Feasibility of a Qualitative Study Exploring the Experience of Deaf Individuals from Malaysia Studying Abroad: A Preliminary Study

This is a feasibility qualitative study involving a triangulation data collection method. The aim of the study is to develop a qualitative research to explore the lived experience of deaf individuals in attempt to view and understand their experience from their perspectives. This preliminary study involved a semi-structured interview with one deaf participant, observations of short video clips, and document review of relevant blog entries by a deaf individual from Malaysia. Thematic analysis was completed, and six emerging themes found were access, communication/interaction, gaining perspectives, interpreters, optimistic, and social support. As this was a feasibility study, modifications were made throughout the study. Limitations of this study was documented and taken into consideration in designing further studies.

On (Always) Passing

This chapter is a treatise on the issue of passing as a hard-of-hearing, or rather, as a deaf adult. The author, who comes from a background in English studies and rhetorical analysis, forged her professional identity as a deaf female academic grounded in the arts and humanities. Using this background as a foundation, she has created an extensive body of literature on the meanings of disability, deaf identities, gender, and the interactions of all three. Her thoughts and experiences as a deaf academic and deaf family member related to these three constructs have propelled her to describe in this chapter how she has moved from her previous conceptualization of “almost passing” as a hearing individual to “always passing” as a deaf individual. She illustrates how taking a stand regarding passing and being upfront about her needs as a deaf person can be affirming in terms of identity.

Deaf: A Concept Analysis From a Cultural Perspective Using the Wilson Method of Concept Analysis Development

The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis of the concept Deaf to increase health care provider (HCP) understanding from a cultural perspective. Deaf signers, people with hearing loss who communicate primarily in American Sign Language (ASL), generally define the term Deaf as a cultural heritage. In the health care setting, the term deaf is most often defined as a pathological condition requiring medical intervention. When HCPs are unaware that there are both cultural and pathological views of hearing loss, significant barriers may exist between the HCP and the Deaf individual. The concept of Deaf is analyzed using the Wilsonian method. Essential elements of the concept “Deaf” from a cultural perspective include a personal choice to communicate primarily in ASL and identify with the Deaf community. Resources for HCPs are needed to quickly identify Deaf signers and provide appropriate communication.

The social construction of ‘deafness’: explored through the experiences of Black South African mothers raising a deaf child

Individual realities and perceptions are embedded in a web of dominant social and cultural views which shape the individual. Mothers of deaf children therefore cannot be understood in isolation, and neither can their experiences, perceptions, and well-being. The present research investigated the construction of deafness through the experiences of mothers raising a deaf child and considered the manner in which these constructions impacted their well-being and relationship with the child. The study explored the experiences of six Black South African hearing mothers of a deaf child between the ages of 3 and 8 years. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted. Through an interpretive theoretical framework, this qualitative study noted seven main themes, namely, deafness is foreign and unknown, increased awareness and normalising of deafness, religious and Traditional African beliefs about disability/deafness, external pity and the mother’s rejection of it, the discourse of the ‘superiority’ of speech and encouragement of speech and hearing, barriers to communicating with her child, and ‘Why me?’ attribution of cause and the emergence of blame. Extrapolation of the data suggests that there is a lack of awareness regarding the deaf individual, and this creates misinformed perceptions about deafness which impact negatively both mother and child.

Losing the beat: deficits in temporal coordination

Tapping or clapping to an auditory beat, an easy task for most individuals, reveals precise temporal synchronization with auditory patterns such as music, even in the presence of temporal fluctuations. Most models of beat-tracking rely on the theoretical concept of pulse: a perceived regular beat generated by an internal oscillation that forms the foundation of entrainment abilities. Although tapping to the beat is a natural sensorimotor activity for most individuals, not everyone can track an auditory beat. Recently, the case of Mathieu was documented (Phillips-Silver et al. 2011 Neuropsychologia 49 , 961–969. ( doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.02.002 )). Mathieu presented himself as having difficulty following a beat and exhibited synchronization failures. We examined beat-tracking in normal control participants, Mathieu, and a second beat-deaf individual, who tapped with an auditory metronome in which unpredictable perturbations were introduced to disrupt entrainment. Both beat-deaf cases exhibited failures in error correction in response to the perturbation task while exhibiting normal spontaneous motor tempi (in the absence of an auditory stimulus), supporting a deficit specific to perception–action coupling. A damped harmonic oscillator model was applied to the temporal adaptation responses; the model's parameters of relaxation time and endogenous frequency accounted for differences between the beat-deaf cases as well as the control group individuals.

Disability and the Right to Work

It is, perhaps, a propitious time to discuss the economic rights of disabled persons. In recent years, the media in the United States have re-ported on such notable events as: students at the nation's only college for the deaf stage a successful protest campaign to have a deaf individual ap-pointed president of their institution; a book by a disabled British physicist on the origins of the universe becomes a best seller; a pitcher with only one arm has a successful rookie season in major league baseball; a motion-picture actor wins an Oscar for his portrayal of a wheelchair-bound person, beating out another nominee playing another wheelchair-bound person; a cancer patient wins an Olympic gold medal in wrestling; a paralyzed mother trains her children to accept discipline by inserting their hands in her mouth to be gently bitten when punishment is due; and a paraplegic rock climber scales the sheer four-thousand-foot wall of Yosemite Valley's El Capitan. Most significantly, in 1990, the United States Congress passed an important bill – the Americans with Disabili-ties Act – extending to disabled people employment and access-related protections afforded to members of other disadvantaged groups by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.