Concluding Remarks

Overall, it was found that the self-positioning of each member of the Deaf community we interviewed varied greatly across the board. It was found that how they positioned themselves between the Hearing and Deaf worlds was dependent on a variety of factors including the extent of deafness, the amount of aid they received and the smaller communities they are a part of, including their workplace, educational setting or even their rugby team. Despite the broad spectrum of positioning and identities encompassed by the consultants, all of the individuals were connected by the symbiotic relationship their identity had with the perceptions of mainstream society. In support of current literature on the Deaf community, our consultants demonstrate that the attitudes of the Hearing world continue to play a large part in the formation of Deaf identity, creating difficulties that either must be accepted as the norm or overcome by self-positioning outside of the Deaf community.

Although the experiences of the Deaf employee seem to reflect an almost perfect situation for a deaf person living in a hearing world, she is the exception rather than the rule. The Deaf employee lives in a microcosm where many facets of her interactions and life are carefully crafted to accommodate people with hearing impairments. Furthermore, by nature, she seems to be a very positive and optimistic person which may have contributed to the way she views her life. In contrast, we see that the experiences of the other interviewees are vastly different. The majority of them face some sort of discrimination and frustrations on a day-to-day basis. This has in many ways hindered their ability to fulfil their potential and in some ways affected the way they perceive their hearing impairment.

In Agha (2006), it was concluded that Tyisha's perception of her own identity was partly shaped by the people surrounding her. We see this with our Deaf interviewees as well: the Deaf employee is extremely accepting and almost proud of her Deaf identity, but at the same time blends almost seamlessly into the Hearing world. However, in the case of the university students who suffer from more minor hearing impairments, they shun their Deaf identity completely, refusing to even be associated with the Deaf community. One of the factors to which we can attribute this difference is the community that they are surrounded by.