Use of Text Messaging by Deaf Adolescents in Japan

This article discusses a survey study that drew on seventy-five high school students at a residential deaf school in Japan. The aim of the survey was to examine the various ways in which deaf adolescents use text messaging and to determine whether they use the technology differently from the hearing high school students surveyed in our previously published study. The present study found that deaf high school students use texting for different purposes than do their hearing counterparts. Contrary to the media hype about text messaging, the difficulties associated with the language of technology-mediated communication are identified in the deaf student data. The results of the current study raise questions about modern technology's much-claimed empowerment of individuals with a hearing impairment. In addition, this article reports on the methodological issues of conducting a survey with a linguistic minority, including the choice of wording.