Should Deafness Be Regarded As A Handicap - Case Study Example

Should Deafness Be Regarded As A Handicap? Introduction Several diverse topics discuss deafness; they focus on the issue of deafness as a disability. Some deaf individuals consider themselves disabled because of their incapability to hear, while others feel disabled because of experiences with prejudice as well as the incapability to hear (Pray, 1983 pg 38). Some may claim the disability brand in order to be eligible for authorized fortification, for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act and government reimbursement such as societal security. Others also tend to feel that they are not disabled because deaf people who do not have other additional disabilities, can function efficiently with or without the aid of the modern technologies, interpreters, hearing objects and the cochlear implantations. Explanation of Deafness and Handicap One of the most passionate dialogue topics about Deafness whether it is based on the cultural and social aspects, or as disabled, or as both deaf and disabled. A sample of the deaf people regards themselves as disabled because of their incapability to hear. Others feel disabled because of encounters with intolerance as well as the incapacity of hearing. Some may argue because of the disability marker in order to be eligible for legal protections such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and government reimbursement such as social precautions. Deafness as a disability has been the fundamental hypothesis of education and therapy of the deaf for decades. From the social aspect that deafness is a form of incapability, interferes with an individual’s capability to respond to the environmental changes, communication and aspects of mainstream cultures; for example, music. The "devastating" effects of deafness can be minimized through technology such as hearing support, cochlear embed, assisting listening diplomacy, and through the exploit of oralism, being able to articulate and visually read others vocalizations (Pray, 1983, pg 45). The person is the member of the family and the heritage of the society that does not term the incapacity to hear as the important part of their daily undertakings. For example, a parent can guide and motivate his or her child to receive the cochlear implant, which is considered a prosthetic device. There is an argument that the concept of ‘culture’ is usually unstructured, and each of the communities is supposed to contrive (Pray, 1983, pg 55). A deaf individual learns on how to function as the member of the family or the community, in which deafness is termed as a pathology in which the groups belong and contribute. The concept of the deaf culture and its converse can be depicted in part using the psycho-social presumption that examines the temperament of disgrace, verbal communication and intolerance. These factors have contributed to the formation of the deaf as a marginal group. The discrimination from the preponderance faction that predictably resulted from this construction has accelerated the dialogue of whether or not deafness is made up of the source for an ethnicity. The shame of disability can be compared with other stigmatizing notions that eventually lead people to form faction’s tranquility of people who have similar characteristics. Such factions replicate a basic need to standardize dishonor in pursuit of maintaining a high self-esteem. In cases of Deaf ethnicity, the Deaf people try to seclude themselves from the common perception of disability hence eliminating the stigmatization label. The implication of sign language also disconnects the members of the Deaf group from the preponderance group. Campaigners of Deaf culture believe that sign language is similar to other diverse languages important for the group identification and the preservation of heritage. The prominence on the significance of sign language has occurred due to the failure of some Deaf people to accept the individuals considered not “pure” users of the cultural language (Pray 1983, pg 62). The denial and lack of acceptance of the hearing perception, identifies the people as outcast demonstrating the stigmatization against individuals who are not members of the deaf culture, this results to an increase in the membership value based on the cultures. There are diverse types of deafness, conductive, neural, and mixed hearing impairment. The conductive hearing impairment refers to the disruption of the transmission of the voice from the outer ear and the innermost ear. The sensory-neural or neural is the deafness caused by the disruption of the nerves in the innermost part of the ear. This type of impairment refers to the acquired or the congenital impairment. The mixed hearing loss is fundamentally a combination of conductive and neural deafness. Deafness in children and adults happens for diverse reasons. The hearing defection can be triggered by various factors that range from the accidents affecting the eardrum and other age correlated issues to other genetic factors and ear infections (Pray, 1983 pg 73). According to a recent research, the main causes of hearing impairment in adults, results from age, ear infections, and wax build up, and ruptured ear drums. The research states that 18% of the Americans between the age of 45 and 64 have a hearing problem. There are almost 26 million Americans aged between age 20 and 69 and there is a high frequency of hearing disorder due to the exposure of loud noise for example, during recreational activities. How Deaf People Are Perceived In the Society There has been a certain type of stigmatization in the society that describes the deaf people according to their past, instead of their current moments. Majority of the individuals have the concept that just because an individual is deaf, it is usually difficult to deal with them as they are very slow. This has been proved as just a misconception as the disability of a deaf person is not being able to speak and their brains are normal and they have the required intelligence (Pray, 1983, pg 89). It is usually hard for the deaf people to be judged, for example two people applying for a similar job, with brilliant credentials and exam grades, the only difference is that one of them is deaf. The discouraging bit of the research is portrayed when the person with no hearing problem gets the position instead of the deaf person. The society attaches a similar criteria that deals with the deaf, labelling them as the “hearing impaired”, this is considered demoralizing as it lowers the self esteem of those involved. Majority of the people in today’s society have the brawny conviction on meeting a deaf person for the first time , they assume that the louder they shout the person with the hearing incapacity will be able to respond and hear them, its mortifying for the deaf individuals and can result to much anguish than expected (Pray, 1983, pg 95). Some people in society refer to the deaf as handicapped, people who deserve to be pitied because they are thought not to be autonomous competent of taking good care of themselves and maintaining a good quality of life. Many deaf people are usually autonomous and an industrious portion of the culture they exist. They are capable of initiating and joining conversation while enjoying, laughing and talking just as much as a normal person, it is the normal individual that puts the tension when they feel discomfited and irresolute when in the companionship of the deaf. There are numerous methods in which a society can simplify the life of the deaf and the hard of hearing, this can be through discussing with the deaf person on the sensitive issues that make them feel confident and they accept themselves the way they are, it requires a little patience for a normal person to initiate the conversation. However, at the beginning of the talk, common sense and open mindedness is required. One should not be afraid or engulfed by the feeling that their feelings will be hurt, after asking them on the bit they could grasp when an individual talked, or if they had the capability of reading the lips while one was talking (Pray, 1983, pg 101). Majority of the deaf are appealed by straight approach of issues, instead of concealed discussions sensitive issues. The consequence of a hearing aid on stigma discernment began formally about thirty-five years ago, during this moment; the Audiologists started researching on what they referred to as the “The Hearing Effect”. They criticized that the occurrence of a perceptible hearing aid exaggerated how people alleged the hearing aid users. Normally, it was discovered that individuals using the hearing aids were scrutinized in a more unenthusiastic radiance than the non-users; this predominantly affected the characteristic such as triumph, amiability, and manifestation.  These studies are usually implicated through viewing the pictures of individuals with and devoid of hearing aids (Pray, 1983, pg 107). This is used to avoid any negative effects that were meaningful to the perception of individuals using the hearing aid, and not the opinion of the spectators viewing the pictures. After this was performed, the people using the hearing aids were motivated by the action. It was discovered that before the use of the hearing aid, only 26% of the participants had the perception that the usage of the hearing aid made one seem older, this perception went down by a percentage of 11% after the usage of the hearing aid. The negative attitude and judgment associated with deafness and hearing aid was reduced. There is a way of coping with the negative discernment that actually works, and it should be implemented often. For example, in the year 1984, President Ronald Reagan started using the visible hearing aid, the sales of hearing aid sales appreciated; individuals were influenced by the attitude and the appearance of the famous people in the society, and agreed with all their acts. These actions have been related to a low self esteem, and it has been noted that the more celebrities use the hearing aids; it will influence many people all over the society. Over the past couple of years, a percentage of the hearing aid organizations, together with the invisibility marketing, have been termed as the most attractive due to the quality of the hearing aids (Pray, 1983, pg 115). Practically, all producers market the non-traditional devices, as an example of fashion accessory. Apart from their acoustical presentation, the marketing prominence is in the procession of hearing aids with new designs and their esthetic individuality. Visibility, for this line of aids, is not an unenthusiastic eminence; rather the term stigma will eventually fade the meaning of referring to the individuals with hearing incapacity. There is omnipresent help related with diminishing the “stigma” theory.  The deaf individuals, usually regard themselves as handicap as they have experienced a revolutionize in their life, there is a feeling of the deaf people according to the health specialists, and this usually has no relevance in understanding one as an hearer. The society does not pay attention to the typecast of them being abnormal and not having intelligence. For people and groups interested in helping the deaf people and their families, there are principles that they are supposed to follow so that they can be guided through the process. They are expected to be professionals with an artistic history of the deaf individuals, to be able to deal with the sensitive issues they encounter (Pray, 1983, pg 119). They are also expected to innovate new ways of meeting different communication needs of all the members who suffer from the disability. Through this they are aware of the stigmatization and they develop a comfortable working affiliation that focuses on individuals with hearing impairments. The hearing professionals, counselors, psychologists, teachers, pastoral workers, and priests need to recognize that being affected tends to afford us a higher and we need to examine the deaf people attitudes intensively, and work toward the maintenance of mutual respect. This is achieved when people realize that the hearing specialists do not always have the solutions to hearing impairments. This procedure requires mutual teaching as hearing and deaf people are expected to be open and understanding while dealing with each other’s perspective as part of an ongoing educational dialogue. There are diverse forms of positive hearing-deaf working relationships that have been discovered in the research and the daily undertakings. Creating organizations, starting projects together, and working uniformly promotes a competitive examples to all deaf and hearing individuals, and their needs are catered for in a more complete and distinct way. This enhances the future generations in the realization of the maintenance of the status quo (Pray 1983 pg 121). The perseverance of some campaigner of Deaf ethnicity upon exclusive of supposed as "hearing" is a fundamental question because it usually explained as the people labeled to be of different culture model. For example, "hearing" has an unenthusiastic implication as used by constituents of the Deaf culture. This protuberance of pessimistic accredits to anyone outside the component discrimination. There are a various articles drafted by the members of the Deaf culture and members of the hearing world despites the cites examples of harassment of the deaf people, trained principally in verbal process of statement against deaf persons who use the cochlear implants and aligned with hearing proficient who work in the area of deafness . There are even those who acknowledge that they feel parental accountability for Deaf children, for example, those born to normal parents, the deaf ethnicity is more of an individual parent to a deaf child than the childs hearing family (Pray 1983 pg125). There is a strong reaction within the deaf community considering that deafness is referred to as the stigma in which people, who cannot hear find the difficulty in communication and integration of the mainstream with the exclusion of the “hearing” from the deaf culture. This enhances the value of membership among the individuals of the deaf culture. The application of psycho-social theory enhances the phenomena of a closed group with the permeation of the non members. The results are an increased self esteem of the group as a whole. These similarities are viewed as an advance in the hearing world and lower the self-esteem of the individuals. Conclusion There are some prejudice degrees which are usually necessary in the maintenance of the authenticity of the deaf ethnicity. There is a depiction that considers the idea of the deaf culture, which developed in the perceptions of deafness in the society. The prior intolerance towards the deaf people consists of a link amid the deaf and community. This offers a foster exclusion and they initiate conflict that is well deserved. They establish an out-group which is a natural significance of instituting an in-group (Pray 1983 pg130). The values are usually positive and it is meant to unite the deaf community, when the values are negative, the members of the group usually reject the attitudes and actions which conflict with their beliefs. List of Reference Pray, J., L., (1983), Special Problems of Deaf Persons and Criminal Justice (From Social Work in Juvenile and Criminal Justice Settings, P 137-149, A R Roberts, ed. - See NCJ-91641). Read More