As Oscar season approaches, so do memories of last year’s winners. Bringing with it recollections on “CODA,” Best Feature Film winner of 2022. “CODA” is a film centered around a Deaf family and their daughter Ruby, the only hearing member of her family. The movie stars prominent deaf actors, including Golden Globe-winning Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur, the first male deaf actor to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
With the popularity of this film and other pieces of media in the past few years, the conversation surrounding Deaf representation has been on the rise and has led to a realization. Not many hearing people in mainstream culture know anything about Deaf Culture. If we are going to work toward Deaf representation, it takes education.
The first step in education is learning terminology. The difference between a capital D and a lowercase d is important to many Deaf activists. When reading about the Deaf community, you will encounter both “deaf” and “Deaf,” but you may also see “d/Deaf,” which attempts to encapsulate both preferences.
A study titled “To Deaf or not to deaf” by Kimberly K. Pudans-Smith, Katrina R. Cue, Ju-Lee A. Wolsey, and M. Diane Clark touches on the complexity of this terminology. The study shows statistics from respondents in the deaf and Deaf community as to what terminology they use in what contexts. The study concluded that there is no set lexicon, partly due to “a desire to respect everyone and be inclusive.” This explains why we see different uses in readings across our Deaf education. People may identify with one terminology over the other; the key is respect and maintaining a perspective of listening and learning.
Deaf Activist, actor, and model Nyle DiMarco explains this choice in his memoir “Deaf Utopia.” DiMarco says, “The capital D is a choice. It’s how I see myself and how I want to be seen. It’s my preferred way of naming my identity. Not all people whose ears don’t work as intended will choose the same label, and that’s fine. Some prefer “deaf” with a lowercase d. Some prefer different labels… the capital D is not a gate. Anyone whose ears are busted in some form or another has the right to use it. It doesn’t matter if they sign or not, interact with other Deaf people regularly, have attended Deaf schools, or wear cochlear implants or hearing aids.”
Another common question hearing individuals have is: what exactly is Deaf culture? According to Sommar Ane Chilton, who teaches at Pennsylvania State University and specializes in American Sign Language and Deaf culture, “Deaf culture is a unique group of individuals who are a language and cultural minority in the United States, who ascribe to ASL as a language, a visual world, who work together to meet their common goals, and set up information to disseminate regarding themselves as an identified Deaf culture member.”
There is also the matter of which sign language is commonly used worldwide and in different areas of the Deaf community. ASL or “American Sign Language” is the most common in the United States, although there is British Sign Language and countless more from country to country. ASL is based on English words but has its distinct grammatical structure. Just like with spoken English, there are dialects of ASL depending on the area in that a person lives. English is spoken, tonal, and auditorily received. Whereas ASL is rooted in symbols, facial expressions and body language. Sign language all over the world is an incredibly expressive and beautiful language.
A key thing to remember in the conversation surrounding Deaf culture is that, for the most part, Deaf individuals do not identify as “disabled.” Disability terminology can actually be quite offensive for those who don’t utilize it.
Asbury Junior Savannah Buchholz was one of the students to initiate Asbury’s ASL Club along with her brother Nehemiah, who graduated in 2022. Savannah’s brother Elijah is a student here at Asbury as well. Savannah tells me about her family, saying, “My father is Deaf, his whole family is Deaf as well… my mother lost her hearing when she was two….” For Savannah and her siblings, she says that “ASL was our first language, English was our second.”
Savannah touches on the issue of Deaf individuals being referred to as disabled, saying, “Hearing people and Deaf people are the same… if you can do it, they can too.”
For Social Security purposes, the definition of disability is as follows: “limitation in the ability to pursue an occupation because of physical or mental impairment.” Deaf individuals are fully capable of doing jobs and activities that hearing individuals can do, so the term simply doesn’t apply. One of the most common questions Savannah receives is whether or not Deaf people can drive, and the answer is yes, they can. In fact, according to her aunt, it was her father that taught her to drive.
Another terminology is the word CODA as mentioned above. CODA stands for Child of Deaf Adult. Like the other terminology, this is a personal choice to use this label. Savannah says, “I never called myself CODA – I think of myself as part deaf and part hearing.” Further, the experience of one CODA will never match another’s exactly. The experience of CODAs with other hearing siblings stands in contrast to a CODA, the only hearing member of their family. Each individual’s experience will be different, so it is important to be intentional when watching films like “CODA.” It tells a beautiful and important story but is not the only one.
Technology plays a key part in the lives of Deaf individuals as well. Technology like cochlear implants and hearing aids can allow Deaf people to hear. That being said, not every Deaf person chooses to utilize this technology which needs to be respected. They do not need hearing assistants to be valuable members of society and communities, so it should be respected if a Deaf individual chooses not to utilize it. Deaf researcher (and Savannah’s aunt) Kim Pudans-Smith (one of the researchers in the above article) explained that technology is key.
“We use our smartphones as part of our alarm system – flashing alarm clock, notifications with potential noises in the house, notifications when someone knocks on the door, voice-to-print notes on our phone giving us the access to communicate with hearing people,” she said.
This is not the end of this conversation; it is only the beginning. This article will be part of an Asbury Collegian series touching on Deaf culture, education, and representation. In the next article, we will look at how hearing individuals can educate themselves on Deaf culture and interact with and participate in the Deaf community.