Sign Language 260
Education Issues 261
Mental Health Developments 265
Criminal Justice System Recommendations 267
Developments in Cochlear Implantation, Genetics, Stem Cell
Regeneration, and Neurology 268
Advances in Technology 271
Professional Issues 272
Final Words 273

 Contents ix
What Went Wrong? 291
Questions 293
Allie’s Bimodal-Bilingual Story 294
Activities and Questions 295
Selana and Her Cochlear Implant 296
Activities and Questions 298

References 299
Index 351
Figures

1.1 Dr. Gabriel Lomas administers an intelligence test 1

2.1 Students using ASL 19
3.1 An audiology session 44
3.2 Autosomal dominant conditions of deafness 50
3.3 Autosomal recessive conditions of deafness 51
3.4 Sex-linked recessive conditions of deafness 51
3A.1 Typical audiogram 70
3A.2 Audiogram of speech sounds 71
4.1 Two children playing with Legos 73
5.1 Mother signing BIRD to toddler 94
6.1 Dr. Chong Min Lee leading a lesson on Deaf Culture 116
7.1 Deaf father reading to his two deaf children 138
8.1 ASL teacher, Allie Hayes, working with a student teacher 161
9.1 Faculty conferring using ASL 186
10.1 Courtroom courtesy of Honorable Judge Mitch Templeton 209
11.1 Two Deaf professors discussing the Audism poster 233
12.1 Authors collaborating on Zoom: clockwise Irene W. Leigh,
Jean F. Andrews, Ju-Lee A. Wolsey, and Cara A. Miller 255
Tables
Preface

People often take their sense of hearing for granted, at least until they encounter
someone who has difficulty hearing them, who communicates differently (e.g., by
using sign language), or who wears hearing aids or cochlear implants. Possible reac-
tions are doing a double-take, thinking a bit about what they have encountered, and
figuring out a response. There are more of these deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals
than one might realize.
Hearing variations are quite common. In the United States, statistics indicate that
15 percent of adults ages 18 and over (approximately 37.5 million) report varying
levels of hearing abilities (Blackwell et al., 2014). This statistic represents a significant
increase considering that a decade earlier, almost 28 million Americans were identified
with different degrees of hearing. The majority fall into the hard-of-hearing category
or the growing category of late-deafened due to genetics, noise-induced hearing loss,
ototoxic infections, adverse medication effects, head injuries, and the aging process.
You have encountered individuals with hearing issues. They are everywhere. You
may have elderly family members who wear hearing aids and use amplifiers on their
telephones. You may have a neighbor with a noise-induced hearing loss from playing
loud music constantly. You may even have friends with deaf family members. Possibly
you have seen a deaf actress in a movie, or a sign language interpreter in the hospital
emergency room or in your college classroom. You yourself may be D/deaf, DeafBlind,
Deaf-Disabled, or hard of hearing. Such encounters can stimulate thoughts or raise
questions that we hope to address in this revised book. As we address these questions,
we also focus on the unique issues surrounding experiences of being deaf. We hope this
will stimulate discussions among you and encourage future teachers and researchers
to explore these issues in their classrooms and research laboratories. We present a
sampling of questions to whet your appetites.
What causes hearing to change suddenly or over time? Is it always a good idea to
“fix it?” Are hearing aids or cochlear implants really effective, and for whom? Is it
a good idea to use genetic manipulation to stimulate or restore hearing? Can deaf
people read lips? How well do they understand spoken language? Does sign language
effectively convey information? Should deaf children go to designated schools or to
mainstream public schools that theoretically provide accessible services? What are
appropriate accessible services? How do deaf children think and learn? How do they
learn to read and write without hearing words? Are deaf people stuck at low levels
educationally? Are they able to get the jobs they want? Can a deaf person become a
medical doctor? How do deaf people wake up in the morning or know when someone is
ringing their doorbell? What kind of visual assistive devices or technologies are there?
xvi Preface
What does it mean for a deaf person to be monolingual, bilingual, or trilingual? What
is Deaf culture? Do deaf people consider themselves bicultural or multicultural? Is
there a “deaf” personality that differentiates deaf people from hearing people? Does
participation in deaf communities isolate deaf people from their hearing communi-
ties? How do deaf parents raise their children? Are elderly deaf persons isolated? If
deaf individuals have a cognitive disability, a mental health issue, a learning disabil-
ity, a vision difference, or other sensory challenges, how do they cope in our society
and lead productive lives?
Many people wonder how deaf individuals manage their lives and what resources
they need. Perhaps you wonder as well? We endeavored to address all these questions,
thereby adding to your awareness and understanding of issues related to being deaf or
hard of hearing.
This book, which is about trying to better understand what it means to be deaf, is
based on our years of study and experiences in the fields of psychology, deaf educa-
tion, and Deaf Studies. Historians, philosophers, and scientists have pondered what
it means to be deaf for centuries. Deaf people continue to fascinate psychologists,
who have studied their behaviors, personalities, and intelligence. Linguists have been
analyzing the structure of signed languages. Developmental psychologists, cognitive
scientists, and sociolinguists are studying how deaf children acquire, learn, and use
languages. Teachers are experimenting with new ways to encourage deaf students’
learning based on applied research results. Anthropologists and sociologists are
investigating Deaf culture and how deaf communities1 in the United States and
throughout the world are formed and change over time. Deaf scholars with doctor-
ates are exploring what it means to be deaf. Geneticists and biologists are researching
hereditary causes of hearing differences and mapping the different genes involved in
hearing. Speech-language pathologists and audiologists study the impact of different
auditory inputs on the acquisition of speech. Deaf artists are creating visual media.
Deaf writers are composing stories, poems, plays, skits, and histories about the full
range of human experience.
Deaf people in the media have highlighted public awareness of their issues. After
years of arguing that hearing actors should not assume roles as deaf persons, deaf
actors are increasingly in the limelight and are sought after for various roles. For exam-
ple, the TV series, Switched at Birth (2011–2017), featured deaf main characters played
by deaf actors. The Netflix series, Deaf U, produced in 2020, featured a group of deaf
actors in a reality series that explored their stories and life at Gallaudet University.
In 2019, Irene Taylor, a hearing filmmaker, produced and directed Midnight Sonata,
a documentary about her deaf son’s journey in getting a cochlear implant, learn-
ing to play the piano, and mastering the actual Midnight Sonata, Beethoven’s musi-
cal composition. The documentary also showed his deaf grandfather (Irene’s father)
acquiring dementia as a parallel to Beethoven’s losing his hearing.
In 2013, the appearance of a fake sign language interpreter who stood near government
heads attending Nelson Mandela’s funeral generated intense anger (Memmott, 2013).
More recently, in 2021 there was some controversy when a White House sign lan-
guage interpreter who interpreted for President Joe Biden had ties to the far-right,
which politically represents extreme right-wing factions opposed to President Biden
(Abrams, 2021). There were discussions about potential bias in interpreting discourse
with, for example, facial expressions that might detract from the actual message being
conveyed. Such unfortunate incidents serve to publicize the importance of selecting
 Preface xvii
qualified and unbiased sign language interpreters for prominent interpreting roles.
In the United States, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that started in 2019
resulted in governors of all 50 states providing public updates accompanied by sign
language interpreters (Lopez, 2020). This occurred after the National Association of
the Deaf (2020) won a lawsuit against the White House for not providing sign language
interpreters for coronavirus press conferences. Haben Girma, a DeafBlind attorney
and advocate, expressed concerns about accessible communication for deaf patients
becoming more isolated than the typical coronavirus patient in hospitals during the
pandemic due to their specific communication needs such as tactile sign language
(Martin, 2020). These examples illustrate the importance of accessible information
for deaf people.
Although many books have covered multiple issues concerning the development of
D/deaf, DeafBlind, Deaf-Disabled, and hard of hearing people throughout the life
span, few books have centered a culturally Deaf perspective in exploring these issues.
This book, more so than others, focuses on what Deaf people can do: grow, think,
learn, create, and become healthy members of society. Featuring both professional
perspectives as well as adult deaf persons’ experiences, we explain how being deaf
influences people’s lives.
There is no one way to be deaf or hard of hearing. People’s experiences, interpersonal
relationships, auditory experiences, and ways of communication vary. Often, there
may be cognitive and linguistic deprivation because environments do not ensure
visual or auditory access to language and communication. Understanding such causes
and consequences, as well as healthy ways to facilitate optimal development, has fallen
under the purview of many disciplines, including anthropology, Deaf Studies, edu-
cation, linguistics, psychology, social work, sociology, and others, all of which have
contributed to what we cover in this book.
Although the lives of many deaf people do not always center on access to auditory
experiences, we do not ignore this issue as it has profound implications. Measurable
hearing levels range from average hearing to mild, moderate, or profound hearing
loss. Increasing numbers of deaf individuals benefit from advances in auditory tech-
nology (like digital hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other assistive devices). Many
think that after medical and/or auditory fixes, “all ends well.” As we explain here, it
all depends!
We cannot ignore the medical aspects of many deaf people’s experiences. A number
of the various etiologies of hearing loss may also contribute to, for example, ear infec-
tions, heart malfunctions, psychological issues, and cognitive and behavioral difficul-
ties, often warranting medical or professional attention, treatment, short-term and
ongoing habilitation or rehabilitation, and functional accommodations.
Modified or adapted services in daily living, work, and education are often helpful
for DeafBlind individuals. The term “DeafBlind” encapsulates individuals with
simultaneous and varying hearing and vision abilities, whether congenital, acquired
in childhood, or later in adulthood (Wolsey, 2018). Use of mobility, technology access,
vocational and employment training, counseling, transportation, housing, literacy,
life skills, interpreter services, and others may facilitate DeafBlind individuals’ access
to communication, language, education, career, and leisure activities. Furthermore, a
growing subset of deaf people with additional disabilities (including sensory, neurolog-
ical, physical, and other disabilities), increasingly refer to themselves as DeafDisabled
or Deaf-Disabled.