Woke Up to Audism
Wilkinson
identified nor defined. However, deaf people appear to have an intuitive understanding of conflicts
motivated by audism. Their recognition of audism is based on their numerous experiences of being
discriminated against due to their deafness, their inability to speak well, and their status within and
outside of the deaf community. Is audism systematic more than individual? How can deaf people
be audist since they cannot perpetuate an audist system? Yet deaf people internalize audist
attitudes. The next step is to address how to identify and respond to audist practices and engage
people with strategies to dismantle audism. Humphries did more than making a word, he gave
legitimacy to the discrimination unique to deaf people. Humphries asked this question back in
1975, “is it a word worth maintaining?”, and the answer is absolutely, yes.
Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge Dr. Kristin Snoddon for her invaluable input and feedback to the
earlier drafts of this manuscript.
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