Deaf People Around the World: Educational and Social Perspectives

Preface

xi Preface TH E MOTIVATION for this book developed over a long period of time, and we attribute that lengthy development to several factors. First among them has been the opportunity for us, both together and separately, to visit a wide range of countries to participate in and present at conferences , observe in schools, visit universities, discuss research, conduct workshops, and visit clubs for the Deaf. Our experiences around the world with both Deaf and hearing colleagues have been uniformly pleasant and informative. Visits we made to clubs for the Deaf have been particularly gratifying. There was always more ease of communication with deaf signers if we did not share a language than there was with hearing speakers if they did not speak English and we did not speak their language. Of course, many people have noted this phenomenon. Each of us has had tenure of more than 20 years at Gallaudet University, another source of international exchange. During that time, Gallaudet hosted two Deaf Way conferences in which thousands of Deaf individuals came together from around the world to share their arts and experiences. As the only liberal arts college for Deaf people in the world, Gallaudet serves as a magnet on an international scale. In addition to participating in in-service training for professionals from other countries, we have taught and advised deaf and hearing undergraduate and graduate students from all six continents. We first met some of the contributors to this book when they were students, predoctoral fellows, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, and fellow faculty members. In this way, we have been able to develop an appreciation of the commonality that defines deaf people around the world combined with the uniqueness of each national identity. A final major influence has been Moores’ role of editor of the American Annals of the Deaf. The Annals has always had international contributors, including Alfred Binet in 1910, but their numbers were relatively small. This situation started to change in the 1990s, when the Joint Annals Administrative Committee directed the editor to increase the number of articles from outside of the United States and Canada. The results were apparent by the turn of the century, and by 2008, approximately 40% of all manuscript submissions to the Annals—and subsequent publications—have come from international sources. The contact with these authors has been gratifying, and relationships are on a first-name basis, even without the opportunity to actually meet face to face. In fact, many of the contributors to this text have published in the Annals. It may be said that there is a worldwide Deaf community and, as we have noted, the ease of communication among deaf individuals with different sign languages has long been a subject of discussion. We hope that this book helps to address in a larger way some of the shared developmental, social, and educational issues facing Deaf people around the world as filtered through the prism of unique national, regional, ethnic, and racial realities. REPRESENTATIVE COUNTRIES At present, the United Nations recognizes more than 200 countries. Our goal was to have contributions from as wide a geographic area as possible, representing ranges of economic xii PR E F A C E development and varying histories of educational and social services for Deaf citizens. We also wanted to include countries with small, medium, and large populations. We received recommendations from colleagues around the world for countries and possible contributors. Because space limitations called for no more than 30 chapters, a small minority of the possible total number of countries, we faced some difficulty in coming up with a final list. There were concerns about limiting the number of chapters on European countries, where education of the deaf began. We are completely aware that two, three, or more texts could be developed using contributions from other countries, and we encourage colleagues to do so. We decided that there should be chapters on the three countries with the world’s largest populations: China, India, and the United States. We also wanted to include chapters on countries with high rates of ethnic and racial diversity. Brazil, South Africa, and the United States were obvious candidates, although racial and ethnic diversity is increasing in several countries. After that, it was a matter of including countries with varying characteristics within defined geographic areas. Almost everyone contacted agreed to participate, and we are gratified by their enthusiasm and unique insights. FORMAT The goal was to provide a common framework for each chapter while at...