Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture

by Carol Padden, Tom L. Humphries

Refusing to accept the limitations others have placed on the deaf, the authors--themselves deaf--argue for a deaf culture, one united by & expressed thru the American Sign Language.
A long, painful experience of hearing intolerance has generally kept Deaf culture fairly closed to outsiders, even sympathetic ones. But now Padden & Humphries...have written a charming small book that invites the rest of us at least part way in...A most welcome addition to that very small shelf of books that truly illuminate the experience of being deaf.--Beryl Lieff Benderly, Psychology Today
Preface
Introduction
Learning to be deaf
Images of being
A different center
Living in others' world
A changing consciousness
The meaning of sound
Historically created lives
References
Index

Genres: Nonfiction, School, Disability, History, Sociology, Textbooks, Education

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

As friends know, here at the age of 50 I've started learning American Sign Language (ASL) for the first time, and doing a deep dive into the politics and culture of the Deaf community with a capital "D," as a way of compensating for my ever-decreasing hearing and hopefully opening a new avenue for my shrinking social life. (See my review of A Deaf Adult Speaks Out for a long explanation of what exactly "Deaf culture" is and why it's so important to learn about before getting involved with the community.) This 1989 book, one of many recommended by Michelle Jay, founder of the StartASL.com classes I'm currently taking, is yet another one of the foundational texts from the start of what we now know as contemporary Deaf culture, written around the same time that the 1988 Gallaudet University student protests were happening, and published at nearly the same moment in 1989 that the Supreme Court ruled that the US government is required to acknowledge ASL as a legitimate language with full legal rights.

Thirty years later, it can often come across as quaint in its sometimes simplistic explorations of what it's like to grow up deaf -- there are entire chapters here, written oral-history style, on the various ways deaf people first discovered as children that they were deaf, the various ways they first learned that ASL existed, what it's like to view the world with "deaf" as the norm and "hearing" being the weird outlier, instead of the other way around like the majority of society views it. But as with A Deaf Adult Speaks Out, this is a major point in even reading the book 30 years later, that it's important to remember just how different this situation was, so recently that I for example was already in college when all these changes were occurring.

If you want to understand why so many in the Deaf community are so quick to criticize hearing people, even for innocuous mistakes (for example, when a hearing person exclaims, "Sign language is so beautiful!"), it's crucial that you read books like Deaf in America that were written in a time when such innocuous mistakes were politically deployed for much more sinister purposes (for example, the fact that for decades, hearing people argued that sign language is nothing more than a form of theater, beautiful to watch but something that would never be a valid form of daily communication, an argument that was still being made so recently that people my age can remember when it was the official position of the US Department of Education, and used as the justification for banning them from learning or using ASL in public classrooms).

Thankfully, in this case authors Carol Padden and Tom Humphries make it easy to do your research, turning in a conversational and casually intimate look at what at the time was the burgeoning "Deaf culture" that by now has become the mainstream norm. It comes recommended in that spirit, not necessarily a book that helps you understand deaf people in the 2010s, but one that helps explain how we got to the point we're at today.

[megz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish there was an updated version cuz this was published 35 years ago, and idk if it holds up or not?
But from the perspective of historical deaf culture and struggles this was very elucidating
I would like to learn more about how deaf education has changed since this book, hopefully for the better

P.S. read for ASL intro class

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is essentially an ethnography on deaf culture and appealed to the anthropologist in me. The focus of the book is the relationship of sign language in deaf culture and the interplay of the hearing world in the use of sign language. It is apparent that sign language cannot be suppressed, despite efforts to the contrary among hearing educators, as it develops naturally among the deaf. Instances are recounted where deaf individuals in isolation of other deaf people will create a sign language of their own. This is how powerful the human drive is for expression. But the advancement of a language takes more than one person and one lifetime of signing innovations. The book does a good job discussing some of the progression of sign language development by examining history, sociology, early child development, and other experiences in the deaf world, and how the hearing community has influenced it (mostly to the detriment of the deaf). The book doesn’t strive for comprehensive documentation. It extracts instances and examines them to reveal the complexity of the deaf and their world. This is sorely needed, especially for the hearing, who have a difficult time breaking through appearances, myths, and naïve theories surrounding deaf culture.

[Krystie Ocasio · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my beginning American Sign Language class. It was really good ... I struggled a bit at some parts because the authors were very repetitive trying to bring some parts home. I had read the other reviews and I was surprised at how some people felt the novel was written.

I didn't feel like it was very anti-hearing at all ... it was demonstrating a different perspective to deaf culture that ironically not many hearing people consider.

I felt like it was a very eye-openning experience and it was fun to read about deaf culture because really other than Helen Keller, you don't learn this stuff in regular history classes.

There were some boring parts but those were balanced out by the really interesting and funny stories. It just made me all the more eager to learn the language.

[Just Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was just what I was looking for: an intimate, insider analysis of Deaf culture. I don't agree at all with other reviews saying this book's tone was somehow derogatory to hearing folks. Guessing that reaction is just reflective of people's own sensitivities to Deaf folks trying to show their independence and take pride in their culture. I think any minority or subjugated group would really identify with this collection and the Deaf community's struggle to find a voice and be heard. Isn't that what we all want?

[Stephanie Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a great respect for the Deaf community. That being said, reading this for my ASL class was a complete and utter chore. The same points were drilled into my head over and over, and it seemed to look down on hearing people, who apparently are sheep and not as astute as the deaf.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative if you’re interested in learning more about the deaf community and what they have to deal with on a daily basis and their experiences in the past compared to the present.

[Alysse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I read was titled deaf in America the book was written by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries. Both who are deaf and have had to experience their own struggles in life. One of the authors has been deaf their entire life while the other became deaf as a young child. This book was copyrighted in 1988 by the president and fellows of Harvard college. This was a non fictional book that discuss American sign language as a language, as disability, as something that many people struggle with, as a/ or how it is an academic struggle and much more. This book wants hearing people and all people to understand that Deaf people are just like them. They help us focus on that its Deaf with a capital D and not lowercase. The authors want readers to know that deaf people are not enabled, not incapable, not a disability. This book shows you how many deaf dismiss the fact that barriers and stereotypes have been placed on those who are deaf. Theses two authors make a great effort to fight for the deaf community and culture as one unified group through the use and importance of sign language. The chapters from the Preface, The Introduction which introduces the main ideas. Learning to be deaf, Images of being, A different center, Living in others' world, A changing consciousness, The meaning of sound, and Historically created lives. All chapters that have their own meaning and strong stand point on bringing light to the deaf culture today in contrast to deaf culture and history of the past. The book just like any other had its ups and downs but it was more interesting because of the authors different and unique point of views. This book was a bit more of an eye opener to learn more about the deaf culture more as a whole. While I am a slow reader so it did take me a long time to get through the book I did enjoy what I learned.

[Kayleigh Cloutier · Rating 2 out of 5]

important information but read like a textbook.

[ReluctantlyPacifist]

I read this for my ASL class. I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot.

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book argues that Deaf people (capitalized in the original to show a community rather than to describe a condition) need to have and create their own culture; no argument here. To illustrate their point, the authors show examples of Deaf folktales, shared Deaf experience in school and in hearing society, and so on. I especially enjoyed the part about translating "Jabberwocky" into ASL.

One new thing I learned was that Deaf people do not live in total silence. Sound, though not in the way hearing people use it with specific meaning, plays a large part in their lives. The stories of Deaf kids roaring through the halls, banging walls and windows just to get a feel for sound and to use it in their games, brought out this point well. This book was a good basic introduction on Deaf culture in America (although my girlfriend had told me a lot of the most basic stuff already, it was still quite interesting).

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

great little book! This story was wonderful. A deaf couple checked into a hotel and in the middle of the night the husband has to get out to the car to get his medicine. Upon returning returning from the parking lot and facing the multiple levels he forgets where his rooms was. He tried a few doors but knew that his wife would not be able to hear him knock. He set off his car alarm and honked until all the hotel rooms but one turns on their lights. So he found his room with his sound sleeping wife in it.
It also touches a lot on deaf children and trying to understand their sound filled environment. Deaf children being not sure what they can and cannot do in public bathrooms because they don't know what produces sounds and what not.

I suggest it to anyone interested in ASL and the deaf culture.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick read that provides some necessary insights into Deaf culture. It's from 1988, so can't be used for the current state of Deaf education and politics. I found the stories from history and from people's lives to be interesting, and I also appreciated a certain amount of the linguistic information. However, it is a little tedious to read descriptions of ASL poetry and theater, particularly as I'm just learning ASL and can't appreciate the subtleties. It's still a useful read.

[Autumn Lippert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great. It let those who are unfamiliar with Deaf culture get to learn the basics of the culture. I read this book for my intro to ASL class. I definitely learned a lot. The stories and interviews were great but surrounded by a lot of out dated and honestly boring information.
I did enjoy reading it and would recommend it if you’d like to learn about Deaf culture and you’re new to the world of sign language.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, by two deaf authors, is an attempt to represent the Deaf cultures of North America to hearing readers. This is accomplished by maintaining, then articulating a Deaf perspective, both as regards themselves and as regards the Hearing culture. For me, despite having lived with a late-deafened woman for years, some of the book was eye-opening.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of Deaf Culture - some parts were humorous to me and it helped that I knew sign language, but it is still a book that can be appreciated by all.

[Kelsey Winn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Bad.

[Brad McKenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having orbited Deaf Culture for years, with the occasional crash landing, I've decided to do some reading on it. Here are my favorite parts of this book.

I’m struck by how isolating from families deafness can be to kids. For Deaf kids of Deaf Parents, the kids are often sent away to a boarding school, thus isolating them from family. For Deaf kids of hearing parents, their physical condition isolates them in place by making them feel different. There’s a story about a hearing kid in a Deaf family not realizing he was different until he was 6. That puts a spin on the isolation, but it’s still isolating. (22)

There’s a story about Abbe de L’Epee happening upon a pair of deaf girls and being inspired to start a school for the deaf AND invent French Sign Language. Only, it’s not true. No one person can invent a language (Esperanto aside, I suppose). The importance placed on the tale by members of the French Deaf Community is due to needing a moment to use as the turning point when deaf people could find refuge in a Deaf Culture. (26-29)

Signs aren’t translations of English words. They’re independent in the way that all languages have more nuances to their “words” than the transliterations. (40)

Because hearing is the opposite of deaf, hard-of-hearing degrees can be confusing. Deaf is the center in signing so signing someone who is a LITTLE HARD OF HEARING is a little off of center and is physically profoundly deaf; signing someone who is VERY HARD OF HEARING is only slightly deaf. (41)

There was a hue and cry in the 1st half of the 1900s that ASL was dying. It seems that was because of two things. First, those peeps bought into the inferiority of ASL to English. Second, it was seen as more art less language. The fact that ASL is stronger than ever helps prove it’s not just on par with English for communication but also for making art. (50-62)
Also bemoaning how the signs are made is akin to curmudgeons complain about how English is being ruined by the “Two Yoots”. Or more than two in fact.

Signs were once upon a time things to be self-conscious about but they’ve grown to be seen as a unique opportunity to make art. Signs that are similar but not related can be used in a play as a sort of exploration of movements. I.e. performance art. (74)

There’s a misconception that Deaf Culture is soundless. (92)

Deaf kids play a game called “Loud”. They can hear lower frequencies through the vibrations and were so attuned that they realized screaming into the corner of a room would be the loudest. They know how to create a resonating chamber. (95)

“The trick for Deaf people living among hearing people is to figure out complicated meanings attached to various sounds.” (99)

[Xavier Guillaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture was written by two Deaf scholars who researched what it means to be Deaf in America. The book describes the oftentimes humorous perceptions of Deaf people, what it means to be Deaf, how being Deaf relates to being Hearing, how Deaf people view themselves, and how Deaf people interact with each other and Hearing people. The book describes a fair amount of Deaf stories and histories that have been shared for generations. The book focuses a fair amount on Deaf children because Deaf children have an interesting perspective of what it means to be Deaf vs. Hearing.

The book is oftentimes sad describing how Deaf people have been mistreated by Hearing society, who worked hard to ensure Deaf people were unable to sign in school. To take away a Deaf person's use of sign would be like taking a Hearing person's use of spoken language. It is harsh, cruel, disorienting, and isolating. The final chapter also discusses how certain Deaf children grow up without being exposed to any ASL, and instead, they learn to create their own gesture system in order to communicate with their parents and teachers. These children are so far delayed by not being exposed to ASL. Imagine as a child not being exposed to any language, and you had to make up a language in order to be understood. How difficult that must be!

The book also talks about the Deaf arts, including Deaf stage performing and poetry. I was especially interested in reading about Deaf poetry because the poets are able to convey the ideas of rhythm and alliteration, two ideas which seem inseparable from sound. How one sign flows into the next represents the rhythm, and how signs can be performed that use the same handshape represents alliteration. The way the book describes how the performances are carried out was truly awe-inspiring.

All in all, I recommend this book to people interested in sign language or who study linguistics or anthropology. The book was published in 1988, so not all of the ideas are current. That was 32 years ago, and I am sure so much of Deaf culture has changed! However, it is still a fascinating book worth checking out. Also, it is a slim book, so would not take too much of your time to read.

[Metzli-Citlalcoatl Guerrero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Deaf In America: Voices from a Culture by Carol Padden and Tom Humphries.
The main focus of this book seems to be letting deaf people tell their experiences and explain the culture that the creators of this book have learned of during their research.
They go through multiple stories within deaf culture, stories from deaf people from their own lives, and also interactions they’ve had with deaf communities.
With each chapter that passes, I feel astounded at all I didn’t know and wonder what there still is to learn about. There are so many things that we take for granted that this book brings to light.

Throughout my reading of this book, one thing has been made clear, everyone can communicate. I think that the separation between “educated” deaf people and “non-educated” deaf people is interesting. I also find it interesting how the term “L-V”(signed) can be, according to this book, a blanket term for “low-income ethnic minorities” I find it odd that in most if not all cultures there is a class system that takes root, creating separation and in many cases leading to a group being weaker than how it would be if it stood together. It’s easy to see from this book the injustice that has befallen the deaf community and how it has led to the culture we now observe today. This book commonly reinforces the idea that the deaf community has a thriving culture with an enormous amount of complexity, far more complex than has been thought by society for 10’s and most likely 100’s of years.

I believe that this book warrants a re-read to truly absorb the knowledge it holds.
I find it beautiful that modern-day language, especially sign language, is passed down from generation to generation. It gets more complex as life goes on and people find new and exciting ways to express themselves and communicate.
No matter what the situation, people will find a way to show their creativity.
I think in a lot of ways, this book inspires me, inspires me to try to live in a more understanding world, one where we can see other people for what they are. People.
I think that anybody interested in learning more about the world that we humans live in, or deaf culture would enjoy reading this book. After all, knowledge is power.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating little book. It debunks (sadly widespread) notions that D/deaf people are defined by a lack of sound, and describes many cool cultural and linguistic ideas. A few anecdotes:

- The authors describe how some deaf people were using the sign for "hard-of-hearing" in a manner distinct from how hearing people use the words hard of hearing. Joanna struggles to use the phone, they say, because she is a little hard-of-hearing. But Michelle easily uses the phone because she is very hard of hearing. AS the authors discuss, hard-of-hearing represents a deviation from deafness- small deviation and it's difficult to use the phone, big deviation and it's easy to use the phone.

- in another anecdote, their friend gets discounted tickets on the MARC train but apologetically adds that he doesn't like "using the disabled discount." Deafness is distinct from blindness and physical disabilities, although often deaf advocacy movements have used the language and ideas of disability writ large because they are more familiar to hearing people compared to ideas of culture and identity.

- a child of deaf adults (CODA in today's lingo) wanted to play basketball on a team intended for Deaf children. However, such leagues have strict rules allowing only deaf children to play. The team tried to help him be included in several ways, but ultimately he could not. In some ways, this reminded me of the debates around transgender people competing in elite women's sports. This child had ears that could react to sounds in a manner indistinguishable from hearing folks, but he was also Deaf. Culture and biology do not always align.

- it was also interesting to read anecdotes of young children coming to reason through how sound worked for people around them, and realizing that their family / deafness was unusual (rather than the norm).

- i really enjoyed the descriptions of wordplay and rhythmic "eye music" at the end of the book too, forms of art largely inaccessible to me (in the former case since I only know a little ASL).

[Tahani Al Saadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have gotten a great time reading this book. it has changed my perspective toward deaf societies. I had never think about deaf people as a community. The book is an essential book for everyone, it shows their feelings, thinking, and their daily lives. By the time we view them as different people or minorities, they look at us as strange people "the people who talk"!. Also, they have achievements that we do not know, or care about which is encourages me to read and deal with them in reality.

[Bobby · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book introduces a new way of thinking about what it is to be Deaf. But this does not man the book are ignoring the fact that Deaf people do not hear or that we are treating it as unimportant. Indeed, the point is that the biological characteristic of not hearing is intimately bound up with Deaf people’s culture and language. Deafness is a given, a fundamental aspect of their world. This is what the book means when it says it want to look at their lives from “a different center.”

[Jorge Urbina · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are seriously interested in Deaf Culture, this is where you start. As a hearing person, with no direct connection to any one who is deaf. This book was an incredible source of information - to at least get you started. This book is easy to read, easy to follow and allows you to follow along in a manner that is easy to understand from a hearing to deaf point of view.

[Casandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for an ASL class that I am taking. I learned a lot about Deaf Culture and about the history as well. Really good read, and I would suggest it to any one not just to those taking an ASL class, but anyone who is interesting about learning more about Deaf culture.

[Bill Fish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting look into the Deaf culture and how people who use sign language need to struggle to use it. Some interesting (and funny) views on living in a sound-dominate world, and how deafness is considered a disability by the hearing world but is very different to the Deaf community.

[Kali Katzmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read dozens of books on Deaf Culture, and this is DULL AND BORING! So many other options that are much better.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. Read for ASL and it was so boring.

[Peter Tarantino · Rating 4 out of 5]

required reading if you are looking for an introduction to American Deaf culture

[Cameron Sturgeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read for class. Also in the worst book slump of my life no one look