Summary

After a year of travel around the country during which we interviewed 160 deaf persons, mostly in their homes, and chatted with hundreds more in clubs, bowling alleys, churches and schools, at picnics, tournaments, homecomings, large parties and small social gatherings, it is apparent to us that the deaf community in the United States is doing better than most people think.

We started the year sharing some of the alarm of the Chicken Littles but ending it feeling much more comfortable about the people and the future of the deaf community in the U.S. Offsetting those with very real problems are others who are coping with change, who are reaaching new career highs, who never had it so good. The majority of deaf adults who want to work are employed even though very few are in management jobs and almost none are in elected political positions. But a handful of deaf leaders are beginning to make contact with the hearing leaders who count and organizations of the deaf are beginning to wield political power.

What we saw was a community of home owners often with two wage earners or adequate retirement income, late model cars and comfortable life styles oriented more to social activities, recreation and sports than to organizational activities, politics and religion. But there is a good number who are active in church, especially where the services are conducted by deaf people. Their hearing children are well adjusted and mostly successful; the small number of deaf children of deaf parents include a disproportionate number of leaders. The older generation frets about the younger generation but the younger deaf generation includes about the same proportion of hedonists, idealists and comers as in years gone by. In comparison with the hearing community, the same percentage seems to be absorbed in spectator and participant sports but not as many are involved in civic and political activities. Few belong to service clubs such as the rotary or Kiwanis--a direct consequence of communication difficulties--but many find satisfying activity in clubs and organizations for the deaf.

On the other side of the coin, we observed deaf people being denied promotions in the work place because of their deafness and an increasing number of deaf adults taking advantage of the system, drawing SSDI even when there is no good reason why they can't work. We met others who have been conditioned to depend on interpreters and social service agencies for help with minor problems. The spirit that generated a holy war against deaf peddlers and opposition to a double income tax exemption seems to be waning while, simultaneously, an increasing militancy demands more rights and more services.

What we didn't see much of during our year of travel were the deaf people on the fringe of the deaf community even though the author had spent 20 years working in rehabilitation centers with multiply disabled, severely handicapped and low achieving deaf adults. There are substantial numbers of such people in the U.S.

One reason we saw so few of these people was that it was only human for our contacts to recommend successful deaf people for interviews and another was that these people are on the fringe; you don't see many of them at the functions mentioned in the Foreword to this book. As a result, the sample is not as well balanced as we would like, but it helps put the big picture in perspective in comparison with the numerous studies that have focused on problems and deviance in the deaf community.

There is a popular misconception that the deaf community is a product of residential schools for the deaf, but there were deaf communities in France and the United States before schools that used sign language for instrctuion were established and there will still be a deaf community if all the residential schools are closed and only oral communication permitted in day schools and mainstreamed programs for the deaf. People are social creatures and comfortable social communication is vital to well being. The mechanical obstacles to comfortable oral communication between hearing and deaf people and between deaf people, themselves, guarantees a place for sign language and a community of people who use it as a favored vehicle for social communication. The majority of deaf mainstreamed students eventually accept sign language as a preferred means of social communication and become a part of the social entity of the dea.f

It is interesting that in an era when residential schools for the deaf are facing declining enrollments, homecomings are getting bigger and bigger. This may be a temporary phenomenon as mainstreaming spreads, but it points out the hunger for face-to-face social contacts. Whether or not a school or mainstreamed educational program has an alumn[a] large enough to support a homecoming, deaf people will look for an excuse to congregate.

Only a medical/technological miracle that actually restores normal hearing to deaf children will eliminate the reason for a deaf community.

Mainstreaming and Postsecondary Education

Some people see the growth of mainstreaming eventually closing all residential schools for the deaf and mainstreaming combined with medical technology wiping out the deaf community. This is an emotional possibility that has many deaf people worried and many hearing people excited, but it is doubtful if it will happen. Mainstreaming, in one form or another, has been around for a long time without great impact on the deaf community. For example, in California 20 years ago, there were more deaf children in mainstreamed programs and day classes than in the two residential schools.

What has happened is that some people with moderate hearing loss who, in years before good qualiyt hearing aids became available, found their place in the deaf community now attend only public schools and remain in the hearing community. Some children with severe hearing loss did all right in mainstreamed programs and some foundered. As adults, some have become a part of the deaf community, some have found their niche in the hearin community and some remain on the fringe.

Early mainstreaming was often a swim or sink situation with minimal support services. Most mainstreamed deaf children today have total communication, interpreters and support services in the classroom. Sometimes the interpreters and support services are inadequate but exposure to some form of sign language in school will steer these children to the deaf community as adults. Also, more and more parents and other hearing adults are learning sign language and becoming more comfortable with deaf adults and aware of their childrens' need for normal social interaction.

At the postsecondary education and training level, more and more deaf people are seeking an ever-increasing variety of programs and services. This will certainly impact on the structure of the deaf community in the years ahead but it is unlikely to reduce the size.

It used to be that deaf people who wanted to continue their education had two choices: They could go to Gallaudet College or attend a hearing college without interpreters or any support services. Quite a few earned degrees that way. But the old school ties were mostly Buff and Blue (Gallaudet University's colors), which weakened the adult deaf community polutically. There are now over 400 postsecondary education and training programs that offer special services for deaf and hard of hearing students. Sometimes the services are comprehensive and sometimes they are paper thin. It is good that deaf people now have more choices, but when you drop a dozen deaf students in a large university with 20,000-plus hearing students, the deaf students may be trading the stimulation that comes from congenial peer relations for the status that comes from competing with hearing students and, possibly, more course oferings in their area of interest. Whether the trade-off is worthwhile depends on the personality and aptitudes of the individual, but it is worth noting that if you ask hearing people what per cent of their education comes from the classroom and what per cent from drinking beer with their friends, almost all will answer 50-50. It is likely that a large number of young deaf people looking over postsecondary education opportunities will opt for schools that offer social as well as academic stimulation.

Regardless of where they get their education, more and more deaf people are continuing their education past high school and this, combined with the ease of travel, telecommunications and increased earnings, is contributing to increased social stratification in the deaf community.

Sign Language

A hot topic in the deaf community today is sign language and what is happening to it. Not very long ago, we had speech and sign language. Period. Some deaf people noticed that the sign language used in dormitories and in social situations wasn't the same as the sign language used in the classrooms but they didn't give it much thought. They learned to switch back and forth from American Sign Language (ASL) to Pidgin Signed English (PSE) as the situation dictated, but they didn't analyze the difference. Then Dr. William Stokoe, a hearing professor at Gallaudet College, with only minimal sign language skills to call his own, became interested in the subject and "discovered" ASL. (Note: The story is told in Sign Language and the Deaf Community: Essays in Honor of William C. Stokoe, edited by Charlotte Baker and Robbin Battison (1980). National Association of the Deaf, Silver Spring, Md.) Dr. Harlan Lane, a hearing professor at Northeastern University in Boston, went a step farther an dpointed out that the adult deaf community in France had developed a practical sign language long before the good Abbe de l'Epee came along and set out not only to use French Sign Language (FSL) for instructional purposes but to make it conform more closely to the grammar of formal French. He even devised a sign language based on phonetics which never caught on. (Note: A fascinating history of these efforts is in When the Mind Hears by Harlan Lane (1984). Random House, New York, N.Y.) Similarly, when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet brought Laurent Clerc to America in 1816 to help set up the first permanent school for the deaf in the U.S., deaf adults already had developed a variety of ASL. Clerc used Signed English or PSE in the classroom but was more comfortable in social situations with ASL, into which he introduced elements of PSE to form the basis of ASL as used today.

Thus, ASL is a practical communication system which has stood the test of time and has changed over the years just like any living language. But because ASL doesn't follow the grammar of oral and written English, it makes many hearing and some deaf people uncomfortable. Like the Abbe de l'Epee, they set out to improve sign language, to make it conform more closely to oral English. Today, we have SEE-1, SEE-2, LOVE, Signed English, PSE, the Rochester Method, Manually Coded English, ASL, Cued Speech and even Sign Writing. (Note: SEE-1 stands for Seeing Essential English, originated by David Anthony. SEE-2 stands for Signing Exact English, originated by Gerilee Gustason. LOVE stands for Linguistics of Visible English. The Rochester Method is a combination of speech and finger spelling with no signs. Cued Speech, originated by Orin Cornett, reinforces lipreading with finger shapes placed on various parts of the head to help identify speech sounds. Signed Writing is hieroglyphic-like drawings which represent the hand shapes and movements of sign language.) When something makes sense, deaf people will accept it while rejecting artificial systems not based on concepts.

Since its "discovery," a certain mystique has grown up around the use of ASL. Some people believe you must grow up with ASl to understand and use it and others believe the fluent use of ASL is a prerequisite for membership in the deaf community. Some people think deaf people cling to ASL to exclude hearing people from their community and others think it is all but impossible for hearin people to learn ASL. None of these assumptions stand up under scrutiny.

Most deaf adults are bilingual; some are trilingual. They may have good speech and are comfortable with both ASL and PSE. It helps to remember that in the U.S. today, there are a dozen dialects which are not "good" English but make for good communication in the right place with the right people. In the hearing world, this is expected and even enjoyed. The test of any language is not whether it follows a certain set of rules but whether it makes for good communication in the setting. ASL certainly isn't good English but it's a good language for deaf people. Hearing people by the thousands are recognizing this fact as they register for sign language classes. Deaf people are no longer relegated to a linguistic ghetto.

Interpreters and Interpreting

It used to be that practically all interpreters were volunteers who saw their profession as a labor of love. Most were children of deaf parents, religious workers with the deaf or teachers of the deaf. Financial rewards were few and far between and not expected. Interpreters were scarce and occupied a pedestal next to mothers; they were above criticism.

The growth of interpreting as a paid profession certainly has increased the size and quality of the interpreting pool, but it hasn't been an unmixed blessing. While interpreters enhance understanding and make it possible for deaf people to follow oral classroom lectures and participate in business meetings on more equal terms with their hearing co-workers, some deaf people have been conditioned to expect to have an interpreter to help with every little discussion or business transaction and some hearing businessmen and professionals are being conditioned to think they can't work with deaf people without an interpreter. In a curious trade-off, deaf people are sacrificing some of their independence to become more competitive.

In a worse-case scenario, writing, speech and lipreading as a means of communication with hearing people may become lost arts but this isn't likely to happen. For one thing, most deaf people think "interpreters are great but it takes away." (See interview with Tommy Walker.) Deaf people dislike being dependent. For another, interpreting is expensive. Interpreters with Comprehensive Skills Certificates from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) command up to $20 an hour. This is not to say they aren't worth it; it is just that interpreting is expensive. It is conceivable that an employer considering two candidates with equal qualifications for a job--one hearing and one deaf--may be influenced by the real or imagined cost of having to have an interpreter for the deaf candidat.e There is also a shortage of good interpreters and, at the same time, the smell of good money for part-time work is persuading many poorly prepared people to claim interpreting skills. As deaf people become more discriminating and their hearing supervisors and co0workers more knowledgeable and comfortable with deaf people, it is likely they will find a reasonable balance using qualified interpreters when really helpful.

Varieties of Deaf People

Same thing like sign language, there used to be deaf people, hard of hearing people and oralists. Grandpa, whose hearing had deteriorated with age, was left to his familyi and the hearing aid dealers. The generic and all but useless term "hearing impaired" hadn't come into popular use.

Apart from education and socio-economic position, there is a hierarchy or dichotomy in the deaf community today starting with "deaf deaf people," which refers to people who great up in deaf families or spent their formative years in residential schools and for whom ASL was the first and continues to be the preferred language. In this group you will find people who read at only the second grade level all the way up to people with earned doctorates.

Then there are "deaf people," or people who are very much a part of the social entity of the deaf and who are comfortable with both ASL and PSE. Some of these people are hard of hearing, not deaf. Some have good speech and use it in public, some only with their families and hearing people they know well and some have such poor speech they prefer signing and writing.

Next are the "oral deaf." Many of these people can and do use sign language when the situation calls for it but prefer oral communication in public. Some do very well; some passably well and others fake understanding. Depending on your point of view, "deaf deaf" and "oral deaf" can be positive or negative identifications.

A fourth category, identified by making a rotary motion with the index finger to the forehead, is used mostly in a pejorative sense to identify deaf people who think they are hearing or try to pass as hearing. But it can be used to identify a deaf person, possibly late deafened, who is audiometrically deaf but continues to think like a hearing person.

Finally, we have a group of people with identity problems. They may not have enough hearing to function comfortably in the hearing world and they do not use sign language well enough to be comfortable in the deaf community. We're not talking about people whose hearing deteriorates as a consequence of aging, but younger deaf people looking for a place in society. There are also people who have enough hearing to get by in hearing society but, for a variety of reasons such as having grown up in a residential school for the deaf or being married to a deaf person, associate mostly with people who belong to the social entity of the deaf.

Fifty years ago, many hard of hearing people either had no hearing aids or used primitive models, attended schools for the deaf and eventually becme a part of the social entity of the deaf. Fewer and fewer of these people now identify with the deaf community but, along with the millions of people whose hearing has deteriorated as a consequence of the agin process, they certainly have problems. Since its organization jsut a few years ago by Rocky Stone, a career diplomat who sufered a progressive hearing loss and is now profoundly deaf, Self Help for the Hard of Hearing (SHHH) has experienced rapid growth. It already has considerable political clout and in a few years it likely will have more members than the National Association of the Deaf, which is undergoing a revival.

These broad categories are being fragmented by mainstreaming, signing systems, expanded postsecondary choices, technology and social stratification.

It used to be that when someone graduated from Gallaudet, he would be looked up to and respected but continue to look to the grass roots deaf community for social activities. There was no place else to go. It wasn't one big happy family but in many ways the deaf community in the U.S. at the turn of the century was the most perfectly integrated this country has ever seen. Nowadays, no one pays attention to a bachelor's degree, masters are common and doctorates are no longer rare. It is easier for deaf people to find compatible friends. But regardless of their socio-economic position in the community, deaf people still like to get together. TDD conversations don'ot really satisfy, sports are stronger than ever and the NAD and State Association conventions draw crowds. Contrary to popular assumption, captioned TV hasn't cut drastically into attendance at clubs for the deaf except that the people who were hooked on the weekly showing of captioned films are now hooked on captioned TV and video tapes which they can enjoy at home. They go to the clubs for other reasons. Weekends and special events still attract deaf members.

SSI and SSDI

SSI (supplementary Security Income) and SSDI (Social Security Disability Income) are very much on the minds of people in the deaf community. Sometimes it's a hot topic and sometitmes a hush topic.

Some adult deaf people are very open abaout receiving SSDI but others prefer to keep it confidential. Nobody blames deaf people with serious secondary disabilities from drawing SSDI but there is much criticism of able bodied deaf people living on SSI and SSDI. However, such people are still accepted in the deaf community.

Almost all older deaf people criticize giving SSI to high school and college students, but the students now accept it as their right. They are too young to remember what it was like before SSI came along and are not interested in listening to oldtimers preach about how hard they had it and how lucky the kids are nowdays.

At the college level, as one young woman put it, "SSI really helped while I was in school. I used the money to pay off some school debts and VR paid some . . . I got about $250 a month from SSI and used it to buy clothes and books and food--going out to restaurants . . . We went out a lot on weekends to eat and that cost a lot of money. And, of course, there was beer. Yes, SSI was a big help while I was in school."

SSI doesn't seem to hurt the smart, high functioning deaf students. They realize it's a temporary bonanza and you can't blame them for taking the money when it's there for the asking. In some cases, it makes it possible for students from low-income families to continue their education. But for lower functioning deaf people, SSI sometimes becomes a deterrent to employment. They are afraid to give up the "security" of their SSI checks, no matter how small, for the uncertainty of competitive employment.

SSDI is different. Just like people with normal hearing, deaf people are subject to layoffs due to plant closings and reductions in the force. After unemployment compensation runs out, people without handicaps have little choice but to look for other work or go on welfare. If you're deaf, there's an option. In the case of a deaf person who loses his high paying job, after unemployment compensation runs outo he can apply for SSDI and the benefits will be based on his high earnings years and in many cases will be higher than the take-home pay from a minimum or entry-level job. If he accepts work that pays only a little more than the legal minimum and later becomes disabled or is laid off, his SSDI checks will be based partly on the low income years. A handicapped person can actually be penalized for working. It is difficult to argue with the economics of the situation. It explains, in part, the higher unemployment rate of deaf people as compared to hearing people.

Understandably, there are all kinds of horror stories floating around about entire deaf families getting SSI and SSDI, of half the deaf people in a certain state drawing SSDI, but reality may be different.

One of the people we interviewed during our year of travel around the country was Carl Bowman, who had been State Coordinator for the Deaf with the division of Vocational Rehabilitaiton in Arkansas. Between the time of his second heart attack and his death from a third attack, Bowman was drawing SSDI and because he was a restive, inquiring soul, he made an informal study of SSDI recipients. His conclusion was that compared to other disability groups, a much smaller percentage of deaf people were drawing SSDI. Because of his untimely death, Bowman was unable to read and edit the draft of his interview so it isn't included in the collection.

Conclusion

The deaf community in the United States is a viable and resourceful social entity in no danger of extinction.

Gail Hyde
Project Coordinator, Web Design