Meeting Global Deaf Peers, Visiting Ideal Deaf Places ... - NCRTM

DEAF WAYS OF EDUCATION LEADING TO EMPOWERMENT
Figure 3
Circle of Deaf Empowerment
Note. Figure 3 was designed by dotplus, Belgium. Copyright © 2005 by Goedele De Clerck.
other people (Yang, 2000) and the
birth of deaf activism in Flanders. A circle
of deaf empowerment can represent
this process (see Figure 3). This
circle starts from the input of deaf cultural
rhetoric, and indicates stages of
transformation beyond wake up and
the development of a strong identity to
activism and the spreading of deaf cultural
rhetoric, the latter making the circle
round. (In the interviews, Flemish
deaf people mentioned waking up and
experiencing the circle of deaf empowerment
more than one time in
their lives, like a cyclical movement
each time adding depth and new dimensions.)
If commonalities in the life
stories are paraphrased (Stebbins,
2001) by means of common signs and
common themes, this process can be
described as follows:
Deaf cultural rhetoric and WORLD
DREAM make deaf people’s MOUTH-
16
FALL-OPEN-WITH-SURPRISE. Deaf
people SEE, SEE, OPEN-EYES, and AB-
SORB the new information and world
without barriers. The information of
“DEAF CAN!! OWN LANGUAGE!!!
OWN CULTURE!!!” OPENS deaf people’s
MINDS: They THINK and consider
their lives. They WAKE-UP and
develop a strong personal awareness
of deafness: DEAF IDENTITY
GROWS! They TURN-A-BUTTON-IN-
THE-HEAD: reject their old negative
(medical) deaf identity and take on a
new positive cultural deaf identity,
which makes them STRONG and
EQUAL to hearing people. Hearing
people no longer DECIDE for deaf
people: Deaf people are INDEPEN-
DENT and DECIDE for themselves.
Deaf people finally feel PROUD:
They feel that they are HUMAN too.
Deaf people finally BLOOM. They
GRAB all the chances and opportunities
they have missed in the past;
they will make their future themselves.
As deaf people see their lives
positively changed, with more selfcontrol,
self-esteem, and agency,
they BOIL with ANGER and FRUS-
TRATION. The deaf FIRE makes
them ACTIVE. It is important to
SPREAD information about deaf
culture and deaf people and FIGHT
for deaf RIGHTS and their own
WORLD DREAM. Deaf people have
to ACHIEVE-GOALS. Both deaf and
hearing people SHOULD KNOW:
They should WAKE-UP from their
SLEEP so that deaf people can have
better lives. When deaf people come
into contact with deaf cultural rhetoric,
they will WAKE UP, become empowered,
and start to WAKE-UP and
empower other deaf people: The circle
is round.
However, the deaf world will not be
able to create more opportunities as
long as hearing people are still asleep.
Therefore, deaf people have to be AC-
TIVE in both the hearing and deaf
worlds. Deaf people should SHOW
hearing people a deaf way of living,
SPREAD INFORMATION, so that they
can gain hearing people’s RESPECT.
Deaf people still have a long way to
go, to BREAK-THROUGH-BARRIERS
and GO-ON and ON.
In the hearing world, deaf people
fight for the recognition of sign language,
better education for deaf children,
bilingual-bicultural education and
mainstreaming with interpreters, more
captioning on TV, more hours of interpreting,
less discrimination at work.
Conclusion
Through the life stories of Flemish deaf
role models, people who have actively
and openly assumed leadership in the
deaf community (Ladd, 2003; also see
Charlton, 1998), I explored the empowering
transformation (Yang, 2000)
of deaf identities. Grounded analysis of
VOLUME 152, NO. 1, 2007 AMERICAN ANNALS OF THE DEAF