references; Disability Studies Conference

[Mark Mandel]

Rain G. Bosworth writes:

>>>>>
I have often heard (although from whom/where, I don't remember) that deaf
people have better, improved vision or are more attentive to detail in the
visual world compared to hearing people.

I would appreciate published statements referring to this claim based on
personal belief or on anecdotal evidence.   Anyone have references to
newspapers, articles, movies, websites, etc. that say this, I'd appreciate
them.
<<<<<

This is not quite on-target, but it may be relevant. I am (h+H)earing. I
have a few personal code phrases, or "mantras", so to speak, that I
sometimes use while driving to remind myself of certain necessary or
helpful attitudes of attention. One of these is "see Deaf", and what I mean
by it is this: I consciously widen my attentive visual field to include the
rear-view mirror and both side mirrors, monitoring them for significant
change without taking my eyes off the road in front of me. To do this
successfully I often have to turn off the radio. When I am "seeing Deaf", I
am very much aware of a much wider field of view than I normally have, and
being able to process what I need to in it; but doing this competes for
mental bandwidth with the auditory channel.

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com
                     (speaking for myself)