A Deaf Adult Speaks Out

6. Total Communication

61Total Communication Rationale for Total Communication Total communication, or "the total approach," has been called many things, from highly complimentary comments to epithets of downright insult. The most frequently used definition is that of Margaret Kent, former principal of the !\1aryland School for the Deaf. As quoted by Ottinger in an article in The DeafAmerican~ she describes The right of a deaf child to use all forms of communication to develop language cOlnpetence. This includes the full spectrum of child devised gestures, speech, formal signs, fingerspelling, speechreading , reading, and writing. To every deaf child should also be provided the opportunity to learn to use any remnant of residual hearing he may have by employing the best possible electronic equipment for amplifying sound. (1971, p. 4) Many people have called total communication "a method," along with oral, combined, Rochester, and other methods. In an editorial in The California News in 1971 I gave my viewpoint as follows: I conceive of total cornmunication not so much as a method as it is a philosophy-a way of thinking which is rational, kind, considerate, and sensitive to the needs of deaf children. In my way of thinking, total communication is any method or a combination of two or more methods of conveying a desired message to a hearing-impaired person such that he is able to understand 100 percent of the message. And, he should also be able to express himself so that his vis-a-vis will understand him 100 percent. In the latter case, since the person in question is the one who is handicapped, adjustments should be made 51 52 IA DEAF ADULT SPEAKS OUT by the vis-a-vis so that he is able to receive communication 100 percent from the handicapped person. (p. 8) I would like to go one step further in defining total communication : When the doctrine of total communication is followed, every restraint is removed from the communicative media that are used by deaf children; they are not only allowed to use communicative methods with which they are the most comfortable, but others use the same means to communicate with them, thus establishing a comfortable and meaningful relationship with the handicapped children. No longer are deaf children a group of human beings who have been compelled to limit their communication to a method that is extremely artificial and restrains them; with total communication they are now permitted to gain that optimum education which is their birthright. For far too long, fumbling hearing persons have dictated terms to children about whose handicap they either have a faint conception or hold very misleading theories. Dr. Mervin Garretson, the Special Assistant to the President, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C., related the following anecdote in a California talk on total communication. An elderly man in a large eastern metropolis became seriously ill and was rushed to a hospital where the diagnosis was quite bleak. It was felt that the old guy should be with relatives or close friends during what well might be his final days of life. It developed that he had no known living relatives and could give only one name-that of a boyhood friend, but he did not know his present whereabouts. The hospital staff decided to initiate a search for this unknown gentleman, practically combing the entire country. In time the man was located, flown to the city, and rushed to the hospital where he discovered his old friend under the oxygen tent. The sick man tried to talk but words would not come. He waved feebly for a pencil and paper which were quickly given to him. Writing laboriously he passed away with the paper still clutched in his hand. After the doctor had pronounced him dead, they pried the paper from his hand. He had scrawled: "Please get your foot off my oxygen hose." Thus, well-meaning but misinformed hearing authorities have held their collective foot on deaf children's communicative "hose," and figuratively killed their chances for an optimum education and a subsequently rich and rewarding life as self-sufficient and well-adjusted deaf adults. Whether a deaf child has the opportunity for total Total Communication I53 communication or follows a traditional means of education, he/she will most likely develop into an adult who may have very little use, if any at all, for the smattering of oral skills which might have been so laboriously drilled into hiln...