My Game! -- http://www.sploder.com/?s=d00422nm
My Social Issue: Treating deafness as a disease or
disability, and mis-educating deaf children.
“At least ninety percent of deaf and hard of hearing
children are born to hearing parents who usually want their children to be like
themselves, to understand sound, to use their voices and verbally express their
thoughts through spoken language, and to hear the voices and spoken language of
those around them” (National Association
of the Deaf). Because most hearing parents don’t know how to react when
they’re told that their child is deaf or hard or hearing, they follow the
advice of their hearing doctors and attempt to integrate them into hearing
society, with little or no education in sign language. The enemy isn’t the
parents, or even the doctors (although as professionals they should be better
informed), it’s the ignorance of their deaf child’s needs. Despite how you feel
about it, your deaf child’s first language is NOT English, it’s sign language.
They’re whole world is visual, and therefore need a visual language to properly
develop cognitively, socially, and emotionally. Deafness is not a disability or
a disease to be cured medically or by modern technology, and although hearing
aids and cochlear implants can help some hard of hearing situations, they are
not replacements for ASL and Deaf adult role models. “Advocates for inclusion will throw out the
usual but it’s a hearing world argument
and insist this is for the better good… I’ve heard so many stories of deaf kids
in the mainstream who don’t make the basketball team, don’t run for class
president, and so on” (Mark Drolsbaugh).
My game represents the struggle that mainstreaming
(integrating into hearing public schools) poses to Deaf children. The
residential school route is obviously easier, quicker, and provides more
benefits to the child, while mainstreaming is full of learning impediments and
social obstacles to overcome. However, it is still possible to win going this
route. I especially wanted to emphasize the fact that much of the time it is
the parents naively handicapping their children by trying to fit them into a “normal”
mold. The child wishes to belong to their native culture and language (the
tunnel leading up to the surface), but the parents prevent them in an attempt
to make them fit their definition of normal.
If I had the time and resources, I believe a very powerful
role-playing game could be made that simulates a Deaf child’s situation in a
mainstream school. However, I am pretty proud of my little one level game, and
believe that it conveys my point, even if it is a bit on the nose.
Here is a video of a Deaf man’s testimonial of how a
residential school changed his life as a child. Being part of a community,
culture, and natural language made a huge difference in his life and education.
(6:47 – 12:43).
The popular videos of babies and adults hearing their loved ones for the first time through cochlear implants is touching, but represent only the few cases that the implants significantly improve their hearing and ability to integrate fully into hearing society. Both sides of the story need to be told, just as Chimamanda Adiche explained in her TED Talk.
Sources:
"Cochlear Implants." National Association for the Deaf website. 2008. Web.
Drolsbaugh, Mark. "Mainstreaming vs Deaf School." Deaf Culture Online. 2014. Web.
(see above YouTube video, "What is it like to be DEAF?")
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