The Deaf Way: Perspectives from the International Conference on Deaf Culture

Sports, Deafness, and the Family

DONALDA K. AMMONS AND MAR G E R Y S. MIL L E R ports play an important role in the lives of deaf people. We participate in athletic activities for a variety of reasons: for health and fitness, for recreation, for social interaction, and for the pursuit of excellence in sports through training and competition. But limited information about the sports opportunities for deaf individuals and certain perspectives about deafness held by individual families and society at large may create obstacles that limit a deaf youth's access to the benefits derived from involvement in sports. If children with a variety of physical differences (so-called disabilities) were lined up-children with cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy, children who use wheelchairs or crutches, and children who are deaf-one's first reaction would be that the deaf child does not belong in the group. That is, when it comes to participation in sports, there appears to be no "handicap" in being deaf. In fact, the United States Olympic Committee 's Committee on Sports for the Disabled often has heated arguments concerning the allotment of funds to training programs for deaf youth or to the American Athletic Association of the Deaf (AAAD), because some of the committee members view deaf people as able-bodied persons. Many deaf people would agree with this description. Yet, if there is no difference between the bodies of deaf and hearing athletes, why is it that deaf athletes, for the most part, are not performing at the same level as hearing athletes? Their bodies are the same. Their minds are the same. Their desire to achieve and to excel is the same. But their achievement is not the same. As is usually the case when we talk about any issue relating to deafness, the communication differences and the hearing world's seeming indifference to the communication needs of deaf individuals are at the root of the problem. For years, many families of deaf children have selected a hearing standard of communication as the measuring stick of success for their children. If the child can communicate through speech and speechreading , then the child is a success. If, however, the child must rely on signs, thus limiting the number of potential communication partners in the hearing world, then the child is a failure. Often parents feel that they too have failed. It is often taken as a symbol of success that a deaf child can successfully blend in with a group of hearing children. Through their child's participation, without using sign language, in a mainstreamed sports environment, some parents hope to prove to themselves and to the world that their child is capable. The question is, capable of what? Sports, Deafness, and the Family Their child may be capable of blending in, of not appearing different on the outside, of not looking deaf, of not creating any problems for the coach. But is that enough? Parental attitudes have long been known to exert a powerful influence on children. If parents believe a child is going to be successful, the child believes the same thing. Yet most parents have a false sense of what constitutes success. They believe mere participation is success, and that "not letting the disability get you down" should be the theme. "Not letting the disability get you down" usually translates into hiding the fact that the deaf child is different by pretending that hearing children and deaf children communicate the same way. However, real success can occur when parents acknowledge and strive to accommodate the communication differences their deaf child experiences. Then, parents can truly believe that their children can function competently. We feel that it is all right for deaf children to look deaf and to be different without being viewed as a deficient copy of a hearing child. It is our belief that efforts to conceal the communication differences inherent in being a deaf child and to encourage deaf children to participate in the world of sports as if their deafness did not exist are the very reasons why deaf children have been denied appropriate and comprehensive training and competitive opportunities for years. We will now briefly describe some simple yet critically important guidelines for deaf children to gain the maximum benefit from participating in sports. These guidelines are for deaf youth, their parents, and advocates of deaf youth all over the world. The suggestions are divided into those that pertain to mainstream athletic activities and those specific to sports opportunities...