American Sign Language & Deaf Culture Study Guide
Cultural Deafness (Deaf) vs. Audiological Deafness (deaf)
Deaf (Cultural Identity):
Pertains to individuals who actively identify as Deaf and embrace Deaf culture, cultural norms, and shared community values.
Utilizes American Sign Language (ASL) as the primary and preferred mode of communication.
Emphasizes visual communication mediums, including video communication platforms such as FaceTime for signing.
Strongly advocates for and participates in bilingual-bicultural Deaf education utilizing sign language.
Grounded in cultural pride; individuals do not view themselves as damaged, disabled, or "missing anything."
Includes individuals who were born deaf or who experienced hearing loss during youth or early adulthood.
Example identity profile: A deaf individual (such as a young African American man) who socializes primarily within the Deaf community, adheres to Deaf cultural norms, and relies on ASL as their primary language views themselves culturally as Deaf.
deaf (Audiological / Medical Condition):
Refers strictly to the medical diagnosis or audiological state of having significant hearing loss, without cultural affiliation or participation in the Deaf community.
Characterized by the use of oralism (speech, lipreading, and auditory training) rather than sign language.
Individuals generally do not use ASL and do not identify with Deaf cultural norms.
Often associated with feelings of loss, lack of pride, or embarrassment regarding hearing status.
Encompasses adventitious deafness (hearing loss acquired later in life due to accidental events, illness, or trauma) as well as progressive hearing loss resulting from aging.
Cultural and Linguistic Composition of the Deaf Community:
The Deaf community is a linguistically and culturally complex group.
Membership includes individuals born deaf and those who lost their hearing during youth or early adulthood.
The Deaf community explicitly does not include individuals who lose their hearing late in life due to old age.
Terminology and Sociolinguistic Perceptions
Outdated and Disfavored Labels:
The clinical terms "hearing deficit" and "hearing impaired" are viewed within the Deaf community as outdated, negative, and significantly less preferred compared to "Deaf" or "hard of hearing."
Classifications of Ear Impairment:
Bilateral Hearing Loss: An audiological impairment affecting both ears.
Unilateral Hearing Loss: An audiological impairment affecting only one ear.
Temporal Onset Definitions:
Congenital: Refers to an audiological condition, physical trait, or characteristic that is present at birth.
Adventitious: Refers to hearing loss that occurs after birth as a consequence of an accidental event, trauma, or disease.
American Sign Language (ASL): Origins, Demographics, and Linguistic Parameters
Nature of American Sign Language:
A complete, naturally evolved visual-gestural language featuring its own distinct syntax and grammar; it is not an imitation or manual code of English.
Serves as the primary language of the Deaf community.
Historical Origin:
Originated from France, tracing its linguistic roots to French Sign Language (LSF).
Demographics and Status:
Ranked as the third most studied language in the United States.
The Deaf community utilizing ASL currently encompasses perhaps as many as people.
Linguistic Research and the 5 Parameters:
Linguistic researcher William Stokoe proved ASL is an independent, legitimate language and established the formal parameters of manual signs.
Every ASL sign is composed of 5 distinct parameters:
Handshape: The specific physical configuration or shape of the fingers and hand.
Palm Orientation: The direction in which the palm faces (e.g., upward, downward, inward, outward, toward the signer, or toward the receiver).
Location: The specific physical placement of the sign on or near the body, or within the three-dimensional signing space.
Movement: The directional motion, action, speed, and pathway executed by the hand(s).
Non-Manual Markers / Facial Expressions (E/S Expression): Facial expressions, head tilts, mouth morphemes, eye movements, and body shifts that modify lexical meaning and convey grammatical information.
Sign Systems and Visual Communication Methods
American Sign Language (ASL):
Naturally occurring sign language utilizing a distinct spatial grammar and syntax.
Primary language utilized by members of the Deaf community.
Signed English (SE):
A manual system designed to represent English words through sign tokens.
Features a heavy reliance on initialization (forming signs using the fingerspelled handshape corresponding to the first letter of the English word).
Incorporates distinct grammatical markers (suffixes and word modifications) to encode English morphology into signs.
Seeing Essential English (SEE 1 / SEE I):
A pedagogical sign system designed to teach English grammatical structure.
Incorporates approximately invented, unnatural affixes added systematically to root signs.
Breaks compound words into literal component root words rather than conceptual wholes.
Signing Exact English (SEE 2 / SEE II):
An exact visual representation of English grammar and sentence syntax.
Represents compound words more accurately and conceptually than SEE 1.
Uses manual signs to mirror English word order directly, including prefixes, tenses, and inflectional endings.
Rochester Method:
A manual communication system in which every lexical unit is produced exclusively using the manual alphabet (fingerspelling).
Saw extensive historical use in schools for the deaf during the late 19th century.
Applied historically and occasionally in deaf-blind communication.
Continues to be utilized by some Deaf adults.
Cued Speech:
Not a signed language; rather, an visual communication system designed to clarify spoken and written English.
Utilizes distinct handshapes (representing groups of consonant sounds) placed in specific facial/vocal locations (representing groups of vowel sounds).
Used in tandem with natural mouth movements to visually distinguish homophenous speech sounds (words that look identical on the lips).
Deaf Community Norms and Social Introductions
Protocol for Introductions and Social Inquiries:
When meeting someone and establishing social rapport within the Deaf community, standard introductions include:
Exchanging full legal names and designated personal name signs.
Inquiring directly about audiological/cultural status ("Are you deaf?").
Inquiring whether the individual has deaf family members (parents, siblings, or extended relatives).
Sharing educational history, specifically asking which school for the deaf or educational program the person attended.
Identifying mutual acquaintances and social connections within the community.
History of Deaf Education and Landmark Civil Rights Milestones
Founders of American Deaf Education:
Laurent Clerc (a deaf educator from the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris) and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (an American hearing minister) traveled from France to bring formal sign language and deaf education to the United States.
First American School for the Deaf:
The first permanent public school for deaf children was established in Hartford, Connecticut (originally founded as the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, now known as the American School for the Deaf).
Gallaudet University and the March 1988 Protest:
In March 1988, students and allies led a historic week-long protest rally at Gallaudet University known as Deaf President Now (DPN).
The central purpose of the rally was to demand and ensure the appointment of a deaf president to lead the university.
The protest succeeded, resulting in the appointment of Dr. I. King Jordan as the first deaf president of Gallaudet University.
Public Law 94-142 (PL 94-142):
Commonly known as the "Mainstream Law."
Enacted as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EACHA).
Established the mandate for educating students with disabilities in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).
Legally permits and facilitates deaf students attending mainstream, public neighborhood schools alongside hearing peers.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA):
Comprehensive civil rights legislation prohibiting discrimination against individuals with disabilities across employment, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications.
Historical Discrimination and Civil Rights Advocacy by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
Areas of NAD Civil Rights Advocacy:
Promoting and protecting the legal right to use ASL in public and residential school classrooms.
Advocating to maintain a high proportion of deaf educators and teachers at the elementary and secondary school levels.
Defending and securing the legal right of deaf individuals to adopt children without facing prejudice.
Historical Areas of Discrimination Faced by Deaf People:
Employment opportunities and widespread workplace discrimination.
Denial of basic financial access, such as opening a bank account.
Subjected to unfair, predatory interest rates and discriminatory underwriting for insurance.
Denials and restrictions in securing decent, fair housing.
Restrictions and obstacles in obtaining standard driver's licenses without punitive limitations.
Lack of accessible accommodations for public services, information distribution, and cultural entertainment.
Anatomy of the Human Ear and Auditory System
Outer Ear (External Auditory Anatomy):
Pinna: The external cartilaginous structure of the ear that captures and directs acoustic sound waves inward.
Canal (Ear Canal): The external acoustic meatus through which sound waves travel from the pinna to the tympanic membrane.
Middle Ear:
Ear Drum (Tympanic Membrane): A thin, vibrating membrane separating the outer ear from the middle ear cavity.
Auditory Ossicles (Middle Ear Bones): Three tiny connected bones that mechanically amplify and transmit acoustic vibrations:
Hammer (Malleus): Connected directly to the tympanic membrane.
Anvil (Incus): The central ossicle articulating with the malleus and stapes.
Stirrup (Stapes): The smallest ossicle, resting against the oval window of the cochlea.
Eustachian Tube: A ventilating channel connecting the middle ear cavity directly to the posterior nasal cavity (nose) and nasopharynx, responsible for equalizing middle ear pressure.
Inner Ear:
Cochlea: A snail-shaped, fluid-filled organ lined with sensory hair cells that converts mechanical acoustic vibrations into neural electrical impulses.
Semicircular Canals: Three fluid-filled loops situated above the cochlea responsible for detecting rotational movement and maintaining physical balance and equilibrium.
Auditory Nerves: The vestibulocochlear cranial nerves that transport sensory auditory impulses directly from the cochlea to the auditory processing centers of the brain.
Types, Causes, and Audiological Measurement of Hearing Loss
Audiometric Measurement:
Hearing loss thresholds are measured across sound frequencies and volume levels using an audiogram.
Audiogram axes measure sound frequency from low pitch to high pitch against decibel hearing thresholds.
Progressive Levels of Hearing Loss:
Normal Hearing
Mild Hearing Loss
Moderate Hearing Loss
Moderately Severe Hearing Loss
Severe Hearing Loss
Profound Hearing Loss
Pathological Classifications of Hearing Loss:
Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL): Hearing loss caused by structural damage, degeneration, or lack of embryonic development within the inner ear, specifically affecting the sensory hair cells of the cochlea and/or the auditory nerves.
Conductive Hearing Loss: Hearing loss caused by physical blockages, perforations, or mechanical disruptions in the outer or middle ear that impede sound energy from reaching the inner ear.
Mixed Hearing Loss: A simultaneous combination of conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss occurring in the same ear.
Epidemiology and Etiology:
More than infants are born deaf annually in the United States.
Etiologies include congenital factors present from birth, severe head or ear injuries, systemic illness, physical trauma, and age-related degeneration.
Historical "Cures" and Medical Interventions for Deafness
Barbaric Historical Medical Procedures:
Historically, medicine viewed deafness through an aggressive curative lens, attempting to restore hearing through invasive and painful techniques:
Application of blood-sucking leeches to the head and neck.
Administration of direct electrical current (electricity shocks) to the auditory structures.
Surgical piercing and puncture of the eardrum membranes.
Instillation of corrosive chemical medicines and oils directly into the ear canal.
Surgical splitting open of deaf students' heads behind the ear.
Burning cylinders inserted or applied between the back of the neck and the chin.
Piercing cartilage separating the sinuses and severing or cutting the Eustachian tube.
Evolution of Societal and Medical Perspectives:
Early medical interventions treated deafness as a physiological deficit demanding eradication, often inflicting severe trauma.
Contemporary perspectives emphasize respect and cultural recognition for Deaf identity, with sign language widely appreciated as a legitimate and sophisticated linguistic medium.
While deafness cannot be universally or permanently "cured," modern technological interventions (such as auditory prosthetics and assistive devices) exist to enhance auditory access for those who choose them, alongside the cultural affirmation of ASL.