Sign language: the place of deaf difference

Abstract

In this article, we review the literature of deaf and hearing researchers, seeking to demonstrate, based on them, that sign language constitutes the deaf difference in the cultural sphere. The deaf condition does not compose the diversity within a hegemonic culture, which is based on the majority language; rather, it constitutes a linguistic-cultural minority, which establishes in this same linguistic-cultural field its difference in the face of the majority language and culture. In this aspect, the deaf condition is distinguished from other disabilities, which are part of a diversity within a given culture, whether hegemonic or minority. This linguistic difference constitutes the deaf community – since every language is a community – within which a diversity of abilities and disabilities, of gender, race and social class, develops.