Deaf Community

Maria Schaefer

12/4/2017

Reaction paper #4

Chapters 61-80

Chapter 65-66: I think it is humous that people don’t believe that the Deaf community can do anything anyone else can except hear. With that being said, this brings up a point that I am struggling with: The celebration of Deaf accomplishments. I feel like I am in this awkward limbo between ‘Deaf people can do anything so why does this come as a surprise that they accomplished this?’ and ‘Deaf people have to work twice as hard to accomplish anything because of the limitations society puts on them so what they do achieve should be celebrated’. As someone who comes from a place of privilege, it is difficult for me to relate to this in almost any way because I haven’t experienced it. I know it is something I will being to understand more as I become more involved in the Deaf community. I feel an obligation to understand more because I am teaching children who need to know as well.

Chapter 67: First thing I learned is that there actually aren’t many Deaf clubs. Currently being in a community where I am assuming has a considerable Deaf community and therefore an active Deaf club, I didn’t not realize this. Secondly, I never thought of how technology (TTY, Closed captions, etc.) negatively impacted the Deaf community and in the way that it did. I guess I hadn’t thought about the primary career option for members of the Deaf community, especially it concerning printing. Once explained, it makes sense how everything came together and Deaf clubs fell to the wayside but I found it incredibly interesting as I wouldn’t have guessed it all started with the job market.

Chapter 71: I think this chapter is an interesting one because it can be applied to most anything and still have a similar answer. As someone for a generation that is constantly being criticized, the term “good old days” gets mentions a lot. Seeing where we are and how far we have come is wonderful, but things seem more appealing back then. I can only imagine the way it must be talked about in the Deaf community as they have had far more obstacles to climb. I really like how the chapter laid out comparing the past to present. I think the moral of the chapter, or at least what I got out of it, is that things are constantly changing and people will always think a different way was better.