Avenues into the Deaf Community

Click on each of the circles and also on the community core in the Flash animation to learn about the Deaf community.

Please note that this is an inclusive view of the Deaf community wherein such individuals as hearing ASL students or hard of hearing people are considered part of the community even though they are not in the community core.

There are a few people within the Deaf community who hold an exclusive view that only those who enter into the community through all four avenues are actually members of the community, but of the thousands of Deaf persons I have met, those who hold that view are extremely rare.

In my experience, for the most part, people in the Deaf community don't judge an individual based on whether one is hearing, hard of hearing, or deaf but rather based on the person's language skills in ASL. I would imagine that may be because Deaf persons who use ASL rather than oralism (lip reading) would find it more difficult to converse with and hang out with a person with whom they cannot readily communicate.

See this animation in a larger size: tobermorey.com/deaf/deafcommun…