Week 7, Monday: Exclusion and Inclusion

One again service learning this week has managed to amaze me. I walked into the DP Hanoi office on Monday expecting to do translation work and instead discovered that the training session for the deaf association was taking place. And so with great glee I joined an amazing lesson on deaf hood. taught by an Australian Deaf woman in International Signs (which I didn’t know existed until that day).

Most of the lesson focused on what exactly inclusion/exclusion means and turning traditional notions of inclusion/exclusion on their head. Traditionally the Deaf are viewed as excluded from society, faced with a large lists of can’ts. They are viewed as being part of the huge number of people labeled as “disabled” who share in common the fact that they are excluded from society for some reason or another. However the lecturer was presenting the idea that the deaf are just as able as any other group of people… rather what separates them is that they are a linguistic minority. From here notions of inclusion and exclusion become blurred. Is a Deaf person excluded because they are “hearing impaired” or is a hearing person excluded from Deaf society because they are “signing impaired”? The conversation also turned to what it means to be actively rather than passively excluded. The concept of “audism” was introduced, or suppression of the Deaf. It’s another one of those ism’s… Racism Sexism etc. except this one is based on the belief that hearing is central and the Deaf are inferior.

While the topic of discussion was familiar (it summed up much of what I have learned in my ASL minor) it was amazing to see the effect they had on the HAD board members. Here was a group of well educated Deaf individuals who had never been exposed to some of these concepts before, despite having much personal experience with them. Stories started flying around the room and light bulbs stared to go off in people’s heads. Questions like “wait why aren't we disabled?” eventually gave way to laughing at the concept of being “signing impaired” and a real sense of empowerment. While many of the topics discussed were abstract “deafhood” isn’t something you can really put your finger on, I think they went a long way towards making the deaf members feel more empowered and included in a worldwide community.

HAD board members. From left to right "O", "G", Thang, "L" (President), board member who's name i forget and "T" (vice president).

The Australian instructor and Linh or Lan (the other VP). Her younger sister is the interpreter who has the other L name.