Deaf Culture Research Paper

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Part I Media coverage of deaf movements and public accomplishments of deaf individuals has played a key role in shaping deaf culture. They brought a sense of pride to the community and produce role models for the deaf community. • 1987- Marlee Matlin became the first deaf actress to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal in Children of a Lesser God. • 1988- “Deaf President Now!” When the seventh hearing president of Gallaudet University over two qualified deaf candidates, enraged students seized campus and demanded a deaf president. After eight days of heated protest, a deaf president was appointed, Dr I King Jordan, who coined the famous phrase, “A deaf person can do anything a hearing person can, except hear.” • 1995-…show more content…
There is most definitely a divide between the way deaf people see themselves, and the way hearing people see them. Many people living in this world know little, or nothing about what it really means to be deaf. To the majority of hearing people, deaf individuals are seen as handicapped, as different or strange, but most of all, they are pitied. The deaf perspective of deafness could not be more different! Since the beginning of time, the hearing world has viewed deafness negatively and have since been attempting to cure the curse of deafness. Deaf children have been taken to preachers or faith healers to pray deafness out of them, etc. Looking down on and attempting to make deaf people just like hearing people may sound like a thing of the past, but sadly it is not. The chairman of a national institute of health planning group perfectly reflects this is an interview with the New York Times saying, “I am dedicated to curing deafness. That puts me on a collision course with those who are culturally deaf. That is interpreted as genocide for the deaf” (Lane, Hoffmeister, Bahan

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