Little-known insights about sign language and Deaf culture.
Hearing people have always challenged the ability, language, and even worth of Deaf people. And despite the many myths and misunderstandings surrounding these individuals, the Deaf community continues to overcome challenges and excel in society.
Part of understanding Deaf culture involves challenging outdated, false, and detrimental myths about Deaf people. To help, we’ve pinpointed 13 myths and provided the appropriate Deaf culture facts to debunk them.
[For the purposes of this article, we’ll use a capital “D” when referring to the Deaf community or a Deaf person.]
1) Deaf People Can’t Excel in Life Without Hearing
All of the skepticism you’ll read about in this article ties back to the idea that you can’t excel in school, work, relationships, or everyday life without hearing.
Of all the ways Deaf people have proven hearing people wrong, this is the most critical one, because it debunks thousand-year old myths about how Deaf people are inferior to hearing people.
The Deaf today have their own language, their own communities, and according to Deaf professor Flavia Fleischer, they have their own culture – a culture that offers them the tools they need to survive and flourish:
While much Deaf progress has been made in recent centuries, let’s go back in time to Greek history.
2) Deaf People are Senseless, Incapable of Reason, and a Burden to Society
People love quoting the philosopher Aristotle. Here are just a few of his famous quotes you might see on social media:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
“All men by nature desire knowledge.“
There’s one quote, however, that you’ll never see. It’s a claim that changed the timeline of Deaf history, a myth that became accepted for centuries without challenge, and a reason for the discrimination (and even genocide) of many Deaf and mute people in ancient times.
“Those who are born deaf all become senseless and incapable of reason.”
This wasn’t just a quote; it was a narrative that perpetuated the lie that if you were Deaf, you were hopeless. This is one of the greatest philosophers of all time, someone who argued passionately about the pursuits of education and excellence for everyone. Everyone, except the Deaf.
A Greek doctor, Galen, backed Aristotle’s claims, suggesting that since speech and hearing happened in the same area of the brain, if one was Deaf, he or she would also be mute, and vice versa.
The non-existence of Deaf institutions made it harder for Deaf people to defend themselves. They had no sign languages, no Deaf schools, and no Deaf communities. Most citizens of Greece believed that the Deaf were “burdens to society” and better off dead.
It took over 2000 years to hammer away at this myth. Gradual progress, century after century, revealed that the Deaf could learn to communicate orally and naturally via sign languages, and that they could in fact read and write by receiving an education at home or in Deaf schools.
Progress accelerated over the last 200 years thanks to legislative, educational, and technological reform. The Deaf now have their own communities, culture, values, and a variety of communication methods and medical options available to them.
In many ways, Deaf people have proven historians and philosophers wrong about their ability to reason and coexist with hearing people. They don’t burden society; they benefit society.
They’ve shown that if given the tools to compensate for their lack of hearing – such as sign language – they too can equally survive and flourish just like the rest of us.
3) Deaf People Can’t Become Educated
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a kid genius who graduated first in his class at Yale at the age of 17. He wanted to help his neighbor’s nine-year-old Deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell, earn an education.
His neighbor, a prominent physician in Hartford, Connecticut, paid for Gallaudet to travel to Europe and bring back learning methods for Deaf students in order to educate Alice.
In England, Gallaudet studied oral communication taught to the Deaf but wasn’t happy with the results. He then studied sign language and visual teaching from the director of the French Institute for the Deaf in Paris.
Gallaudet felt this method was the best and most natural way for Deaf people to communicate and comprehend. But before he could finish mastering sign language, he ran out of money and had to return to the US. He recruited a teaching assistant, Laurent Clerc, to join him in starting a sign language school in America.
How American Sign Language Was Invented
In New England in 1817, with money from investors and the government, Gallaudet and Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf. Clerc mostly taught French Sign Language, but as the school attracted more students from all over America, unique home-signs were added in. The fusion became known as American Sign Language.
The creation of ASL made the education of the Deaf in America easier and much more effective. Today, there are dozens of residential and day schools for Deaf students, and Deaf universities such as Gallaudet University.
There is also the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, where Deaf and hearing teachers educate Deaf students through natural language and visual learning.
At Gallaudet University, Deaf students have access to internships and can choose from an array of bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate, and specialist degrees. They also have the opportunity to connect with other Deaf students who come from over 25 countries to attend.
4) All Deaf People Use American Sign Language
When it comes to Deaf culture facts, this is a big one. While we just addressed the origins of American Sign Language, it’s important to note that some areas and regions have their own native version of sign language. For instance, there is British Sign Language (BSL), French Sign Language (FSL), Chinese Sign Language (CSL), Arabic Sign Languages (ALS), and even Black ASL. There is also International Sign (IS) that people from different countries often use to communicate with one another.
With that said, not everyone in the Deaf community uses or needs to use sign language. Some people use a combination of spoken language and sign language, while others may strictly prefer speech communication. It is an entirely personal preference for the individual, so it is best not to assume one way or another.
5) Deaf People Can’t or Don’t Speak
Understanding Deaf culture means not making any blanket assumptions. Yes, it’s true that some Deaf people cannot speak, but that does not mean all deaf people cannot speak. In fact, many Deaf individuals can speak and prefer to speak when communicating. With that said, some Deaf people have the ability to speak but simply choose not to use their voice.
At the end of the day, it’s your responsibility to respect and honor the individual’s preferred way of communicating.
6) Deaf People Can’t Play and Win in Sports
Modern sports have changed to accommodate Deaf athletes. In swimming or track, instead of hearing the signal to start, Deaf athletes look for a flashing light or a waving flag. In baseball, the umpire yells and signs outs, strikes, and balls.
Deaf athletes have proven they can compete and win in amateur sports, Deaf-only leagues, and pro sports at the highest levels.
In sports, the most critical senses are vision, touch, and hearing. So it would seem as if Deaf people have only two-thirds of the active senses of hearing people, and therefore are at a competitive disadvantage.
This can be proven wrong for two reasons:
- Deaf athletes can heighten their senses of touch and vision to concentrate deeper and longer than hearing athletes.
- For everyone else, hearing can be a weakness if it makes us focus on the wrong sounds.
How Deaf Athletes Have A Competitive Advantage Over Hearing Athletes
Winning, in any individual or team sport, boils down not to the physical or external, but to the mental and internal faculties. Most professional coaches, players, and trainers believe that the difference between great performance and average or poor performance boils down to concentration.
“The outer game is played on an external arena to overcome external obstacles to reach an external goal. The inner game takes place within the mind of the player and is played against such obstacles as fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus, and limiting concepts or assumptions. The Inner Game is a proven method to overcome the self-imposed obstacles that prevent an individual or team from accessing their full potential.”
Tim Gallwey
Hearing can backfire on athletes when they pay attention to a smack-talking opponent, or to the cheering and booing fans in the stands. When the mind wanders, they start to judge themselves, their teammates, their opponents, and that leads to panic and mistakes.
Undisciplined athletes are always at risk of self-sabotage because their vision and hearing could run their minds amok at any given moment. The Deaf, on the other hand, have been found to have heightened senses, such as vision, that work to their advantage.
The Deaf athlete almost automatically falls into deep focus, allowing herself to read hand signals and facial expressions, keep her eye on the ball, and anticipate plays as they occur with split-second decision making and instinctive reactions.
She’s already in a mode of deep focus because most of her day consists of reading nonverbal cues. Yes, it’s harder at first for a Deaf person to learn a game, to play it on a regular basis, and to integrate with her hearing peers, but once she figures out the basic skills and develops good practice habits, the rest is mental training.
And because Deaf people are always mentally training, they can surpass hearing athletes who constantly struggle to stay out of their own heads.
Notable Deaf Athletes And Accomplishments
- Derrick Coleman, a Super Bowl winning fullback of the Seattle Seahawks
- Tamika Catchings, a 10-time WNBA all-star who once posted a quadruple-double
- Carl Morris, an 8-ball pool world champion
- Luther Hayden Taylor, a winning pitcher for the New York Giants, whose entire team learned sign language to communicate with him
- James Kyte, a NHL hockey player
- Carlo Orlandi, an Olympic, gold winning boxer
- Ashley Fiolek, the youngest female American National Motocross champion
- Brad Minns, tennis player, coach, and fitness trainer
- William Hoy, the first Deaf baseball player who helped pioneer umpire hand signals to “hear” calls
Read more about famous Deaf people and their accomplishments.
7) Deaf People Can’t Drive
In the 1920s, a number of states rejected Deaf people from earning driver’s licenses, saying that it was unsafe for them to be on the road. The National Association of the Deaf and its state committees helped debunk this myth.
A number of studies later also showed that Deaf drivers weren’t any more accident-prone than hearing drivers. Just as in competitive sports, Deaf drivers heighten their senses of vision and touch and find different ways to gain an advantage.
Especially where public transportation is limited, driving is an essential skill to get to work, school, the grocery store, etc. The benefits of driving may be obvious to most, but unless they’re taken away from you, it’s easy to take them for granted.
Deaf people don’t take them for granted, because while all 50 states allow the Deaf to earn a driver’s license, at least 30 countries still deny them.
8) Deaf People Can’t Get Good Jobs or Operate Businesses
Aristotle was right that “the roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” As Deaf people’s education rates are on the rise, so is their employment and business ownership.
The most common Deaf professions are in manufacturing, retail, medical, professional services, and construction.
Among people with disabilities, people with hearing loss have the highest employment rate at 51%, and they’re capable of earning just as much as hearing people.
Deaf people have proven they can take on all kinds of job responsibilities and roles: firefighters, doctors, business owners, professional athletes, inventors, pilots, entertainers, musicians, artists, programmers, STEM professionals, authors, and speakers.
Traditional Deaf jobs in communication and education, such as sign language interpreters, translators, and career counseling, are also prevalent.
Jobs in loud environments such as concerts, nightclubs, and airport runways are also suited for Deaf individuals, as are internet jobs: blogging, digital marketing, and private teaching or tutoring.
Deaf Business Owners
It’s not just Deaf employees; Deaf employers and business owners are also on the rise.
Advancements in legislation and technology in the last three decades have led to a rise in Deaf-owned businesses. There are over 1000 Deaf-owned businesses according to the NTID at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Deaf communication services are standardized in our major telecom infrastructure, giving the Deaf more normalcy in business.
As the Deaf community breaks through more and more barriers, their collective belief that they can do anything gets stronger.
“There are so many disabled people – not just deaf people – who have so many setbacks in life that they don’t have any confidence left. And they start withdrawing into themselves, and become a hermit in some cases. I think that’s a really sad thing. I want to go out there and say ‘I can’t hear a damn thing but look what I’ve gone and done. And if I’ve done it, so can you.’”
Carl Morris
9) Deaf People Can’t Talk on the Phone
In the 1960s, several new telecommunication applications were invented and distributed that helped the Deaf communicate. Text messaging, as we know it today, started out in the form of teletypewriters connecting with telecommunication relay services.
The operators of relay services enable text messaging, and now video messaging, so that Deaf people can use their phones for everyday use.
Fast internet and video technology are also making it increasingly easier for Deaf people to communicate using sign language.
10) Deaf People Can’t Make Their Own Choices
From Aristotle’s time to present day, a central theme of the Deaf struggle is freedom of choice, specifically Deaf people’s ability to carefully make pragmatic decisions. Countless examples show that when Deaf people try to make their own decisions, hearing people convince them otherwise.
For example, in 1880 an international Deaf convention was held, governed by a majority of hearing people. (At this point, sign language was an increasingly common and effective way to educate Deaf students).
At the convention, the minority of Deaf people in attendance voted on keeping sign language and visual teaching as a primary method of education. However, they were trumped by the majority of hearing people who voted on using oralism, or speech-only, communication.
Deaf people were and still are fully capable of thinking for themselves and making their own decisions. Today, Deaf individuals have the right to choose whether or not to use sign language, hearing aids, cochlear implants, or lipreading to communicate and comprehend.
11) Deaf People Can’t Appreciate Music
Conventional wisdom suggests that Deaf people can’t sing or appreciate music like hearing people. After all, music is almost entirely made up of sounds.
Enter Mandy Harvey, a contestant on America’s Got Talent. She became fluent in sign language after losing her hearing at the age of 18. Instead of calling her music career quits, she listened to the voice in her head that told her to find new ways to make music happen.
Eventually, she discovered that if she took her shoes off, she could use muscle memory with digital tuners and feel the vibration of the floor to measure tempo. She still managed to sing her heart out in front of a national audience.
Here’s a video of her winning the Golden Buzzer.
12) Deaf People Can’t Watch TV or Go to the Movies
When considering Deaf culture characteristics, remember that these individuals may be hard of hearing, but this does not affect their eyesight or ability to enjoy movies or shows. When viewing content at home, many members of the Deaf community will simply use subtitles or closed captioning options.
As for going to the movies in public, the Department of Justice recently ruled that Title III of the American Disabilities Act (ADA) requires all theaters and cinemas to provide closed captioning to patrons. This means that theaters must offer hand-held devices that clip onto the individual’s seat, featuring closed captioning that only said person can see. The theaters also must make this feature known to the public and have staff on hand who can assist the patron with the technology.
Between subtitles and closed captioning, there is no reason why Deaf people cannot watch, engage, and enjoy movies and shows.
13) Deaf People Can’t Make Friends or Have Relationships
It may have been difficult before the digital era to meet like-minded Deaf people for professional networking, friendships, or dating, but the internet has changed the game altogether.
There are countless apps, social networks, and blogs where Deaf people can meet others like them from anywhere in the world. Here are just a few of the most popular:
- Deafhelllo.com
- Deaf Meetups
- Deafs.com
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing
- AllDeaf.com
- Jamie Berke
- Limping Chicken
- DeafRead
- Top 50 Deaf Blogs & Websites
14) All Deaf People Can Hear With Hearing Aids
Contrary to popular belief, not all Deaf people can or do benefit from wearing hearing aids. Putting in a hearing aid does not restore hearing the way putting on a pair of glasses can restore sight.
Yes, hearing aid technology has come a long way, but it does not completely restore hearing for individuals. Hearing aids can help amplify sounds, but it really depends on the individual’s specific needs and type of hearing loss. While some may use hearing aids, it’s just one of the many tools members of this community use to engage with the world.
Deaf people have faced an incredible amount of challenges, and they still continue to. However, they’ve made more progress than we credit them for in their ways of communicating and interacting, in their accomplishments and contributions to society, and in bringing people from all over the world together to build Deaf community and culture.
One of the best ways to respect Deaf culture is to learn more about it and familiarize yourself with Deaf culture facts. Regardless of whether you are Deaf or not, you can always sign up for American Sign Language lessons to discover another way to communicate with members of the Deaf community.
Maria Kusior