Deaf Culture Is Different: Working with the Deaf Community—Nothing About Us, Without Us!

American Deaf culture consists of a nationwide community of 500,000 people who use American Sign Language (ASL). Their culture often goes unrecognized. Hofstede\u27s Cultural Theory values are utilized to evaluate face-saving versus directness and individualism versus collectivism from the perspectives of members of the Deaf community, especially as a possible exception to Hofstede\u27s view of concurrent traits. The research process, while seeking examples of misunderstanding or conflict with the historically more powerful hearing majority, and the results, demonstrate cultural differences. Recommendations are made for working with members of the Deaf community, in particular regarding linguistic autonomy of Deaf children and cultural autonomy of adults with particular emphasis on recent developments within and the historic attacks on the Deaf community