Deaf Culture: the social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication; this is the dictionary definition of deaf culture. However, when asking a deaf person what they consider deaf culture, they say that it’s their way of life.

These days, deaf culture is becoming more and more apparent in hearing communities. There are deaf and hearing students in our classrooms, and our neighborhoods are integrated with deaf and hearing families. Deaf and hearing parents work alongside one another, and we sometimes wouldn’t even realize.

Being deaf is just another way of living; deaf people are capable of the same duties a hearing person may be. Even though some jobs or corporations would say that deafness is a handicap, no deaf person would ever say they are deprived of any opportunity because of their deafness.

A 40 year old man named Brian Walkins who was born deaf, and works at Northland Services, has worked his way up the ladder to becoming an executive, somewhere no one back in the day told him he could be.

“I never believed it when a hearing person told me I wouldn’t be successful, I knew then that I could make it happen and I wish they could see me now,” said Walkins.

There are many ways deafness can occur, some being at birth, others as a result of meningitis, even just deterioration of hearing can happen over time.
Prior to 1982, deafness was understood to be that a person could hear absolutely nothing. No hearing people really understood the concept that there is a deafness spectrum, ranging broadly from being hard of hearing, to deaf in one ear, or both, along with many more possibilities.

1982 was the year that the cochlear implant was invented, which caused a ripple across the nation. Hearing people started realizing the presence of deafness, and the variety of possibilities, while deaf people, living to their deaf communities were conflicted as to what the connotation that device held for their lives. Walkins never had opportunity to one when he was a child, but even now he says he wouldn’t have wanted one.

Now, given the chance, 12 year old Gabby Ramos who became deaf at four years old from meningitis, and her hearing parents decided against getting the cochlear.

Ramos doesn’t consider herself disabled, nor does she think she’ll be any less successful growing into a deaf woman. She’s content being deaf, and loves every aspect of her deaf culture.

All in all, deaf culture and hearing culture hold the same concepts, they’re just expressed in different ways.