Triton College Library Website: Library Blog

Celebrating Deaf Culture and History

April is National Deaf History Month! Learn more about Deaf history and culture from this blog post, or from the books we have on display in the Library!

Deaf History 

America’s first advanced school for the deaf, Gallaudet University, was founded April 8, 1864. Gallaudet University had hearing presidents until its students started the Deaf President Now movement, which resulted in the University’s first Deaf president in 1988 (from Insight Into Diversity's "National Deaf History Month" article). 

National Deaf History Month was introduced in 1997 by the National Association for the Deaf (NAD), and the American Library Association partnered with NAD in 2006, spreading awareness of Deaf history and culture.  

Deaf and hard of hearing people are writers, painters, professional athletes, actors, and much more. To learn more, check out Start ASL’s list of over 200 Famous Deaf People. 

What is Deaf Culture? 

Deaf culture was not considered a culture of its own until 1965, when Deaf culture was acknowledged in A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles by William Stokoe, Dorothy Casterline, and Carle Croneberg (from Start ASL's "Deaf Culture Essentials" page).  

Prior to this acknowledgment, Deaf people were seen only in terms of their hearing loss. In Inside Deaf Culture, Carol Padden and Tom Humphries define a culture as “a set of learned behaviors of a group of people that share a language, values, rules for behavior, and traditions” (from Start ASL's "Deaf Culture Essentials" page).  

Language:  

• Deaf people in the United States speak American Sign Language (ASL). In other countries, other forms of sign languages are used, many of which use different signs and/or different signing structure from ASL.

Values:  

• Learning and preserving ASL is highly valued.  
• Not speaking is valued as well, since “speech is commonly forced on deaf children and represents confinement and deprivation to the Deaf adult” (from Start ASL's "Deaf Culture Essentials" page).  
• Art and literature are highly valued in Deaf culture. You can learn more about Deaf art and literature as well as songs in ASL on the linked pages from Start ASL’s website (Deaf Culture Values: Art and Literature and The Best Songs in Sign Language).  

Rules for Behavior: 

• Maintaining eye contact while someone is signing to you is not only necessary, but polite (from Start ASL's "Deaf Culture Essentials" page).  
• Expressive body movement and facial expressions are required for ASL grammar (from Start ASL's "Deaf Culture Essentials" page).  
• “Deaf and hard of hearing” is the preferred terminology for anyone with hearing loss. In the Deaf community, both “little d” deaf and “big D” Deaf are used (from Start ASL's "Deaf Culture Essentials" page).  

“Little d deaf refers to people who have lost their hearing. “Big D” Deaf refers to people who are involved in Deaf culture and share the values, behaviors, and language of that culture. Just because you are deaf, doesn’t mean you are Deaf. And in some cases, just because you are Deaf doesn’t mean you are deaf...as is the case for some hearing children of Deaf parents” (from Start ASL's "Deaf Culture Essentials" page).  

Traditions: 

• Attending Residential Deaf Schools is an important part of Deaf culture. Schools for the Deaf are “at the root of maintaining and expanding cultural development when Deaf students finish school” (from the Deaf Culture Center's "What Is Deaf Culture?" page). 
• Learning, using, and preserving ASL is a valued tradition (from Start ASL's "Deaf Culture Essentials" page).   
• Contributing to Deaf culture and advocating for Deaf representation and appreciation is important in continuing the tradition of Deaf culture, language, and values (from the Deaf Culture Center's "What Is Deaf Culture?" page). 

Recommended Reading & More 

Documentaries and Video Stories:

• Through Deaf Eyes: a documentary film produced by Lawrence Hott and Diane Gary in association with Gallaudet University 

• “Nourish and Embrace...It Will Thrive” performed by John Maucere

• “Through the Hands” performed by Erica Tara Lily Parker 

• The Titanic performed by Patrick Fischer 

• Deaf Child of Hearing Parents performed by Maryjean Shahen 

• Deaf Joke: King Kong and a Young Lady 

Books: 

Guides to Learning ASL: 

• National Association of the Deaf Guide to Learning American Sign Language 

• 20+ Basic Sign Language Phrases for Beginners: ASL 

• 25 ASL Signs You Need to Know 

Thanks for reading! We hope to see you in the Library again soon!