Arrival of Deaf Awareness in Finland

In the 1970s, new perspectives on deafness were sought. In 1978, Jarmo Narmala, the editorial coordinator of Kuurojen Lehti magazine and an activist, called for discussion on deaf self-esteem. He thought it was time for deaf people to abandon their sense of inferiority and for the hearing to stop feeling they made sacrifices in order to abolish the prevailing mentality of charity and patronising attitudes. Similar ideas were being discussed internationally.

The Deaf Awareness movement had grown more popular in the Nordic countries and the first deaf culture festival arranged in Aalborg, Denmark in 1978 marked an important milestone. At the festival, Swedish participants discussed deaf self-esteem and Lars-Åke Wikström, a deaf sign language researcher, gave a talk on the topic. Having learned about the Deaf Awareness movement in the US, he stated that a deaf-aware deaf person was not ashamed of his or her deafness but was proud of it and used sign language. Wikström discussed linguistic disability, which could also pertain to a hearing person in a situation where he or she tries to communicate in a group of deaf people who use sign language. Wikström stressed that to be able to participate in decision-making in matters related to deafness, deaf people should obtain information and education. It was also important that deaf people could convey their own personal experience of deafness because this was the only way to have influence.

The term deaf awareness was used in Finland in 1978 at the latest. Raija Nieminen, the head of the cultural centre of the Association for the Deaf, wrote about it in the Kuurojen Lehti magazine in 1979. In the article, she stated how important it was for deaf people to be able to be deaf and feel valuable as they were. Improving self-esteem was only possibly if sign language was recognised as a language and deaf people were allowed to use it as their mother tongue. Comparing the Deaf Awareness movements in the US and the Nordic countries, Nieminen noted that they differed in their focus: the American movement emphasised work with families and education whereas in the Nordic countries the focus was on influencing the entire society. In the 1970s, the Deaf Awareness movement had spread the widest in the US and the Nordic countries. In these regions, the status of sign language was better than elsewhere.

In Finland, the concept of deaf awareness was given a definition in 1979. According to this definition, deaf awareness refers to the idea that deaf people should see themselves as people with equal rights in society. They must find their own identity, and know themselves, their language and the value of the sign language culture. The goal was to promote the rights of deaf people to ensure that they enjoy full equality. The right to sign language and its approval as a teaching language in schools were at the heart of the movement. A Nordic Deaf Awareness seminar, which was arranged later, emphasised that, as advocacy groups, deaf associations had to be deaf-aware and had to define the areas where changes were needed.

Finland’s first Deaf Awareness seminar was arranged in the Malminharju training centre at the beginning of 1980. The event attracted 50 participants, many of whom were young. The seminar emphasised the equal status of deaf people in society and the significance of deaf culture in fostering self-esteem. A deaf-aware person is aware of his or her rights, responsibilities and possibilities and tries to influence matters.