Deaf people share a collective name, language, culture, history, values, customs and behavior norms, feelings of community and kinship, arts and literature, and social/organizational structures. It is living in a nonsigning world that can be disabling, not the experience of being Deaf. When meeting with a Deaf client, several important issues need to be considered, including cultural competence, assessing and working through personal biases, counselor advocacy and client empowerment, communication, confidentiality, service delivery, referral, consulting and connecting with professional Deaf counselors, and working with sign language interpreters.ĭeaf culture, Deaf community and Deaf identityĭeaf people are part of an ethnic group - a cultural, linguistic minority.
This article is only a starting point to understanding Deaf people in counseling contexts. This means the perspectives shared here are not from an audiological center or phonological constructs that include the views and terms of “deafness,” “hearing loss,” “hearing impaired” and “cannot hear.” We discuss Deaf people from a social-cultural minority standpoint. This article is written from the Deaf experience - a “Deaf center” - which reflects “a different normality” (as Irene Leigh explains in her book A Lens on Deaf Identities). We, five Deaf counselors, have come together to write this article to educate our fellow counselors about Deaf culture, the Deaf community and working with Deaf clients. (ASL PRIDE created by De’VIA artist, Nancy Rourke.
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