Our family's personal experience and a Deaf perspective on the Coda identity. Duration 6:52

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Translation:

Hello, I'm Adrean. Welcome to ASL Spark! Today we'll be talking about Codas. I'm not a Coda myself but I gave birth to three Coda sons. When we found out they were hearing, it didn't matter to us. Of course my husband and I were slightly disappointed that we couldn't share some of our Deaf school experiences with them, but otherwise we were fine with their hearing status.

When time came for them to attend school, we became frustrated with the system. People were more concerned with our children's ability to hear and speak English than their ability to speak ASL. I was not worried about their English acquisition because we were avid readers with shelves full of books. What most concerned me was the opportunity for our children to acquire fluent ASL. We wanted them to be educated in ASL as well as English.

I even tried asking the Deaf school if they would accept a placement for my oldest son because he qualified for IEP services. Their answer was NO!

The system failed us, so after a family meeting, we decided to homeschool full-time. As predicted, my sons grew to be fluent in English, plus they are fluent in ASL thanks to the many ASL stories and activities we shared with them.

This led me to think about the Coda identity. I'm not going to discuss this in-depth as it is not my identity, however, I am going to share my observations based on my experience as an ASL Deaf person.

First, we need to define "Deaf" as a term. My beliefs are a little different. I see the "Deaf" identity as having two components: disability and ASL. The disability sphere is one that society imposed on us because they view us as lacking in hearing. We have our struggles within that sphere. The ASL sphere is where we live within our linguistic-cultural ASL heritage. Those two spheres combine together to create the capital "Deaf" identity, or as I write it, the ASL Deaf identity.

There are lowercase "deaf" people who remain wholly in the disability sphere and never reach the ASL sphere. They are, of course, welcome to enter the ASL community -- and that is a good thing.

Now, what about the Coda identity? To me, they are a combination of two spheres: Hearing and ASL. Hearing people have their shared beliefs and values that intersect with the deaf as disability sphere. It's important to recognize this difference as the contradictory beliefs of hearing people are often imposed onto Deaf people. Codas have the privilege of being born or brought into the ASL sphere, but the society that we are all raised in awards them hearing privilege.

This is something that happens, like male privilege, white privilege, economic privilege, and so on. People pick up on it both consciously and subconsciously.

Codas have hearing privilege, but they are neither hearing or Deaf. They are uniquely Coda. That is their identity to explore.

As for us Deaf parents, I encourage you all to be inclusive with your coda/kodas. They are a part of our ASL families. Teach them also about their hearing privilege and their responsibilities in regards to respecting ASL.

Now, your turn to share. What do you all think?

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