Cultural appropriation or cultural appreciation

"Where it gets really tricky is with traditions or symbols that have roots in several different cultures. For example, dreadlocks are found in Indian, Buddhist, Rastfari, African, and Celtic culture. Most recently, dreadlocks are known as a symbol of Black resistance to racism and Rastafaris’ commitment to Jah. When white people wear dreadlocks, we/they strip dreadlocks from their symbolism of resistance to racism and a commitment to Jah. But as a general rule of thumb, it’s not appropriation if it’s from your own culture."

https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/cultural-appreciation-or-cultural-appropriation/

Wanting to be Indian

"Structural racism is a system of oppression in which the structures of society are operated and controlled by White people. Racism combines prejudice against people of color with political, economic, and social power over their lives. Racism is in the air we breathe. It is not so much about individual guilt or innocence, as it is an atmosphere of injustice with which we all have to reckon in some way."

https://unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/wanting-to-be-indian/

Deaf School

1.     Benefit 300+ students? Really? Did you even watch the video or read the article?  Tara showed how the requirement for LSL specialists + auditory-only environment narrowed down the number of schools to two. Maybe there are three private and two public A/O schools in the state, but where are the certified LSL specialists? Hmm. I notice you haven’t offered SPECIFIC information about those schools and how or whether they meet the qualifications.

2.     FSDB serves more than 600 students on that $45 million. Not 399. It serves the full gamut of needs for a huge variety of kids. K-12, single disability (deaf or blind), multiple disabilities (deaf-blind, learning disabilities, psychiatric conditions, CP, mental retardation, physical disabilities, etc.), students from all over the state whose families don’t have access to good deaf and/or blind ed in their hometowns. Can private schools accommodate a student from a family from way out in the middle of nowhere who can’t afford to move to near the school? No. So a big chunk of that money for FSDB goes to dorms for those kids who have to live away from their families because their home schools can’t serve them. And then there’s all sorts of specialists to meet all sorts of needs – like Tara said. FSDB offers everything, including speech and auditory therapy. And they have to have counselors and therapists and etc. on staff. That’s gonna be way more expensive than offering only ONE mode and not employing any specialists in anything other than AVT and LSL.

3.     There’s a reason FSDB students often don’t enter the mainstream. They came FROM the mainstream! Some of them even came from A/O programs! State schools for the deaf are the last resort after kids can’t hack it at A/O schools or in public schools. How fair is it to judge a school that’s the dumping ground for kids that started out in A/O or public schools. When those schools can’t meet those kids’ needs, they get pushed out and into FSDB through no fault of their own or FSDB’s. And yet FSDB gets beat up for it and people yell about how expensive it is? Duh. Cleanup and damage control is expensive.

IMHO, people who spout off about choice but then tell parents the only responsible choice is AO and then back it up with questionable (or even unsourced) “research” showing ASL is oh so terrible and will gasp HURT your child!! have no place trying to stick their hands in taxpayer pockets to support something that offers absolutely no choices for parents and nothing nearly resembling a range of options as a safety net if their students don’t take 100% to the AO method. These kids just go without full language access for however long, and then they get kicked out … ahem .. “encouraged” to transfer to a program more “appropriate” to their needs.

And don’t tell me that never happens. There are posts all over the internet by those products of the system – whether still kids or now adults. As much as AG Bell and AO programs would love to pretend they don’t exist.

AO supporters go on and on and on about how ASL isn’t the only option. Um. FSDB and public schools offer ALL options, including AVT. And they have GOOD therapists and specialists too. AO private schools offer only one option and tell people that options can’t be combined. Did the dictionary change the definition of options when I wasn’t looking?

And you go on about the “ASL community” … FYI, the deaf community isn’t just ASL users, and not all ASL users use ONLY ASL. Far from it. The deaf community is way more complex than that and tons of deaf people use multiple modes … oh, wait, excuse me … OPTIONS. They sign. Many started out or grew up oral. They learned ASL later. Does that mean they're now disowned by AO even tho they still "listen" and talk with hearing people even as they use sign language to socialize with other deaf people? Good to know you lump all signers together regardless of speaking ability.  They wear CIs or hearing aids.  They talk. They lipread. They’re truly bilingual and multimodal. Get with the times and reality. It’s not two separate camps, as much as your own fantasy fairy tale might like to argue.

BTW, aren’t you hearing? You sure sound like it. Hearing people have no business telling others how to manage their deafness when they don’t even understand what it’s like to grow up or be deaf themselves. Try it first, honestly.  And just so you know, I come from an AO background and have been mainstreamed my whole life and am what you people like to call a “success story”.  I’m also fluent in ASL and have a CI. What you got to say now?  Don’t preach it until you’ve LIVED it.

"Get over it"

"It's not like I was raped, and it was an isolated event with a neat ending, and that was that. I was stalked. My best friend was attacked. I was left with scars and with PTSD. The enforced denial in my family resulted in profound fractures.

My experience is not terribly unique. Rape reverberates.

"Get over it" elides a reality that sexual violence is usually not a contained incident, but a starting point on a divergent path along which lie pebbles, stones, emotional landmines that one otherwise might not have encountered.

Rape did not turn me into a survivor's advocate; I was a survivor long before I was an advocate. But even if it had, I don't know why on earth I would want to "get over" that. I am not keen to abandon my position that rape is vile, nor silence my voice from speaking that truth."

http://www.shakesville.com/2012/07/on-getting-over-it.html?m=1

Drugs

"I feel strongly that there is nothing inherently wrong with using drugs, and that's a matter of bodily autonomy and self-determination. I only have a problem with it if you're also hurting other people in the process (such as with driving while drunk or hitting people while drunk, but being drunk in and of itself isn't a bad thing and shouldn't be shamed). Particularly when juxtaposed to the incredibly poor treatment marginalized victims of crime receive by law enforcement, it's incredulous that we continue to prosecute drug users for exercising control over their own bodies instead of, oh, I don't know, taking as a serious threat to any supposedly "free" and "equal" society the rampant institutionalized violence against children, undocumented immigrants, the disabled, people of color, indigenous people, religious minorities, queer folks, women and female-presenting folks, and other multiply-marginalized people."-Lydia Brown

Generalization w/ labels

"We have received messages and seen comments on this page about how some of the articles we have posted up have been generalizing about "white feminists." 

It really doesn't take much to understand that when the topic of "white feminists" is discussed, that of course not all white feminists are to blame. Emphasis doesn't have to be placed on each sentence, stating that we don't intend to refer to every single white feminist as being wrong and in privilege-denial.

Why? Because it should be fairly obvious that the writer is NOT referring to every single white feminist as being a Femen-style racist. But living in a white supremacist world, critiques of racism and privileged behaviour not just from Femen but from any well-meaning person who gets it horrily wrong is something that we need. That doesn't make us divisive- those very people refusing to check themselves, and listen to what Muslim women have to say are the ones that are being divisive in the first place for provoking such criticism."-Muslim Women Against Femen

The Right Not to Work: Power and Disability

"While issues regarding racial, gender, and sexual orientation equality are all at the forefront of political and social theory, disabled people are almost always left out of these conversations. The disabled are viewed with sympathy as victims of “bad luck” who will simply have to accept disadvantage as their lot in life, not as an identity group that is systematically discriminated against. Unlike sexism and racism, which are perceived to be significant social problems, disability falls under the social radar and disablism is not recognized as a damaging or even particularly serious form of prejudice."

http://monthlyreview.org/2004/03/01/the-right-not-to-work-power-and-disability

open letter to eve ensler

When I told you that your white, colonial, feminism is hurting us, you started crying. Eve, you are not the victim here. This is also part of the pattern which is a problem: Indigenous women are constantly trying to explain all of these issues, and are constantly met with “Why are you attacking me?!” This is not being a good ally.

http://chiefelk.tumblr.com/post/49527456060/an-open-letter-to-eve-ensler

objectification of women

My gaze also communicates that I have the weight of capitalist patriarchy behind me. Behind my stare exists an advertising industry that objectifies women’s bodies for incredible profit. Behind my stare is a political system that seeks to regulate women’s bodies outside of their control. Behind my stare is a pornography and media machine that communicates in nearly every single message that women are endlessly inadequate, weak objects and that men are dominant, in control, and powerful.

And this has real-world effects!

At age 13, 53% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to 78% by the time girls reach 17. Five to 10 million adolescent girls and women struggle with eating disorders and borderline eating conditions, and 90 percent of those who have eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25. (Source)

Now, am I causing the women around me to hate their bodies simply because I am looking? Absolutely not!

But when nearly every single man stares or hollers at a woman while she walks past ultra-thin models in billboards whose bodies are dissected and distorted to sell a product, it has a compounding effect.

But in talking about this, we should also recognize that this hurts men too.

Is it the same thing when men are objectified in a Calvin Klein ad or when a someone stares at my body at the pool? No, simply because there is not the weight of an all-encompassing system of gender oppression behind that objectification.

http://www.rolereboot.org/sex-and-relationships/details/2013-04-the-difference-between-the-appreciation-of-beauty-an#.UYM7Ymg1pro.twitter

medical industrial complex

"as a deaf person, I'd like to say that--while I understand why hearing people and even some deaf people would find this procedure miraculous and wonderful--I really don't share that sentiment. society's obsession with normalization is what causes cognitive and language delays in deaf children. by focusing on making a child able to hear and speak, often their language development is completely neglected until they attend school. the language window closes at 5 years of age, roughly the time when most children start kindergarten. I work at a school for the deaf and I see many kids come to us between 5-10 years of age with zero or very minimal language abilities. these children spend the rest of their school careers trying to catch up with those who were exposed to a natural language (ASL is the natural language of deaf people) at birth or at least at 2 or 3 years of age. it's really sad. this procedure is only a fix for the middle ear structures, basically an invisible, permanent hearing aid that you can never turn off. it won't make a profoundly, severely, or moderately deaf person hearing. even with a hearing aid I have to work hard at hearing. there will never be a 100% fix for deafness. I wish hearing people would stop trying to normalize us and start embracing our natural language and culture. believe me, deaf culture is a beautiful thing to be a part of. I have nothing against people who decide (on their own) that they want this surgery, but to force it onto innocent children, when the long term effects are not known and the success rate is likely very low is unethical.

if this is what it comes to.. I fucking hate science."-vivienne schroeder

medical industrial complex

"here are more failures than success stories with CIs, the industry buries these failures and builds up the success stories, giving hearing parents everywhere the idea that a CI surgery will make their child hearing. It doesn't. Hearing parents of deaf babies are innocent people being preyed on by the CI industry, using their fear of the unknown to promote surgeries and methods that have been time and time again proven NOT to work. If a child gets a CI surgery, but ALSO has full access to ASL and visual communication, that would be wonderful. I know a few deaf couples who decided to implant their deaf child while giving them access to ASL and I think it's wonderful. Unfortunately, the majority don't do this. They decide to normalize their child in every way possible, denying them access to ASL and the deaf community and culture. As a result, these children grow up with significant cognitive delays, limited social opportunities, and ostracized by their peers. You know me, I went to hearing schools all my life because I was hard of hearing and I could function fairly well in that environment. When I got to high school I started feeling the effects of my limited hearing abilities. I would avoid large groups because I'd always be lost in the conversation. I avoided raising my hand in class because a few times I repeated what others had already said because I couldn't hear them. Now that I'm older and my hearing is getting worse, I'm so grateful that I grew up knowing ASL and involved in the deaf community. Otherwise I'd be a very lonely person right now. At the end of the day, even with a CI, that child is still deaf. There will never be a 100% fix for it. There are people who are fighting hard to prevent deaf children from learning ASL, joining the deaf community, and acquiring deaf culture. It's a crime against humanity because in the long run, the child suffers irreparable damage, not only to their ears, but to their social, emotional and intellectual well being."-Vivienne Schroeder

Appreciating Beauty or Objectifying Women?

In the days since this experience, I have thought a lot about it.  Why did I, someone committed to the antithesis of this reality, participate in the way I did?  Why did I not question the situation or the language used by the men there?  Another thing that really has stuck with me is that the women in this space had bodies that were probably the closest to the unhealthy standard of beauty that our society has constructed that I have seen in a long time, and it left me wondering, a standard to which I am sadly attracted.  Is this healthy for them?

I can’t say for sure and I can’t judge because undoubtedly there are infinite numbers of body types and I am not a woman, but I imagine that it could be unhealthy in a few ways.  To achieve this body type, I imagine many women would need to pursue one of two unhealthy courses.  First, they could eat very little while toning their bodies through exercise, thus depriving their body of nutrients and calories that are needed for everyday functions.  Second, they could eat relatively normally but work out so regularly that it could become an unhealthy obsession, working out every day to the point that it is no longer healthy emotionally or psychologically (even if their bodies are rather healthy).

http://changefromwithin.org/2010/08/04/appreciating-beauty-or-objectifying-women/

Outcomes of cochlear implantation in deaf children of deaf parents

OBJECTIVE: This retrospective study compared the cochlear implantation outcomes of first- and second-generation deaf children.

METHODS: The study group consisted of seven deaf, cochlear-implanted children with deaf parents. An equal number of deaf children with normal-hearing parents were selected by matched sampling as a reference group. Participants were matched based on onset and severity of deafness, duration of deafness, age at cochlear implantation, duration of cochlear implantation, gender, and cochlear implant model. We used the Persian Auditory Perception Test for the Hearing Impaired, the Speech Intelligibility Rating scale, and the Sentence Imitation Test, in order to measure participants' speech perception, speech production and language development, respectively.

RESULTS: Both groups of children showed auditory and speech development. However, the second-generation deaf children (i.e. deaf children of deaf parents) exceeded the cochlear implantation performance of the deaf children with hearing parents.

CONCLUSION: This study confirms that second-generation deaf children exceed deaf children of hearing parents in terms of cochlear implantation performance. Encouraging deaf children to communicate in sign language from a very early age, before cochlear implantation, appears to improve their ability to learn spoken language after cochlear implantation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22906641/

Hey White Liberals

"Your constant prioritization of the lives of white people over the lives of people of color is taking a serious toll on my psyche and those of many in my community. And by that I don't mean what you might expect. Most of us already know that racism and its BFF white privilege have detrimental effects on people of color. Racial oppression leads to any number of unhealthy conditions, including high blood pressure, depression, heart disease, diabetes and even asthma. But what I’m talking about is something different. Something I’m going to call DSWP: desensitization to the suffering of white people."

http://blackgirldangerous.org/new-blog/2013/4/22/hey-white-liberals

ASL - research

This disagreement over the best approach for educating deaf students is not simply a discussion over which language or code is best to use, but rather it represents profound, and often polarized, differences in educational philosophy. That is, specific educational methods are grounded in, and driven by, the philosophy, or metatheory, one subscribes to. Metatheory refers to a way of thinking or a viewpoint about issues (Baars, 1986; Bunge & Ardila, 1987; cited in Paul & Jackson, 1993). The current conflict in deaf education, at the metatheory level, is between the clinical-pathological model (hereafter referred to as the clinical model) and the cultural model. The clinical model represents one point of view, namely, a view in which deafness is characterized as a disability stemming from a biological deficit (i.e., a lack of hearing). Thus, educational goals focus on overcoming, or compensating for, hearing loss so that students can learn to speak, read, and write English. Educational methods used to accomplish this goal include amplification, speech reading, and representing English on the hands (i.e., manually coded English).

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Exceptional-Children/21053234.html

Introvertness

• They are very, very good at entertaining themselves for long periods.
• Seems exhausted after parties or social gatherings. Needs down time.
• They have one or two close friends and don’t feel the need for more.
• You have to pry information out of them, such as how their day was or if they had a good time at their friend’s house.
• They have a very highly developed sense of personal space and are disturbed when it is not respected.
• They are a very private person.
• They do not like to have to participate in classroom discussions or be called upon for an answer.
• Hate making mistakes in public.
• Enjoys their own company.
• Does not understand the need for small talk.
• Tires easily in large groups or crowds.
• Tends to withdraw from large social gatherings.

http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2011/04/are-you-raising-an-introvert/

You Become an Anti-Racist Feminist

"You find a community of like-minded people who call themselves white, anti-racists, which intimidates you, but intrigues you. You remember Gloria Anzaldúa, bell hooks, Audre Lorde. They whispered poetry into your memories and compelled you to do better.

You are amazed at the collective humility of this group. This group of white people who talk about race. There are deep pauses in their group conversations. They all are thinking and hearing and reaching outwards. You take their workshop. You join their cause."

http://thefeministwire.com/2013/04/you-become-an-anti-racist-feminist/

Disabled Inspiration

Disabled Inspiration

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-03/young-inspiration-porn/4107006

CAN'T YOU TAKE A JOKE?

Can't You Take A Joke?

http://higherunlearning.com/2012/11/11/cant-you-take-a-joke/

HOW TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT PRIVILEGE

HOW TO TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT PRIVILEGE

http://everydayfeminism.com/2012/12/how-to-talk-to-someone-about-privilege/

ableism

You learn that ableism is oppression, discrimination, and prejudice against the disabled or those presumed disabled.

Ableism is the word that puts a name to every time that journalists, who are supposed to be objective yet committed to compassion and justice, say that people with psychiatric disabilities are inhuman and a problem of society, or that autistics like me are incapable of experiencing or understanding feelings. Or when they say we're a public health crisis. Or when they say we're monsters who need to be locked up for the good of society because we're dangerous. Or when politicians and universities and news producers consult everyone but actually disabled people on disability issues, hold panels on multiple perspectives on disability, and do all of this without any actually disabled people, and say that that's because a we have nothing valuable to say.

Ableism is the word that puts a name to every time that parents and caregivers murder disabled children, or when the media exculpatory them, or when hundreds of non-disabled parents flock to their defense. And when actually disabled people are called heartless, incapable of empathy, and not understanding someone else's perspective when we mourn for the loss of those disabled people.

Because when people can say, "autistics should be killed" with impunity and hardly more than a second glance from the public, that's ableism. And when people can say those are just words and they can't hurt, and they're ignoring the actually real, actually present danger to Autistics who dare to speak up -- death threats, rape threats, actual assaults, and murder -- that's not merely privilege; that's fucking privilege.

And allies -- understand that ableism is not a game. Ableism is not being offended. Ableism is abuse and violence and murder. Ableism is what gets us killed and our killers acquitted in the court of public opinion and often the court of law. These are our lives, and that's exactly what's at stake.

http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/02/autistics-shoulddear-allies.html

Response to audism

Asking Change dot org to avoid endorsing less than optimal language, and even asking people to think about issues of culture and choice, does not equal "demonizing" anybody's parents. The sooner that conclusion-jump goes away, the better off we will all be.

a mother, who gets that when people teach me what it's like for kids who are not white, that is not the same thing as me being attacked/demonized/silenced etc.

Also, I'd like to say that as someone who is disabled, I am very much in a position to judge non-disabled parents for what they do to their disabled children. And it is my RESPONSIBILITY to speak up for the disabled child.

Thing is, when we point any parental decision, motivation or mentality out as being problematic, or even less than an absolute and indisputable truth, we get accused of "judging." And sometimes that, or even actual calling out and judging, needs to happen. Parents aren't universally perfect and benevolent by virtue of being parents.

Also, what someone chooses for themselves making an informed decision and what a person's parents or other relatives want and choose for them are two completely different things, especially when it's stuff that isn't lifesaving or preserving existent functioning.

"parents are not benevolent because they are parents, and parenting decisions are not made in a vacuum separate of oppression. No disabled or Deaf person should be shamed or judged for their decisions, but able-bodied and hearing people can and should be. If you benefit from a system of oppression, the power is on your side, so it is not a 2-way street where everyone is equal. This culture of calling oppressed people "judgmental" for calling out stuff that upholds their own oppression is fucked up. Nondisabled people, even parents, get to be and should be called out on ableism. Also, calling people heroic just for existing as disabled people is hella creepy. Like, cool we don't get to have autonomy (get institutionalized), so being your inspiration is like what? our consolation prize?"

I am not Deaf and I don't think it would be right for me to speculate on what I would do. However, I am disabled, and on that level, I can say that my body is complex and I am more interested in a world that respects that than a cure. Deaf and disabled get to decide what they want for their bodies.

Science and what is pursued under the rubric of science is influenced by social norms and beliefs.

Science also does not exist in a vacuum, and science has been used to hurt and kill marginalized people, such as scientific racism and eugenics. Again, maybe folks should defer to Deaf people on this issue.

A parent telling their child that the child needs to go through surgery to be accepted/acceptable, rather than fighting for their child against an unaccepting society, can hurt like hell.

Instead of empowerment there is the constant need to feel like you have to be fixed.

medical vs social: deaf

There are several important points to consider here that I think you are completely missing. 

1.) Most doctors and most parents are operating within a framework that already medicalizes and pathologizes biological, physical, and mental differences and deviations that do not need to be medicalized and pathologized. While any individual doctors and parents can be perfectly well-intentioned (and I will be quite generous in extending this benefit of the doubt to "most" doctors and parents, as, make no mistake, there ARE abusive parents and doctors), this does not mean that their decisions, ideas, and attitudes are free of social context. For example, a father who is a member of the Ku Klux Klan might not be physically or emotionally abusive to his children, and may in fact be otherwise a very good parent, but if he decides to indoctrinate his children in racist ideas, keep his children in segregated schools or homeschool groups, he most likely believes very strongly that this is in his child's best interests, but his decisions are most certainly informed by his racism. 

Likewise, parents choosing forced medical procedures for their children on the assumption that their quality of life will or must necessarily be better if their bodies or brains functioned in the same was as most people's may very well have the best of intentions and believe that they are doing what is best for their children, but it does not in any way detract from the fundamentally ableist and audist attitudes that are pervasive in U.S. society, which is the context in which these parents are making those decisions. 

2.) The presumption that to be hearing must automatically be better or worthwhile or valuable than to be deaf, hard of hearing, or otherwise "hearing impaired" (a phrase I've heard some people use), is one that is profoundly audist and ableist, because it completely ignores and denies the real, lived experiences of many thousands (millions?) of d/Deaf people around the world. The Deaf people that are in this thread, and those who have written very eloquently on these issues, would argue very much that their lives and experiences are valuable and worthwhile, and certainly not lesser or diminished by virtue of deafness. 

3.) If you were then to argue that those people are simply biased by personal experience, can you then argue that the "doctors and parents" who oppose Deaf rights, disability rights, etc. are not biased by personal experience? This goes to the question of sociological privilege. Those who are privileged by being hearing, temporarily able-bodied, and neurotypical are also privileged in that their opinions and experiences are not merely centered as normative, but presumed to be objective and detached from personal biases. Conversely, those who are marginalized, who are deaf and disabled, are presumed to be utterly subjective (and not even truly capable of holding a "rational" opinion or thought to begin with at worst) and always tied to personal biases that de-legitimize and invalidate those opinions and experiences.-Lydia

Cochlear Implant

" Why would you trust the doctors and the parents over the experience and perspective of people with disabilities? Is it an attachment to the soothing prescriptive nature of the medical institution? These comments endorsing the implant for the child demonstrate a willingness to accept this prescription based on fears of deaf and preference for hearing. Cochlear implants do not restore hearing, they do not always work, there is no guarantee the child will learn speech and language, and these parents are saying they will use an auditory verbal therapy approach- which excludes sign language. 

Also- this child has auditory neuropathy, not cochlea hearing issues. Implanting AN children is experimental at this time. How many of you have consoled friends with failed CIs? Taught students with failed CIs, watched them fearfully be pressured into surgeries? Watch students with failed CIs, side effects, language delays and other issues come into the classroom? 

You can trust the ableist institution of medical treatment- but some of us are cleaning up after it and do not appreciate being disrespected here."-Julia

Letter to National University

Dear Dr. XXXXX, Dr. XXXXX, and Dr. XXXXX,

            The purpose of this letter is to express my frustrations of being enrolled in a program that does not meet my needs as a current teacher of the Deaf, and the lack of response to my professional and personal concerns. I look forward to finishing this program in June and I’m distressed by the fact that my experience so far is not what I was promised when I started the program.

            I am currently a classroom teacher at a bilingual school for the Deaf. When I was hired, I was expected to obtain an Educational Specialist - D/HH credential. I needed to be educated on best practices in bilingualism so that I could excel in my job. After looking for the best teacher preparation program, reviewing the National University catalog, and meeting with the program director, XXXXX, I felt I found the perfect program at National University because of its ASL-English bilingual emphasis.  

            I looked forward to participating in a renowned program where Deaf people are viewed as capable, whole individuals. Most Deaf education programs present Deaf children as deficient and in need of rehabilitation and intervention. I personally was subjected to this deficit model while growing up and had no desire to put myself in this kind of atmosphere. National University promised a progressive learning environment based on cultural and social model of deafness through its catalog, program description, and my meetings with XXXXX.  Consequently, I made a significant investment to pursue this opportunity. 

I was taken aback when I learned about the drastic changes in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. To my dismay, the new catalog provides a completely different program than the one I was given when I started the program.  More specifically, the philosophy of this program no longer focuses on ASL-English bilingualism, and has shifted to traditional approaches of educating Deaf children. Instead of providing me with the state of the art pedagogical practices, I’ve been subjected to the traditional, pathological view of how Deaf children should be taught. In fact, during my first D/HH course, I was stunned when the emphasis was on the devastating effects of being “hearing-impaired” (which is an outdated term) rather than the best practices of educating Deaf children in a positive and nurturing way. I have been distressed by an environment that is hostile to the wellbeing of myself as a Deaf person, and all Deaf children in the State of California. This is the opposite of what I had aspired for in my graduate program and my life-long career. This is not what I signed up for.

Since last October, I have been requesting clarification and meetings to discuss the ramifications of this shift for my education at National University.  To date, I have not gotten any clear answers as to how National University will address my needs as a bilingual educator and a Deaf person. As an example, I am including the correspondence that I have had with XXXXX, my academic advisor and subsequently the Department chair, Dr. XXXXX. What you will see is a pattern of delay and stalling that have compounded my feelings of frustration and dismay. With such a dramatic shift in the course catalog and syllabi, I expected to obtain clear and prompt communication from everyone involved in my program. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and consequently, I am pushed into a program that does not meet my needs. I am asking for your timely intervention before I take my second D/HH course in March.

Thank you for your attention to this matter,

            Leala Holcomb

021837304

ASL vs. English: What the F...?

I don't see why you can't use ASL and then use spoken/written English at separate times?

All ASL-English bilingual schools I know (only 4 or 5 out there in the entire country!) provide instructions in both ASL and English for all subjects (not sim-com). They also provide intensive speech trainings too. Those who had access to ASL from birth are more likely to have better speaking and listening skills than those who were raised orally and joined our school at an older age.

Again, I'm sharing based on my collective knowledge and experiences... I come from 4 generations of Deaf families, and all of my family members were/are educators. My parents both were raised orally in educational settings (all schools banned sign language in the 1950s and 1960s). My grandfather deliberately brought in sign language to classrooms by inventing the total communication philosophy in the 1970s. My grandmother was on the SEE committee, and developed SEE along with other prominent Deaf members. Deaf people throughout the history have always tried and tried different approaches to help Deaf children acquire English. Deaf people never rejected spoken or written languages, and have always valued English in our lives. We only ask hearing people to recognize the importance of ASL. Every time I talk about ASL, people (including my classmates here) are quick to defend English. Where did I say English was not important? Where did I say English should be omitted from our lives? Are people here feeling threatened by the notion that we should value ASL? Why shouldn't we value ASL when it's the ONLY language that is 100%, not 99% or 98%, 100% accessible to Deaf babies.

Deaf people have always tried and tried to come up with the best, natural, and holistic approaches to teach Deaf children English. When we see that the approaches do not work, we simply try different ones. Hearing people always ride off our OLD and OUTDATED ideas and refuse to follow our lead on the NEW, UPDATED, and more effective ones.

In the past twenty years, Deaf educators and intellectuals have found many promising results in the path of ASL-English bilingualism. We are very excited about that because with this approach, ASL actually supports English acquisition in all forms (reading, writing, and speaking). This is actually an all inclusive approach! Yet, we are constantly being framed as the ones who refuse to give parents "choices," who are militants, who are advocating for an "ASL only" route (there was never an ASL-only route, ever), and all the false and ugly labels. In contrast, the oral advocates are framed as the ones who are giving the parents choice while the oral route is nowhere close to being inclusive and is actually a route of taking risks and chances for most Deaf babies.

Anyway, my point here is... I'll say this again and again... be Deaf-centric in all Deaf-related affairs. :) Deaf people in the Deaf community interact with Deaf children, watch them grow into Deaf teenagers, and work with them as adults. We share the same community, attend the same events, have the same friends, co-workers, bosses, and so on. We are constantly exchanging experiences, thoughts, and ideas based on our educational experiences. We explicitly see patterns in what works and what does not. We are always evolving and improving in our best practices with educating Deaf children. However, one thing that remains throughout hundreds of years of documentation in the Deaf community... nobody has ever said, "I wish I didn't learn sign language."

My Response to Assignments on Hearing Loss: Triggers and Traumas

I believe the point of “Deaf” Education is to create an environment where deafness will not be pathologized and medicalized, but rather viewed as an unique characteristic of a whole child. I am extremely uncomfortable when educators discuss Deaf education in terms of loss and repair.

The majority of Deaf people share a collective history of trauma when it comes to language deprivation. For over a hundred years, hearing professionals have dominated the field of Deaf education in the United States using oral methods, and this continues to be true today. It was not until the 1970’s that sign language was finally allowed in Deaf schools and Deaf programs. Deaf people have always fought for autonomy in decision-making processes related to Deaf education, wanting Deaf education to be Deaf-centered. Currently, there are a few Deaf schools run by Deaf people themselves, and those schools are the first to embrace the American Sign Language and English bilingual education.

As a Deaf community member, I grew up hearing many stories where Deaf people were forced to undergo hours and hours of speech therapy, wear uncomfortable hearing aids despite frequent resistances, and miss out on daily instructions and conversations because sign language was perceived as inferior. Deaf people were indoctrinated to believe that the only way to “better” themselves was to become as “hearing” as possible. Deaf people share stories of not feeling accepted, not feeling whole, and not feeling human. Many of them are angry for being cheated out of good education and good life by the misconceptions imposed by anti-ASL advocates.

Although the technology and educational approaches have changed through the years, the trauma remains the same. As a current teacher, I see many Deaf students (labeled as ‘failures’) coming to my school from oral schools severely delayed in their language and cognitive development because they had failed to acquire speaking and listening skills. They share similar traumas as the majority of Deaf community members. Those students did not fail to learn because they are Deaf, but because they weren’t given full access to language. Often, it is left up to Deaf schools to make up for those years of deprivation.

As a Deaf graduate student, I was negatively triggered by this week’s readings and the WebQuest assignment. I had emotional reactions to the task questions and the information presented in the websites because I carry a long and collective history of struggle and resistance toward the pathological view of deafness. Questions such as:

1)    What are the different types of hearing screening for infants?

2)    What is an audiogram?

3)    What are some strategies to getting children use hearing aids on a regular basis?

4)    What are the types of hearing loss?

5)    Can hearing loss be corrected?

6)    What are the degrees of hearing loss?

7)    What are some causes of hearing loss?

…instill deficit thinking in educators of the Deaf toward their Deaf students. Those questions promote the perception that Deaf children “lack” something instead of recognizing them as “whole” children who are perfectly capable of learning and thriving. Unfortunately, the field of special education typically focuses on physiological characteristics rather than language development (in particular, language deprivation) when it comes to Deaf students.

I, like many other Deaf people, reject the medical model of disability. I have been collaborating with other people with disabilities (Blind, Deaf, Little People, Autistic, etc.) in dismantling the ideology of normalcy and normalization. We all embrace our differences, and have no desire of striving to normalize our bodies and lives in an attempt to fit the narrow definition of what it means to be a “normal” human. This only serves to further oppress people with disabilities. Proposed questions for educators of the Deaf:

1)    How do we make our curriculum fully accessible to Deaf children?

2)     How can we prevent Deaf children from language deprivation?

3)    What would an optimal education look like for Deaf children?

4)    What are the best strategies in supporting Deaf children’s language development?

5)    How can we support Deaf children with speaking and listening skills?

6)    How can we support Deaf children who do not have speaking and listening skills?

7)    What can we do to support Deaf students when they arrive to our classroom without language?

As educators of the Deaf, we should not set our attention on Deaf children’s “hearing loss.” Instead, we should focus on providing Deaf children access to the academic curriculum by using languages that are fully accessible to them. For the most part, access to language is missing, and that is where educators with an expertise in the field of Deaf education should come in. I want to emphasize that I am not against teaching Deaf children how to speak and hear. All current Deaf-centric schools that practice ASL-English bilingual philosophy incorporate speech training in their programs. This is not the issue at all. The issue is Deaf people (and all other disabled beings) are constantly being reduced to nothing more than pathological illnesses, diseases, and disorders, especially in the field of special education.

I hope hearing people reading this will keep an open mind and attempt to understand where I come from and why I’m triggered by this week’s readings and assignments. I hope those who designed this program will consider and include Deaf people’s lived experiences and desire to be respected as full human beings. I am tired of being reduced to my hearing and speaking abilities. I hope there will come a day where Deafhood (the social view of deafness) in all its forms will no longer be pathologized and medicalized in educational settings.

If knowing specifics on how our ears are broken is deemed necessary to this program and cannot be eliminated, I’d like to respectfully ask the program organizers to include trigger warnings for any assignments that promote deficit thinking and the medical perspective of Deaf people so I can be mentally and emotionally prepared for the triggers and re-traumas as I work through the assignments.