Mark Droslbaugh's Deaf Lecture Review

Deaf Lecture Reflection

During the Deaf Lecture, where Neil McDevitt and Kyle Rosenberg spoke about their individual lives growing up within Deaf culture and having identity issues, many things that were bought up, correlated with Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again autobiography. From being Deaf in hearing educational environments, to hearing aids and lip reading, both Neil, Kyle and Mark spoke about the struggles and beauty within Deaf culture. Likewise, the same themes that were present in Droslbaugh’s autobiography, were bought up during the lecture, such as denial, the importance of education paired with diversity, and the cochlear implants topic. Additionally, the danger of overgeneralizing people and realizing that people aren’t monolithic,

Such work is not limited in only helping hard of hearing individuals, their services help hearing people, and diverse families with hearing and Deaf individuals as well. Neil talked about losing his hearing around the age of 3, how he dreaded going through speech therapy (even while reflecting on it as an adult, he has learned much from it), going through hearing aid quickly for 5 years, and how he graduated high school and still didn’t sign well. Neil’s mother even signed good, and became an interpreter when he was in middle school. Eventually Neil went to Gallaudet for 5 years, and had a job at an insurance company for 10 years, while being a volunteer

Also that being educated with access to resources has been very useful. Neil stressed that meeting 1 Deaf person isn’t like meeting all thus one can’t apply everything about 1 Deaf person to another Deaf person. Similarly, Mark talked about his views on the cochlear implant and stated “If you really want to understand deafness, ask deaf people; if you really want to understand cochlear implants, ask the deaf people who have them. Get to the root of the source” (Drolsbaugh 102). Both told their views but also expressed that they understood not all hold their worldview, which is okay. Overall Deaf Again connects with what the DHCC is all about. Mark strongly promoted the importance of programs that offer access to communication services and education to people at younger ages. So that they prepared when they enter environment like Gallaudet. Early intervention programs, with organizations like the DHCC serve as a bridge between the hearing and Deaf