Page 100 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

American Deaf Culture 85

cultures’ boundaries. Another way in which Deaf culture differs
from this traditional conception of culture is that the Deaf culture
in any country exists totally within the boundaries of the majority
hearing culture. Although Deaf people tend to move to large met-
ropolitan areas in order to find others like themselves and may
even migrate to a certain neighborhood and form a residential
school community, by and large Deaf people live, work, and play
surrounded by hearing people. “Members of the Deaf Commu-
nity are influenced culturally, politically and practically, individu-
ally and collectively by ideas and movements in the surrounding
culture” (Smith 1996, 31). Since they do not live on a “deaf is-
land” in the middle of a “hearing sea,” they cannot cut them-
selves off from the products of hearing culture, nor would they
want to. Books, TV, magazines, newspapers, movies, advertise-
ments, and computers can be enjoyed, although some, like TV
and movies, need to be made accessible through captioning.
What, then, is the relationship between the Deaf and hearing
cultures? Deaf culture is actually a relatively new concept. Prior to
1980 the term was largely unknown. In ASL, one used the term
“DEAF WORLD” to describe the unique experiences and distinc-
tive ways of Deaf people. As the study of the Deaf experience has
become more formalized and academic, scholars have employed
an ethnological perspective, which has introduced the idea of cul-
ture. More complex than two intersecting circles, the relationship
of the Deaf and hearing worlds varies from individual to individual
depending on such factors as family background, educational level,
and personal curiosity about the hearing majority. Probably each
Deaf person’s identity is a distinctive tapestry made up of threads
of several cultures woven together in a unique way. Nevertheless,
some generalizations can be made.
The insider/outsider distinction appears to be very strongly
felt. In the past this was a simple deaf/hearing dichotomy. In re-
cent years, however, as sign language has “come out of the closet”
and onto TV and movie screens and classrooms and lecture halls,
large numbers of hearing people with no particular family ties to
deafness are learning sign language for their personal enrichment.
Most Deaf people welcome this development, as it leads to the
possibility that one can find waiters, bank tellers, and police offi-
cers with whom one can communicate in sign. For many Deaf
people there is now a new dichotomy: signers/nonsigners. It is as
if Deaf people live in a castle surrounded by a communication

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