Deaf Gain: Raising the Stakes for Human Diversity

Deaf people are usually regarded by the hearing world as having a lack, as missing a sense. Yet a definition based on hearing loss obscures a wealth of ways societies have benefited from the contributions of deaf people. In this bold intervention into ongoing debates about disability and what it means to be human, experts from neuroscience, linguistics, bioethics, history, cultural studies, education, public policy, art, and architecture advance the concept of Deaf Gain and challenge assumptions about what is normal. The contributors approach deafness as a distinct way of being in the world, one that opens perceptions, perspectives, and insights that are less common to the majority of hearing persons. By framing deafness in terms of its intellectual, creative, and cultural benefits. Deaf Gain recognizes physical and cognitive difference as vital to human diversity.