OPPRESSION, EMPOWERMENT, AND THE ROLE OF THE INTERPRETER 4
society tells them. Roughly ninety percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, most of
whom never learn to sign with their children (Leonard, Duren, & Reiman, 2007). Instead of
empowering deaf children to fully function without the use of hearing, doctors impress on
parents that a deaf child’s hearing loss must to be repaired, and because the parents often have
never met a Deaf person or been exposed to Deaf culture or American Sign Language (ASL),
they end up pursuing treatments. When parents are so focused on treating their child’s hearing
loss, the deaf child will grow up thinking he or she was defective, and while hearing aids and
cochlear implants can be provided, the child still does not have full access to the auditory
language like a hearing individual (Lane, 1999). Many experts tell parents not to use ASL when
communicating with their deaf children, due to a myth that signing would prevent them from
learning English, yet if they cannot comprehend oral communication, the result is that the
children grow up isolated in their own homes (Lane, 1999). Only recently have Deaf people been
given rights (Humphrey & Alcorn, 2007). In the past, interpreters and those that helped the Deaf
were often volunteers and church members. It was not until 1990 when the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed that people began to realize that Deaf people deserve
accommodations; however, the Deaf still did not get equal access to communication (Brunson,
2008). Also, although the Deaf were able to get accommodations to interpreters after ADA, the
quality of the interpreter was often poor (Humphrey & Alcorn, 2007). Numerous interpreters
viewed their Deaf clients as less intelligent, while others would add or subtract to the message
being given to the Deaf individual (Brunson, 2008). Often interpreters witness and experience
firsthand the oppression of the Deaf and many times the insults to the community are
communicated through their hands while they interpret what the hearing client speaks
(Humphrey & Alcorn, 2007). These negative experiences with interpreters can cause the Deaf to