Culture of CODAS

What is hearing culture?

Hearing culture is defined as the culture that individuals identify with as a result of hearing status. Hearing culture can be marked by certain lifestyle and behavioral features that differ from Deaf culture.

What is Deaf culture?

Deaf culture is defined as the culture shared by D/deaf individuals who share common lifestyle features and beliefs. 

Deaf culture includes specific aspects that participants of Deaf culture share. These shared aspects include language (typically ASL), identity, historical background, behaviors, experiences, artifacts, and social groups (Shield, 2004). 

Where do CODAs fit in culturally?

Frequently, CODAs have difficulty finding their own cultural identity between hearing culture and Deaf culture.

It has been shown that "hearing children who have deaf parents may experience complications that have a negative impact on identity development into their adult lives" (Frank, 2019).

Because CODAs grow up surrounded by a deaf parent or parents, they may have experiences that align with Deaf culture. Their hearing status also renders them capable of identifying with hearing culture. Other families may identify biculturally and share features of both hearing culture and Deaf culture. Because ambiguity lies between the two cultures, it has been shown that "Deaf and hearing identities do not always correspond to actual audiological capacity" (Shield, 2004). 

This difficulty may cause some CODAs to develop a mixture of both hearing culture and Deaf culture that fits their personal identity the best. CODAs "grew up living between the Deaf and hearing worlds" and therefore may develop a bicultural identity (Singleton et. al., 2000). 

In conclusion, the cultural identity of CODAs is a personal journey that differs for each individual. Many internal and external factors influence how CODAs identify between hearing culture and Deaf culture. 

Are there any other groups CODAs identify with?

Due to the fact that many CODAs grow up with exposure to not only a spoken language, but also ASL, they identify as bilingual, too (Lillo-Martin et. al., 2014). It is estimated that about 60% of CODA-identifying individuals "are fluent in sign language"(Frank, 2019).

Additionally, some CODAs label themselves as 'bicultural' to express their involvement with the language and culture of both the hearing and non-hearing populations (Singleton et. al., 2000).