Deaf Identity Research Articles

Portuguese

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/19827199800 The present study is part of a broader qualitative research - a dissertation entitled Education: Imagistic resources in the production of meaning of a Deaf child - which was developed by the Graduate Program in Environmental Education of the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), Brazil. This article presents the position of a Deaf teacher from Rio Grande do Sul state in relation to the construction of their deaf identity, considering the key role of the Deaf Community and the native language of a signaled Deaf person - the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). This paper is based on a socio-historical theoretical and methodological approach. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a Deaf teacher, and imagery resources that enabled the emergence of life narratives of the research subject were also used. Data was analyzed through content analysis, whose category, the subject of this article, refers to the Deaf Community that uses Libras. The narratives demonstrated the importance of the Deaf Community for the Deaf, as well as the apprehension of their language, the Brazilian Sign Language, highlighting the legal achievements and challenges faced for the recognition and appreciation of this language in our country, both in regular and inclusive schools and in higher education. Moreover, the Deaf Community is configured as a place of belonging, from which the Deaf can display and enhance their Deaf identity, their stories, extolling their cultural difference. Keywords: Deaf community, Identity, Socio-historical approach.

Introduction to American Deaf Culture by Thomas K. Holcomb (review)

Introduction to American Deaf Culture, by Thomas K. Holcomb (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013, 386 pp., paperback, $49.99, ISBN-13: 9780199777549)IN FIFTEEN CHAPTERS comprising 386 pages, the author, Thomas K. Holcomb, presents a comprehensive exploration of American Deaf culture. The introductory chapter provides an overview of the book, includes a summary of the authors credentials, and explains how he strives to portray a balanced perspective of the diverse constituencies of the Deaf community.Chapter 2 addresses the crux of this book: the definition of culture and how it applies to Deaf people and their community. The author emphasizes the relationship between culture and language, and what he has to say could not be more true for Deaf people and their signed languages. Holcomb delves further into his topic by comparing and contrasting American culture, more specifically, middle-class, white, hearing Americans, with Deaf American culture. This juxtaposition of cultures is beneficial in particular for people familiar with one or the other, as Holcomb shares specific characteristics of American culture, such as individualism and independence, which are in stark contrast to Deaf American culture, with its emphasis on collectivism and interdependence.The third chapter explores demographic data, deaf people's backgrounds and experiences, membership in the community, and labels used to describe Deaf and hearing people, including the disability label, which is often erroneously attributed to Deaf people and their culture; it closes with a proposal to describe Deaf people and Deaf culture as a linguistic minority. Chapter 4 focuses on the journey of cultural awareness, which comprises several stages on the way to achieving a positive sense of self and Deaf identity. Chapters 5 and 6 explore early definitions of Deaf culture and current attempts to reffame it as the Deaf experience based on values stemming from a visual orientation.Chapter 7 focuses on American Sign Language (ASL), clarifying misconceptions and presenting linguistic information about focal ASL vocabulary, which is strongly associated with cultural values. For instance, ASL has only one sign for music, song, sing, and concert-yet more than a dozen signs for different types of deaf and hearing people. Bilingualism and the history of ASL are briefly touched upon, including prescriptive and descriptive perspectives of the language.Literature and the arts, pivotal areas of cultural awareness, as well as appreciation of and expression by Deaf people are covered in chapters 8 and 9. Literature of the Deaf community comes in many forms, including written English literature and signed ASL literature. Holcomb mentions periodicals, books, autobiographies, and specialinterest books that discuss specific themes and/or experiences such as being black and Deaf, Deaf gay and lesbian, Deaf Native American, and more. Deaf art, called De'VIA (DeafView/Image Art), tends to fell into two categories: resistance art and affirmation art, The book displays more than twenty such images. In addition, the book's valuable companion website, www.americandeafculture.com, has links to more than ten videos that the author himself signs, expanding on the information discussed in the book. For example, Holcomb demonstrates signs, linguistic information, and poetry that he himself has produced and also shares (with their permission) classic and contemporary literature by other Deaf artists and performers.Representing a departure from analyzing culture and language, chapter 10 focuses on culturally acceptable behavior within the Deaf community. Leave taking, persistence in contact, letting others know of your destination, reporting back, detailed introductions, and name signs are examples of unique cultural behaviors associated with Deaf people and Deaf culture. Holcomb does not stop here but ventures in more unfamiliar territory, discussing unwritten rules when it comes to qualifying for board positions or athletic events designed for Deaf people (and not for deaf people? …

Od niemowy do człowieka dwujęzycznego, czyli o świadomości i nauczaniu języka polskiego głuchych – uwagi nie tylko glottodydaktyczne

The article presents the problem of teaching Polish language to deaf people and considers two aspects – glottodidactics and identity of deaf. The authors point at the several problems that are met by a teacher who teaches Polish to deaf students. The problems are as following: low status of the Polish language among deaf students, the lack of positive motivation to learn Polish by these students, however they are strongly motivated to learn English that is also a foreign language to them. To improve this situation there should be made not only a change in the teaching process to teach Polish as a foreign language to deaf students, but also teachers should be aware of the fact that deaf students need to be considered as a bilingual and bicultural person. The awareness should improve not only among teachers and hearing people, but also among deaf.

Hearing the voices of young deaf people: Implications for social work practice in Jordan

This exploratory study discusses the identity construction of young deaf people in Jordan through their own interpretation and the perspectives of their families. It is based on qualitative data derived from focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that schools and family environments remain predominantly exclusionary in socializing young deaf into the construction of an identity of disability. However, young deaf people view themselves as a sub-group within a larger collective culture. This study takes into account the wider differences inherent in gender issues, as is significant in the conceptualization of young deaf identity in the Arab world.

Editorial

This issue of Periferia includes three articles on different themes and fields: Inambe Sales Fontenele and Celecina de Maria Veras Sales’s research that goes into the process of personal and collective memory building, through oral narratives of women in Estado do Ceara (Northeast Brazil); Jordi Grau approaches to structuring nature that can be detected in the forms of child mobility, such as adoption; or the vision offered by Dolores Rodriguez on the evolution of the conceptualization of deaf identity and sense of belonging to the Deaf Community. However, these articles share their interest in recovering previous ethnographic studies, showing the different theoretical and methodological tools that have helped the understanding of these processes and collectives. All this with the purpose by refocusing the anthropological to the current context. Moreover, the Projecte Entrevistes brings the opportunity to approach us to Isidoro Moreno, a key person not only for Anthropology in Andalusia, but also for the institutionalization and critical view of the discipline in Spain. Finally, we would like to emphasize initiatives like Displaced Museum, contained in this issue, which reflects the growing supply of open collaborative proposals through the Network. Editorial Committee Journal Periferia http://revistes.uab.cat/periferia

Being an adolescent with a cochlear implant in the world of hearing people: Coping in school, in society and with self identity

ObjectiveThe cochlear implant has revolutionized functioning with severe-to-profound sensori-neural loss. A deaf child implanted at an early age with good habilitation may have good language abilities and function well in daily life. As the implanted child grows up, managing in the world of hearing people may become more complex. During adolescence, the teenager copes with many issues, including identity, socialization with the peer group, and managing in the school setting. These issues may be even more challenging for the adolescents using a cochlear implant. This study was designed to shed light on how adolescents with cochlear implants experience coping with the issues mentioned. MethodTwelve teenagers (14–18 years old), fairly similar to the entire adolescent implanted population at the center at which the study was conducted, participated in the study. They had been unilaterally or bilaterally implanted at differing ages. The participants filled out a questionnaire dealing with their functioning in the educational setting, their social preferences and functioning, and their identity as hearing or deaf. The results were analyzed using the principles of thematic analysis. ResultsAt school, some reported better achievements than others but they all expressed some difficulty functioning in class mainly in situations involving several speakers. From a social point of view, some reported a preference for association with normal hearing peers, whereas others favored hard-of-hearing friends, and one had no preference. Of those who touched on the topic of self-identity, one referred to herself as deaf, eight defined themselves as hard-of-hearing, and two consider themselves hearing. ConclusionsFrom the responses of these teenagers, it is clear that adolescents with cochlear implants are a heterogeneous group. Parents and teachers should be aware that adolescents with implants, even when successful academically, may experience difficulties in the classroom setting. Most of the participants in this study learning in a mainstream setting, preferred social relationships with hearing peers (to hard of hearing/deaf). The responses of these adolescents with cochlear implants support the conjecture that they have both a hearing identity and a deaf identity, which may be expressed at varying intensities depending on the situation at the time.

Adolescents' Experiences of Receiving and Living With Sequential Cochlear Implants: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

There is currently a unique opportunity to examine the experiences of young people who receive a second sequential cochlear implant (SCI), after only having had 1 cochlear implant (CI) for most of their lives. Eleven young people who had opted to receive an SCI were interviewed. Interpretative phenomenological analysis resulted in the identification of 6 master themes. Most participants enjoyed improved confidence and social well-being following their SCI and felt that 2 CIs were superior to 1. The majority identified themselves as hearing and deaf, but not culturally Deaf, as they strived to live in the hearing world. However, this was not without challenges and many young people experienced feelings of difference in the hearing world. These findings have clinical implications in terms of the role of clinical psychologists and other mental health professionals in CI clinics and in providing information to families making decisions about CIs. These findings add to the emergent deaf identity development literature in young people with CIs.

Recomendações da WCAG 2.0 (2008) e a acessibilidade de surdos em conteúdos da Web

Este artigo apresenta uma discussão a respeito da comunicação de surdos no contexto dos padrões de acessibilidade na web. Primeiramente traz um estudo bibliográfico sobre a comunicação de surdos, o método linguístico adotado nas escolas e o reflexo na história da sua educação. Em seguida, discorre sobre o bilinguismo, as identidades surdas e as diretrizes de acessibilidade propostas pela WCAG 2.0 (2008). A partir de pesquisa bibliográfica, realizada em fontes primárias, selecionaram-se os critérios de sucesso relacionados à surdez a fim de verificar se a língua de sinais, tida como primeira língua dos surdos (L1) na filosofia do bilinguismo, é considerada na concepção dos princípios da WCAG 2.0 (2008). Por fim, o artigo enfatiza a comunicação bilíngue como necessária para que os conteúdos da web possam estabelecer uma uniformidade com a linguagem habitual da cultura surda.

"Scenes in the History of the Deaf and Dumb": Angeline Fuller’s Strategic Sentimentality and the Development of an American Deaf Identity

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, most deaf Americans were isolated, both from one another and from the communities in which they resided, by linguistic barriers. At the time, no common American sign language existed, meaning that deaf people who did not speak English had to resort to a series of home signs invented with their families to communicate. The formation of the first permanent schools, beginning in 1817 with the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, began to change this situation.1 The language developed at these schools allowed the Deaf to begin identifying themselves as a distinct cultural group and to articulate their own history, customs, and values.2 Writing played a critical role in spreading this sense of community beyond school walls. As Christopher Krentz has noted, writing “has the ability to shape and share cultural identity and to produce relationships between groups. Through writing, people can support or subvert power arrangements, not to mention concepts of reality and order.”3 For Deaf authors in particular, writing provided a space where communication could occur without the barriers often imposed by face-to-face encounters, allowing them to forge relationships with deaf people from around the country. While some early Deaf writing fell into the trap of uncritically repeating stereotypes about deaf people, much of this literature took advantage of the medium to question what it meant to be deaf in America and, in so doing, to begin to outline a Deaf cultural identity.4 Angeline Fuller’s “Scenes in the History of the Deaf and Dumb,” which appeared in her book The Venture (1883), participates in this project by providing one of the first literary accounts from a Deaf perspective. Throughout

‘Speaking in the Language of Art’: Soviet Deaf Theatre and the Politics of Identity during Khrushchev's Thaw

This article considers the history of the Theatre of Sign and Gesture, the Soviet Union's first professional deaf theatre, from its creation in 1957 into the 1960s. It examines the debates over the form appropriate to this innovative new theatre — particularly the tension between the use of classical mime and theatrical sign language — as a means to analyse the discourses surrounding deaf identity during the Khrushchev era. Whilst the more relaxed cultural climate of the Thaw allowed the Theatre to play with the avant-garde legacy of physical theatre and create a space for deafness on the stage, the experience of the Theatre exposes the complexities of Khrushchev-era theatrical engagement, which was torn between a push towards grassroots expression of minority identity and increasing attempts to control and direct culture as a means to build an idealised New Soviet Person.

Deaf epistemologies: multiple perspectives on the acquisition of knowledge

Epistemology is the study of how knowledge is formed. Standard epistemology isolates the known from the knowers, thereby defining knowledge as objectively constant. Multiple epistemologies suggest that individuals learn in different ways shaped by life factors such as education, family, ethnicity, history, and regional beliefs. In this groundbreaking volume, editors Peter V. Paul and Donald F. Moores call on ten other noted scholars and researchers to join them in examining the many ways that deaf people see and acquire deaf knowledge. This collection considers three major groups of deaf knowledge perspectives: sociological and anthropological, historical/psychological and literary, and educational and philosophical. The first explores the adoption of a naturalized, critical epistemological stance in evaluating research; the epistemology of a positive deaf identity; how personal epistemologies can help form deaf education policies; and valuing deaf indigenous knowledge in research. The next part considers dueling epistemologies in educating deaf learners; reforms in deaf education; the role of deaf children of hearing parents in creating Deaf epistemologies; and the benefit of reading literature with deaf characters for all students. The final part explores the application of the Qualitative-Similarity Hypothesis to deaf students acquisition of knowledge; a metaparadigm for literacy instruction in bilingual-bicultural education; collaborative knowledge-building to access academia; and examination of the benefits and disadvantages of being deaf.

Review of Leigh, A Lens on Deaf Identities

No abstract available

Growing Up With a Cochlear Implant: Education, Vocation, and Affiliation

The long-term educational/vocational, affiliation, and quality-of-life outcomes of the first and second cohorts of children with bilateral, profound hearing loss who received cochlear implants under a large National Institutes of Health-funded study was investigated in 41 of 61 eligible participants. Educational and vocational outcomes were collected from user survey data. Affiliation and quality-of-life data were collected from the Satisfaction-with-Life scale and the Deaf Identity Scale. Qualitative results indicated that compared with their hearing, adult-age peers, this group obtained high educational achievement, and they reported a very high satisfaction of life. With respect to forming an identity in these first 2 cohorts of cochlear implant users, we found that most of the individuals endorsed a dual identity, which indicates they feel just as comfortable with Deaf individuals as they do with hearing individuals. Quantitative results revealed a significant relationship between ability to hear and ability to speak, in addition to consistency of device use. Additional relationships were found between mother's and the individual's educational statuses, hearing scores, and communication system used. Younger individuals scored higher on satisfaction-with-life measures, and they also tended to endorse a dual identity more often. Taken together, these findings diminish concerns that profoundly deaf individuals growing up with cochlear implants will become culturally bereft and unable to function in the hearing world.

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That: An Update

During the past few days, a little birdie flew overhead and indicated repeatedly (via extremely loud chirps) that it was time to present information to the readers of the Annals. With the assistance of a couple colleagues (and a few little birdies), I have developed some questions with responses. I also provide some comments about the Editorial Board and review process, and conclude with a few tidbits - which may or may not be surprising. Questions or, Perhaps, QTSBA (Questions That Should Be Asked) 1. Is There a Preference for Specific Types of Manuscripts to Be Published in the Annals? I am certain that the Annals has a tradition, buttressed by cultural or historical perceptions, that tends to influence the types of manuscripts that are submitted. As per my goal to be inclusive, the accepted and published articles, from the initial issue in Spring 2011 to the present, cover a wide range of topics with implications for education and other relevant areas of interest. Topics include social-emotional development, writing, sign language interpreting, inquirybased science instruction, use of captions, cochlear implantation, dual diagnosis (deafness and autism), the role of counselors, and memory research and deafness - among others. The participants under study in these manuscripts represent users of a variety of communication modes (sign, speech, etc.) and a wide range of degrees of hearing loss, from slight to profound; some participants are members of the Deaf culture (e.g., Deaf Identity, Deaf World, etc.). As Editor, I am committed to maintaining inclusiveness and to publishing high-quality articles that have proceeded through a rigorous review process. I have no qualms with respect to the use of a specific research paradigm (e.g., quantitative, including single-subject designs; qualitative, including critical and postmodernist analyses), or even with respect to theoretical framework (e.g., behaviorism, cognitivism, socioculturalism, or any other isms). With at least two methodologists as reviewers, I intend to accept manuscripts that have sound technical merits as well as adequate literature reviews. I have also attempted to encourage contributors to use more inclusive language in describing their samples (e.g., d/Deaf and hard of hearing) and to be meticulous in their inclusion of demographics of the sample (e.g., degree of hearing loss). In short, the Annals is a scholarly research journal that encourages the submission of primary (empirical) research (qualitative or quantitative) as well as secondary analyses (meta-analyses, research reviews, etc.). The Annals also encourages theoretical (including metatheoretical) papers and position papers, but these works must be based on a strong, extensive integration of research studies and/or extant theory. 2. Can Members of the Editorial Board Contribute Manuscripts to the Annals? Is This a Conflict of Interest? Not only can Editorial Board members contribute manuscripts; I strongly encourage these members to do just that. In fact, prior to becoming Editor, I was a member of the Editorial Boards of several other journals, and their Editors strongly encourage contributions (actually tooting their horns for contributions). Since my tenure, there have only been four members of the review board who have published in the Annals - Stephanie Cawthon (regular refereed review and invited), Harold Johnson, Cheri Williams (regular refe reed review and invited), and Ye Wang. One other review board member's manuscripts have been rejected twice - demonstrating that the double-blind review process maintains the same standard of rigor regardless of the source of a contribution. Given the wide range of interests, philosophies, and expertise of our Editorial Board, I do not see a conflict of interest. My goal is to expand the Editorial Board, and this is an ongoing process. 3. Can the Editor Publish in the Annals? Is This a Conflict of Interest? …

Deafness-related self-perceptions and psychological well-being in deaf adolescents with cochlear implants

ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the relationship between psychological well-being and self-perception in adolescents with cochlear implants, in relation to their perceptions of hearing, deaf signing, and orally communicating deaf peers.MethodSelf-perceptions were examined in 22 cochlear implant users aged 12–18 years, using the repertory grid technique that allows the respondent to generate personally relevant ‘identity’ constructs. Psychological well-being was assessed using the Beck Youth Inventory, a series of five self-report questionnaires assessing anxiety, depression, disruptive behaviour, anger, and self-esteem.ResultsCorrelational analyses indicated that perceiving oneself as close to any peer, irrespective of which peer, was associated with better psychological well-being. There was also a significant positive association between perceived degree of similarity specifically to hearing peers, and psychological well-being. The closer the implanted adolescents perceived themselves to be to their hearing peers, the better their overall psychological well-being. In contrast, perceiving oneself as more similar to deaf signing peers or deaf oral peers was not significantly associated with psychological well-being.DiscussionThe findings are discussed in the context of previous research on social comparison, Deaf identity, and the aims of cochlear implantation.

Deaf jokes and sign language humor

AbstractThis paper describes the humor of Deaf communities, arguing that the humor is related primarily to the dominant visual experience of Deaf people, but also influenced by their knowledge of humor traditions in the hearing society at large. Sign language humor in America and Britain may be seen in the creation of new visual signs, the witty reanalysis of existing signs and in bilingual games in which English is manipulated within sign languages. The content of Deaf humor supports the in-group of community members who embrace their signing collective Deaf identity and denigrates out-group people, including deaf people who do not belong to the community and hearing people who are often seen as a threat to the community. Many of these jokes also make reference to sign language. We conclude that the visual nature of Deaf humor is one of its key characteristics and ask what else this can tell us about the Deaf cultural way of interacting with and presenting the world.

Action Research with a Family ASL Literacy Program

This article reports findings from an ethnographic action research study of Deaf and hearing parents and young children participating in a family American Sign Language (ASL) literacy program in Ontario, Canada. The study documents the context for parents’ and children’s learning of ASL in an environment where resources for supporting early ASL literacy have been scarce. Through semi-structured interviews and observations of six individual families or parent-child dyads, the study documents participants’ encounters with professionals who regulate Deaf children and their families’ access to ASL. At the same time, the setting of the ASL Parent-Child Mother Goose Program is presented as a Deaf cultural space and thereby a counter-discourse to medical discourses regarding Deaf identity and bilingualism. This space features the Deaf mother participants’ ASL literacy and numeracy practices and improvisations of ASL rhymes and stories to enhance their suitability for young children. The practices of the ASL Parent-Child Mother Goose Program leader also serve to define and support emergent ASL literacy. In addition, a Deaf cultural space inside a broader context of public services to young Deaf children provides a means for the hearing mother participants to facilitate critical inquiry of issues surrounding bilingualism, ASL, and a Deaf identity.

Development of Deaf Identity: An Ethnographic Study

This ethnographic study explores the identity development of 9 deaf participants through the narratives of their educational experiences in either mainstream or special schools for the Deaf. This exploration goes beyond a binary conceptualization of deaf identity that allows for only the medical and social models and proposes a bicultural "dialogue model." This postmodern theoretical framework is used to examine the diversity of identities of deaf learners. The inclusion of the researcher's own fluid cross-cultural identity as a bicultural "DeaF" participant in this study provides an auto-ethnographic gateway into exploring the lives of other deaf, Deaf, or bicultural DeaF persons. The findings suggest that deaf identity is not a static concept but a complex ongoing quest for belonging, a quest that is bound up with the acceptance of being deaf while "finding one's voice" in a hearing-dominant society. Through the use of dialogue and narrative tools, the study challenges educators, parents, and researchers to broaden their understanding of how deaf identity, and the dignity associated with being a deaf person is constructed.

What's in a Word (Label, Phrase, Term, etc.)?

Occasionally, my colleagues in the field of special education and I have interesting discussions about the use of words, labels, phrases, and other terminology in education and research involving children with disabilities (or with conditions or with whatever!). I have a son who has Down syndrome (as well as autism), so this discussion can be personal as well as professional. As a rule, my colleagues have no compunction about using the label mental retardation - albeit they do not frequently use the phrase mentally retarded and never use retard or the retarded. They accept the label developmental disabilities - though I think I see an occasional rolling of their eyes toward the back of their heads. That's another story or, perhaps, editorial. I favor what I consider the more appealing (or heady) phrase cognitive or intellectual disabilities. My mistake, of course, is to assume that my choice is more humane than that of my colleagues (that's a no-win discussion). The more productive approach is to ask for clarification of one's terminology. At our lunch meetings, the qualitative or general description below-average intelligence in conjunction with below-average socioemotional development typically suffices if I want to enjoy the rest of my meal. Probing for quantitative descriptors involving the number of standard deviations below the mean, the issues of intensity and duration, and even what it means to assess intelligence and socioemotional development (e.g., Heward, 2009; Salvia, Yesseldyke, & Bolt, 2010) elicits harsh stares at the least and causes acid indigestion at the most. Let's set aside the argument on whether a particular word, label, phrase, or term is more humane, appealing, or even accurate. (I will not touch politically correct.) The following list of questions should be asked, at the least: Is the description or definition of a word important for conducting and understanding scholarly research? Why or why not? How much information is adequate? Adequate for what purpose? Does this depend on your research questions? The focus of your manuscript? Should it be dictated by your epistemology or philosophy? Obviously, this list of questions is not exhaustive. As you read the articles in this issue of the Annals, I am certain that you will be able to develop a list of words, labels, phrases, or terms that are pertinent to the above discussion. And if you engage your colleagues in a discussion to define or clarify the items on your list, you might not reach a consensus immediately - or ever. There are two controversial words, at the least, that come to my mind and are examined briefly in the rest of this editorial: deaf ana literacy. Deaf or deaf (or Varying Levels of Hearing Acuity or Hearing Loss!) In almost every article of this Annals issue and in those of past issues, you will encounter the terms deaf Deaf and hard of hearing - and, occasionally, hearing impaired, hearing impairment, hearing disability, and hearing loss. I suspect that, for some individuals, deaf or hard of hearing now seems more humane or, rather, an improvement over hearing impairment or hearing disability. For others, this litany of name-calling might cause rolling of the eyes or elicit a George Carlin rendition of useless terms or phrases in our society - that is, in our case, useless for advancing knowledge about the field. It seems to be somewhat clear or acceptable that Deaf with a capital D refers to members of the Deaf culture or Deaf world, or people with a Deaf identify - albeit these phrases can also be subjected to endless interpretations and debates. That is, we may need to provide additional information about the participants to arrive at some understanding of what it means to be a member of Deaf culture or to have a Deaf identity. We might be able to agree that Deaf with a capital D refers to members of a sociological group, much as do other phrases such as African Americans and Latino/a Americans. …

Deaf Parents and Pediatric Cochlear Implantation: An Exploration of the Decision-Making Process

The study examined factors in deaf parents' decision between cochlear implantation (CI) and traditional hearing aids for their child. The subjects were 6 Flemish children ages 5-9 years with severe/profound congenital hearing loss, with at least 1 deaf parent. The researchers, who conducted thematic content analysis of qualitative data collected through parent interviews, found that with the exception of a family with 1 hearing parent, parents gave priority to Deaf identity, sign language, and ethical issues in deciding between CI and hearing aids. Medical risks were also mentioned. The researchers conclude that the decision-making processes of the parents involved factors that have also been found among hearing parents, as well as aspects that have not been reported to play a role in hearing parents' decision making. A further conclusion is that deaf parents' perspective merits attention in professional practice and empirical research.