The Deaf Community in America: History in the Making

Every community has its crazy fanatics, and this author proves that the Deaf community is no exception. The entire book feels like a delusional rant written by somebody who's gone off the deep end. The author makes many assumptions that everybody in the Deaf community believes the same stuff that he does, which couldn't be farther from the truth. If you were to take his opinion at face value, then you would think that every Deaf person hates hearing people and believes that society is actively working to make their life harder.Reading this book was very frustrating, to say the least. One of the parts that really got to me was when the author was talking about having children. Throughout the book, he talks about how hard life is for Deaf people and how many struggles they have to go through. He also talks about how expensive, difficult, and inconvenient it is for schools to teach Deaf children. After this, he proceeds to talk about he and his wife were overjoyed to have Deaf children who can share their experiences. Now wait just a minute, something doesn't add up there. Sure, it's great that you love your kids despite their disability, but wishing for them to be Deaf is nothing but selfish.The most irritating part was the author's repeated claim that "90% of deaf children are born to hearing parents, therefore deaf parents aren't more likely to have deaf children". Sure, that 90% statistic may be correct, but it shows that the author has no understanding of how proportion works. Of course deaf parents have fewer deaf children, because there are far fewer deaf parents than hearing parents. If you're going to repeat a "statistic" many times throughout the book, make sure that it's not a basic logical error.

I had to read this book and do reflection papers on each chapter. Even though it was for my ASL class, I was not disappointed. It flows very nicely and dives deep into history of the treatment of Deaf people and how the acceptance of Deafness and development of Deaf culture has progressed. It's a great book that I'm sure will intrigue those who are wanting to know more about Deaf culture.

Really comprehensive!!! Easy to read and understand. Will probably make it required reading in my next class to introduce cultural topics and discussions among high school and post secondary students.

I need it for a Spring Semester class that I am taking for an Arts & Humanities credit...it seems to give a lot of history regarding Deaf Issues Past & Present. It is very informative, I am learning a lot that I had no idea about how that community feels.

Exactly the book I needed for class.

Like I said, it was a required text book but finding it available on the Kindle was a bonus. It's a good read and a decent starting point for those interested in learning about Deaf Culture.

Used this book for a report on the Deaf community. Very informative.

This is a well written book. Since I have worked with the Deaf for many years, I find this quiteinteresting. The information is valuable. A Deaf friend told me about the book and I ordered it. I have recommended it to others.