Deaf Culture Views

While researching Deaf Culture on google.com, I came across something that I found very interesting. Using the site http://www.signmedia.com/info/adc.htm, I learned that a deaf community can be defined in two different ways. The two different ways are known as pathological and cultural.

I learned that people that follow a pathological view tend to be very specific in their definition. They believe that only people who are deaf or lack hearing should be a part of a deaf community. After reading this, I did not agree with these peoples' way of thinking. Think about families for example. If you have deaf parents and two deaf siblings, and you are hearing, would that make you part of the community that your family belongs to? Or according to a pathological view, would you technically not apply to the definition? I think that this definition was just a bit to "one way or the other". It seems to me that if people followed this definition of what a deaf community should be, deaf people and hearing people would be very secluded from each other and have very little contact.

The second definition is a cultural view. This view was a little more open and said that anyone that could use sign language as a means of communication, as well as all deaf people would make a community. This definition would work for the example I mentioned earlier about being the only hearing child in a family. Because the child would understand and speak sign language with their family, they would be considered part of the deaf community. I don't think it's right to single out hearing people just because they may not know how to speak sign language. It almost seems as though some deaf people are scared of hearing people, their world, and what they may do if they were part of the deaf community.

I thought it was very interesting to see that deaf people had such opinions on what constitutes a community. I think that everyone should be welcome in all communities and no one should be turned away because of their differences. I don't feel that anyone should be opressed because of who they are. People just need to learn to understand and accept everyone around them. If this can happen, maybe deaf people and hearing people will find a community that fits both.