Audism In The Deaf Community

Introduction

Informing Others About Audism

Introduction

The Deaf community has dealt with and are currently dealing with many hardships in their lifetime. One of the struggles they are presently facing today is the term audism. Audism is one of the types of isms, where the hearing community believe that they are superior because they are able to hear. They portray this negative behavior towards the deaf community that it is a misfortune to be deaf. Their negative behavior expresses that those who are deaf must do their best to fit in with the “hearing world”. They forbid the use of sign language, forcing people who are deaf to learn how to speak and lip read. Although this stigma exists, the deaf community has successful striven in proving

I briefly interviewed a male in his late teens, asking if he knew who Nyle DiMarco is. His response was, “I heard of him, but I do not exactly know who he is or what he does for a living.” I responded that Nyle DiMarco is a model, actor, and activist, who won first place in Dancing with the Stars and America’s Next Top Model. He started his own foundation, called LEAD-K, preparing children who are deaf for kindergarten through language acquisition. I then asked him, how do you feel knowing a deaf man was able to become a model, actor, and activist. To which he said, “Being deaf should not affect anyone in any way because they are capable of doing anything, except for hearing” (Anonymous, personal communication, November 8, 2017). This should also be seen positively because he is a major influence in the deaf community as

Based on the reactions of the interview, I decided to conduct an experiment for a couple of hours with my friend to be deaf. We went to a nearby bakery to buy vanilla cake. Like the usual, once we opened the doors of the bakery we were greeted by the employees. They asked us what we would like to order, so I smiled, and gestured by pointing to my ear that I cannot hear them. They were confused a bit, looking at my friend to help them. To which my friend also pointed to her ear, to tell them she was deaf too. Once I gained their attention, I used American sign language to sign the word write. By that, they quickly understood that I wanted a sheet of paper and