Deaf Ways of Education 57
they moved from an oral environment to a signing and deaf cultural environment.
Amparo Minguet Soto (2003), for example, uses the metaphor of “Deaf awakening”
in her life story to give meaning to the turning point in her life after coming into
contact with sign language, deaf culture, and (international) deaf leaders. She con-
nects this experience with the metaphorical transition from darkness to light that is
often used to describe deaf people’s entering the deaf community and learning sign
language (Padden & Humphries, 1988). Soto does not reveal whether this experi-
ence is expressed by a sign that refers to a shared deaf experience in her commu-
nity, such as the WAKE UP^1 sign used in my research (see the section of this chapter
titled “Waking Up and the Circle of Deaf Empowerment”).
Although changes in deaf people who grew up in a deaf cultural environment
have been sporadically researched (Breivik, 2005; Ladd, 2003; List, 2003; Taylor &
Darby, 2003), the phenomenon of deaf empowerment and its rhetoric have never
been examined through ethnographic life story research in a group of people who
have assumed leadership roles in a local deaf community. Also, though “there is no
guarantee that a particular discourse or form of knowledge will lead to emancipa-
tory practices” (Foucault, 1984, cited in Roets et al., 2005, p. 47), narrative research
with survivors can indicate keys to the success of certain life paths (Roets et al., 2005).
My analysis of Flemish deaf narratives has shown that visits to barrier-free deaf
environments (Jankowski, 1997) such as Gallaudet University (United States), the
Centre for Deaf Studies in Bristol (United Kingdom),^2 and deaf associations in the
nordic countries are transformative for deaf people. The universal nature of sign
language (Mottez, 1993) and the common transnational experiences of deaf people
as a “visual minority in an auditory world” (Murray, 2008, p. 108) create the condi-
tions for an alternative deaf education or education in the deaf way. only 20% of
all deaf people in the world have the opportunity to go to school (Wilson, 2005)
and, consequently, to gain deaf awareness and knowledge about sign language. In
the world, and especially in developing countries, there is a “lack of respect for and
understanding of Deaf Culture and sign language” (Wilson, 2005, p. 2).
The goal of this chapter is to describe alternative learning opportunities for
young deaf people and deaf adults all over the world to come into contact with deaf
cultural rhetoric; experience barrier-free deaf environments (Jankowski, 1997); and
create the conditions needed to achieve civil, political, social, and economic rights
(Harris & Enfield, 2003; Ladd, 2003). This chapter starts with a discussion of the
methodology of the exploratory case study of deaf empowerment in Flanders and
its analysis. It then briefly discusses the background of a deaf awareness course in
Flanders that started in 1990 and formed the beginning of consciousness raising
among a group of deaf leaders. The international meetings and visits that were part
of the course impacted the participants. The rest of the chapter details the different
elements of this process of empowerment as it comes to the fore in the life stories:
the stage of sleeping, the coming into contact with deaf cultural rhetoric and ideal- Small capital letters are used to represent signs in English translations (Padden & Humphries,
1988). Flemish Sign Language signs were translated into Dutch and then translated into English. - The Centre for Deaf Studies in Bristol was closed in 2013.