Page 97 - Reading Between the Sign Intercultural Communication for Sign Language Interpreters

82 Reading Between the Signs

hearing parents, do not acquire ASL at an early age, and are nowa-
days increasingly educated in mainstream settings. Despite their
lack of roots in Deaf culture, however, deaf people seem to gravi-
tate toward the cultural values of the Deaf community. It is the
assimilation of these values that then determines a person’s place
in the Deaf community.
Carol Padden has noted the following cultural values: respect
for and use of ASL, sacredness of the hands, disassociation from
speech, the passing on of cultural values through stories, and the
importance of social activities (Padden 1980, 95–98). Barbara
Kannapell has described several reasons why Deaf people feel
comfortable relating to each other within the Deaf community:
100 percent access to communication; a common language; a
strong sense of bonding in their relationships, which stems from
common experiences; and a feeling of equality (Kannapell 1989,
22–25). And most recently, Theresa B. Smith has defined the cen-
ter of Deaf culture as consisting of (1) audiological deafness, (2)
identification with, affiliation to, and participation in the Deaf com-
munity, (3) ASL as a primary language, and (4) adherence to core
cultural values (Smith 1996, 31–32).

Acquisition of Deaf Culture:
Insiders and Visitors
Most deaf children with Deaf parents automatically acquire these
values and sidestep any painful roadblocks to a culturally grounded
identity. Deaf children of hearing parents who learn ASL early on
and attend a program with a large number of Deaf students and
staff may also take on a Deaf identity with relative ease. For those
whose parents refuse to let them learn ASL or attend a Deaf pro-
gram, however, it may be a long and difficult road to development
of a healthy identity as a Deaf person (Holcomb 1997).
In past generations most deaf children attended residential
schools, where they became enculturated into the “Deaf way” of
life. Despite the policy of oralism that was prevalent prior to the
1970s as the method of instruction in the primary grades, a sense
of bonding developed among the children in the residential schools
through the use of the forbidden signs with each other, behind the
teacher’s back.
This survival tactic, in which children helped each other to
understand what was going on, resulted in an “us” versus “them”

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