Changing spaces: the role of the internet in shaping Deaf geographies

While there is a burgeoning literature on the role of ICT in the creation of new forms of social networks, dubbed on-line communities, much less attention has been paid to the complex set of relationships which are emerging between some off-line communities and the internet, and in particular to some of the new spatialities that are emerging as a result of community-based ICT practices. This paper develops this work by focusing on the example of ‘the Deaf community’. In reflecting on the implications of the communication possibilities offered by the internet for the production of Deaf space we begin by outlining the history of development of the off-line Deaf community in the UK and by reflecting on the concept of ‘community’. The paper then goes on to explore how Deaf people are using the internet to communicate with each other and, in doing so, to reflect upon how the internet is contributing to the re-spatialisation and scaling-up of this community while also having other unanticipated effects on Deaf people's mobilities and the space of the Deaf club.     

Embodiment,linguistics, space: American Sign Language meets geography

ABSTRACT

The relational turn in geography has led to an understanding of space and place as actively produced agents in people’s everyday lives. Geographers have also long recognized the importance of language in understanding the social and relational nature of space. The study of American Sign Language (ASL) presents a unique opportunity to examine how language use and language creation influence the production of linguistic space. For users of ASL, space is incredibly significant. Because of the visual and spatial nature of ASL, the space surrounding a signer’s body is important not only for the signer to communicate, but also for others involved in the conversation to participate. Environments created during conversations in ASL reflect the cultural and linguistic perception of the American Deaf community. By taking a critical perspective on the production of space, it will be shown that those who use ASL, through the medium of bodily performance, create linguistic, and communication spaces that are dynamic and visual. The embodied language of ASL and the Deaf community is a perspective geographers have yet to address.     

Creating a Deaf place: the development of the Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Poor Children in the early nineteenth century

ABSTRACT

By tracing the beginnings of the Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Poor Children, this article describes the first Deaf place in England. It argues that early Deaf places, like the Asylum, function as incubators necessary for the growth of Deaf culture. From its founding through its first move to a purpose-built campus, the central stakeholders – the founders, financiers, headmaster, teachers, and students – not only performed their roles but also succeeded in creating a place for Deaf people to come together and use sign language in large numbers. Even so, the Asylum was a divided place; poor children had a very different experience than their wealthy counterparts. Reconstructing the origins, policies, and evolving practices of the Asylum helps to understand the treatment of Deaf people, the value of Deaf places for this often-marginalized minority group, and the development of institutional landscapes for the Deaf.     

Bristol Deaf Memories: archives,nostalgia and the loss of community space in the deaf community in Bristol

The deaf community in the UK has undergone major changes in recent years, which has uprooted it from its traditional foundations, the deaf club and deaf residential school. This article examines the effect of the closure of the deaf club in Bristol, a city in the South West of England, which resulted in the loss of an important community place and spaces for deaf people in the city. We discuss, with a strong focus on methodology, a community event celebrating Bristol’s deaf heritage organised by the research team which utilised archive materials, including archived actuality footage. This article draws on interview data elicited from participants in that event to explore the meanings connected to space and place in both past and present by the deaf community in Bristol. Concepts of the rhizome and the smooth and striated spaces of Deleuze and Guattari were found to be useful models with which to engage with the contemporary struggles of the deaf community for community recognition and organisation. We also suggest an online mapping application which enables the practice of rhizomatic cartography could be a way forward in preserving the deaf heritage and history of the city.     

Negotiating academic environments: using Lefebvre to conceptualise deaf spaces and disabling/enabling environments

ABSTRACT

How do deaf academics navigate the physical environments of their workplaces? Original interviews with five deaf academics working in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK were conducted using walking interviews to explore the ways in which they experienced the physical environment of their HEI and how they produced their own deaf spaces within their workplace. Results show that deaf academics face distinct barriers to their involvement in and access to their HEIs, and analysis using a Lefebvrian approach shows that deaf academics have their own ways of subverting the spatial expectations of the HEI to create their own pockets of lived, deaf space.