Deafness and disability discourses: Implications for activism, policies and programs

In the past, most disability advocates in the US have included deaf people in their constituency and have claimed some deafness protests as their own.  Additionally, deaf advocates participated  in  many disability related protests, including an  important set of protests in 1977, and they were also mostly aligned with disability advocates in the fight for the ADA.  However, deafness discourse has diverged recently from disability discourse.  Many deafness advocates  viewed deaf culture as separate from disability culture, some view deaf people as a linguistic  minority instead of a disability group, and a few have suggested the phrase ‘deaf gain’ as  the framework through which to view deafness.  With this linguistic shift, the groups are necessarily moving away from each other in political activism, especially in protest activity. This separation of discourses could challenge whether the legal  and financial  protections offered to disabled people should apply to deaf people.

This paper analyzes changes in both rhetoric and protest actions over time since 1970.  It shows the increasing disconnect between the disability and deafness related social movements in both rhetoric and action.  It shows changes in protest demands made by the two movements, based upon over 1200 cases of protest during the 40 year period.  It suggests that deafness advocates may need to identify new legal and political avenues for policies and services if their rhetoric diverges too much from that assumed by these policies and programs.