Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community

Harlan L. Lane's Mask of Benevolence: Disabling the Deaf Community explores "audism," a term coined by Tom L. Humphries. Audism is the belief that hearing individuals are superior to those with hearing loss. Lane described audism as a means for the hearing to dominate the deaf community, highlighting how environments and systems often favor hearing abilities, a concept known as institutional audism.1

This perspective challenges the idea that speech is fundamental to human identity, arguing that sign languages are complete languages and that speech is not the sole form of human communication. The work has contributed to recognizing the discrimination faced by the deaf community and advocating for their linguistic rights and dignity. This contrasts with the "oral method" of deaf education, which focuses on teaching speech and lip-reading. American Sign Language (ASL) is a distinct visual-gestural language used by the Deaf community in the U.S. and Canada.123