As Town for Deaf Takes Shape, Debate on Isolation Re-emerges

[Rose Siding]

SALEM, S.D. - Standing in an empty field along a wind-swept highway, Marvin T. Miller, who is deaf, envisions the town he wants to create here: a place built around American Sign Language, where teachers in the new school will sign, the town council will hold its debates in sign language and restaurant workers will be required to know how to sign orders.

Planners, architects and future residents from various states and other countries are gathering at a camp center in South Dakota on Monday and through the week to draw detailed blueprints for the town, which could accommodate at least 2,500 people. Mr. Miller, who has been dreaming of this for years, intends to break ground by fall.

"Society isn't doing that great a job of, quote-unquote, integrating us," Mr. Miller, 33, said through an interpreter. "My children don't see role models in their lives: mayors, factory managers, postal workers, business owners. So we're setting up a place to show our unique culture, our unique society."
...
But in the complicated political world of deaf culture, Laurent is an increasingly contentious idea. For some, like Mr. Miller, his wife, Jennifer, who is also deaf, and their four deaf children, it seems the simplest of wishes: to live in a place where they are fully engaged in day-to-day life. Others, however, particularly advocates of technologies that help deaf people use spoken language, wonder whether such a town would merely isolate and exclude the deaf more than ever.......MORE......

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/21/national/21deaf.html?hp&ex=1111381200&en=0ebb4e653706733f&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Boomer]

1. Hmm....

>> it seems the simplest of wishes: to live in a place where they are fully engaged in day-to-day life. <<

As a gay woman, I know exactly how they feel, and how tempting the idea of such a community would be, as well as the uneasy concern that it's simply a means of supporting the ghettozation of a subculture.

No answers, mind you, just a strong sense of recognition. Been there, felt that.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

10. south beach?

[silverlib]

2. Fascinatin...

my daughter is taking ASL in high school and has told me that one of the things they are learning is that deaf children are the only "handicapped" children that do not integrate well into public education. Hearing parents do not want their children going to all deaf schools, but learn about middle school that this is a better path for learning and socialization skills. Deaf parents of deaf children send their children at an early age to deaf daycare and deaf schools, because they know how there children learn academically and socially.

I'll have to tell her about this town- thanks for posting

[shraby]

3. I can equate it to the enclaves

of different nationalities in a large city. People like to be around people they can communicate easily with.

[ender]

4. deaf culture is "odd"

a close, deaf, relative of mine is eligible for surgery that would increase her hearing ability. not make it normal, just improve it a bit.

she needs to go through a TON of psych profiling, for personal reasons, as well as "deaf community acceptance" reasons.

apparently, the deaf community "shuns" those who get this surgery, to improve their disability. its really really bizarre.

i'm of the opinion that if you have a disability, and can get a medical procedure thatmitigates it, why on earth would you not do it?

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Many in the deaf community

vehemently oppose cochlear implants for deaf children. I have a friend whose son was born deaf and his teachers worked very hard to talk her out of getting him implants.

I agree with you - how in the world can you oppose this? Especially for a child.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

8. Reverse social engineering...

... I am a life long resident of South Dakota. I lost my hearing as a young teen, attended the school for the deaf, joined Junior National Association of the Deaf, was state delegate to the national convention and youth leadership symposiums and also have had two cochlear implants. You wouldn't believe how I am harassed when I show up at the local deaf club (paid for with federal grants). Let's just say that if the Elks or Moose or Legion/VFW treated newcomers this way, they would have close to zero membership.

Roze Rosen, former president of National Association of the Deaf wanted cochlear implants outlawed in the early 90's. It was in a segment of 60 Minutes. The number/percentage of deaf persons in the US, whether hereditary or adventuous (became deaf sometime after birth from disease/injury) is on the decrease due to better technology and vaccines... ie,... the German Measles epidemic of the mid 1960's. My point is, if they succeeded in outlawing cochlear implants, as was the stated goal in the 1990's, this would have set a dangerous precedent. It isn't too much of a stretch to see that some group or lawyer would find reasoning to argue that any medication or treatment that prevents deafness be declared illegal, also.

This is all about not having to deal with the frustrations of coping with ones disability by not reaching out, while accusing others of the same thing.

on edit: clarification

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Thanks for your personal account

I teach special ed and have followed this issue for a number of years now. I have never been able to understand how any parent could deny their child a chance to eliminate or greatly reduce the impact of a handicapping condition.

If Christopher Reeve had this attitude, would we even be discussing stem cell research and its potential impact on spinal cord injuries?

[Boomer]

11. I'm no expert in this field...

...but I do remember hearing the arguments against cochlear implants.

If memory serves, the rationale was that the implants are not a cure, that at best they provide a very limited and distorted version of hearing that does not provide any significant improvement over a deaf state. And at worse, they can destroy the rudimentary hearing that the individual did possess.

Furthermore, the argument continues, society and the family may pressure the individual to rely on this inadequate, artificial sense rather than develop the coping mechanisms common to the deaf community. As a result the individual finds themselves unable to fully function in either community.

I offer no judgment as to the validity of this argument, just a recounting of what I have read in the past.

In tenor, this reminds me of the increasing activism of intersex individuals who argue that surgical "correction" of non-standard genitalia often creates physical dysfunctions that are worse than the original condition, all for the sake of conformity to societal standards.

[thedailyshow]

6. knowing full well the controversy about cochlear implants...

would this so-called "deaf" town accept those with cochlear implants? I think not.

[Midlodemocrat]

13. Hard to say.

I do know one family who is happy they provided a cochlear to their child and another who had it de-activated, or whatever. I guess it depends on the kid.

It would seem to me, that as a hearing person, I would give anything for my child to hear if they could not, but perhaps that is presumptuous.

I know here, some of the high school kids learn ASL to speak to one another, so maybe that should be the norm, rather than exclusion, inclusion.

[Goathead]

7. I saw a group of deaf teenagers on the Metro today

About six kids and I am only assuming they were deaf because they were all signing. They were doing all the things that "regular" teenagers do and by their interaction with one another I could tell they were having some very heated discussion. The one sign that I saw that I knew was when one kid gave another the middle finger, I guess that is universal.

[Bridget Burke]

12. What if a deaf couple gives birth to a hearing baby?

Many forms of deafness are NOT genetic. Will they be sent away for education?