Last week, at a local coffee shop, I did a one-to-one with a Deaf man named Rufus Blair. This conversation was conducted in American Sign Language (ASL).
Rufus has an informal leadership role within the Bay Area Deaf community, as a bilingual, bicultural, and educated member of the community. I began by briefly explaining my role to him, as well as the purpose of the conversation. We started the dialogue with me asking him which communities he identifies as belonging to. He confirmed that he is a member of the Deaf community. After that had been established, I opened up the discussion in asking him which issues he felt were relevant to Deaf people today; I asked him what things he would change if he could. In response to this prompt, Rufus stated that, in his opinion, Deaf Education is the most impactful issue that the Deaf community faces contemporarily; he expressed his overwhelming frustration with the educational choices that ignorant hearing parents of deaf children make. As a former teacher of Deaf children at a mainstream hearing high school, he feels jaded after countless interactions with parents who held the belief their children were disabled, and unable to become functional, successful adults. Much of Rufus’ experience in this regard has influenced his perspective on these issues.
At this point I decided to make an attempt at Socratic questioning. I asked Rufus why most hearing parents of Deaf children make the decisions that they do, and why they make those educational and language exposure choices from birth (such as emphasizing speech therapy, lip-reading training, and excluding the use of sign language). He replied that is was a lack of resources and options presented to parents of newborn deaf children. Typically, which a deaf child is born to hearing parents, the doctors, audiologists, and “professionals” step in to educate the parents on how to go forward. They present them with the pathological view of deafness, and paint the picture that their child is disabled, needing to be “fixed” with hearing aids, cochlear implants, and speech therapy in order for the child to have any semblance of a “normal life”. If they mention sign language at all, it is to emphasize that any use of sign language with the child will hinder their ability to learn English and will make it impossible for them to develop normally. This perspective is in stark contrast to the sociocultural view, which frames the Deaf community as a linguistic minority with a distinct culture. The cultural view is not presented to new parents at all and is actually discredited by medical professionals. One reason for this is the massive audiological industry that sees pathological deafness as their primary source of capital. If deaf people don’t need fixing, then there is no profit for these big corporations. When parents are indoctrinated with this pathological view, they have the misconception that this is the only approach, and they adopt the perspective that their child needs fixing and needs to become as much like a hearing person as possible. Raising and educating a deaf child in this way is neglecting to heed enormous amounts of research and generational Deaf knowledge which proves that early acquisition of sign language, complete access to communication with parents, and education tailored to the visual needs of deaf children is the tried and true way to avoid language delay, social isolation, depression, and low functional ability. After this topic was brought up, Rufus then began to shift his focus in agreement with this issue as one of the biggest sources of the lack of adequate education for deaf people.
Together, we brainstormed ways that this problem could be addressed, such as the need for a professional representative from the Deaf community to present these options to new parents. This professional would be knowledgeable about what contributes to a Deaf person’s success, such as early acquisition of sign language, to bilingual education, to Deaf role models, etc. They would also be skilled in reaching out to parents in an effective way, understanding they may be experiencing grief that their child is unlike them, presenting the resources in a helpful and supportive way, as well as being a living, breathing example of a successful and functional Deaf person. This would give parents the range of options, as well as a better understanding of how to help their child be successful in the world.
Rufus and I then went on to discuss how to make that happen. He suggested that advocacy organizations would be how he’d imagine this being implemented. I suggested that it seems attempts to implement this nation-wide seem to have been either non-existent or unsuccessful this far, and perhaps it was necessary to think about larger scale action, such as the need for policies to be in place to enforce that these steps are carried out. It was difficult for him to contemplate attempting to do something of that scale, especially because many contemporary social action attempts by Deaf grassroots groups have appeared unorganized and disastrous to him. At this, I explained contextually that organizing was the focus of my current graduate program, that professional organizers are people who build community base and power, develop leadership, and contribute to the success of social action (as opposed to indigenous leadership). I asked him to continue to ruminate on what ways he felt the Deaf community could best be organized for the future. On this note, we wrapped up the discussion.
It very successful initial one-on-one, as I was able to implement much of what I’ve learned from my courses at Prescott College in the conversation. We were able to touch on very important issues, as well as how they might be addressed through community organizing. Overall, I feel that it was a very beneficial conversation.
Hillary Smith
My course goals for this semester are simple. My plan, inhale all of the organizing knowledge such as gaining competence in this field and work toward developing a greater understanding of the social justice work. Next, take that learned knowledge and place it in my professional practice and praxis. Then determine how best to serve communities from using all that I have learned to help others master and navigate in this world.
Organizing at Prescott 