asl paper 2

8/3/2019 ASL Paper 2

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-1 Brian Turner ASL 1T/TH

Deaf State

Would a full deaf state be a good thing or a bad thing for the Deaf community?

How about a deaf town? These are the two questions Ill be answering with

reference to the article A town for the deaf? by Sharon Cohen and a collection

of letters titled On Planning a Deaf-Mute Commonwealth by J. J. Flournoy,

Edmund Booth, et al. throughout the paper.

Firstly, let us examine the downfalls of having an exclusively Deaf town or

state. Mr. Booth writes in a latter that, they [deaf] will need to work at a variety

of trades, and a commonwealth of mutes could never exceed 10,000, supposing

all in the U.S. were brought in. (13) While the numbers are a bit off (since it was

written in 1858) the argument is still very valid. A functional town or state would

require a large network of Deaf ranging from garbage men to politicians. Theremay or may not be a problem recruiting enough people to populate the land but

they would need a certain formula of specific workers in proportion to their

numbers, such as doctors, firefighters, politicians, business owners, police,

judges, etc. which is less than likely to happen if everyone is required to be Deaf.

The next con that I see to having a Deaf state would be that offspring of Dead

parents would produce, children being mostly of the hearing order, it would

become a hearing community faster than the fathers and mothers died out. (13)

This is the biggest problem to having a Deaf state because there will always be a

constant struggle by the native Deaf people of the state and the native hearing


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people of the state. For this problem to be bypassed parents would have to send

their hearing born out of state, which may be difficult for some. Others downfalls

of having an exclusively Deaf state would be danger caused by not hearing

warning noises (car coming, bullet shots, windows breaking, etc.), financial

means to start and continue a state for 20-30 years before it can sustain itself,

isolation and lack of communication with the rest of the USA including politics,

differing signs, court systems would need to comprise of all Deaf, and more.

The pros of an exclusive Deaf state may outweigh the cons though. Deaf

people who have a below average education could gain an education from themore educated since they would be able to communicate much easier. Mr.

Booth writes, A community of this class would be a mixture of a few well and

many half-educated (13) which would benefit the less educated. Another

important pro would be that there would be all Deaf politicians ranging from

mayors to governors and everything in between. At city hall meetings everyones

opinion would be truly accounted for and higher ranking politicians would have

the improvement of Deaf quality of life since they themselves are Deaf. Other

pros of a Deaf state would be an improved sense of community since currently

Deaf people cannot walk down the street and yell, Hello across the street but in

a Deaf state the could easily. Another would be power in numbers, since they

would have a concentrated force of the Deaf community projects and movements

created by the town could be supported and executed easily (pooling money

together). A common language, better Deaf communication technologies (video

phones), better recognition for Deaf people, variety of schooling options, Deaf


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role models, a sense of normality, and many more.

Personally, I think that a Deaf state would be a good idea if it were

executed correctly because a State would have enough different people that the

state could sustain itself and become introverted if needed. I do not think a Deaf

town would be a good idea as a town would not have enough different types of

people to sustain all the services the people would need.

asl paper 2

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