Medical Model--about hearing loss, or a functional loss
Social Model--fixing a society that creates unnecessary barriers (i.e. ramps, provision of interpreters, Closed Captioning, etc.)
Cultural Model--shared language, culture, Deaf-gain, & Deaf-hood. All about Deaf gain
(Malkowski, G. 2015).
All of these models are examples of some of the challenges faced by some people today. Among other things, there are also barriers that people create based on a variety of different things. Attitudinal barriers are created by people with assumptions and judgments that lead to stereotyping others (Malkowski, G. 2015). Whether we like it or not, every one of us has biases that have been created through our life experiences and encounters. Those biases contribute to shaping our judgments of other people, which also contributes to those attitudinal barriers.
A key component of attitudinal barriers is the idea of "black and white thinking" (Malkowski, G. 2015). This means an issue can be either here or there but there can be no middle ground established. This applies to the topic of Closed Captioning, and has proved to be a barrier in itself.
Closed Captioning falls under the social model as seen above. Here is where this "hot topic" comes into play today. With the stereotypes that we individuals create based on our biases and experiences, we also create labels; inappropriate ones at that.
Here is an example of an inappropriate label commonly used today:
Social Model--fixing a society that creates unnecessary barriers (i.e. ramps, provision of interpreters, Closed Captioning, etc.)
Cultural Model--shared language, culture, Deaf-gain, & Deaf-hood. All about Deaf gain
(Malkowski, G. 2015).
All of these models are examples of some of the challenges faced by some people today. Among other things, there are also barriers that people create based on a variety of different things. Attitudinal barriers are created by people with assumptions and judgments that lead to stereotyping others (Malkowski, G. 2015). Whether we like it or not, every one of us has biases that have been created through our life experiences and encounters. Those biases contribute to shaping our judgments of other people, which also contributes to those attitudinal barriers.
A key component of attitudinal barriers is the idea of "black and white thinking" (Malkowski, G. 2015). This means an issue can be either here or there but there can be no middle ground established. This applies to the topic of Closed Captioning, and has proved to be a barrier in itself.
Closed Captioning falls under the social model as seen above. Here is where this "hot topic" comes into play today. With the stereotypes that we individuals create based on our biases and experiences, we also create labels; inappropriate ones at that.
Here is an example of an inappropriate label commonly used today:
"The following program has been closed captioned for the hearing impaired."
Does this look familiar? "Hearing Impaired" is not an appropriate label to use when addressing a certain audience, yet it is still commonly used before a movie or television show begins. This is a common misconception that many people are unaware of. The term "hearing impaired" suggests that some form of damage has taken place. There is no degree of pain in Deaf ears so they do not identify as being damaged or broken. To be fair, some people who become deaf later in life where the cause may be from a ruptured ear drum for instance, then the term "hearing impaired" could be used in a more lenient fashion. The main issue now, however, is the fact that hearing impaired is a term being used widely to address anyone who is Deaf, hard of hearing, deaf, or deafened. The use of this term must be limited to the appropriate audience.
Does this look familiar? "Hearing Impaired" is not an appropriate label to use when addressing a certain audience, yet it is still commonly used before a movie or television show begins. This is a common misconception that many people are unaware of. The term "hearing impaired" suggests that some form of damage has taken place. There is no degree of pain in Deaf ears so they do not identify as being damaged or broken. To be fair, some people who become deaf later in life where the cause may be from a ruptured ear drum for instance, then the term "hearing impaired" could be used in a more lenient fashion. The main issue now, however, is the fact that hearing impaired is a term being used widely to address anyone who is Deaf, hard of hearing, deaf, or deafened. The use of this term must be limited to the appropriate audience.