The Politics of Visual Language: Deafness, Language Choice and Political Socialization

by James Roots (1999)

This book is a ground-breaking study of the political socialization of children who are deaf. Debate has raged for years over how to educate the prelingually deaf — those children who cannot acquire language “normally” (that is, orally and aurally). While the battlelines have been drawn by the proponents of oralism versus manualism and their hearing supporters, two linguistic dilemmas facing D/deaf people remain constant: a conscious choice is always made for them as to the way they will be taught, and either method of language acquisition results in a form of marginalization. Professionals will have to reconsider the emotional and political effects of current assumptions about the socialization process. (106 pages)

Price: Out of print in paperback. Available in hardcover