Audism

Audism describes the mentality that to be able to hear and to speak is necessarily better and leads to a higher quality of life. On this basis, different forms of discriminating behavior against deaf and hard of hearing people may arise. Audism can manifest in different areas of life, done mostly by hearing people. It can also occur within the Deaf Community as some deaf or hard of hearing person attempts to shares the attitude of being hearing is better. It is this mentality that led Tom L. Humphries to coin the term in his doctoral dissertation in 1975. He defined it as the attitude that people who hear and speak (or hear and speak better) or have excellent English skills, are superior to others. The definition has since expanded to include discriminating behaviors.