Deaf History Month, celebrated in March, explores the experiences and education of deaf persons and the development of deaf communities and deaf culture. Deaf individuals are those who are affected by varying degrees of deafness, or the partial or total inability to hear.
According to Riva Markowitz, adjunct professor of American Sign Language (ASL) courses at NSU, and Jacqueline Hinckley, director of the undergraduate program of speech language pathology, there are approximately half a million deaf people in North America and 10 million individuals who have a hearing impairment to some degree. It’s important to note, however, not all people with a hearing impairment or people affected with a degree of deafness actively participate in the deaf community or are familiar with ASL.
“There are many deaf people who only have a slight hearing loss or accept
By: Christina McLaughlin Co-Editor-in-Chief
sign language as a form of communication or those who prefer oral communication. It’s an individual experience,” Hinckley explained. “There are different reasons or applications for sign language as well. It can be a primary language for some people but it can be a support for those with different kinds of communication disabilities like speech, and sometimes there just might be an aspect of sign language that is just helpful to utilize in their daily life.”
In the past, however, deaf individuals faced social stigma due to misunderstanding and a lack of education about deafness, including how to effectively communicate with deaf individuals and educate those who experienced deafness.
“That’s the reason why many people back then were institutionalized. If they could not learn how to communicate orally they were just put into institutions. They didn’t know sign language or how to implement it, so these individuals had no way to communicate
effectively. They were just believed to be mentally-disabled or experiencing other difficulties,” said Markowitz.
According to Hinckley, even though now we do know a lot more and have a better understanding of sign language and deafness, there is still carryover stigma associated with deafness.
Yet, media and public figure representations of deaf actors portraying deaf culture such as the television show “Switched at Birth,” Nyle DiMarco, winner of Season 22 of “America’s Next Top Model” and Millicent Simmonds of “A Quiet Place” can change the way society still stigmatizes deafness and expand people’s understanding of what it means to be deaf.
“I have heard a lot of students tell me they became interested in learning about sign language because of “Switched at Birth” or because they have a deaf friend or relative. They see it in their communities and their social circles and want to learn,” Markowitz
said.
According to Hinckley, this level of
acceptance of ASL and other forms of communication with those that are deaf or hearing-impaired can ensure that information, such as governmental addresses and local community announcements are equally accessible to the entire population, no matter the preferred communication style be it interpreter or otherwise.
Students who are interested in learning more about ASL and deaf culture are encouraged to access resources like SigningSavvy and ASLPro. NSU also offers three levels of American Sign Language courses available for all students that are not restricted to any major or particular program. To learn more, visit the Speech-Language Pathology website.
