The Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community
"Audism" is the term that Northeastern University psychology professor Lane, who is not deaf, uses in this forceful indictment of what he calls "the hearing establishment," which he portrays as a colonial power overseeing the needs of deaf subjects. Hearing "experts" (at least the ones who can hear) demean deaf people, who, he writes, view themselves as an ethnic group, and who tend to marry among themselves. A deaf mother recalls her response upon learning that her newborn was deaf: "I wasn't disappointed. I thought, it will be all right. We are both deaf so we will know what to do." Lane derides the financial motivation of those who urge upon deaf patients cochlear implants, a procedure with mixed results based on a painful, complicated bone-drilling process. Those who are deaf, he observes, are not handicapped; they have heightened visual powers. His book is an eye-opener.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.