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We are excited and proud to join the Cultural Detective Team with the release of Cultural Detective: Deaf Culture. Even those with many years of experience in the intercultural field maybe be surprised to find a section on Deaf people in this series and may never have thought of Deaf individuals in a cultural context before. Although it may not yet be widely recognized, Deaf Culture possesses all the elements of a rich culture. Shaped by sign language and a strong group affiliation, Deaf cultures have existed in almost every country of the world for hundreds of years. Often hidden from the gaze of outsiders, Deaf people continue to pass on their values, traditions, folklore, and most importantly their sign languages to succeeding generations of deaf children. Because Deaf people are often not viewed as members of a "foreign" culture, misunderstandings between them and their "hearing" associates due to differences in language, time orientation, communication style, group loyalties, and information sharing are common.

If you were following the news in October 2006, there is a good chance that you saw or read about a significant series of events that brought media and public attention to the Deaf community. It began as a student protest about the person chosen to succeed Dr. I. King Jordan as president of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., (the only Deaf University in the world, which was established with the support of President Abraham Lincoln.) However, it was the administration’s reaction to the protest and increasingly repressive tactics that galvanized not only the U.S. Deaf community, but Deaf communities all over the world as well.

When the administration approved the arrest of 133 peacefully protesting students on what came to be called “Black Friday” thousands of Deaf alumni from all over the country began streaming into Washington DC to join the protests. Deaf leaders from around the world wrote letters defending the efforts of the protestors. Students and their followers had set up a city of tents on the grounds of the Gallaudet campus and soon supporters around the world set up another 84 of their own tent cities in a demonstration of solidarity. Not only did these tent cities spring up all over the United States, but in many other countries as well, including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, and Ireland. This moving manifestation of unity reflects our contention in Cultural Detective: Deaf Culture that the Deaf community is truly a global community, with shared values, history and priorities.

What makes these far-flung tent cities even more striking is the fact that, perhaps surprisingly, sign language is not a universal language. It would, indeed, be wonderful if we could all share one language. Since all human languages reflect the cultures in which they develop, however, it makes sense that American Sign Language, Japanese Sign Language, and Mexican Sign Language, to name only a few, are distinct from each other. Not withstanding the existence of distinct sign languages in each country of the world, linguists have discovered that many sign languages share similar grammatical features, probably stemming from the inherent properties of visual/spatial languages.

 What is even more intriguing is that when Deaf people from different countries come together, as they might at international sports, political or cultural events, they can communicate with each other more quickly and in more depth than hearing people who do not speak each other’s language. This is partly due to the shared experience of living as Deaf people in the predominately hearing non-signing world. Also, many Deaf people are adept at developing creative communication strategies such as mime and gestures because they must frequently do so to communicate with non-signers. Thus Deaf people can be considered the first truly international community where language and communication barriers are relatively easily minimized.