The Need in the Deaf Community

How many Deaf?
The Washington, DC metro area has a large Deaf community, owing to the presence of educational institutions for Deaf people and employment of Deaf people by Federal and State governments and by corporations and the nonprofit sector. Estimates based on the ’94-’95 census (data from 2000 census not yet available) project that about 492,046 people in DC, MD and VA are hard of hearing – deaf, and 41, 416 people are Deaf (unable to hear normal conversation; culturally and linguistically Deaf).

Incidence of violence
According to the Mental Health Journal nearly one in every three adult women experiences at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood. Twenty five per cent of the female population will be abused in their lifetime. If we estimate that 50% of the Deaf population in the area are women, then as many as 5,000 Deaf women in our community experience abuse in their lifetime and up to 12,000 hard of hearing-deaf women.

Issues in the Deaf community
Our formal and informal networking and our experience with clients tells us there is a high incidence of mostly unreported violence against women. We know abuse is very likely in intimate partnerships of Deaf or hard of hearing people with a hearing partner. Issues of domestic violence and sexual assault are not discussed openly. The Deaf community is close-knit and people are afraid to disclose what is happening to them. People don’t have information about what domestic violence is, or about their rights or about resources and support available to them.

Generally, the metro area does not provide culturally or linguistically appropriate services for Deaf, HOH, or Deaf-blind survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault. When a survivor is faced with approaching an agency where language and cultural barriers exist, this almost guarantees that she/he will not have complete access to information and will continue in the cycle of domestic violence.