Jennie Bourgeois

Feb. 8-12, 2010
Bill Newell, Principal Washington School for the Deaf

“Deaf people can do everything except hear.”

Many readers of Deaf Culture Question of the Week are probably
familiar with that famous expression by I. King Jordan, past
president of Gallaudet University.

Two weeks ago in DCQW the convention related to
writing about people who do not hear using either a capital
“D” Deaf or a lower case “d” deaf was explained.

To review, Deaf with a capital “D” means “identifying with
and belonging to a linguistic and cultural minority group.

Lower case “d” deaf refers to the condition of hearing loss. So
when one writes “deaf person/people” it means a person who has a
hearing loss. And when one writes “Deaf person/people” it means a
person belonging to and identifying with Deaf culture.

So now to the question of the week.

Let’s change the quotation just a little. Suppose we add an
“And,… as the first word of the sentence. When you read that
sentence which meaning do you attach to it?

a. And, Deaf people can do everything except hear. (An
affirmation that people belonging and identifying with Deaf
culture can succeed.)
b. And, deaf people can do everything except hear. (An
affirmation that people belonging to a disability group can
succeed.)

******************************

Answer: This exercise shows that the meanings of things are
socially constructed. Each individual interprets what they read,
hear or see based on their life experiences, background
knowledge, values and perceptions. Possibly a Deaf Culture
Question of the Week reader who is Deaf (identifies with Deaf
culture and uses American Sign Language) will interpret I. King
Jordan’s quotation as an affirmation of Deaf culture. Possibly a
reader who considers him/herself hearing impaired (deaf and
belonging to a disability group) will interpret the quotation as
an affirmation that people challenged by the disability of
deafness can overcome these challenges. Hearing parents, friends,
allies, and those people who claim the privilege of working with
d/Deaf people will each have their own interpretation. We cannot
really know what I. King Jordan meant to communicate.
What do you think he meant?

Which meaning do you think I. King Jordan had in mind when he
said “Deaf people can do everything except hear!” We can’t tell
because the rules of capitalization in English require the first
word of a sentence to start with a capital letter.

There is another possibility. The convention in the answer d/Deaf
would cover both meanings. But we still don’t know what I. King
Jordan actually intended.

Note: Previous DCQW are located at our WSD website.

Click Here

Share on Facebook

Comments(0)