Abstract
d/Deaf individuals' use of a visual-based language, American Sign Language (ASL), can lead to challenges in communicating and developing relationships with the larger hearing majority. This study uses Communication Accommodation Theory as a framework for exploring d/Deaf individuals' perspectives on communication with hearing individuals and the strategies they use to converge or diverge from hearing individuals during interactions. Through in-depth interviews conducted in ASL, participants were asked to recount experiences of communication interactions with members of the hearing majority and preferred strategies and motivations for convergence or divergence. Results identified convergence as a strategy to indicate interest in communicating with the hearing majority through gesturing, writing/texting, or voicing. Hearing individuals' convergence through use of sign, gesturing, or writing/texting was reported as a positive strategy by participants. Divergence was identified as an identity management strategy in which d/Deaf persons seek to remove themselves from situations where they are not being treated equitably.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
46
Issue
1
First Page
33
Last Page
51
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Sanders, Genelle Timperlake and Rodriguez, Stephanie Rollie
(2014)
"Connecting Visual Communicators with an Auditory World: Exploring Communication Accomodation Processes in d/Deaf-Hearing Interactions,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 46:
No.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol46/iss1/6
Copyright
©2014 Iowa Communication Association
