Audism and Phonocentrism in Sexual Assault: Addressing Gaps
2020 has called upon us to name, more than ever before, the ways oppression is deeply woven into systems, attitudes, and cultures. In its commitment to providing services and trauma-informed care, the sexual assault community in Washington, DC strives for accessibility, inclusivity, and transparency. The issues of audism and phonocentrism, which affect the Deaf community, demand our attention and redress.
Audism “judges, labels, and limits individuals on the basis of whether a person hears and speaks. [It] reflects the medical view of deafness as a disability that must be fixed” (VAW). Phonocentrism, the belief that sound and speech are superior to written and other forms of communication, rears its head in our work as well. As we strive to build systems that adequately meet the needs of sexual assault survivors in the District and in the nation, it merits examining the ways we 3 may miss the audism and phonocentrism in our own intentions to provide advocacy and access to services.
According to Vera Institute, DeafDisabled, DeafBlind, Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Late Deafened (DDDBDHHLD) people experience sexual violence at higher rates, and are three times more likely to be sexually abused as children. While we know that intersecting identities affect the ways people both experience violence and seek support, a lack of cultural understanding of the DDDBDHHLD community by the hearing community imposes additional barriers to providing sufficient care. As members of a tightly-knit community, DDDBDHHLD victim-survivors may hesitate to seek services because abusers, rapists, or people causing harm may be connected to them in some fashion, such as those providing interpretation. Without understanding the unique experiences of DDDBDHHLD people and the support best suited to serve them, we may be falling short of our responsibility to victim-survivors.
Advocates contend there is a broad misunderstanding of the means of abuse, assault, control and manipulation experienced by DDDBDHHLD people. Educational materials that convey common modes of abuse or assault may often exclude the experiences of DDDBDHHLD survivors — as a 2015 report by the Vera Institute of Justice explains, “behaviors listed…rarely include those such as destroying video phones and channeling physical abuse towards the victim’s hands” (15). One area of focus in better meeting the needs of DDDBDHHLD people should be to strive for inclusivity in educational materials — not only for those who are seeking to identify patterns of abuse or assault in the DDDBDHHLD community, but also for providers and responders unaccustomed to considering these routes of abuse.
Audism is often baked into the way we conceive of interpretation. As Najma Johnson, the Executive Director of DAWN, has shared, the primary concern for service providers is often the cost of interpretation. This undermines the right of a DDDBDHHLD person to communicate in what may be their first language. There is also no guarantee that interpreters obtained for these purposes have the specialized vocabulary to interpret language specific to assault. In a space where a survivor’s transmission of their lived experience depends upon an interpreter’s accurate conveyance, interpretation may be provided by someone who does not have a trauma-informed lexicon. Audism crops up even as we approach the notion of urging more “qualified” interpreters into the field. One of the reasons there may be a lack of qualified interpreters in this space is due to the audism present in certification standards. Tests for certification prioritize hearing people, and are also conducted in English. This puts people whose first language may be ASL at a disadvantage. These standards may box out people with the appropriate experience or community background to provide trauma-informed interpretation. It especially leaves Deaf interpreters and interpreters of color at a disadvantage.
There are multiple ways to address the challenges posed in providing adequate interpretation. For one, the DDDBDHHLD community may be able to identify, for itself, people who are prepared to and capable of providing interpretation within this field, even if those people do not meet standard certification 4 criteria. Additionally, using Deaf interpreters, and not only hearing interpreters, can provide another layer of assurance in the accuracy of interpretation. Further, hearing people and organizations ought to address audism in their priorities when it comes to hiring interpreters: the ability of an interpreter to provide trauma-informed services should be more of a priority than securing interpretation for the lowest cost.
Broadly, a lack of awareness about audism and phonocentrism keeps the sexual assault field from adequately preparing for, understanding, and meeting the needs of DDDBDHHLD survivors. Without recognizing the disparities experienced by DDDBDHHLD people seeking services or care, taking steps to eliminate them will prove uneven and misdirected. As a global city, the nation’s capital, and the home of Gallaudet University, Washington, DC is home to a large DDDBDHHLD community. It is of critical importance that we take this issue on by investing in strategic planning to eradicate the audism in sexual assault services.
