Theory and methods
Empowering the deaf. Let the deaf be deaf
Irma M Munoz-Baell, M Teresa Ruiz
Department of Public
Health, Edificio de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Alicante, Apdo de
correos 99, 03080 Alicante, Spain
Correspondence to: I M Munoz-Baell.
Accepted for publication 2 July 1999
Deafness is often regarded as just a one and only phenomenon.
Accordingly, deaf people are pictured as a unified body of people who
share a single problem. From a medical point of view, we find it usual
to work with a classification of deafness in which pathologies attributable to an inner ear disorder are segregated from pathologies attributable to an outer/middle ear disorder. Medical intervention is
thus concerned more with the origin, degree, type of loss, onset, and
structural pathology of deafness than with communicative disability and
the implications there may be for the patient (mainly dependency,
denial of abnormal hearing behaviour, low self esteem, rejection of the
prosthetic help, and the breakdown of social relationships). In this
paper, we argue that hearing loss is a very complex phenomenon, which
has many and serious consequences for people and involves many factors
and issues that should be carefully examined. The immediate consequence
of deafness is a breakdown in communication whereby the communicative
function needs to be either initiated or restored. In that sense,
empowering strategies
aimed at promoting not only a more traditional
psychological empowerment but also a community oneshould primarily
focus on the removal of communication barriers.
Keywords: deafness
© 2000 by Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
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