I'm sure most of you have heard about "Checking Your Privilege", and maybe even about how "White Privilege" affects others. However, such subjects tend to be mainly used when it comes to discussing things like Racism and Sexism.
Now I'd like to discuss something that most people don't seem to discuss all that much. Namely, how we see people with "Disabilities".
More specifically, Deaf people and how we deal with Audism. What is Audism, you ask. Well, I'll be happy to explain it to you.
Audism is a form of Ableism.
Ableism is where you have prejudices towards other people who cannot do things like walk. I refuse to use the word "Disability" here because that tends to portray people with different abilities in a rather negative light. namely, the idea that because those people are outside of the so-called "normal" range, they are seen as less than a "normal" human being.
Audism: Audism by it's very definition is a negative or oppressive attitude towards deaf people by either deaf or hearing people and organizations, and a failure to accommodate them. Deaf people have been treated with prejudice and oppression. They have been looked down upon- as if they are some sort of “subhuman” not worthy of being classified as a normal person because of the fact that they cannot hear. Audism goes under the same category as racism, sexism, discrimination, etc.In fact Harlan Lane in his book, The Mask of Benevolence, uses a phrase from 1853 made by a resident physician of the Paris school of the deaf that states, " The deaf believe that they are our equals in all respects. We should be generous and not destroy that illusion. But whatever they believe, deafness is an infirmity and we should repair it whether the person who has it is disturbed by it or not. So as you can see, audism/prejudice has been around for a long time.
The deaf community sees themselves as a linguistic minority, not disabled. They view themselves as visual people that have their own language, social organizations, history, and culture in general. In fact, there seems to be a prejudice by non-audists that think that hearing people can never fully be a member of the deaf community. In fact, deaf people see themselves much like any other minority and feel like cultural outsiders that are misunderstood or stereotyped by society in general. I tend to agree with that assessment, considering that I am one of them.
However, I've noticed that many Hearing people does not view us in the same way that we view ourselves. In fact I've had a few encounters with Audism personally.
Here's a example of Audism, as told from personal experience.
I was Grocery shopping on a Friday, during the summertime. My Cellphone had vibrated, indicating that I had gotten a call or a text. So I moved to the side with my cart out of the way of other people so that I could check my phone.
I saw that somebody wanted to do a video call with me, which is a feature that I often use on my cellphone in order to effectively communicate with both my family and others if they don't want to text. It was my mom, wanting to know what time I would be ready to go to a family gathering. I of course used sign language on our Video Call to tell her that I would be off work by 4pm, and would be ready to go by then.
Of course as seeing I was in a public space I had grabbed the attention of some people. One of them came up to me and started asking all sorts of questions. This part I was somewhat used to, because humans can't help being naturally curious about things that they hadn't seen before. However, most tend to be polite about it....this one was not. What's more, it was not even the same set of questions that I usually get.
Normally they just ask me if I'm deaf, and once I answer in the affirmative they usually say "Cool" and move on with their lives. Or they'd ask one more question, which basically boils down to "What's it like being deaf?"
This person was a middle-aged woman, or at least I assume she was. She had a touch of gray in her hair, but she looked relatively young in the face. She knew off the bat that I was deaf, because she saw that I had used Sign Language.
She asked me if I was actually shopping by myself, and seemed shocked that I was. She seemed upset, saying that my family was grossly negligent for even letting me out of the house by myself.
At this moment, my reaction boiled down to one of both disbelief and anger. Apparently, this person thought that I was so utterly incapable of living a normal life without assistance.
You see, I am an adult deaf woman who works in her own office from 10am to 4pm. I live by myself and often drive a car. I have a very clean record--no car accidents, and in fact my car insurance loves me because I'm a better driver than most hearing people. I tend to pay more attention to the road, and I'm not distracted by things like cellphones or the radio.
I'm exactly like your everyday avenge career woman--the only thing that makes me "different" than other career women out there is the fact that I'm deaf.
I had to explain to this woman that I was fully capable of living my life exactly like everyone else without assistance... and in fact 95% of Deaf people do that exactly. I even told her that I had an office job and a car of my own. However, she seemed incapable of accepting this, and actually got angry at me for telling her this. She became even more rude, which I hadn't thought to be possible. She went on this tirade that basically boiled down to:
"I was raised to see anybody who's different than me as inferior. Deaf people and others were to be totally Segregated from us normal folks... they were to be pitied, treated like total invalids! And you come along daring to live your life just like everyone else does? HOW DARE YOU?!"
Okay, she didn't exactly say that... but that was basically how it sounded to me. (shakes head)
That's a prime example of Audism right there, folks. They just don't seem to accept that everyone has different abilities... that there are some things that people can or can't do... doesn't mean that one is superior over the other.
To me, this would be like calling somebody a cripple just because they couldn't run a 10-mile marathon when others could.
That said.. Audism tends to run really deep in Society, and Deaf people have to fight against it on a constant basis.
Especially with doctors, who are one of the worst offenders of Audism out there. They constantly tell new parents of deaf babies that their baby cannot lead a normal life, despite the fact that studies often have consistently shown that 95% of Deaf people can. They then tell those gullible parents that the only way their deaf babies can have a normal life is to buy cochlear implants that can cost up to 50k. They don't tell those parents about the failure rates, or the horrifying side-effects of cochlear implant failure.
In fact it can utterly destroy any natural hearing ability the baby had left. You see, there is a wide range of deafness... from the utterly profound (lack of sound) to hard of hearing (can hear some sounds). Audiologists will often tell you that the implants are not for everyone, and espeically not for deaf people who can listen to music and other things with a normal hearing aid.
Doctors like to claim that those failure rates are very low, but the fact that there are failure rates to start with... well, it pretty much tells you that it's not the miracle cure that they claim it is. It won't magically turn your deaf baby into a hearing baby...
All a Cochlear implant is... it's basically a glorified hearing aid. When your kid takes the outside parts of a implant off for the night to sleep, he will be deaf. In my personal opinion, it would be just cheaper to get them normal hearing aids.
I can listen to music and other sounds with a hearing aid myself... so I don't miss out on anything by not having a cochlear implant. I'm not saying that Cochlear Implants are bad, Just that they're not vital to a deaf person's life like the doctors would want you to believe.
And it's not just Doctors. There are movements out there to ban Sign Language entirely, on the false assumption that Sign Language hinders the education and language development of kids. In fact many countries all over the world have already done that. When in reality studies show the total opposite.. that sign language actually help babies learn faster.
Studies show that even deaf kids implanted with Cochlear implants do better if they at least have Sign Language as a second language to fall back on.
So, why would People want to ban Deaf kids from ever learning Sign Language? Most likely because of Audism.
Well, I've explained what Audism is, and how it can affect Deaf People. Any questions?