Deaf As (in ASL) “Hearing in the Mind”

Referring to the sign, “hearing” in front of the forehead which we’ve seen in the signing community to describe:

a deaf person who may not be culturally deaf or

a deaf person showing no desire to be part of the deaf culture or signing community

a deaf person who does not advocate or assert for the rights of deaf signers

In other words, it’s small “d” instead of capital “D.”

I used to live in California for 20-plus years, from 1983 to 1994—nine years in Northern
California and eleven in Southern California. I came across a wide variety of deaf individuals of various age groups and ethnic backgrounds. California has large populations of Latinos/Latinas and Asians, much more than I was accustomed to see when I was growing up in New York City. In addition, there are many mainstreamed programs for the deaf and hard-of-hearing students
as well as some oral-education-based schools that they vastly out-numbered the
state schools for the deaf currently in existence—only a couple (based in
Fremont and Riverside).

Especially through my former jobs both as HIV/AIDS community educator with Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc. and as a deaf adult literacy instructor at the Goodwill Industries of Long Beach and South Bay, I met many deaf, older students and adults of various
backgrounds. I came to learn that many of them went to mainstreamed programs though no fault of their own; their parents enrolled them. Many of them do sign but they were first exposed to Signing Exact English (that alone is enough to make my stomach churn), and eventually they moved on to American Sign Language according to their own pace and amount of interaction with other native signers. Because of such enormous amount of diversity among the deaf people in California, such labels like “hearing in the mind” and small “d” versus big “D” do not apply nor fit them. Based on my observation during my twenty-year residence in California this kind of sign, “hearing in the mind” is rarely, I repeat rarely used!

When I accepted temporary employment at the Laurent Clerc Deaf Education Center (inside the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School building on Gallaudet University campus) in the
fall of 1999, I was shocked, really shocked, to see somebody using this sign, “hearing in the mind.” I hadn’t seen this kind of sign in a long, long time. This also shows that I had lived in California for so long that this sign kind of disappeared from my signing vocabulary and way of
thinking.

With the protest that occurred at Gallaudet last May, a new term, deafhood, came up on the “scene” or “radar.” I couldn’t help thinking that if we want to embrace deafhood, we need to get rid of the sign, “hearing in the mind” because it carries negative connotation in most cases. It’s counter-productive to use if we want unity in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. I don’t mind seeing this sign but only in rare occasions and within very good reasons. In other words, use it to describe but not to attack and oppress. Using it to describe would help me to
effectively work WITH the deaf individuals who may not have or not yet developed a strong sense of “signing community.”

There are many deaf individuals who didn’t grow up in the signing community (living in different types of environments), thus having very different ways of thoughts and responses. Sometimes I find the differences in their perspectives acutely refreshing! This we should welcome and embrace.

One last case in point here—I’m a fourth-generation, culturally deaf person and sometimes my
way of thinking and perspective are advanced or not so common in the signing community. Does that make me “hearing in the mind”? I’d say “yes,” but I never abandon deaf culture and the signing community because they are a big part of my growing up years and my current environment. I simply choose (or try to) the middle ground.