Inside a Lens on Deaf Identities

Reviews the book, A lens on deaf identities by Irene W. Leigh (see record 2009-06207-000). Many professionals not specializing in work with deaf and hard-of-hearing people may have limited exposure to this field of practice. Leigh’s book is instructive for this group of professionals who have yet to realize that there are more than one or two ways of being deaf, such as deaf people who sign and those who do not. At the same time, the highly specialized group of professionals working primarily with this population will be enlightened by Leigh’s broad, open, comprehensive, and insightful text on the complexities and the competing dimensions of identity. Multidisciplinary perspectives are incorporated from a variety of fields, including psychology, education, sociology, social work, linguistics, genetics, technology, audiology, speech and language, deaf studies, identity studies, and anthropology. This cross-disciplinary nature of the book makes it useful as an academic text, as well as informative and provocative reading for practitioners in all of these disciplines. Program administrators in professions providing services to deaf and hard-of-hearing people and employers will also find the book enlightening. Deaf adults exploring identity issues, as well as parents of deaf children seeking to develop a deeper understanding of the dynamics of identity politics, identity development, and the diversity and commonalities of identity among deaf people, will also find this book to be of interest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)