The BBC’s programme for Deaf people, See Hear, has released a recent item featuring Deaf academic Paddy Ladd, explaining the concept of Deafhood.
The term Deafhood first became widespread when it was published in Ladd’s book called Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood in 2003. It has since become understood around the world.
Deafhood involves seeing being Deaf as being part of a culture, rejecting the ‘medical model’ of deafness, and being positive about Deaf identity.
In the item, Ladd talks about the importance of sign language poet Dorothy Miles, his hearing parents, how he felt growing up, and how he sees Deafhood as a journey. We also see the influence of Deafhood on Deaf art and poetry.
Watch the item below:
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pennybsl
February 12, 2016
This concept, Deafhood, especially in the United Kingdom, deserves a whole series of 15-30 minute long programmes, demonstrating the beautifully, evidenced, varied range of Deafhood characteristics / elements in Deaf children’s / people’s lives.
Many of us with varying experiences of deafness, since birth, pre-lingual, post-lingual, deafened in teens and adulthood, attain aspects of Deafhood values – even long before the word was coined – and those values deserve public respect in the same way society publicly acknowledges Black, BAME values and LGBT values.
I discovered, and experienced, my own ‘Deafhood’ enlightenment in the mid-1970s when I was doing my degree thesis. The sensation of being ‘hey, I’m Deaf, I’m OK’ was palpable, as many others during those two decades before Paddy gave this human value a real name.
Deafhood needs to be recognised and acknowledged by the medical profession before more deaf lives are robbed of exploring one’s own identity in a dominant spoken/sound world.
This does not mean we Deafies are ‘against’ the hearing world; many Deafhood-OK Deafies are active in music and the hearing world.
We want to see more and more ‘clinical about deafness’ professionals who ignore identity rights to realise that being Deaf isn’t the end of being a person; instead, for all of us, being Deaf is gaining a valid, fascinating facet of our individual entities within society.
Being “pseudo-hearies” has proved to be disastrous for many deaf and HoH people.
Evidence of increased mental health issues, high levels of stress and actual social isolation in areas where close friendships matter.
Lack of nationally-endorsed respect for Deaf Awareness has continued the public’s dominant assumption that ‘hearing aid/cochlear implant, oh that’s Ok, they can hear as we do’ with constant noise pollution and spoken dominance, surrounding and confusing deaf people still finding their way through mainstream maze-like pathways littered with obstacles.
Last but not least, are parents and carers, families and communities – they deserve to be more exposed to positive Deafhood values as soon as a child is diagnosed as being Deaf.
We Deafies genuinely do hurt for parents and families, even the child, when they lament ‘oh if only we knew before’………
Please, professionals, pseudo-hearies, parents and families, friends and associates of d/Deaf individuals, support Deafhood more openly.
We Deaf and hearing professionals who know the real value of Deafhood are ready to respond and help your deaf child attain a healthier identity for the rest of his/her life.
Share the video above with your testimony, endorsing Deafhood.
Sandra Dowe
February 12, 2016
Very informative and enlightening programme.Look forward to next book by Paddy.
Rosie Malezer
February 12, 2016
I have mentioned Paddy Ladd’s DEAFHOOD book and and Charlie Swinbourne’s film THE KISS in my book “How to be Deaf.” I agree with making a series of films about Deafhood, and should such a project go ahead, please ensure it is captioned so that it can be viewed worldwide by both hearing and Deaf. Paddy Ladd’s book is an incredible read 🙂
Hartmut
February 13, 2016
In 1981 I met Ladd at an international sign linguistics conference in Bristol. I was presenting my transcription system for sign language, called SignLettering. Ladd presented a paper on the oppression of the Deaf people in terms of colonialism. I understood it as a metaphor of the oppression on the Deaf by hearing professionals working on deafness and with deaf people, an apt metaphor for the same idea that suited best for the British audience, as I have used ‘racism’ for the US audience and nationalsocialism (now better termed with ‘aryanism’) for the Germans. I called the hum-drum around the cochlear implant in a poem as the “Final Solution of the Deaf-Mute Problem”. Now we have a term to better label the oppression on the Deaf by hearing persons obsessed with the value of hearing and speech. The term is audism.
Ladd’s Deafhood is one measure of anti-audism, the most important for us to cleanse ourselves of the pollution of internalized audism. The ultimate goal of anti-audism is to establish a value relativism of hearing and vocal speech.
I remember him of 1981 well of our conversations about the subject, more about how deaf people internalize the values of the hearing society with the expressions “hearing is better”, “hearing people knows” (= having the correct knowledge), “ask hearing people” whenever we dispute about facts, “deaf world bad, always gossiping and backstabbing”, etc and lack of self-esteem of being deaf, no pride in “true sign language”, the more English in sign language the better. And I was showing him, how many Deaf Americans do to counter the negative self-perceptions and several examples of the artistic uses of ASL, Deaf lores, history, jokes, and sign plays. Showed him handshape poetry like the ABC and number stories. I never forgot his facial expressions of amazement and anger about the damage of oralism has damaged in the UK. That encounter in 1981 must have provided him the impetus for his dissertation and subsequent work on Deafhood.
paddy ladd
April 22, 2016
Thanks for your kind feedback 🙂
I agree with Penny that we need to make a series of films to cover all the aspects etc.I need to do something similar for BDN as well, but… it’s about the time, as always…
I just want to flag up that this film was beautifully put together by Erika Jones and the plaudits should also go to her 🙂