Aidan: Deafhood

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I recently received an e-mail from someone who asked me where I stood on the issue of Deafhood. My opinion hasn't changed. It's still very much the same. I support the concept of Deafhood all the way. It's changed my life, really. The first time I took a Deafhood workshop was two years ago at NAD. I went in not knowing what to expect, and to my surprise I was blown away by the information that was presented. There was the history angle, and also the workshop helped me to understand better the topic of Deaf-against-Deaf infighting.

After awhile I went to another workshop in Rhode Island, which was just like the first, and also went in depth in the topics and presented various new interpretations, which is natural. But still, wow! The lecture gave me goosebumps--how we should really care about the different groups...

The presenters were amazing and really gave their time to interact with the people who attended to answer their questions. They were truly amazing speakers. Ella Lentz, David Ebertwein, Genie Gertz. They're really the best at what they do, "the champs."

So then a young friend of mine paged me excitedly and told me about an upcoming Deafhood workshop at NAD given by some other presenter, someone I didn't know. I said to her, "Go! Go to the workshop and tell me what you think."

Then another time when I went to the Deaf Read awards in San Francisco, I was close to Fremont, so I went to visit the school for the Deaf, and I thought: Wow, this is an amazing school and a fantastic community. I feel really at home here. Such friendly people--wonderful. It gives me goosebumps.

David Eberwein gave me a tour of the school, and sure enough, a little girl who wears a cochlear implant came up to DE and I was really touched watching the two of them interact. DE treats all the different children the same, valuing them equally.

Did you know that Adam Stone worked there? He has a cochlear implant. I'm not sure if he still works there now, but from what I heard he really enjoyed working there at Fremont. Really, I love that school. It serves as an amazing educational model.

There are a lot of kids with CIs at the Fremont school who have been placed there after being unsuccessful at other schools where the teachers focused on their speech skills. They fell way behind at these other schools, so they ended up transferring to Fremont. The Fremont school provided a strong emphasis on ASL, helping the kids to work hard to catch up in their education.

Then I went to a Deafhood class (offered through Ohlone College) and felt goosebumps of inspiration again. There were so many different types of people taking the class: CODAs, interpreters, Deaf, oral deaf, people with CI's--all different kinds of people, all expressing their views, giving each other their attention and mutual respect I get goosebumps again now just thinking about it.

The presenters there are really wonderful--from the heart. Sometimes I might disagree with them. Most of the time I agree with them.

I want to let you know that I really support the concept of Deafhood, and I really appreciate them spending their time, and appreciate what they've given. If it weren't for them, many of us would still just be out here fumbling around, but they've really helped many of us to take a whole new look at the subject. And everything I've learned so far has really resonated very well with all the implicit knowledge that I have, living as a Deaf person, and confirms what I know implicitly to be true.