Language and Community
Navigating cultural belonging in a hidden landscape
Bluebell Nicholls
Column II
In my research for my first article for this column, ‘Fighting for Representation’, it became apparent that British Sign Language (BSL) researchers overwhelmingly emphasise the unique landscape that BSL exists in. My conclusions in investigating discrimination against the deaf and BSL speakers promoted the introduction of legislation that recognises the legal status of BSL. This will help enable the protection of deaf culture and heritage for the BSL community.¹ But how exactly do we define the deaf community? And how does the deaf community relate to one another when they live amongst the hearing? How do we define deaf culture when it transcends race, gender and sexuality?
It is important to highlight that sign languages, like spoken languages, are not a homogenous global entity. There are numerous sign languages across the world. Across the English speaking countries, Britain, New Zealand, and Australia are largely similar. American Sign Language, however, bears a greater similarity to French Sign Language.² A further misconception is that BSL is a new language developed by the hearing, for the deaf - which is far from true. Sign languages, including BSL, are naturally occurring languages of the deaf community that have evolved parallel to spoken languages like English. Consequently, BSL at times appears similar grammatically and lexically, but also holds striking significant differences.³ This is why it is important to acknowledge, support, and protect the deaf community. BSL is a living breathing organism that evolves naturally as all languages do. So we should examine the context and the culture that BSL speakers live in, and the circumstances in which BSL is spoken.
Of course, we can take the very literal definition of culture. Culture being a set of shared experiences and social paradigms that a group meets. Thus the deaf community could be defined as the shared experience of being deaf. But it’s far more nuanced than that. There is still some debate about what, and specifically who, the deaf community is. Deafness is not only inherited but is both congenital and acquired in older age. The status of actually being deaf had been defined as anyone who is not of hearing ability, that it is the disability that distinguishes it. But many people who are deaf might not necessarily be part of the deaf community. Some older adults might decide to wear hearing aids or not speak sign, which comes into conflict with those that suggest that the deaf community is defined by the speaking of BSL.³ This is also contentious as it relies on participation rather than being. The qualification of speaking BSL might exclude those who enter deafness at an older age. Additionally, it could enable the inclusion of hearing individuals who speak sign but aren’t actually deaf, which seems bizarre. It would also feel equally as odd to define the deaf community by the shared experience of discrimination. Albeit it is a shared experience, but, like other cultures that face discrimination, it is not the defining one.
Scholarship has concluded that the community centres not around any particular criteria (or more specifically a number of overlapping criteria of which no one specific factor has prevalence), but has instead looked towards the community that are Deaf clubs. Evolving out of a close ecclesiastical connection, Deaf clubs are opportunities for the deaf to speak BSL in an unpressurised environment. Deaf schools and even the British Deaf Association in its inception were created by hearing individuals to aid deaf education, and they did this through trying to teach traditional hearing methods i.e. speech and language.³ Deaf clubs create an environment where there isn’t any emphasis to communicate via hearing methods, where BSL for a time isn’t an ‘other’ means of communication, but the standard.⁴ When we consider how the deaf community relate to the hearing population, it reveals how significant Deaf clubs are. Whilst those that are deaf might be socially isolated amongst the hearing population, they are not separated from the population. For example, deaf parents might have a hearing child, and hearing parents might have a deaf child. These family units must span both communities simultaneously. Deaf clubs are a lifeline to deaf individuals to simply find other people like them.
However, things appear to be changing. As the world changes with technical advancement, the increased ease of video calling has dramatically transformed the deaf landscape. It is interesting to consider the role of deaf youth in this. Generation Z is the first generation where smartphones have always been a part of everyday life, alongside the pervasiveness of social media. In the way that subcultures within the youth demographic exists in the hearing population, it must also exist amongst the deaf community. Online trends, memes, quotes and discussions change at such a pace that one can wonder if BSL, and the rate at which creation of new signs are formally introduced into the BSL are entrenching generational divide in the deaf community. There is already a somewhat established generational gap between deaf youth and the elderly deaf. As there is no inherent aspect of deafness, there is not necessarily a link to connect the two. It’s easy to imagine how slang in BSL could evolve out of popular and online culture, and be ‘lost in translation’ with the elderly deaf, who are not immersed in that world. Furthermore, there is some reporting to suggest that Deaf clubs are in decline, as a consequence of the increase of online life combined with the decline of pubs and publicly accessible shared spaces.⁵ Whilst increased online connectivity can be viewed as a positive, the importance of a physical community space should not be underestimated. In person Deaf clubs signify the very real and very present deaf community, and are very physically part of the community at large. Deaf clubs took a long time to form and organise, especially in the face of marginalisation, so their complete transference to the online realm seems like a great shame.
Considering the diversity of sign language (i.e. home signs, regional accents, standard BSL) and the changing online and offline cultural landscape, along with the ongoing generational shift, it could be suggested that the deaf community is at a critical change in direction. Age groups at each end of the spectrum are being let down; elderly deaf with the lack of social media navigation are being left behind as the world moves online, whilst deaf youth do not have the vocabulary (at least formally) to articulate themselves outside an online world where in-jokes, wordplay and slang from across the globe are the cornerstones of Gen Z humour. In 2015, a Dundee student created over 100 new signs because he felt the lack of ability to express himself accurately in his science course at university.⁶ In this example, it was not a failure in communication within the online landscape, but between interpreters and students. Imagine the scale that this could be happening on, where deaf youth simply cannot keep pace with online language, which continuously chops and changes, sometimes not even into literate words.
Overall, it seems impossible in these times to be able to predict what will happen to the deaf community, but it feels significant that Deaf clubs should remain a foundation within it. Especially if deaf youth are pushing ahead with creating new signs to fit their growing online vocabulary, Deaf clubs could be an opportunity to share knowledge instead of creating new knowledge deficits. And ultimately, it demonstrates an ever-present need to protect and encourage deaf culture and deaf heritage, in order to bridge the gap between generations and push BSL into the present.
¹ ‘Sign Language - Legal Status’ (no date) British Deaf Association. Available at: https://bda.org.uk/project/sign-language-legal-status/ (Accessed: 7 September 2020).
² Fenlon, J. and Wilkinson, E. (2015) ‘Sign languages in the world’, in Schembri, A. C. and Lucas, C. (eds) Sociolinguistics and Deaf Communities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 5–28.
³ Kyle, J. G. et al. (1988) Sign Language: The Study of Deaf People and Their Language. Cambridge University Press.
⁴ Ladd, P. (2003) Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood. Multilingual Matters.
⁵ West, E. (2018) ‘Why are Deaf clubs closing and is it actually a problem?’, British Deaf News, 9 August.
⁶ ‘What’s Deoxyribonucleotide in Sign Language?’ BBC News, 20 July 2019, sec. Tayside and Central Scotland. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-49057331.