page_title: Deaf culture
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Deaf culture / Education / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: Chapel Hall (also known as Main Central Building) located on the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The Victorian Gothic building was designed by Frederick C. Withers (Vaux, Withers, &amp; Co.) in 1870. It's considered one of the finest examples of post-Civil War collegiate architecture and is a National Historic Landmark.
context_page_description: Deaf culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label especially within the culture, the word deaf is often written with a capital D and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. When used as a label for the audiological condition, it is written with a lower case d. Carl G. Croneberg coined the term of "Deaf Culture" and he was the first to discuss analogies between Deaf and hearing cultures in his appendices C/D of the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language.
context_section_description: In comparison to the general public, deaf people have lower levels of educational achievement. Advocates in deaf education believe that an improved recognition of American Sign Language (ASL) as an official language would improve education, as well as economic status. Some argue that by improving the recognition of ASL, better access to school materials, deaf teachers, interpreters, and video-telephone communication would take place.
  Three colleges within the United States are often identified as the best providers of higher education for deaf people. Referred to often as the "Big Three," these include California State University at Northridge (CSUN), National Technical Institute for the Deaf (part of Rochester Institute of Technology), and Gallaudet University. Gallaudet University is the first and only liberal-arts college for deaf students in the world.
  Those who are deaf (by either state or federal standards) have access to a free and appropriate public education. If a child does qualify as being deaf or hard of hearing and receives an individualized education plan, the IEP team must consider, "the child's language and communication needs. The IEP must include opportunities for direct communication with peers and professionals. It must also include the student’s academic level, and finally must include the students full range of needs"
  In part, the Department of Education defines deafness as "... a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification ...." Hearing impairment is defined as "... an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness ...."
caption: Gallaudet University's Chapel Hall
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