Literature Review

Hearing disabled students may be defined as deaf or hard of hearing. An individual classified as deaf is one whose hearing loss is so great that speech cannot be understood through the ears alone, even with a hearing aid. A person described as hard of hearing has a significant hearing loss requiring some special adaptations, but can understand speech through auditory processes.

Deafness as a Culture

Deafness is more than a medical condition. Individuals who are deaf do not simply have "diseased ears." They belong to a community—a culture. In this sense, deafness is unique among disability types. The sense of culture is strongest among those for whom sign language is their primary language. It is this linguistic bond, perhaps more than other factors, that binds the community together. In many ways, the social character of the deaf culture can be compared to that of the African-American culture. Just as there is a strong sense of pride among African-Americans in their heritage and society, there is a sense of pride among the deaf, and they enjoy the status of cultural and linguistic minority. Deafness is much more than a physiological phenomenon. It is a way of life. In recent decades, sign language has played an increasingly central role in the cultural unification of the deaf community.

Deaf culture describes the social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of deaf people who use a sign language. When used in this cultural sense, the word deaf is often capitalized in writing, and referred to as "big D Deaf" in American Sign Language or spoken English. Culturally Deaf people tend to view deafness as a difference in human experience rather than a disability.

People who are culturally Deaf are audio-logically deaf or hard of hearing, use a sign language, and identify themselves with the larger cultural group. Deaf culture thus does not automatically include all people who are deaf or have a hearing loss. Like most cultures, the exact boundaries of Deaf culture are contested. For example, perennial questions arise as to where hearing people who have Deaf parents and sign fluently fit in.

Acquisition of Deaf Culture

Historically, Deaf culture has often been acquired within schools for the deaf and within Deaf social clubs, both of which unite deaf people into communities with which they can identify. Becoming Deaf culturally can occur at different times for different people, depending on the circumstances of one's life. A small proportion of deaf individuals acquire sign language and Deaf culture in infancy from Deaf parents, others acquire it through attendance at schools, and yet others may not be exposed to sign language and Deaf culture until college or a time after that. Although up to fifty percent of deafness has genetic causes, less than five percent of deaf people have a Deaf parent, so Deaf communities are unusual among cultural groups in that most members do not acquire their cultural identities from parents.

Characteristics of Deaf culture Sign languages

Members of Deaf cultures communicate via sign languages. There are over 200 distinct, naturally-occurring sign languages in the world. Although the Post Soviet Union countries share Russian the most common spoken language, the sign languages used in these countries differ markedly. Due to the origins of deaf education in Kazakhstan, Russian Sign Language is most closely related to Kazakh Sign Language. Apart from using sign languages, Deaf culture has typical beliefs, values, and arts that help to define it.