Deaf in Sweden

Sign language – the basis of deaf culture

- Deaf culture is a way of life, outlook, experiences, knowledge and norms experienced and spread and which, together with sign language become common to the deaf group.

- Deaf culture is a life form the prerequisite of which is sign language.

- Deaf culture in its deepest sense strengthens the consciousness and identity among deaf and contributes to stimulation and personal development.

- Deaf culture is the life nerve itself in the lives of deaf people.

Our native language is the Swedish sign language. Through it we have made common experiences unique to the deaf group. The fact that we are deaf permeates our entire life. We are well organized in many different activities; sports associations, caravan club, bridge clubs, dog clubs, deaf homosexuals etc. We need each other for our linguistic community and thus activities have emerged parallell to those of the hearing society. Hearing children to deaf parents and hearing siblings to deaf children also partake of the deaf culture, which often also characterizes their adult life.

The creative culture in the form of theatre, art, poetry etc. in our language and our conditions signifies an enrichment of our lives and improves our quality of life.

Deaf culture comprizes oral tradition with narratives which confirm the definition of the deaf as a cultural minority. They also confirm the status of sign language as our first language. The narratives have evolved into historical myths which irrespective of historical veracity constitutes the basis of our common ideology and cultural affiliation.

Deaf culture also comprizes the suffering deaf people have had to endure historically seen when we were regarded as ”stupid” and sometimes due to this were locked up in mental hospitals. The linguistic oppression signified that we were forbidden to use sign language, we were supposed to learn to hear by reading lip movements, we should learn how to talk so that the hearing would understand us!

You can describe the nucleus of deaf culture as a need for meeting and communicating directly with each other. In these situations sign language is a condition, not a means of communication.

Deaf people´s self esteem and identity are so strong that deaf sometimes are considered an extremist group. By this we mean that deaf people sometimes have defended their right to be deaf so strongly that hearing people sometimes have been shocked. A movement ”Deaf Power” emerged in the 1970´s. It made the public aware of and interested in the issues and conditions governing the lives of the deaf.