A phenomenological study of the prelinguistic deaf and family members of the deaf.

Abstract

From 1963 to 1965 a rubella epidemic occurred in the United States. Because of that epidemic, almost three times the usual number of deaf children reached adulthood in 1983. Along with this rubella bulge deaf there are growing numbers of deafened adults as the children and young adults of the loud music era (1960 and onward) grow older and contribute their acquired deafness to the deafness associated with industrial insults to hearing and the age-associated deafness that accompanies our rapidly increasing population of elderly Americans. Deafness is considered a low-incidence h and icap and has never attracted much attention in adult education. As minority groups enlarge, they do attract more attention. We are now faced with the choice of continuing to ignore the adult education needs of those who cannot hear or we must make some accommodations in our approaches. In an attempt to learn about the needs and problems of the deaf, a phenomenological study was conducted to discover the meaning of deafness for those who grew up without hearing. In order to learn about deafness in its purest form, only those people who were prelinguistically deaf were interviewed as deaf informants. Selected family members of deaf individuals were also interviewed. Emerging themes and the meaning of the deaf experience are discussed. Insights developed during this study are applied to adult education and future research. Other insights applicable to medicine, nursing and childhood education exist within the discussion but are not specifically explicated.