Deaf awareness and new concepts

Discussion on deaf awareness was not restricted to the 1980s; instead, it has emerged at suitable times. In 2001, Liisa Kauppinen, the executive director of the Association for the Deaf, redefined the concept of deaf awareness. According to it, a deaf-aware person defends the rights of deaf people, knows the history of deaf people and sign language and the nature of the deaf culture and community. They are also aware of their rights and how they could be promoted.

In the 2000s, new concepts emerged alongside deaf awareness and people talked about empowerment of the community. The deaf researcher Paddy Ladd introduced a cultural concept Deafhood to complement the old Deafness concept. Deafness was linked to a lack of hearing. In contrast, deafhood means

choosing a positive, life-enriching attitude to deafness. In this ideology, sign languages are seen as a richness, similarly to global citizenship and international connections of the deaf community. Deafness is seen as a meaningful characteristic and not as a flaw. The central idea is that sign languages also enrich the hearing society and that deaf people have the right to the experience of deafness.

The Deaf Gain concept is close to Deafhood and it, too, considers deafness as a resource. The basic idea is that deafness involves large quantities of silent information and therefore only deaf people can know what it is like to be deaf. It emphasises the positive aspects of deafness and the positive impacts it brings to deaf people’s lives, such as easy communications in sign language. Deaf Gain promotes cultural and linguistic diversity and emphasises that deaf people have a lot to offer to society. As a whole, sign languages have changed our view of language and human creativity.

Whether we talk about deaf awareness, Deaf Gain or empowerment, ultimately we are talking about the same thing. Deaf people must have a right to their own culture and language.