Audism

Audism

What does an Audist want?

Tom Humphries, a doctor of cross culture communication, professor, and lecturer on Deaf Culture invented the term Audism in 1977. He defined Audism as, "The notion that one is superior based on one's ability to hear or to behave in the manner of one who hears."

Harlan Lane, the founder of the Center for Research in Hearing, Speech, and Language, gave his views of Audism. "In short, audism is the hearing way of dominating, restructuring, and exercising authority over the deaf community. It includes such professional people as administrators of schools for deaf children and of training programs for deaf adults, interpreters, and some audiologists, speech therapists, otologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, librarians, researchers, social workers, and hearing aid specialists"

One who believes in audism is called an Audist. They have the mindset that "without hearing life is pointless." They believe hearing loss is a tragedy.

An Audist's goal is for people to be as much like hearing people as possible. If you do not speak like a hearing person you should be shunned. Audist shun not only ASL but also Deaf people.

Audist can be Hearing or Deaf

Audism Monologues

This idea of prejudice and hatred towards Deaf people has not only been documented in writing but also in video. Around the world many countries have showcased monologues of Deaf people's encounters with Audism and oppression that have been screened at Deaf Film Festivals.

Examples of Audism

The most common example of Audism is the mindset "you can not do this because you are deaf." One example stated, "you cannot be a school principal. Why? Because you can't talk on the phone." Telling someone what they can or cannot do because of their ability or inability to hear is Audism.

Discrimination

Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Anti-Semitic, and Audism

All of these are prime examples of discrimination towards minority groups. Although it is not as commonly known, audism is in the same category as all these other discriminated against minorities.

What Can We Do To Stop Audism?

EDUCATE! StopAudism.org says, the only way to stop prejudice is to educate the community on the problem. Once the problem is identified and out in the open only then can we stop the spread of Audism.