What is Deaf culture?

Supporters of deaf culture argue this appropriately recognizes Deaf people as a minority culture in the world with their own language, social norms, and culture, and promotes Deaf people's right to collective space within society to pass on their language and culture to future generations. read more

A Deaf sociolinguist, Dr. Barbara Kannapel, developed a definition of the American Deaf culture that includes a set of learned behaviors of a group of people who are deaf and who have their own language (ASL), values, rules, and traditions. read more

But the Deaf culture believes mainstream hearing America puts too much emphasis on the spoken word. They maintain ASL is a complete language, even though they don’t produce words with their mouths and voices. read more