Deaf in America

Voices from a Culture

Carol Padden

Tom Humphries

    A fascinating glimpse into a world unfamiliar to most of us.
       --New York Times Book Review

    To be deaf, it seems obvious, must be to live in a world of silence. That, say the authors of Deaf in America, is where most people get it wrong...[Padden and Humphries] challenge their readers to imagine a world, one with a "different center"--one in which ability or inability to hear is not at the core. The thing that links it all together is sign language, which Deaf in America contemplates, illustrates, and celebrates.
       --Paul Berg, Washington Post

    A long, painful experience of hearing intolerance has generally kept Deaf culture fairly closed to outsiders, even sympathetic ones. But now Padden and Humphries...have written a charming small book that invites the rest of us at least part way in...A most welcome addition to that very small shelf of books that truly illuminate the experience of being deaf.
       --Beryl Lieff Benderly, Psychology Today

    Through the use of folklore, apocryphal stories, poetry, jokes, and discussion of split factions and advocacy organizations, Padden and Humphries gracefully explain how deaf culture works, what it means to its members, how they define themselves within it, and how they interact with the world outside. Providing rare insight into this universe of silence, this volume conveys the joy and satisfaction that many deaf people have in their lives and shows that being deaf is not a handicap that most hearing people think.
       --Booklist

    In this wonderful book, we see Deaf culture from inside out and from outside in at the same time--a miracle and a delight.
       --Harlan Lane, author of When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf

  • Cover: Deaf in America
  • A photo of the author

photo of Carol Padden (top); Tom Humphries (below)

Carol Padden is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, San Diego.

Tom Humphries is associate professor in the Department of Communication and the Teacher Education Program at the University of California, San Diego.