Disability Politics and Deaf Identity: Notes from a U.S.-Japan
Comparative Ethnographic Perspective
This presentation explores the similarities and differences between
disability politics and deaf identity from a U.S. ? Japan comparative
perspective. In the United States, the Deaf culture movement of the
1980s took a different road from the main disability movement,
emphasizing language and minority cultural difference over physical
impairment. This led to a division between Deaf cultural and disability
political identities in America. In Japan, however, the main deaf
federation articulated itself as part of broader disability politics
leading to maintenance of some ties with other disability organizations.