Deaf Culture

Journey Into the Deaf world

What is Deaf culture?

The Deaf culture is best defined as a social group of people who consider deafness to be a difference in human experience. Most people believe it's a disability, but it's not. It is assumed that if you are deaf you are automatically included into the Deaf community, or if you are hearing you are automatically excluded from this group. Both of these statements are extremely false. The Deaf culture has many and exciting things to read about. Many of which being the way they come together as a whole, excluding no one. Really the ones that are being rejected are the deaf, which is why when deaf people are amongst other deaf people they have feelings of warmth and that they are right where they are supposed to be. "After dinner I was among strangers but knew I was at home". (Lane, 1996, 69)

Cultural Norms

When Deaf people first meet, the initial goal is to find out where the other person is from and to identify the Deaf friends they may have in common, where they went to school, and if they have any deaf members in their families. When a Deaf person leaves a gathering of other Deaf people, the process is quite lengthy. In Deaf culture one approaches each group to say goodbye, which often results in further conversation. The entire process may take more than an hour to accomplish. This behavior may seem unusual; however, if we remember that Deaf culture highly values being interconnected with all of its...