This work has considered the centrality of language in order to understand how the processes of conceptualization of the term deaf culture have been constituted, as this concept has acquired a status of truth and reality that has become increasingly stronger in the academic environment. The text presents a kind of research that problematizes utterances that constitute a discursive web about deaf culture. The focus is on analyzing how deaf culture has been narrated and thought by the deaf themselves and how it has been constituted as a concept, thus acquiring a real meaning and having a fundamental role in the constitution of the deaf subject, despite acting as a closed, universal concept. The subjected knowledges of the deaf community, as a way of enunciation of this cultural discourse, have triggered the analysis. Under this blend of truths that have been socially authorized by the deaf, deaf culture has become a conceptual imperative, thus inviting us to perceive those enunciations, as well as reflect and act on them. This concept has become a device that triggers discursive practices related to deafness. This work aims at perceiving the imperative of deaf culture at the conceptual level and seeks to genealogically understand the emergence of such a theme, the truths that have supported it and the discursive strategies involved in this process. / Este trabalho toma a centralidade da linguagem para compreender como se constituem os processos da conceituação do termo cultura surda , uma vez que este vem tomando status de verdade e realidade cada vez mais forte no universo acadêmico. O presente estudo apresenta uma forma de pesquisa que problematiza os enunciados que constituem uma trama discursiva acerca da cultura surda. O foco foi analisar como a cultura surda vem sendo narrada e pensada pelos próprios surdos e como vem se constituindo como um conceito, tomando significado real e tendo um papel fundamental na constituição do sujeito surdo. Nesse sentido, a cultura surda vem atuando como um conceito fechado e universal. O que instiga o olhar analítico são os saberes sujeitados da comunidade surda como forma de enunciação desse discurso cultural. Sobre esse amálgama de verdades socialmente autorizadas pelos surdos, a cultura surda vem se tornando um imperativo conceitual, convidando-nos a perceber essas enunciações, bem como a pensar e agir sobre elas. Essa conceituação torna-se um dispositivo que coloca em funcionamento práticas discursivas no que tange à surdez. O trabalho objetiva perceber o imperativo da cultura surda no plano conceitual e busca genealogicamente entender a emergência do tema, as verdades que o sustentam e as estratégias discursivas envolvidas nesse processo.

Doctor Pharmaceuticae - DPharm / South Africa's White Paper for the transformation of the health care system in South Africa (DOH, 2007) acknowledges major disparities and inequalities as a result of an imprint by apartheid policies. In its transition to democracy, health promotion strategies have been initiated to address these disparities. However, such strategies have been narrowed and "favoured target audiences that are literate, urban-based and who have easy access to print and audio-visual media" (DOH, 1997). This implies that many vulnerable and marginalised groupings in South Africa, including the Deaf community are excluded from health promotion endeavours. Deaf people in South Africa communicate using South African Sign Language (SASL) and majority of the Deaf community exhibit poor literacy levels. Deafness is a significant communication barrier which limits a Deaf person's prospect to attain the best possible health care (Barnett, et al 2011). Various means of communication including spoken language, written instructions and the use of pictograms are used by healthcare workers to communicate health-related information. For many members of the Deaf community who communicate primarily in sign language, these methods are a sub-standard and prevent the attainment of optimum therapeutic outcomes. With regard to pharmaco-therapeutic services, Deaf people cannot hear the spoken language used by pharmacists during patient counselling, and their compromised functional literacy hinders the ability to read instructions on medicine labels. With both the spoken and written means of communication compromised, the Deaf patient's ability to comprehend instruction by pharmacists on how to use their medicines is inadequate and as a result, a Deaf patient may leave the pharmacy with medicine, but a poor understanding of how to use the medicine safely and effectively. Previous researchers have worked on building a technology base, including industrial design and computer science expertise to conceptualize the groundwork of a mobile phone application called SignSupport to facilitate communication between medical doctors and Deaf individuals. The particulars of the pharmacy scenario however, require a pharmacy-specific device to be of use in the dispensing of medicines to a Deaf patient in a pharmacy. The over-arching goal of this thesis is to design and evaluate a mobile phone application to facilitate the communication of medicine instructions between a Deaf patient and a pharmacist. Qualitative, participatory action research and community-based co-design strategies were directed toward Deaf participants, senior pharmacy students and pharmacists to create a prototype of the afore-mentioned mobile phone application. Preliminary results indicated that the application was suitable to pharmacists and Deaf community. Furthermore, both sets of users approved the overall design and were receptive to and keen on the practical uses of the application. Inadequacies pointed out by the Deaf community and pharmacists were addressed as an iterative modification to the prototype and culminated in version 2 which was deployed in an actual hospital pharmacy in 2015. Hospital usability studies generated largely positive results from both Deaf users and pharmacists, indicating that SignSupport is able to facilitate communication between pharmacists and Deaf patients. Next steps include advancing the application to a market–ready version that is downloadable and available as an application on the play stores of commercially available smart phones. / National Research Foundation

Humor builds the ground to share the common and the uncommon, to ease the uneasiness, to laugh at oneself and the other. It is amusing and rebellious, revealing the obvious from the obscure and challenging the unchallenged. The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine the subversive humor use within Deaf communities, centered around the hearing society, as well as to explore subversive humor’s role in reinforcing the Deaf identity and resisting the often assigned otherness. Taken the form of a case study this thesis analyses two examples: a short film The Kiss, produced by Charlie Swinbourne and the series of graphical drawings from Tais, created by Alícia Sort Leal. Using visual analysis and close reading as analytical methods as well as classical (Superiority, Incongruity, Relief) and contemporary (Reversal) humor theories, this thesis provides an insight into reflective and mirroring effects of humor.

This research employed a case study approach to understand emerging themes that may be garnered through documenting the lived experiences of online Deaf activists who have used the video feature available through social media outlets, such as YouTube, as a way to overcome the language barrier typically present for linguistic minorities who are leading social movements within an English-speaking, hearing majority. The focus of this study was the members of the Deaf Community that have taken to an online podium in their fight for autonomy and equality. They champion their Deaf identity, their right to agency and autonomy in areas of language, access, education and employment, in what has exploded into the largest social movement in their cultural history. Therefore, two questions were at the center of this research: 1. "How has experiencing audism affected the lives of Deaf people?", and 2. "How has the use of social media as a platform to fight against audism through natural linguistic expression in American Sign Language impacted that experience?". The growth of individual Deaf identity has created a community action network for the Deaf Community, and access to the technology of videophones and instant access to wireless Internet has brought with it the use of video blogs, or vlogs, within the Deaf Community at explosive rates. The movement from disability to a place of diversity and cultural, ethnic and linguistic minority personhood for the Deaf is a path that is still being forged. Presented in this study is a glimpse into this journey, through a case study of their lived experience.

(in English): The final thesis "Didactics of English language for the deaf at secondary schools" tries to find out what methods of lessons and communication would be the most useful for the deaf during English lessons them to pass the final exam at secondary schools. This final thesis was written because of the lack of materials for the deaf. In the Czech Republic there are neither didactics nor methods, manuals on how to teach English to the deaf at secondary schools. Therefore, this thesis could be used as a methodology for the English teachers of the deaf at secondary schools. The theoretical part of the final thesis focuses on the terminology. It points out that the Deaf belongs to the language-cultural minority. There are also shown that different ways of communication that can be used in terms of the deaf. One part is focused on the English final exam. In the last part there are mentioned some specific methods which can be used for teaching English to the deaf. The practical part follows the theoretical part and concentrates on the methods of teaching and the ways of communication with the deaf during English lessons at a secondary school. To reach our goal the qualitative research was chosen. Our respondents were deaf students of one secondary school for the deaf, Deaf graduates and hearing...

Språkets betydelse för människans utveckling är viktig för individens utveckling. Språket ger oss möjligheten till en god kognitiv förmåga och vägleder oss fram till vår identitet och personlighet. Genom språket uttrycker vi vem vi är och vad vi vill. Men vad händer om språket inte blir en självklarhet och om vi inte får tillgång till det? Den här studien handlar om vilken betydelse språket har för döva, hörselskadade och personer med cochleaimplantat och vad som händer om de inte får tillgång till det språk de är i behov av. / Importance of language in human development is important for the individuals. The language allows us to good cognitive performance, and guides us to our identity and personality. Through language we express who we are and what we want. But what if the language doesn’t become a matter of course and if we do not have access to it? This study deals with the role of language to deaf, hearing impaired and people with cochlear implants and what happens if they do not have access to the language they need.

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This study investigates the news discourses to find out how deaf people and/or deafness is represented and analyses how the discourses might be affected by or influence common attitudes and prejudices about deaf people and/or deafness. First, however, this study analysed the contents of the news articles quantitatively in order to find frequencies of different news topics with references to deaf people and/or deafness and whether deaf people were allowed to talk or not. After the content analysis, ten articles were selected for the discourse analysis.   The results of the content analysis show that deaf people are represented and allowed to talk in most of the articles, but that hearing people are also represented in a majority of the articles. Most articles are about culture and personalities, but there are also articles about for example sign language and hearing devices. Most deaf people are represented as individuals, but they are also represented as representatives for the deaf and as both individuals and representatives.   The discourse analysis shows that deaf people are represented as a linguistic and cultural minority in both cultural and personal discourses but represented as broken and in need of being fixed for integration in society in medical discourses. In medical discourses, only experts talk about deafness and no deaf people are represented. In other discourses, both deaf and hearing people talk about deaf people, sign language and deaf culture. In some of the discourses, however, it is clear that deaf people are represented from the hearing viewpoint on deafness. There were discursive discrimination of deafness in medical discourses but occurred rarely in other discourses except when the medical view on deafness is present. Deaf people are represented as a minority distinct from the hearing majority in most articles and some of the cultural discourses show attempts to build a bridge between the deaf world and the hearing society. The majority of the discourses point to pluralism as a social practice but some of those discourses also point to inclusion and exclusion as social practices. The medical discourses however point to both assimilation and exclusion as social practices.