Many deaf individuals faced audism, a new term meaning to discriminate based on the inability to hear. The concept is empowering for Deaf people because of the history of discrimination deaf individuals faced. The second approach is focused on trying to do the opposite-to enlarge the idea of what Deafhood might mean, taking ideas from anywhere and adapting them to deaf life. One is based on the effort in maintaining Deafhood within the boundaries of the oppressive deaf world as it was historically. In these settings, Ladd states 'one's national identity begins a process of 'enlarging' itself into a transnational commonality of Deafhood.' This points to the fact that there are two approaches to Deafhood. Signing must be kept in the purest form possible, leaving out 'accents' and other added effects so that both parties can be understood. Communication is difficult on an international level because signed languages are not universal and each country can have one or more signed languages. Paddy Ladd states that the heart of Deafhood is the international spirit. Bauman quotes Ladd's definition of Deafhood in the introduction of the work Open Your Eyes: 'Deafhood is not seen as a finite state but as a process by which deaf individuals come to actualize their deaf identity, positing that those individuals construct that identity around several differently ordered sets of priorities and principles, which are affected by various factors such as nation, era, and class.' Īccording to Ladd, Deafhood requires deaf people to evaluate and liberate themselves from the oppression they have faced historically from the majority hearing society.

Others have found the term too ambiguous to be helpful. Some in the deaf community, regardless of whether or not they had read Ladd's book, latched onto this concept as a way to unite the varied segments of the deaf community. Many other deaf people, like Ella Mae Lentz, have used this term to explain a deaf person's unique personal journey to discover and understand themselves as a deaf person. Unlike deafness, which is often used to describe deaf people only in terms of their hearing loss, Deafhood asserts being deaf has a positive value for humankind and does not need to be cured like a disease. While the precise meaning of the word remains deliberately vague-Ladd himself calls Deafhood a 'process' rather than something finite and clear-it attempts to convey an affirmative and positive acceptance of being deaf. JSTOR ( May 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)ĭeafhood is a term coined by Paddy Ladd in his book Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.

Paddy ladd