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Citizenship and the Deaf Community (Part I – Introduction to the Study)

Part I – Introduction to the Study

Chapter 1 – Introduction

1.1 Sailing along; staying afloat or battling for direction; going overboard or taking control?

One day I was asked by a work colleague if I could provide a two-minute excerpt, in sign language, giving some basic details about myself. The sign language interpreter who was working with us was then asked to translate the sign language that I had produced, into a written English version. This she did, and afterwards explained to me, in some jest, that my work colleague pointed out that I had used finger-spelling to denote the sign of [CITIZENSHIP], i.e., I spelled each letter in turn [c.i.t.i.z.e.n.s.h.i.p]. The interpreter, however, had thought I had fingerspelled [c.i.t.i.z.e.n.s.h.O.p].

Continuing in jest, I said to her that she should think of it as two separate but joined words [CITIZEN]-[SHIP], using the sign for ‘ship’, and not [CITIZEN]-[SHOP], using the sign for ‘shop’. You can, of course, be a citizen going to shop, but in this case you were a citizen on a ship. I am engaging in a discourse that is familiar to Deaf ¹ people (see Note No. 1 – ‘Deaf’) and which perhaps the nearest parallel for English language users would be ‘playing on words’. The interpreter immediately followed this up by recognising the metaphorical implications of where the humour was leading. Citizenship, she reasoned, was very much like being a citizen on a ship. There is, of course, the boundary that is defined by the sense of being on a ship, where all around you is the sea and other lands. These are politically defined boundaries and there will often be people seeking to board the ship but be denied or prevented from doing so, and others who will be welcomed. The ship may be abandoned by those already sailing on it and who may freely return, or have restrictions on their ability to do so. People might dare to try to take over the ship or the owners of the ship may try to threaten and take over others; and then you have war, and so it can go on.

To imagine citizenship in this way is not to define its meaning or boundaries but to understand the different and diverse ways in which we can play around with the metaphor in order to make sense of the concept, and that there can be many different interpretations. Arguably it is possible to state that there are many Deaf people who could relate to the concept of a ‘Deaf-Ship’; a ‘ship’ on which they are proud to be able to move freely around, by possessing the ability to use and converse in sign language. This is a language that they may have used since childhood, or have come to acquire later on, but by its continued use, they have earned the right to be part of the ‘Deaf Ship’. It is also possible to suggest that many Deaf citizens may be able to relate to a narrative which states that, for a large part of recent history, they have been limited to operating at ‘deck-hand’ level, since the ship has been captained and steered by hearing people, until only very recently. It is also, sadly, constantly being invaded by pirates (who by and large happen to be hearing people too) against whom the ‘Deaf Ship’ citizens have to constantly mount defence. The ‘Deaf Ship’ is also liberal; allowing hearing citizens onto its decks without any paper laws or restrictions, and its voyagers are also able to freely be part of other ships to which they hold a passport.

This simplistic metaphor has, it is hoped, given the basis for some idea of where the thesis is headed; staying with the metaphor, it will be seen that while there can perceivably be imagined a ship on which Deaf citizens are proud and on which they live their lives, this ship is always being influenced by other ships and in turn influences them. It is possible to step onto the ‘Deaf Ship’ and see elements of ‘Other Ship’, and so too is it possible to step onto these ‘Other Ships’ and see ways in which the ‘Deaf Ship’ inextricably co-exists with these. To put this in more concrete terms, and at risk of stating the obvious, although Deaf citizens have increasingly been engaged in conceptualising and understanding the Deaf world they inhabit and share, they nevertheless, by and large, live in and are employed in the hearing world. When Deaf citizens work alongside other Deaf citizens (or with hearing citizens who use sign language), they are still working in largely the hearing world and are interconnected to hearing communities. The thesis will return to these issues throughout the study.