How may Deaf Culture become Mainstream Culture?

During the Experiential Term, we learned ASL and immersed ourselves into Deaf culture. We worked as a group to make a micromentary that answered a question that we were passionate about answering. We all had roles that we took on during this project. We learned how to work together and listen to each others ideas. What we are most proud of is how our micromentary came together. We worked really hard on it. Watch our video below!

  
How May Deaf Culture Become Mainstream Culture? from GCE on Vimeo.

We learned that as early as 1000 BC the Deaf were discriminated against due to their permanent loss of hearing and outrageous claims that deafness was a sign from God to show his anger towards humanity. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, there were very high limitations in educational opportunities for Deaf children in America. In the 1800’s there were about 30 deaf schools that opened across America. The Cobbs School, Alexander Graham Bell School and Gallaudet were the first schools to present curriculum based on oral learning and ASL for both educational and cultural purposes. 

We watched Sound & Fury a documentary following a 5-year old girl with the desire to learn spoken language by getting a cochlear implant. Her parents were deaf and proud members of the Deaf community and feared losing their daughter to the hearing world. This showcased the struggles of being a member of both the Deaf community and the hearing world. There is much controversy surrounding cochlear implants which is believed to be a cure to deafness. This technology is controversial because it threatens the survival of the thriving Deaf language and Culture. 

Today, it is easy to see the importance and prominence of Deaf culture in schools, sports, and Art. We visited the Children of Peace School in Chicago that focuses on integrating hearing and deaf education. We were surprised to see hearing, hard of hearing, and deaf students learning in the same classroom. We also attended a basketball torment for the Deaf where Deaf teams from as far as Boston competed for the title of champion. I was in awe by how highly athletic these players were and how everyone knew each other. We witnessed the same type of talent and friendship when we watched the documentary Deaf Jam, which showed a group piece performed by Aneta, a Deaf poet and Tahani a spoken word poet .

Learning a new language!

During Experiential term, I took a class to learn ASL and to understand deaf culture. I learned basic ASL and heavy information about DHH. I learned about cochlear implants and how they are not a cure for deafness, as many people believe. I learned how to make a micromentary and work with a group and see different opinions. What I am most proud of from this term is learning and practicing ASL. I am also proud of opening up more, I think ASL helped me with that because I learned communicating with everyone is important. Being shy won’t get me any where and I know when I open up people like to see how I act.

Photography JV Starbucks ASL Meet up 2014*

I went to a sign language coffee chat in Evanston at Starbucks Evanston (519 Main St, Evanston, IL 60620). I went with my classmate RD and her aunts. Most of my other classmates went as well. It was nice because we were all together and when we didn't understand a sign that someone did we will communicate with each other to figure out what they were saying. It was nice meeting older DHH members, to communicate with them using ASL. I like how all the members were so open and nice to us. They taught us new signs. They said that it was great that we were taking a term to learn sign language and we should practice more so we can become fluent. I also saw people with hearing aids and with cochlear implants. Overall, I think the meet-up went well. If there is other meet-up I will definitely go again!

This term changed my view because I did not know that ASL was a language. It also changed my attitude towards the DHH community because I did not know anything about the culture. I have never really seen members of the DHH community until now. My ASL teacher was the first deaf person I ever meet. I learned so much from this term and I appreciate the DHH community. During our visit to Mt. Sinai Hospital, we met a team of Deaf  Therapists. This most inspiring to me because I got to learn more about deaf culture. I learned what it is like to be deaf, and to hear stories about deaf people. I really liked hearing one of the therapists telling her story on how she became deaf. It is really interesting to hear that so many people become deaf at such a young age from being sick.

Thank you, Deaf therapists at Mt. Siani for teaching me more about deaf culture. Thank you for answering all our questions, I learned so much. I learned more about cochlear implants and how it doesn't’ work for everybody. I learned that some deaf people aren't born deaf but can become deaf from sickness. I want to thank Vivian for sharing your story on how you became deaf.

My two roles on the micromentary team were to take pictures and to edit the video. I was successful in my roles by paying attention, getting my work done, and being on top of everything. As the editor, I made our micromomentary come together. I am most proud of learning how to use iMovie. I like how my team worked together to get pictures and videos to make the micromentary come together. The main lesson I learned from from making the micromentary is captioning it. I think that is really important for the DHH community so they can understand what our video is about. I think that is important for every program on television so deaf people can be apart of the hearing world too. Working in a team was interesting, I learned that working together can be hard because people go at their own pace. We all had different ideas, and different ways of viewing things. We will have to experience what that person goes through on a daily bases. We will have to feel how they feel and see what they see. We did that this term we experience what being deaf is. We felt how not understanding a different language is hard, just like DHH members don’t understand English. We had to step in their shoes to feel how being uncomfortable is when not understanding a language and having to go through that for one month but for DHH members it can be their whole life.