Date of Defense

6-28-2024

Date of Graduation

6-2024

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Autumn Edwards

Second Advisor

Tanya Timmerman

Third Advisor

Jamie Lin Hunerjager

Abstract

Since the invention and proliferation of the telephone in the late nineteenth century, our world has become increasingly dependent on technologically mediated communication. Nowadays we are just as likely to have our next human interaction through our smartphone or computer screen as we are to meet another person face to face. We do not even tend to think of these things as tools for telecommunication anymore, but rather as extensions of our own will. Despite the overwhelming convenience of this technology, it is also fundamentally created with the interests of certain people in mind. If you are able to use a piece of telecommunications technology without significant hindrance, chances are you are without any physical differences, and in relation to the topic of this thesis specifically, you are probably hearing.

The increased reliance on telephony throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries marked a period of technological isolation for the Deaf community, a community that was already very societally isolated due to ostracization. The intervening century was spent by many Deaf people on attempting to make up this gap in technology, with little to no help from the telecommunications industry at large. Some pieces of technology that have been the most vital in making up for the lack of active Deaf accommodation from large companies have been the teletypewriter, the video relay service, and the internet. Throughout this paper, we will look at how Deaf people have put in the effort to adapt these pieces of technology for their own use, and the ways in which hearing culture at large has both helped and hindered this journey.

When a piece of Deaf telecommunications technology experiences some degree of success, it is usually due to one or both of the following factors; an immense level of struggle and accomplishment on the part of some very tenacious members of the Deaf community, and the passing interest of hearing culture in the technology on the basis of novelty.

The teletypewriter, which has a level of utility for Deaf people that is not apparent to most hearing people (as we will explore in further detail later), took decades to be distributed to the people who needed it. Videoconferencing, on the other hand, is a technology the utility of which is widely understood, so it was not nearly as difficult for Deaf people to get access to it. The tension between the Deaf community and the technology they use is especially apparent in the relationship between Deaf culture and social media, which challenges Deaf people to decide how strongly they want to present their identity to others. In modern day, the relentless globalization of the internet provides countless new avenues for the building of Deaf community as well as many opportunities for Deaf culture as it has existed in the past to become lost.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

Download

Included in

Communication Commons

Share

COinS