Abstract
This paper provides an extensive review of literature on deaf students and deafness. The purpose of the literature review is to obtain an understanding of what deafness is, what causes deafness, how it occurs, and what deaf culture is like for deaf people. The review identifies schools and programs that are used to help the deaf community and it also examines the outcomes of deaf students in general education. It discusses whether deaf students are better served in an inclusive environment or whether they are better served in a deaf community based learning environment. It examines the characteristics of hearing loss and how there are different tools and ways to treat hearing loss when it occurs in cases where reversing the hearing loss is possible. In some cases, reversal is not possible but surgical solutions may exist.
Introduction
One of the more remarkable qualities of deaf culture is that those who are deaf or hard of hearing look at the other person with whom they are speaking. In hearing culture, it is not uncommon for people who are speaking to one another to look away from one another when speaking, to break or even avoid eye contact, or to use technology such as phones to communicate. Deaf culture is much more dependent upon face-to-face communication and the use of signs—pictures—to convey meaning, whereas in hearing culture, people think generally in terms of words.
Deaf culture is an intriguingly unique culture in the world for this reason and it is one that I am fascinated by. In seeking to promote inclusivity in the classroom, I believe it is important to understand other cultures and deaf culture is one that often receives little attention. Gaining insight into how the deaf and hard of hearing experience their reality can be helpful to educators as they honor their commitment to diversity and inclusivity. The more cultural competence that educators obtain, the more likely they will be to exert a positive influence on others.
The deaf community is one that has often been overlooked in popular culture, it is worth an investigation. However, in recent years there have been some steps taken towards shining light on this community in different artistic ways. The 2014 Ukrainian film The Tribe was a dialogue-free film featuring deaf actors using Ukrainian sign language without subtitles and was celebrated by critics for creating a unique cinematic experience for viewers unfamiliar with what life is like for the deaf community. Todd Haynes’ 2017 film Wonderstruck focused on a deaf child and a hard of hearing child. In 2020, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) plans to release The Eternals, which features the first deaf superhero in the MCU. As deafness is beginning to receive more attention in popular media and culture, it can be helpful to understand what deafness is in reality.
Definition of Terms
· Communication Disability—an impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, and comprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol systems, which can be manifested in hearing, language use and speech
· Deafness—a lack of or deficiency in the sense of hearing
· Deaf Community—members have their own social and behavioral characteristics but do not view themselves as impaired
· Deaf Culture—the set of values, social beliefs, traditions, customs, shared communities, behaviors, art, and history informed by the experience of deafness and in which the participants of that experience use sign language as the main method of communication
· Hard of Hearing—having a defective or impaired but functional sense of hearing
· Hearing Impairment—unable to hear well
Review of Literature
The History of Deafness/Hard of Hearing
The first free public school for the deaf was created in 1760 by a French Catholic priest. Prior to that, it was a Catholic Benedictine in the 17th century who focused on developing a method for teaching deaf students: his name was Pedro Ponce de Leon. In 1788, the first French sign language dictionary was published. In the 19th century, Alexander Graham Bell, who had a hard of hearing mother, started the Volta Bureau School for teaching hearing impaired children.
At the end of the 19th century, the first hearing aids were developed. A century later, the very first cochlear implants were being tested. The cochlear implant, also known as the Bionic Ear, was pioneered in development by Professor Graeme Clark in Australia (1960s) and first successfully used in 1978 (Hill, 2019). This technology can help deaf people to hear speech and can assist them in learning to speak, and currently more...
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