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deaf vs. Deaf – “The big D”
In my previous post I mentioned using capitalisation for the word deaf in certain circumstances. For those of you who are new to the deaf community, here is a brief explanation for you to get a better understand of the difference between deaf and Deaf.
Taken from
http://insidedeafculture.com/definitions.html (EpiGenesis, 2007)
“deaf: The use of the lowercase d indicates what you are. deafness is a physical description. It is the inability to hear for whatever reason. There are different levels of deafness.
Deaf: The use of the uppercase D indicates who you are. Deafness is an identity, a community, a culture, a mode of being. You can be deaf and not Deaf, or alternatively, considered Deaf but not deaf.”
Lally.
6 Comments
So you’re Deaf but not deaf?
What a weird thing to get offended about! (That’s what i’d drawn from the previous entry).
Looking interesting
You’ve got the jist, but I don’t refer to myself as “Deaf”. Although I can (and do) sign and take part in lots of events organised by the Deaf community, I wouldn’t use that label to describe me, just a personal preference.
However, I have met many others both deaf and hearing who would say it about themselves and would be offended if you didn’t respect that. I’m going to post an update over the next few weeks about d/Deaf etiquette, because there is a lot to learn!
nice post. thanks.
Technically, if you are Deaf, you are also deaf. However, if you are deaf, then you are not also Deaf. Xenocide – think of Deafness as a choice, you can either identify with the culture or not, but you still have hearing loss, so are still deaf as well.
Sara “Technically, if you are Deaf, you are also deaf.”
My understanding was that this is not the case and that as a fully hearing individual, I could class myself as Deaf if I wanted to, for example by submerging myself in Deaf culture and adopting BSL as my first language. This can often be the case for a hearing child born to two Deaf/deaf parents?
I believe that you can’t be hearing and be Deaf, however you can be accepted as a member of the Deaf community if you are involved in it and use sign language. A hearing child of Deaf parents, is also accepted by the Deaf community, but they are always classed as “hearing, mother father deaf”, CODAs. Even though many CODAs first language is sign, they are not Deaf.