The Deaf Community in the United States has a complicated history of status and legal positioning due to the conflicting perspectives on it. On the one hand, it is perceived as a linguistic minority with its own communication tools and distinct culture. On the other hand, the community benefits from the legislations and policy changes enabled by the Americans with Disability Act, also known as ADA. This paper attempts to examine the structure and main purposes of ADA and the relationship between the legislation and the Deaf Community in the United States. It then discusses the conflict that originates from the mixed status of the Deaf Community with the emphasis on the benefits and drawbacks from the disabled status.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, is civil rights-related legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. To elaborate, it protects the disabled individuals’ rights to equal treatment and equal opportunities in the spheres of public life, employment, education, accommodation, transportation, and state services. The Act is divided into five sections concerned with different areas of public life, with attention first being directed towards the matters of employment and eligibility for state services.
As a largely vulnerable and communicationally impaired minority, the Deaf Community might become a target for discrimination. Personal biases and structural inequalities deaf and hard-hearing people face are commonly referred to as audism (Szwarkowski, and Brice, 113). A prevalent issue in general, audism is especially evident at the workplace, where the communication barrier between deaf and hearing people leads to unreasonable perceptions of the former. Deaf employees often struggle to make their opinion matter during group brainstorming sessions and face col attitude from their hearing colleagues. When accumulating, the communication barriers have the potential to negatively affect a deaf person’s career trajectory on a completely unfair basis (Bone, 19). Thus, the Deaf Community significantly benefits from ADA, which demands the employers with over 15 employees facilitate reasonable accommodations for disabled workers. By logical extension, deaf employees can benefit from the introduction of sign language translations and other procedures that would enable their equal footing at work.
Other sections of the ADA further benefit the Deaf Community by outlawing discrimination in the areas of telecommunications. The entire section is dedicated to preventing the discrimination of audially and verbally impaired people in phone communication (Chong et al., 200). Furthermore, it requires the public government announcements to be made accessible to all viewers, which for the Deaf Community would mean the announcements being dubbed in the sign language. Both points benefit deaf people immensely, as the communication barriers tend to be their primary source of causal discomfort, ostracization, and othering.
However, the degree to which ADA improves the quality of life of the deaf people in America entails multiple implications some of the Deaf Community members are uncomfortable with. Namely, it positions deaf and hard-hearing people as disabled, which the majority of them disagree with. What follows is a conflict of perspectives and contexts that deals with the emotionally charged subjects of identity and social discrimination.
Historically, the Deaf Community has identified itself as a linguistic minority with the language of its own. It relies on a culture that has understandably de-centralized sound imagery from the communication process and developed rich baggage of traditions and linguistic instruments of their own. Aside from the surface expectations of its own alphabet and even folklore, the Deaf culture facilitates a set of coherent values by upholding collectivism over individualism (Stander, and Mcilroy, 228). From this point of view, being perceived as disabled may have negative connotations for the community members, as it would somewhat belittle their cultural accomplishments (“Telecommunication (ADA Title IV) | ADA National Network”). If the Deaf culture is seen as an attribute of a legally disabled group, there is a risk of it being perceived as simply means of accommodation. For the deaf and hard-hearing people who have developed it as a rich set of principles and practices, this is understandably unpleasant. However, the legal protection against discrimination at the workplace and in society has considerably improved the quality of life for many deaf people.
The discussion is further complicated by the argument of the aforementioned optic being flawed and ableist. When a conversation concerns the lines between a disability and a special characteristic, one is bound to encounter controversy. Displeased observers have argued that by insisting on separating themselves from the disabled community, deaf people imply they are worth more than people with disabilities. Such claims are often disproportionate to the points they sprung up from, but a deeper cross-disciplinal analysis of the matter is definitely required.
In conclusion, the Deaf Community in America benefits immensely from the ADA, which protects it from discrimination at work and in public life. Although the community is not recognized as legally disabled, the Act’s sections and principles in action have improved the deaf people’s quality of life substantially. When making arbitrary statements about the community culture, however, the insights from the community members are always the most valuable. Thus further research on the existing conflict of perceptions could benefit from incorporating the perspectives of death and hard-hearing people directly into their work.
Works Cited
Bone, Tracey A. “No One Is Listening: Members Of The Deaf Community Share Their Depression Narratives”. Social Work In Mental Health, vol 17, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1-22. Informa UK Limited,
Chong, Elizabeth Yie-Chuen et al. “A Qualitative Study On The Design And Development Of An Mhealth App To Facilitate Communication With The Deaf Community: Perspective Of Community Pharmacists”. Patient Prefer Adherence, Volume 13, 2019, pp. 195-207. Informa UK Limited.
Stander, Marga, and Guy Mcilroy. “Language And Culture In The Deaf Community: A Case Study In A South African Special School”. Per Linguam: A Journal Of Language And Learning, vol 33, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1-688. Stellenbosch University.
Szarkowski, Amy, and Patrick Brice. “Positive Psychology In Research With The Deaf Community: An Idea Whose Time Has Come”. The Journal Of Deaf Studies And Deaf Education, vol 23, no. 2, 2018, pp. 111-117. Oxford University Press (OUP).
“Telecommunication (ADA Title IV) | ADA National Network”. Adata.Org, 2021, Web.