The complex needs of Black Minority Ethnic (BME) Deaf people are often misunderstood and inappropriately catered for. A lack of understanding around cultural differences and language needs, can leave the individual very isolated and marginalised in society. It is important to understand the backgrounds of BME Deaf people, their identity issues, their communication, family and social surroundings, in order to encourage more appropriate and well designed communication and cultural sensitivity when working with this niche community, with the overall aim of improving the end-user experience. This will assist in building self-esteem, belonging and confidence, with a general more positive involvement within society, be it Deaf or hearing.
BME (Black Minority Ethnic) Deaf people experience different barriers than mainstream Deaf and BME communities. As a combination of barriers is experienced the difficulties of isolation and poor communication tactics come forth. The main reason that issues around isolation can be experienced is due to language and cultural isolation from the home, Deafness usually has a very negative perception within BME communities. This rejection can cause many BME Deaf people to be more strongly linked to their Deaf identity than their BME identity. Which produces another backlash; parents and families become very uncomfortable with the notion of Deaf identity. As commented “Perceptions of new freedoms as threatening to the continuation of traditional cultural values, such as parental authority and obligations, possible changes in marriage choices, and concerns about sexual permissiveness are held strongly by the older generation of South Asian people” (Anwar 1979 & Modood et al. 1994 in Atkin et al. 2002:22). This panel paper will provide a brief overview of the issues that have been identified as problems and areas of concern for BME Deaf people. I will explain partly my experience as a BME Deaf person, and will conclude with some of the main areas of concern for BME end-users.
2.1 Deaf
As a result of negative perceptions by the hearing world, Deaf people have struggled to create a
positive identity for themselves. This has led Deaf people to develop their own Deaf culture. Within
this culture Deaf people identify themselves as Deaf and mix within groups of similar Deaf people.
Sign language, the natural language of Deaf people, is central to the lives of Deaf people and the
transference of Deaf culture. ‘British Sign Language (BSL), has become a symbol for Deaf identity,
facilitating communication and supporting a positive sense of identity, which enables Deaf people to
distinguish their experience from hearing people.’ (Atkin et al, 2002:23)
The movement to recognise Deaf people as a separate cultural group began when Deaf people
distanced themselves from the disability movement, refusing to view Deafness as a medical condition.
The Deaf community view themselves as a linguistic minority and as having a unique culture which is
to be celebrated. As a member of the Deaf community Jennifer Dodds writes, “We are Deaf, we have
the same abilities as hearing people, but while we continue to be different because we have our own
language and culture, we are happily different, rather than begrudging our deafness and striving to
become second class hearing people” (2003:28)
2.2 BME
Black and Ethnic Minority deaf adults have a complex experience when being introduced to the
Deafness, the language and culture. The cultural aspects of BME communities when mixed with
Deafness can prove to have a great deal of stigma and struggle for BME deaf individuals, from issues
around identity to a lack of bonding with the family due to the lack of communication in the home.
“Deaf adults have less exposure to their own ethnic culture than that of their hearing counter-parts”
From an early age I learnt to speak a particular dialect of Punjabi called Mirpuri which is because of my mothers influence in my upbringing. When mixing in a mainstream school with a deaf unit I found that I did not know BSL or speak fluent English, therefore I had to have additional classes and support from the school. Therefore slowing my language and speech development, I was able improve fairly quickly but this was down to a great deal of hard work. I started to use spoken English and British Sign Language. The basis of these languages provided me with the ability to communicate well academically and professionally, and knowing Mirpuri at home gave me the capability to have a good relationship with my parents. However, I always felt there was a large part of my culture that I was expected to follow but did not always understand, such as attending a mosque on Fridays, Islamic culture and dress. These things were not accessible to me through BSL and my family was unable to fully explain everything. I started to realize that my communication was very good, but still not fully conversational with my mother. Hence I did not always get full information regarding our cultural practices within my family. I started to focus on further education, my parents became very concerned and would often refuse to allow me to move away for university. I stubbornly pursued this but realized that they felt very threatened about my new Deaf identity that was merging with my ethnic identity, and were concerned that I would hold onto my Asian values.
Coming from a protective Asian family they were very caring, but I was often isolated from conversation in the home, as I could not fully understand all the “muttering” of conversation and jokes associated with Asian culture. When I got access to university I got access to the Deaf community. Once I arrived at university I found others who could sign and were from the same cultural background as me, and I started to identify similarities, with communication styles, access to information and shared confusion over some practices within our family homes. I started to learn about what my Asian identity is, then it started to make more sense, I developed a great sense of pride knowing of my Asian heritage and my new found Deaf identity. I was fortunate enough to be able to have such access, but I found that many BME Deaf people are not always so lucky and those questions about their identity were and are not always answered, resulting in loneliness, the development of mental health problems, isolation and feelings of being an outcast. There are still things that I struggle with that my hearing and BME hearing counter parts do not have problems with, but these are issues that I have to now overcome with time.
When working with BME Deaf people it is always important to remember that not all have full access to information, and often have low reading levels like the mainstream Deaf community. The additional barriers come in place through the use of other languages which can affect literacy development, communicating with peers who sign, or communicating with peers who speak. Therefore when approaching BME Deaf users these issues need to be thought out, and there needs to be a level of sensitivity in place. Within the Deaf community there are several language divides, from those that strongly use British Sign Language and those that use Sign Supported English, and there are those who use the Oral approach which imitates speech. BME Deaf people have their own communities, using their own signs, and hybrids of words combining both Asian and BSL words, creating a new identity of their own. However, there are still a majority of BME Deaf people who are unable to combine the two cultures together and become more isolated. When designing systems for the Deaf these facts need to be thought out and whichever community you work with needs to be thoroughly investigated in terms of their language choices and use. This will help with more appropriate design for BME Deaf people. Also Deaf friendly design visuals need to be used, but using something more culturally relevant to the user will provide a greater rapport with the system being developed. Acknowledgements: Penny Beschizza from Southwark College, Jerry, Kabiru, Samina from Southwark College, and Kamran from Derby. Deafax for supporting this work, and City Perochial and Bridge House Trust whose funding has allowed this work to begin.