Can Disability Save a Life?
An epic tale linking the Accord with Eritrea, Scotland and Australia
Auslan saves lives
This piece has been catalysed by news of a forthcoming conference hosted by Deakin University - Deaf Mental Health “Auslan saved my life!”. The program is grounded in the relationship between acquisition of language and mental health.
Language development for people who are hard of hearing in early childhood can be compromised. Early intervention models are predicated on restoration of or augmentation of hearing (cochlear implants or hearing aids) combined with interventions to acquire proficiency in the dominant spoken language. This approach isn’t always effective.
When this intervention model fails, it denies access to language. Any language. Many deaf people find sign language later in life, and as the conference title suggests, acquisition of language literally saves peoples lives. It connects people to a small but vibrant Deaf community.
Around 90% of profoundly deaf people are born into hearing families. Families where no one can sign, or do not learn to sign. Finding the Deaf community later in life connects many to an extended family and social network they’ve never had.
Caveat: Many in the Deaf community do not consider deafness a disability, they see themselves as a distinct socio-cultural minority. This isn’t the piece to explore these intricacies, but I put it out there to at least signal there is considerable complexity associated with key terminology.
Disability and the Accord
Post release of the Accord Final Report I’ve had some discussion with others in the sector who share my interest in disability and accessible quality. Some have been disappointed with how disability was considered. Children and Young People with Disability Australia has been particularly strong in its criticism.
I’m more upbeat. I see that the underlying policy settings will be favourable for disability, even if the report misses the mark on the technical detail or nuanced understandings of disability in higher / tertiary education. Better access to a high quality tertiary education system that emphasises inclusive teaching and support will allow many more people with disability to participate more fully in Australian society. Growth in participation will be achieved, even though the Accord recommends we maintain current participation rates, rather than leaning in and aiming for full inclusion.
When discussing this with colleagues, I made the point that it is not surprising the Accord missed the mark conceptually and philosophically. There is a generalised aversion to disability that permeates our society. Disability is screened for in embryos. Disability is screened for foetuses. Disability is screened for in early childhood. You can fill in the blanks for the outcomes of this screening.
The deprivation of language acquisition for deaf children is consistent with this generalised aversion. Hearing augmentation and lip reading rather than families learning together and embracing the linguistic and language development needs of the child. Not every family, of course, but for many children in many families. If you think I am exaggerating - just consider the tricks hearing people play.
Disability and disadvantage - a counter narrative
The paragraphs above are focused on the disadvantage associated with disability. This next section focuses on the advantage conferred by disability on a single and very important person. My mother.
I’ve got skin in the game when it comes to disability. Most of my scholarly output intersects with disability. I have a keen interest in disability because I’ve been exposed to it for the entirety of my existence. I am a CODA - a Child of Deaf Adults. There is no sugar coating challenges associated with deafness related disability, including its impact on educational attainment, employment opportunities, and socioeconomic status. However, in my mothers case, hearing loss radically changed the trajectory of her life, and ultimately led to mine.
Scotland, Eritrea, Australia
My mother was born in a Scottish council house. She is deaf because her mother, my grandmother, contracted measles during pregnancy. Her biological father is buried in a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Eritrea. Her father died at the hands of Italians during in the Second World War. As I understand things, with no news of my grandfather’s wartime whereabouts, rather than giving birth to a child out of wedlock, she married another after a very short engagement.
Growing up my mother recalls being puzzled by claims of the extended family that she was a spitting image of her father. To her mind she looked nothing like the violent man to whom she bore no physical resemblance. She disliked him for the beatings she suffered for vocalisations she could not control nor hear, for the spilling of the milk, for not following verbal instructions, or infractions she could not fully understand.
This man went on to serve years in prison, convicted for threatening to kill my grandmother. The truth of my mother’s lineage came out in the trial. My mother clings to the news clipping, proof that that man was not her father.
The habitus of my mother’s and her sibling’s upbringing was not destined for greatness. All of my mothers half-brothers have served time in prison for a variety of offences. Across the extended family there is evidence of deprivation that is part and parcel of living in the poorest parts of Scotland.
I have no doubt, that had my mother had no hearing loss she would have led a life consistent with her habitus. She’d have married young to someone from a similar social standing. Alcoholism and violence would have been more likely than not.
Instead, as a deaf child, she was sent off to boarding school. Not just any boarding school, but a school of grand proportions. If you have a spare million, you might buy an apartment converted from her old dormitory or classroom. Her education may not have been consistent with contemporary school resource standards, but it gave her something very special.
It is this school that enabled her to acquire language - British Sign Language. This language provided a pathway to acquire another language, English. It is this school that she was inducted into the Deaf community. This Deaf community gave her social networks that took her away from the birthright bestowed on her half-brothers. These social networks connected her to my father, another Deaf person living in Australia on the other side of the world.
They were pen pals, who became partners, then parents.
My mother still has those letters. I have read them. They are incredible.