Nancy Rourke's Deaf Culture: Unity Of Global Signing

Sounds are vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person 's or animal 's ear. Some people are unable to hear these vibrations, they are either deaf or hard of hearing. Sign Language is the use of facial expressions, fingerspelling, and gestures that represent whole phrases or words used to communicate with deaf or hard of hearing people used to communicate with deaf and hard of hearing citizens (lifeprint). Learning the who, what, where, and when of Deaf history can help increase the world’s understanding of the Deaf.

Chuck Baird was born deaf on February 22, 1947, in Kansas City. He had three deaf sisters as well. Both his mother and father were hearing and it was discovered through medical testing that he and his sisters probably had Pendred Syndrome which caused them to be born death. Chuck Baird’s father was a hard working mechanic and his mother was a Red Cross nurse before she married his father. His parents worked hard to be able to send their three children to the Kansas School for the Deaf.

George W. Veditz was best known for his attempt to capture the beauty and nature of sign language on film. “Veditz many contributions to the deaf community changed the course of deaf history during a time when deaf people were struggling to preserve their own culture and language.” ( ). Veditz was born in 1861 in Maryland, he was born hearing but became deaf when he was 8 years old because of scarlet fever. Before Veditz became sick, he spoke English and German.

Is Being a Deaf African American Hard? The reason why I chose to do my paper on Black Deaf Americans was because of my Granddad and my cousin. My Granddad lost his hearing later in life, and my cousin was born deaf. When my granddad lost his hearing, I wasn’t born. He did not lose his hearing totally, so he was able to use hearing aids to help him hear, and he never connected with the Deaf Society.

Aarron Loggins or what he is better known as the “Deaf King,” is a Chicago, Illinois native musician. Born premature and deaf, Aarron learned American Sign Language at the age of three. Now he speaks English, Spanish, as well as Jamaican Patois. His passion for music and theater started when he was a teenager so he decided to Washington, D.C. where he attend Gallaudet University in 2004. Since then Aarron has performed for numerous companies, such as the National Theatre for the Deaf.

The video, Deaf Ideology by Marika Kovacs-Houlihan, starts off by defining the term “Deaf”. Marika points out the term Deaf stimulates numerous questions in people’s minds such as “Can she hear?” or “Can she speak?”. These questions and thoughts lead to the topic of ideology. Ideology is a set of beliefs or ideas of a specific culture. Throughout the video, she explains that the ideologies some people have are limited.

My book is EL Deafo by Cece Bell and the genre is a Graphic novel it has 233 pages in all. “ Evin with a hearing aid turned off, you hear Cece’s universal plea for acceptance friendship, and happiness through honest words and deftly drawn pictures” got this from the back of EL Deafo. Because it has middle school behavior. My protagonist is Cece bell she says that she is EL Deafo it is a character that she made up she is imaginative, humorous, funny, friendly, and funny.

There are many myths and misconceptions that currently exist about Deaf individuals, such as that they cannot drive, have kids, or contribute to society. These myths and misconceptions stem from a variety of ideals that have created false limitations about the Deaf. In regards to the Deaf not being able to drive, the case involving the Modesto police in which they believed that they were dealing with a defiant suspect who turned out to be Deaf was an unfortunate situation but has lead to new training for officers to help prevent this situation from occurring again. There are many statistics that support that Deaf drivers are actually safer and better driver than hearing drivers.

Hearing is something that many of us take for granted. Everyday activities are a struggle for a deaf person. Cynthia Walker is 20-years-old and was born deaf. Her life is very difficult. Simple things like communicating with her mother and ordering food is a challenge for Cynthia.

" Education is not preparation for life;education is life itself." -John Dewey I have always felt integrated in my love for education. Discrimination never stole from what felt like an intellectual thirst I could not quench. Attending college had been a goal of mine since I was young, conceived from the curiosity of the world I could not touch with my hands.