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From:
Steve/Dianne Parkhurst Date: Thu Aug 19, 1999 8:19 am Subject: Deaf population | ||||||||
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Dear Valerie and everybody, As we were surveying the SLs used in Spain we came up with the same problem you have been discussing in regards to the number of Deaf and users of SL. The problem with statistics is that there are so many different variables that affect the numbers. For example, if you include everyone between the ages of 1 - 101 with any degree of hearning loss, you would have about 10% with significant hearing loss. If you consider the degree of hearing loss (say, mild hearing loss--however you would define that), you could probably raise that figure to about 50%. If you were to say what % of people will experience hearing loss in their life you would hit nearly 100%. You see this all gets a bit ridiculous! (I remember reading a book once called "How to Lie with Statistics"--very interesting.) Anyway, so what did we use? We found a survey done in the US in 1972 (reference at the end) that basically defines deafness as the inability to audibly distinguish speech without the use of a hearing aid. They specifically studied those who went deaf before the age of 18. The found that those who went deaf after they were of working age, perhaps married with families, belonged to social clubs (etc.), functioned differently than those who went deaf while still in school--before they built their social networks. So of the population surveyed, they found about 2 in a 1000 or 0.2% in this category. We then found several medical reports in Spain that led us to the same number. These reports say that aproximately 1 in a 1000 children is born deaf and another 1 in a 1000 goes deaf at an early age. Of course not all persons with hearing loss sign. In the US study they asked persons with significant hearing loss how they rated themselves according to their ability to sign. About 80% rated themselves as Fair or Good. Now, take into account that the US has fairly good deaf education and many deaf people get some exposure to signing. This is not true of every country. There are some countries that are better at getting deaf kids into Deaf schools where they learn SL (whether it is allowed or not) and there are many countries where many deaf kids are either integrated or not educated and only those in the big cities have much chance of learning the SL well. So how can you possibly come up with any kind of accurate count of how many people in the world use a SL? Even if I stretch my mind I cannot imagine (based on the studies I have read) that there would be 2 in 1000 world-wide that would use SL as their preferred mode of communication. (I use the term "preferred mode of communication" because the HH person or some spouses or siblings of Deaf persons who prefer to use the spoken language are not going to be "reached" by materials written in a SL--written materials in the spoken language would "touch their heart" better.) But hey, if you are going to quote statistics you need references and proof, not just speculation. So, I would use the 0.2% figure as the number of persons in a population that would likely use SL or if given the opportunity would use SL. Here is the reference for the US study: Schein, Jerome D. (Director), Marcus T. Delk, Jr. 1974 The Deaf Population of the United States. Silver Spring, The National Association of the Deaf. Hasta luego, Steve Parkhurst | ||||||||
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