走入靜音世界 ——以理解尊重還聽障者公平正義

Abstract

在這個以聽人為主的社會，聾人孩童從呱呱落地那刻起，成長、學習之路遠比一般孩童艱難。本報導以兩名同年齡、同樣聽障程度的男孩為主角，探討不同家庭經濟背景、成長環境，以及城鄉差距所帶來的社會資源差異，如何影響這兩名男孩的未來發展。 本報導發現，聾人孩童的出生家庭環境的良好與否，通常已經決定他們大半的人生發展。家庭中撫養者的能力、經濟情況、知識水準以及社經地位，往往左右這些聾人孩童能否在學齡前黃金時期，接受合適早期療育，順利發展屬於自己的手語、口語或其他語言能力。 而聾人孩童身處的社會資源，則進一步決定他們未來是否有翻身機會。對這些失聰孩童而言，如果在學齡前已錯過黃金學習時期，合適的教育制度原本可以彌補他們先天家庭資源的不足，但如果因為城鄉差距等因素而無法接受適當教育，他們的未來將更令人憂心。 本報導認為，在台灣聽人主流文化中，聽障人士其實是語言弱勢者。我們社會如果只圖聽人自己的方便，一味訓練他們利用聽力損失的耳朵接收資訊，則無法理解到：眼睛，才是他們和這個世界互動的主要窗口。聽人必須拋下成見，理解、尊重、接納他們的生活經驗，才是平等、友善、尊重差異的無障礙文明社會。

The report explores how socio-economic status greatly influences the Deaf children. Honestly, growing up in the mainstream culture of hearing people was a tough journey for them. The problems are twofold: different family backgrounds and different social resources. Socio-economic status and educational backgrounds of parents play key roles in the Deaf children’s future. Unsurprisingly, those born in a high-class family tend to have more opportunities to undergo early interventions in preschool age, which promote and enhance their abilities to communicate with others either in sign-language or oral-language. The increasing rural-urban divide and decreasing social resources in rural area also signal certain defects of our education. Education, an institution formerly to minimize the gap between those who undergo proper early intervention and those who did not, has turned into a filter: keeping “good” students with good oral speaking ability while scrap others. The report implies an important issue: Deaf people, minority in the mainstream culture of hearing people, suffer in educational system and daily lives. All the suffering stems from hearing people’s pride and prejudice, however, eyes are their windows to the world. Showing respect and accepting their visual experience will lead Taiwan to a genuine barrier-free environment.