A classmate argues, 'Communicating with a deaf person is simple; you can just use pantomime and gestures because it's all visual anyway.' Which of the following statements best analyzes the fundamental error in this reasoning?

American Sign Language (ASL) is the primary mode of communication for many deaf individuals in the United States. It is a complete visual language, relying entirely on visual signs and gestures without any verbal components.

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For people that are hard of hearing or deaf, it is important that sounds are able to be understood through other means. Often times, subtitles or a transcript are included for people that are hard of hearing.

Auditory Accessibility

Deaf culture refers to the shared customs, educational institutions, and languages that characterize communities of deaf individuals, both in the United States and globally.

Deaf Culture

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Subtitles are a written translation of dialogue that is displayed while the audio is playing. This can help make auditory information accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf. This can be also useful for people who may be unable to play the sound out loud, unable to distinguish what someone is saying, or may speak a different language than the one spoken in the audio.

Subtitles for People Who Are Hard of Hearing or Deaf

Deaf sensitivity training gives an overview of Deaf culture and effective communication strategies. Participants learn that American Sign Language (ASL) is a distinct language and may be many deaf people’s native language.

Deaf Sensitivity Training

Communication Access Realtime Translation is a live closed cpationing service that prints out what is being said, for those who prefer to read text.


CART Services

Sign language interpreting services include training interpreters at the initial and advanced level and conducting community outreach.

Sign language interpreting services

Assistive listening devices (ALDs) are devices that can be used along with your hearing aids to enhance your listening experience and provide extra help in challenging listening situations.

- Enhance hearing and sound quality in noisy or challenging listening environments
- Offer substantial hearing benefits when used with your hearing aids or without.
 

Assistive listening devices

A hearing aid is a small electronic device worn in or behind the ear that can help deal with mechanical hearing problems, such as conductive hearing loss. It functions by amplifying incoming sound waves to make the vibration of the eardrum and the movement of the ossicles more likely to occur.

Hearing Aids

A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device that can help to provide a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard-of-hearing.

-  A microphone, which picks up sound from the environment.
-  A speech processor, which selects and arranges sounds picked up by the microphone.
-  A transmitter and receiver/stimulator, which receive signals from the speech processor and convert them into electric impulses.
-  An electrode array, which is a group of electrodes that collects the impulses from the stimulator and sends them to different regions of the auditory nerve.

Cochlear Implants

Captioning is the process of displaying text while a video is being played. Typically, the text will be a transcription of the video's audio, noting who is speaking along with sound effects and important musical cues. This helps to make films, television shows, and other video recordings accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

Captioning

There are many types of TRS available for people with hearing and speech disabilities that allow for them to communicate by telephone in a way that is equivalent to communication used by hearing people. 

Telecommunications Relay Services

American Sign Language (ASL)

A common perspective views deafness primarily as a physical condition that needs to be treated or cured. Contrast this viewpoint with the perspective of Deaf culture. In your answer, explain how Deaf culture re-frames the experience of being deaf, using at least one specific cultural element as an example.

Perspectives on Deafness: Medical vs. Cultural

Audism is defined in the text as a hegemonic belief that "one is superior based on one’s ability to hear or to behave in the manner of one who hears"

Audism

A significant value within deaf culture is the continuation of its traditions, including the use of sign language. This cultural viewpoint often favors embracing deaf identity over adopting medical interventions like cochlear implants or oralist methods such as lip-reading and speech training.

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