Deaf researcher studies experiences of deaf adults in India

From the Deccan Herald in Bangalore, India:

Disability rights activist Michele Friedner, who has severe bilateral hearing loss herself, is now studying how disability is tackled in everyday life.

“Hmmm, my achievements? Getting a gas connection, wrangling for a research permit from the Commissioner of police, braving Bangalore traffic…." ticks off Michele Friedner on her fingers.

Typical "foreigner in India" speak? Wait till you hear about Michele's other and more significant achievements. Graduating from a large public high school at the top of her class and later from an Ivy League university with a magna cum laude degree, working as a disability rights activist, getting published in the globally reputed Economic and Political Weekly, pursuing her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley... All these despite her severe-profound bilateral hearing loss.

"If through my studies, we can work out better vocational options for the deaf here, I would consider that an achievement," says Michele. Michele is studying young deaf adults in vocational rehabilitation programmes in Association of People with Disabilities, Enable India, and others, from a medical anthropological perspective — "which means I'm interested in how disability as a social process is created and how it is lived by people".

Michele doesn't like it when people say "overcoming hearing loss".

"Deafness is not something to be overcome; it is something that I live with. When people ask me whether I'm married to a normal person, I say I'm married to a hearing person."

But doesn't she feel disabled at any time?

"Of course I do, when I watch a TV programme without subtitles or when I have to order pizza over the phone! But it is important that we use words carefully. I'm as normal as any hearing individual.”

Michele's hearing loss was diagnosed when she was around three years of age and she went into a mainstream school benefiting from the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) stipulation of providing speech therapy and audiology services to all children with hearing impairment at their schools itself. This is something that can't be done in India, you point out as providing each deaf child with an interpreter would require enormous resources.

"But the Indian government has ratified the UN treaty on disabilities which mandates that each deaf child be given the services of an interpreter by the state," counters Michele. "In the West, Deafness (with a capital D) is perceived as a social identity. 'Deaf identity' cuts across religious, class and national barriers and people talk of Deaf culture and pride. In India, deafness (with a lower case d) is still perceived as a medical condition. But I do believe that it is more productive to think of the deaf in multiple communities in India rather than as a single monolithic one."

With plans for post-doctoral work, a book and later work as a disability consultant, Michele Friedner is looking forward to hearing the sound of success.