Webinar: What is hearing privilege?

Presenter:Dr. Heather Mole

Objectives:

To understand the concept of audism – discrimination against deaf people

To understand the concept of privilege and to consider what hearing privilege might look like

To consider ways in which we, as hearing people, can examine our own privilege

Outline:

Discrimination against deaf people, otherwise known asaudism, is subtle and obvious, direct and indirect, intentional and unintentional, and conscious and unconscious (Humphries 1977). In this webinar we will take a brief look at this idea before moving on to the more recent concept of privilege. Privileges are unearned benefits that can be used by a dominant group (of white people or hearing people for example) to assist them in their daily lives, they are often invisible to those who have them. We will explore this concept in more detail and consider how as hearing people, we may be benefitting from a system rigged to keep deaf signers from realising their potential.