Colonialism and Resistance: A Brief History of Deafhood

The first phase in the emergence of Deaf Studies as a discipline has been characterized by remarkable developments across a wide range of domains, from linguistics to psychology, from history to culture. We now face the challenge of bringing about the second phase, to search for more explicit Deaf epistemologies and ontologies that can frame these developments in a more holistic way, so that Deaf Studies can become a more conscious model for Deaf-centered praxis. In this chapter I will utilize the new concepts of postcolonialism and Deafhood to examine aspects of the Deaf Culture concept and suggest how these can be used to ground just such a liberatory praxis.

P. 45:  seven basic principles can be identified that give an indication of what Deafhood meant to those Deaf participants.
1. Deaf communities possess a gift of languages so special that they can be used to communicate things that speech cannot.
2. They are even more special because they can be adapted to cross international boundaries where spoken languages fail.
3. Consequently, Deaf people manifest in potential the ability to become the world’s first truly global citizens, and thus serve as a model for the rest of society.
4. Deaf people were intentionally created on earth to manifest these qualities, and the value of their existence should not be called into question.
5. Non-Deaf people unable to use these languages are effectively incomplete, “sign-impaired” citizens.
6. The languages are to be offered to non-Deaf people, so that if they joined with Deaf people and learned them, the quality of their lives would be improved.
7. Although the banqueteers represented what might seen as a Deaf elite, they were well aware that most Deaf people had not yet had the chance to attend Deaf education or develop their talents within Deaf communities. Instead of being content to be an elite, they instead pledged themselves to continue to fight to ensure that all Deaf people had the right to such opportunities—in effect, they perceived all Deaf people as of equal worth.