Page 94 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

Do Americans Really Have a Culture? 79

While this process seems logical and straightforward to us, it
is based on cultural assumptions that are by no means universally
shared. One assumption is that change is positive and will lead to
an improvement in whatever is changed. Another is that humans
have the ability and the right to dominate their environment. Other
cultures take a more fatalistic view, their primary goal being to
endure the hardship rather than eradicate it.
In Deaf culture there seem to be two opposite responses when
a problem arises: “just accept it” or organize a group to solve it. I
observed an instance of the former while interpreting for a Deaf
woman’s orientation week in an executive corporate position. One
day she told me about the rude treatment she had received from
a bus driver that morning. When she showed him her disabled
discount card, he refused to believe she was entitled to a discount.
She wrote him a note explaining that she was deaf. In response,
he confiscated her card, made her pay the full price, and humili-
ated her before a bus full of passengers. After hearing her story, I
became so incensed that I suggested we call the bus company
immediately to lodge a complaint. The Deaf woman declined my
offer, saying that these things happen and it’s not worth trying to
do anything about it.
It may be that joining together empowers Deaf people to solve
their problems. When the need arose for a program to distribute
TTYs (telecommunications devices) and administer a telephone
relay system in California, Deaf organizations pooled their efforts
and successfully lobbied for new legislation mandating these
needed services.
The American predilection for solving problems may be one
of the factors involved in the pervasive view of deafness as patho-
logical. The “problem,” as it is too often defined, is that deaf people
cannot hear and speak. Therefore, we hearing people will solve
their problem with a range of options: hearing aids, lipreading
and speech training, cochlear implant surgery, and so forth. The
error in this line of reasoning is that most culturally Deaf individu-
als do not view their deafness as a problem and therefore see no
reason why it needs to be fixed. When asked if she would rather
be hearing, Roslyn Rosen, the daughter of Deaf parents and mother
of Deaf children, shakes her head vehemently “No!” This past
president of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) goes on
to assert,

04 MINDESS PMKR 79 10/18/04, 11:25 AM