1. Since the 1970s, the upper-case ‘D’ in Deaf has been used in academic discourse to signal the cultural identification with sign languages and Deaf communities and to highlight the socially constructed nature of deafness (see, for example, J. Woodward, ‘Implications for Sociolinguistic Research among the Deaf’, Sign Language Studies, 1 (1972), 1–7;
2. O. Wrigley, The Politics of Deafness (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1996);
3. L. Monaghan and C. Schmaling, ‘Preface’, in L. Monaghan, C. Schmaling, K. Nakamura and G. H. Turner (eds), Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2003), pp. ix–xii. In this convention ‘Deaf’ is distinguished from ‘deaf’ with a lower-case ‘d’, which is used to refer to the audiological understanding of hearing loss. Monaghan and Schmaling (ibid.) cite the contested nature of this formulation, particularly when referring to the education of children and young people, as it presumes identification with Deaf culture that not all children with hearing loss will experience. Brenda Jo Brueggemann argues in Lend Me Your Ear: Rhetorical Constructions of Deafness (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1999) that it is necessary to address how such terms are being used in each instance. In this chapter when Deaf children or adults identify with sign languages and Deaf communities I will use the capitalized format. However, when deaf children more broadly are referred to, as in the wider discussion of educational policy and practice, I have opted to follow
4. Shirley Myers and Jane Fernandes, ‘Deaf Studies: A Critique of the Predominant U. S. Theoretical Direction’, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 15: 1 (2010), 30–49;
5. K. Wilson, S. Miles and I. Kaplan, Family Friendly: Working with Deaf Children and Their Communities Worldwide (London: Deaf Child Worldwide, 2008);