Reframing: from Hearing Loss to Deaf Gain
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Since its establishment, the field of Deaf Studies has consistently challenged conceptions of normalcy (Bauman, 2008). The idea of normalcy first appeared in the nineteenth century when scientists began to apply statistical principles to human populations (Bayton, 2000). When measuring characteristics such as intelligence and physical abilities, statisticians found that most people fell within a range clustered around the mean. As one moves away from the mean in either direction, the percentage of the population that presents the given characteristic decreases. This produces a bell-shaped curve, what is known as the normal distribution curve. When measuring different traits, the majority of the population will cluster around the mean, and over time, society has assigned this population to the category of “normal”. In contrast, people who lie far from the statistical mean are said to deviate from normalcy (Davis, 2006).