Through Deaf Eyes

Over the course of two hours, Through Deaf Eyes attempts to capture the history, culture, and pertinent topics about the deaf community. This film was very educational and was thorough in its details, pace, and structure. Like the previous video assigned for a class reflection paper, I was educated on situations in which I did not know I was ignorant. Since the film was two hours long, I wanted to highlight some of the topics covered that I found compelling.

One of the first things covered in the film was the topic of the community in its modern iteration. I thought the perspective provided on how deafness occurs in a minority of people, but deaf people live across the world and are unique in their national and deaf culture and subcultures. I found this perspective engaging, because usually when I think of the deaf community, I think of American Sign Language and the deaf community within the United States, rather than having a global perspective. I also learned about the differences in deafness like the way in which people have lost their hearing such as hereditary, illness, and accidental reasons. Once again, this perspective added nuance to my understanding of the uniqueness of each and every person within the deaf community.

The film after the introduction described deaf history specifically the early challenges in creating an education system. I learned about the Protestants' lack of reaching out to the deaf community and the fact it took until 1817 for people to believe in the importance of educating children who were deaf.

One of the most shocking revelations from the film was the character and beliefs of Alexander Graham Bell. I knew he was the creator of the telephone but I had no idea that his beliefs had a long-lasting impact on the education of deaf people. Before this film, I was not familiar with oralism nor the debate over teaching children sign language versus reading lips, speaking, and participating in verbal language. I also had no idea that the deaf community was discriminated against by the anti-immigrant nativists. Alexander Graham Bell being a nativist and calling for deaf people to be stripped of their culture through the banning of sign language in school was something I strongly reacted to when watching the film. When watching the film, I found this time period in deaf education to be disheartening and sad, since children were being stripped of a valid way to communicate and express themselves. This ban of signing in schools was terrible but Bell’s belief that deaf people should not have basic human rights such as the ability to have children and marry was even more despicable. Learning about the discrimination deaf people face as being treated as less than human was eye-opening since I had no idea about this discriminatory history before watching the film. I thought the insight from one of the interviewees was very powerful when she said speaking is a two-way communication, so while deaf children may be able to speak, the conversation will always be limited. 

I also enjoyed when the film shared perspectives on art, culture, film, expression, and theater within the deaf community. While I have seen multiple movies with deaf actors and characters, I did not know a lot about the history and important aspects of the relationship between the deaf community and the arts. First, I never thought about the transition to films with sound and how since the release of The Jazz Singer, the first movie with sound, until the more modern accessibility features such as closed captions, the deaf community was excluded from fully experiencing this form of art. Since closed captions are so popular and familiar, I never thought about the fact that they were not always an option, which forced me to reflect on how one of my favorite places, the movie theater, was not accessible or welcoming to a community for a long time. Another aspect of film’s relationship to the deaf community was stereotypes and popular culture, which were explained by an example film I never heard of called Children of a Lesser God. Lastly, I never thought about learning ASL without videos and only pictures. Through the use of film, teaching became easier, which was something that never crossed my mind. Being able to capture expression in a fluid and non-static way was an aspect that never crossed my mind. 

Since I am a hearing person, I was ignorant of a lot of the perspectives shared in this film. I found it engaging to hear a different perspective describe their experience. I found the discourse on education fascinating and loved the perspective that stated deafness does not need to be fixed or cured but rather embraced since it is a part of what makes the person who they are. I also loved the embrace of ASL as its own culture and language and not seen as a lesser imitation. I also found the discourse around cochlear implants fascinating, since I have never spoken to or encountered someone who has them. This lifestyle was foreign to me, so hearing the pros and cons was a perspective I never have been exposed to.

Overall, I loved learning about new perspectives and I am excited to learn more through my own research into the culture.