Meaning of diversity

Over the past few months, I've been mulling over the concept of diversity. As seen in my postings here, I have been primarily concerned with issues around ethnic/racial and class diversity. There is no doubt that poor and non-white people in the U.S. are, as a group, disproportionately disadvantaged in a variety of ways, the election of Barack Obama notwithstanding. Gender issues are a close second in the hierarchy of diversity concerns I generally spend my brain-space and time.

However, recent events have forced me to think through what diversity really means in our social networks, our workplaces, and our schools.

A good friend of mine recently had a baby. At the baby shower, there were a significant number of people in attendance who are deaf and who communicate using American Sign Language (ASL). This is largely explained by the fact that my friend works as an elementary school teacher at a school for the deaf. While hanging out in the living room, chatting with my friend, I became aware that she was interpreting what I was saying to those who spoke American Sign Language (ASL). I also became aware that my behavior was subtly rude. As I was speaking to her , I looked at her directly (a habit I developed because my own slow hearing loss means that I am never sure I am speaking loud enough for people to hear me - unless I've been drinking). This prohibited anyone who may have had the skills from reading my lips. At the same time, should I assume that deaf people do learn to read lips? I wasn't sure what was the appropriate way to interact and communicate in the presence of a mixed hearing group.

Having moved to the Northeast from L.A., the diversity in human ability has become much more apparent to me. Outside of my public health care clinic and one family member (who was a victim to polio), the differently-abled were largely invisible to me. I can't say I recollect ever seeing people sign in public, nor was there ASL interpreters during school or other public events. However, here in the Boston, there are interpreters at the Black Nativity (which is something worth seeing if you ever get the chance - the signing of the show as much as the show itself).

It could be that sensitivity to these issues co-occurred with my moving to the Northeast. It could also be that the Northeast, specifically Boston, was better at integrating the deaf into public activities. Whatever the case, it is worth considering whether our ways of behaving systematically, if subtly, exclude the hard of hearing. Social scientists study the hidden, even if unintentional, mechanisms that result in social networks, workplaces, and schools that are disproportionately composed of people of similar ethnic, class, and gender characteristics. Does the same exist for people who are deaf? In all likelihood, the answer is yes. In five years of teaching at my university, I have never once had a profoundly deaf student.* This despite the fact that there are enough deaf students to create a Deaf Club on campus. I've never seen an offer to include ASL interpretation at community meetings in the city of Boston, neither in citywide meetings or in my own neighborhood.

When differently-abled people are not found in our social networks, workplaces, and schools, this undoubtedly influences our view of the range of human variation that should be accepted and integrated into society. It now strikes me as odd that we tend to constrain our view of diversity to those visible immutable characteristics.

So, what do we do about that, if anything? What could be done to facilitate the integration of the hard of hearing into the mainstream of society? And can it be done while allowing for a sense of community to be maintained within the cultural community of deaf people (as we should also accept with other identity groups). By this, I am not asking about about technological solutions to the physical disability of deafness, but social and policy solutions.

My main diversity concerns will likely continue to largely focus on ethnicity, class, and gender. But it is worth thinking about other forms of diversity that tend to get ignored when we sit around developing policy. I am not sure what the answer is. But I suspect that the way things are could be different and even better.

*I did have one student who wore a hearing aid.