Elusive Statistics on Deafness
However, we know that deafness and hearing loss is not something easily identified or reported. People who are getting older often will not admit to a hearing loss. Still others may be "hidden deaf" people who do not want to state that they are deaf. Add to that the fact that modern technology makes it more and more possible for deaf and hard of hearing people to "blend in" to society, e.g. implanted deaf children attending regular schools with and without support services.
All that makes commonly-cited figures like "28 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans" an approximation at best. Internationally, particularly in less developed countries, it is even harder to get statistics that are reasonably accurate. (I checked the CIA World Factbook, but the country profiles apparently do not include disability).
So when I receive an e-mail inquiry like this one:
"I am a writer, preparing an article for a journal, and
searching for reliable figures on total deaf population worldwide
and in North America. Also, the ratio of people who use sign
language most of the time to those with normal hearing."
...it is difficult to direct them to the proper resources. Do I refer them to the Federal government, whose statistics are probably out of date and based on samples? Or do I refer them to state services for deaf and hard of hearing, because they might have some more current, reliable statistics?
A typical question I got this week:
"I am looking for any nationwide statistic that shows the current
quality of education (grade level vis a vis their age) that the deaf
child is receiving in contrast to their hearing counterpart. I know
it is a common concept that most deaf students when they graduate from high school are still getting 5th grade level education. Is the # still the same?
Also, what is the percentage of deaf children graduating from college?"
The only educational statistics I know of are the ones available through the Gallaudet Research Institute. Today, with deaf students able to attend any college with support services as well as the deaf colleges, it is impossible to find out the total percentage of deaf students graduating from college. Statistics are available for Gallaudet and NTID, but what about all the "hearing" colleges out there? Somebody would have to ask every hearing college in the United States "do you have deaf students enrolled? Have any deaf students graduated from your college?"
Do we need a DeafStatistics.com? If so, who would fund one?
Comments
I find this subject fascinating, but not too ‘all-consuming’.
I did some ad hoc armchair analysis by comparing figures as provided by the GRI and that of the U.S. Census. Look for reply #82399 in this DeafDC blog entry;
Gallaudet’s Not The Only One
I need information on how children become deaf and ways or things to do to prvent it. I also want to know some statistics on deaf children. can you help me?
l am doing some work on the deaf in Africa. can someone give me statistics on deaf people in west Africa.
I was working on a persuasive speech and have had friends in the past and present that have head a deaf or hard of hearing family member. I know one friend’s sister was deaf and attending public school until the State dropped the ASL teaching and picked up spanish because there were more hispanics in the state than deaf or hard of hearing, this made me furious because we have a huge school for the deaf here. Is sign language not part of our everyday communication? Is it not the use of non-verbal communication? Is non-verbal communication NOT what people understand when communicating 1 on 1 more than the verbal? There are no statistics that are strong, but I still gave my speech over Mandatory ASL in public schools. I received and A!
I’m doing a reserch project on people who are deaf and teach does any one know where i might find someone like that??