deaf:audist

blind=insight

Davis' critique of hearing culture includes the representation of deafness as equivalent to slowness as blindness is often associated with insight. Davis writes:

The blindness/insight paradigm is a well established part of the meaning system. Deafness has been so excluded because it seems to be outside of meaning. Blind people are never considered outside of language, as deaf people conventionally are. (Davis, 885)

Davis also points out that many times the deaf are represented as slow or unintelligent as opposed to the potential "insight" gained in the darkness of blindness. In our own cultural representations, blindness can be understood to some extent. We can communicate with the blind through our accustomed oral language. But sound-centered speech is an impossibility. This translates to different means of accommodation on campus. With a guide dog, cane, and now computers to help in note-taking and reading tasks, we still speak with and encounter the voice of the blind person. And because we judge the presence of a self through voice (See Davis on Derrida, 883-884, and Derrida Of Grammatology) we recognize the personhood of a blind subject where were are not as sure about a deaf one.

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