Abilities and Disabilities of Language

The trouble with talk of disabilities is that it assumes a state of value laden normalcy, which is often highly questionable. For instance, deafness is often classified as a disability. But who exactly thinks that deafness is a disability? Is it people with hearing? Do deaf individual's themselves believe they have a disability? Undoubtedly the majority of hearing individuals regard deafness as a disability because they are operating on the assumption that having 5 working senses is normal, with the added value judgment that normal is the ideal to be sought after. Many deaf individuals would not see their deafness as a disability, but rather as a unique signifier and augmenter of their distinctive culture that arises from having their own language, American Sign Language. For many deaf individuals, deafness is similar to racial identity. Rather than a handicap, deafness contributes meaningfully to the valuable diversity of this world. Thus for these deaf individuals there is no talk of disability because they imagine themselves separate from a hierarchical spectrum where the more senses you have, the more enabled you are. The debate dramatically shifts when deafness is not talked about as a disability but as a unique trait that fosters and promotes a distinctive culture. So who gets the last word? Do hearing people get to set the terms of the debate because they are in the majority? The debate is not simple, and once made complex, questions such as these reveal the possibility of hidden power structures at play.