Audism: Guilty as Charged?

Racism! Sexism! Ageism! Classism! Audism! Ableism! Anti-Semitism! How many and how much of these “isms” are a part of your core belief system. Are you an unconscious willing participant in the oppression of others? Surprisingly, the interpreting and Deaf Community commit some of the most overt acts of audism.

Audism describes the mentality that to be able to hear and to speak is necessarily better and leads to a higher quality of life. On this basis, different forms of discriminating behavior against deaf and hard of hearing people may arise even within the interpreting community.

Through a discussion format, this webcast will explore what are the possible causes and their outcomes. We will look at how the mentality of audism manifests itself in the resulting audistic behaviors of interpreters toward their clients and their interpretations. Source material will include excerpts from “Audism Unveiled” by Benjamin Bahan, H. Dirksen Bauman and Facundo Montenegro, as well as other interpreters and members of the Deaf Community.

Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to describe at least two forms of audism.
2. Participants will be able to list at least five forms of oppression.
3. Participants will be able to define dysconscious audism.

**This webcast meets the PPO requirement for RID**

Presented by David W. Hylan, Jr., Ed.D, CI/CT, LA Level V

Voiced/Captioned