Haley Smith

Mr. Kinner

ASL 1010

7 June, 2018

Chapter four of this book (Deaf Community In America) interested me because it had

more information on what the community does for fun and not just the history of the community.

This essay is going to focus on what the deaf communities hobbies were/are, as well as how it

encouraged people to get out of their comfort zone and have fun without caring what others

think.

To begin, I would like to start off with the community as a whole. The definition of

community is “​a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in

common.” Communities bring people close together and make them feel wanted, safe, and

respected. Similar to the community definition, the deaf community can be defined as a group of

deaf and hard of hearing individuals who share common interests such as language, values, and

experiences. The deaf community was officially created by 1817, with an exception of Martha’s

Vineyard.

Clubs that people could join. During world war 1, there was a lack of recorded

information about the deaf communities social activity. The clubs were intended to bring

individuals together. Today the deaf clubs can have people govern, socialize, and organize sports

while communicating in ASL. During the world wars most clubs were open on weekends (friday

night and all of saturday), however during world war 2 some clubs were open every evening or

even 24/7 so that defense workers could socialize and tell each other news after work hours. To
this day there are thousands of clubs for the deaf and for hard of hearing individuals. The clubs

have many activities occur, such as parties, dances, games, scrapbooking, poker, etc.

I was filled with joy reading this part of the chapter seeing that even back then all

individuals had somewhere to go, especially during world war 1 & world war 2. This has been a

very fun chapter to read and I am excited for more.