I have, throughout my life, come across many oral deaf adults (with profound hearing losses and barely intelligible speech) sequestered in their parents’ basements or living a very lonely existence. Yet Paddy soldiers on in the face of the losing war.īut like Paddy, I know who are the losers in this war. He says that the number of Deaf clubs in London alone has shrunken from 50 to very few because of the focus on inclusive education. Yet, he cannot give up this fight to introduce the deaf community and deaf culture to those who may need it. He admits that the Deaf community has lost the war on cochlear implants and that the oral deaf and hard of hearing children and youth are hidden in the various local schools throughout the province. Ladd also said a couple of things that resonated deeply with me. Those who don’t, will insist that the deaf claw their way up to the other side to meet the needs of the hearing world. Relationships between deaf and hearing people is like trying to reach across an abyss. The dead bird is a revolting gift indeed in the eyes of those who do not claim to be in relationship with animals. Now, these gifts are likened by many hearing people as the unwanted gift a cat deposits on a door. More hearing people are deaf to these deaf gains than admitted. Deaf gain is a gift in the eye of the hearing beholder.

It is also about deaf gain, the gifts of the deaf to the hearing world. Deafhood, he says, is that elusive “something” that each person with a hearing loss carries within, an innate recognition of how life without full access to sound shapes one’s emotions, social life and intellectual gifts and the human need to participate fully in our society. In his signing (BSL), there is a quiet intense energy as he articulates so well what it means to be deaf and what it meant for him to work with the deaf community. During the three part interviews with Tessa Padden, I found myself nodding vigorously as he went through his childhood, adolescence, his life as a “hippie”, and finding his home in the deaf community. He wrote a 500 page book called, In Search of Deafhood, a weighty tome presenting research on deaf culture, sign language rights, academic frameworks, and advocacy.

Paddy Ladd is a deaf academic, who coined the word, “Deafhood” and is known for his advocacy for deaf education and deaf culture throughout the world. I’ve been mesmerized by the interviews with Paddy Ladd on BSL Zone.

Paddy ladd deafhood