social attitudes towards deafness
... Social attitudes towards deafness. ... Is deafness the last frontier for political correctness? Certainly there are many social attitudes about the deaf that persist in the hearing world despite deaf opinion. ... The flaw in this argument is that deafness is a continuum and many people who consider themselves to be hearing are on the spectrum of deafness or hearing impairment. ... Deaf culture has not developed in isolation and therefore much of deaf identity arises as a direct consequence of attitudes from the hearing. ... Negative evaluations of deafness as a disability are very difficult to eradicate. ... An historical perspective on social attitudes towards deafness. ... The degree of insensitivity toward deafness is very high mainly due to ignorance rather than malice. ... Societal attitudes towards the deaf can handicap them more so than the physical impairment of hearing loss. ... Handicap is a disadvantage for a given individual resulting from a disability or impairment that limits or prevents the fulfilment of a role that is normal (depending on age, sex, social and cultural factors) for that individual(3). ... sports, social and cultural events). ... There are a number of tests used to establish deafness. ... A number of people have proposed the telephone test as the litmus paper for deafness. ... The World Health Organisation defines deafness in terms of the average hearing threshold at three frequencies, 500Hz, 1KHz, and 2KHz (because these three cover the main speech spectrum of 300–3000 Hz). ... In the late 20th century and early 21st century there has been a great impetus from the deaf world to re-evaluate attitudes towards deafness. ... The uppercase “d” is used in spelling “DEAF” when referring to persons who are members of the Deaf community or have wholly accepted their deafness: lowercase “d” is used “deaf” when referring to the inability to hear. ... These labels tend to reinforce the stigma attached to deafness. Negative social attitudes towards deafness can come from some surprising sources: The American writer Chris Wixtrom suggests that many deaf people are as derogative of deafness as some hearing people, if not more so. He states that there are two views of deafness. 1st View: Deafness as a pathology, 2nd View: Deafness as a difference. In the deafness as a pathology view a person may: Define deafness as a pathological condition (a defect, or a handicap) which distinguishes abnormal deaf persons from normal hearing persons. Deny, downplay, or hide evidence of deafness. Seek a "cure" for deafness: focus on ameliorating the effects of the "auditory disability" or "impairment. ... " The deafness as a pathology view can be approximated with the medical model of disability(5). ... Disease or disorder Impairment Disability Handicap Chris Wixtrom suggests that the Deafness as a difference perspective serves to remove a lot of the stigma currently associated with deafness. Accordingly Deafness should be defined as merely a difference, a characteristic that distinguishes normal deaf persons from normal hearing persons. ... Openly acknowledge deafness. ... This viewpoint is similar to the social model of disability(6). The social model of disability. ... Disease Impairment Person Disability Social environment The deaf community has been further polarised by the advent of technology that can enable a deaf person to gain near-normal hearing: the cochlear implant. ... " Other deaf people echo his views, praising "deaf culture" and deride attempts to cure deafness. "Deaf Pride" activists have been trying to challenge the view of deafness as a deficiency.