Deaf culture

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Group of deaf people talking using sign language

The term deaf culture refers to the cultural interaction of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values and common institutions of human communities, of deafness or deafness are affected and the sign languages used as the main means of communication.

People who since childhood with hearing loss suffer learn in the mainstream society of the hearing by the lack of equivalent communication base often deferred, insulation and thus a variety of slights. As a result, deaf or “deaf” people very often prefer to be with other people who are also “deaf”. The social activities developed in this way differ in form and direction in some cases strongly from the culture of the majority society and are viewed as an independent culture of the deaf. This typically has more in common with the cultural activities of the deaf in other countries than with the culture of the national majority societies of the “hearing”.

language

Communication of the deaf using sign language

The most important feature of the deaf culture in many countries is the sign language , which - as a visually perceptible and manually produced natural language  in particular - not listening and hard hearing people to communicate is used. Sign language is considered the “ mother tongue ” of the deaf.

However, as the history of sign languages shows, sign language as such was not recognized for decades, especially in schools and sometimes also in training, and was downright ostracized. Educators have been banned from teaching in sign language since the late 19th century. The prevailing opinion in almost every country in the world was that deaf people should practice lip reading and articulating better . It was not until the 1960s and increasingly since the 1980s that understanding slowly changed, after the US linguist William Stokoe in particular from 1960 and later other linguists researched sign language scientifically and described it as being on a par with spoken language .

In Germany, from the beginning of the 1970s, the linguist Siegmund Prillwitz at the University of Hamburg was primarily concerned with research into sign language and campaigned for its recognition. In the mid-1990s, the linguists Helen Leuninger and Daniela Happ founded the “Frankfurt Sign Language Research” at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and focused in particular on German Sign Language (DGS). In 2002, the German Bundestag passed the Disability Equality Act (BGG), which, among other things, officially recognized the German Sign Language (DGS) as an independent language.

Since the 1980s, the scientific knowledge about the status and importance of sign language has increasingly promoted the perception of the independent deaf culture as such.

Recently, the use of sign language has been accompanied by the fact that, both through its promotion and through increased training of sign language interpreters, more and more deaf people can study at colleges and universities and acquire expanded knowledge and professional qualifications.

Sports

Deaf athletes playing basketball who communicate in sign language during a break in the game

Sport has a high priority in the deaf culture . Clubs have established themselves here whose members, with a few exceptions, are all deaf or severely hard of hearing. Thanks to the company's own shared communication base with sign language, knowledge of the relationships can be conveyed more completely and, for example, tactical signals can be conveyed more quickly in training and competition. Internationally, in many countries in the larger cities and in numerous sports, clubs have formed their own, sometimes as a separate department within a "hearing" club.

At the local level, participation in external sporting competitions and gaming operations takes place predominantly through equal participation in local league competitions for the “listening” teams. In addition to internal training, this participation mainly serves to maintain and develop athletic skills and tactics.

In contrast, the more seasonal events within the national and international deaf sports associations with their own national and international championships are much more important. In addition to the annual championships of the national deaf sports associations, the Deaflympics and World Deaf Games that are advertised worldwide are regularly held one year after the Olympic Games. The Deaflympics are like the Paralympics one from the IOC established association. Deaf people have not yet taken part in the Paralympics.

Fine arts

RA Olea: sign language: friend , colored pencils on construction paper, 2008

Structures of their own have also formed in the fine arts, for example with the sign language theater and the culture days of the deaf .

In the visual arts , deaf artists have formed a special art direction that deals with topics from the Deaf Experience with a preference for strong and contrasting colors, known in the USA as Deaf View Image Art (DeVIA) .

The sign language festivals are also a particular attraction, for example in Germany with competitions in sign language storytelling and poetry for the “Golden Hand” trophy.

media

Since the 19th century there have been magazines specifically aimed at the deaf group. They are mostly edited by deaf editors, such as the German Deaf newspaper published by Friedrich Waldow or the lifestyle magazine Life InSight and the lifestyle news magazine hearZONE , which contain specific political, social and cultural news, information and event notices .

With the advent of the Internet , group-specific online magazines and online discussion forums have also emerged where messages are exchanged and communication between deaf and hearing-impaired people is carried out, such as the website Taubenschlag.de , which was set up by the hearing-impaired teacher Bernd Rehling .

music

Music is also part of everyday life for the deaf. It is not only perceived by tones that are occasionally amplified with hearing aids , but also by vibrations , especially from bass . Especially in discos where strong basses are played and vibrations are triggered, deaf people can perceive them very well and dance to them. Well-known even deaf performers are for example Tobias Kramer and the drummer Evelyn Glennie .

However, there is not only tactile music for the deaf. Sign language also knows how to sing in signs. This differs from the everyday use of sign language, as there is both a colloquial language and a lyrical language in spoken languages.

Education and professional qualifications

With the emergence of secondary and high school branches at schools for the deaf as well as job-specific educational institutions such as the IBAF-deaf technical school or the Rheinisch-Westfälische Berufskolleg Essen , the possibilities for professional qualifications have been significantly expanded, so that more and more fields of work have become accessible for deaf people.

religion

Christianity

There are church services specially designed for sign language users, some of which are borne by deaf people themselves. In German-speaking countries there are Catholic and Protestant communities for deaf members. Some free churches or Jehovah's Witnesses also have services in sign language.

As in other areas of the deaf system, emancipation took place in the church sector at the end of the 20th century and Christian deaf communities arose, supported by deaf people themselves . Another consequence of this emancipation was that many regional churches or the Jehovah's Witnesses offered the deaf more freedom in their programming and they were also able to take on leadership functions.

Coda

Hearing children of deaf parents ( CODA ) practicing American Sign Language ( ASL ) together

An important part of the deaf culture are also mostly hearing children of deaf parents, who often remain lifelong connected to the community. They are internationally by the acronym Coda - Children of deaf adults ( Engl. Known - children of deaf parents). Their international association is called CODA International . Deaf children from deaf parents are called deaf codas . Sign language is the mother tongue for a coda child . If the child has hearing grandparents or older hearing siblings or if the parents communicate with them in spoken language, they quickly learn the spoken language as well as who to speak to and who to sign with. The child grows up bilingually and in two cultures or worlds with different social and cultural norms .

Deafhood or being deaf

The cochlear implant is controversial

"Deafhood" (German "Taubsein") is a concept developed by the deaf British scientist Patrick (Paddy) Ladd around 2003. It is supposed to counter the negative concept of deafness with a positive concept. Deafness is not understood as a deficit, but as an attitude towards life, comparable to being a woman, being a Christian or being a Jew. Ladd does not regard the deaf as disabled, but as members of a cultural group without which the world would be poorer in diversity. He calls on the deaf to become aware of their shared values ​​and history and to raise their children (if they are also deaf) to be proud members of their community. Being deaf should be celebrated as an attitude towards life. From these considerations, Ladd derives his controversial demand that deaf children should not receive cochlear implants . Also controversial is Ladd's positive assessment of designer deaf babies conceived by the deliberate selection of a deaf sperm donor.

Ladd speaks of the "colonization" of the deaf by the hearing. It is important to oppose the view of helpless, passive victims and to defend oneself against colonization. Hearing people could become allies ("allies") of the deaf in this process if they learned not to regard deafness as a disability.

literature

  • Paddy Ladd: What is deafhood? Deaf culture on the move . In: International studies on sign language and the communication of the deaf . tape 48 . Signum, Seedorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-936675-18-4 .
  • Inge Blatter-Meiboom: Through the wild deafistan . An empathetic and educational guide . In: Edition of the Deaf Culture . Fingershop.ch, Allschwil 2008, ISBN 978-3-9523171-4-3 .
  • Fabienne Hohl: Deaf culture. Sign Language Communities and the Consequences . Ed .: Association to support the sign language of the deaf. VUGS, Zurich 2004.
  • Regula Herrsche Hiltebrand: Deaf culture for all hearing impaired people. A self-affected and hearing-impaired pedagogue writes . SGB-DS, Zurich 2002, ISBN 3-907838-02-5 .
  • Renate Fischer; Harlan Lane (Ed.): Looking back. A reader on the history of deaf communities and their sign languages . Signum, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-927731-47-1 .
  • "Coda" dossier . In: SGB-FSS (Ed.): Visuell Plus . tape February 19 , 2015 ( sgb-fss.ch [PDF]).

Movies

  • Deaf culture and club life, by S. Grünbichler with booklet. Building blocks for sign language teaching; Project leader: N. Grbic. Self-published / Institute for Translation Studies, University of Graz, 2002 (91 min.)

Web links

Commons : Deaf culture  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. for example: Annemarie Diehr: The Poetry of Hands. In: moz.de. December 15, 2015, accessed July 8, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b See for example: Board of Directors and management of LUKAS 14 e. V .: How did LUKAS 14 come about? In: lukas14.de. July 2016, accessed July 8, 2017 .
  3. ^ Verlag Karin Kestner: Day of Equality and Recognition of Sign Language. In: kestner.de. March 1, 2002, accessed July 8, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Eva Zwick: Listen. 'Listening rooms' in the deaf theater . Master's thesis at the University of Salzburg in 2007.
  5. ↑ Life InSight - "Europe's leading lifestyle magazine"
  6. ↑ hearZONE - "News & Videos for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing"
  7. ^ Taubenschlag.de
  8. ↑ Interview with "Mister Taubenschlag"
  9. ^ CODA International
  10. ↑ Coda / CODA - what is it? ProGs e. V.
  11. ↑ Paddy Ladd. Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood. 2003. Multilingual Matters