Deaf American
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 500,000 to 2 million (100,000 to 500,000 primary ASL users out of nearly 2,000,000 profoundly deaf persons (1988), 0.8% of the US population. 15,000,000 hard of hearing persons in the US (1989 Sacks) (from SIL Ethnologue) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 United States
|
500,000 to 2 million |
| Languages | |
| American Sign Language, occasionally spoken or Signed English in mixed company | |
A Deaf American is defined as a member of the American Sign Language linguistic minority. Though they are medically deaf, children of Deaf people and a few hearing people who learn ASL can become adopted into the wider Deaf community. Inversely, "Deaf American" is not inclusive to all people with hearing loss but only those who use ASL as their primary language.
The history of Deaf Americans, for the most part, parallels that of American Sign Language (ASL).
Although Deaf American identity is now strongly tied to the use of American Sign Language, its roots can be found in early Deaf communities on the American East Coast, including those that communicated using Martha's Vineyard Sign Language. Martha's Vineyard Sign Language bloomed from necessity due to an unexplainably high number of hereditarily Deaf Americans in the area. The language became so popular, even the hearing Vineyard workers adopted it. The Vineyard language contributed hundreds of signs to the modern ASL we utilize today.
An important event in the history of Deaf Americans was the introduction of French Sign Language to the Deaf community at the American School for the Deaf in 1817. The many different cultures met at a confluence and formed one Deaf American Deaf culture centered around ASL. The culture transferred from student to student and from alumni to their respective home communities.
This tradition continued until 1880 when oralism began to replace manualism as the dominant approach to Deaf education, almost obliterating ASL and Deaf culture in America. Oralism was the main philosophy in Deaf education until 1965 when the linguist William Stokoe argued that ASL should be regarded as a full language with all of the expressive power of any oral language. Deaf Pride began to shoot higher than it had in a century and Deaf education returned to manualism for the most part.
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