Politics of Deafness & Deaf in Politics
Discrimination is defined as the "treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice."1 Both the positive and negative forms of discrimination are revealed in this definition. The word usually carries the negative connotation of prejudice, but even partiality can be unwelcome when it is accompanied by an attitude of superiority or paternalism.
Unfortunately all people can only consider the environment and others against their own internalised framework, and this sadly leads to discrimination not only by hearing people against people with any type of hearing loss, but also by individuals who themselves, have a hearing loss, with regard to another individual.
In the case of culturally Deaf people, discrimination is often referred to as Audism.
[Edit]References
- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2006), Houghton Mifflin Company
