Audism

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Audism is a term typically used to describe discrimination against deaf or hard of hearing people, although it could also be expanded to include anyone with a difference in hearing ability. This discrimination can occur in a number of forms in a range that includes both physical, cultural, and linguistic variants. Further complicating the issue is the existence of intra-group discrimination, which can either mimic the pathways of inter-group discrimination or take entirely new forms. The term was popularly originated by author Tom Humphries in 1975; at the time the definition focused on the attitude that people who hear and speak, or hear and speak better, or have excellent English skills, are superior to others. The definition has since expanded to include more variations.

Audism and Audists

Audism, in the examples above, can be practiced either actively or passively. Those who engage in audism are termed audists. While those who actively engage in audism are few, the number of passive audists are many. A passive audist is an individual who has not given much thought to their actions concerning Deaf people, hearing people, or signed languages. Such a person, often, is only behaving in such a fashion because they are not informed of the differences between Deaf and hearing people. Such people are generally not malicious, and only act from ignorance. Their actions, however, can prevent the employment and education of deaf people despite their benign nature.

The active audist is one who, despite being informed, continues to engage in audist behavior. Their motivations often stem from audist perceptions; since they believe that it is better to, for example, use spoken rather than signed languages, they must maintain that belief. They occasionally deny that the Deaf Culture even exists. The writer Harlan Lane in his book "The Mask of Benevolence" quite aptly describes the goal of the active audist: "dominating, restructuring and exercising authority over the deaf community." Active audists are far fewer than passive, but they tend to be much more adamant in their views than a passive audist. They seek to pursue the goals stated by Lane in various ways; they maintain orally-focused education should be the main method of education of the Deaf; they work to limit the usage of American Sign Language within Deaf residential schools; they support laws that hinder the Deaf person's ability to freely interact with the world around them, the latter in very extreme cases. A famous historical example of an active audist is the scientist Alexander Graham Bell.

While passive audism can be contravened through knowledge and experience, active audism persists against knowledge and the shared experiences of deaf people.

Ideology

As an ideology, audism has existed for many centuries no matter which definition is being used, although the more recent recognition of the Deaf community as a discrete language-using culture has afforded many more such examples. Audism is often seen either as a subset of racism or eugenics, and has been tied to cultural colonialism by Dr. Paddy Ladd. Over time, however, audism has been seen as reflecting the attitudes cutlures maintain about Deaf people, and examples are thus seen as existing primarily within a medical paradigm, cultural paradigm, and edu/linguistic paradigm, and much of the discourse about audism focuses on these three areas. In recent decades, with the proliferation of easily accessible communication technology, the discourse has expanded to focus on any area which involves deaf or Deaf people. Harlan Lane to some extent examines the development of Deaf-based educational principles in his history of Franco-American Deaf relations and educational philosophy.

Ethnic Conflicts

Much conflict exists around the concepts defined by the term audism, most often stemming from lack of clarity in use of the term - as in many other cultural or sociological debates. The term is sometimes used to describe typically xenophobic behaviors, for example. One of the earliest forms of audist ethnic conflict is found in the classics and in early Judeo-Christian writings. Plato, for example, mentions users of a signed language, but he and Aristotle were in near-perfect agreement: without the ability to speak, Deaf people could be little more than barbarians. Similarly, writers such as St. Augustine propounded the notion that deafness, much as white supremacist conceptions of the nature of black skin, was a hereditary "curse" from God. Such thinking probably lay behind most early laws preventing Deaf people from owning property; Deaf people were considered either unintelligent or cursed, despite evidence to the contrary. It also contributed to conditions persisting until the early 1400's providing for the Church to prevent Deaf people joining, on the grounds that their inability to speak was both earned and a sign that they could not be saved. Such ideas additionally also provided for acceptable use of and mistreatment of Deaf peoples throughout the Middle Ages. Startling parallels exist in Church and state views of Black people and Native Americans at the time (several prominent writers argued that such people had no souls. It is debatable whether the justification permits the treatement or whether the treatment required the justification.)

Such conceptions were not uniquely European. Many African cultures saw the deaf individual as cursed and were against the use of signed languages. Some insisted on the death of such individuals. (In contrast, many native American cultures integrated the use of signed languages with their societies, and others had specific roles for Deaf or disabled peoples within their society.)

Repeatedly, writers such as Ponce De Leon and Girolamo Cardano used personal experiences with Deaf individuals to demonstrate the injustice of such ideas. Throughout history those with personal experience with deaf individuals have fought against such systematic, ingrained misperceptions. It is to be noted, however, that industry exists which requires such misperceptions.

See also

• Deafhood
• Deaf culture
• Models of deafness

External links

• Audism FAQ by Gallaudet University
• deafness.about.com on audism
• [1] Audism Unveiled, a film of interviews with Deaf people about how audism has impacted their lives