Listen First: Dialogic Research Ethics With Caribbean Signing Communities

Abstract

Successful research of Caribbean signed languages and deaf communities involves negotiating complex communication ethics toward both people and languages. In this article, I ground a call for ethical listening to Caribbean deaf and signing communities in sociolinguistic research that investigated deaf community and sign language boundaries in the Caribbean. I argue that a dialogic ethic that privileges listening is foundational for ethical research with Caribbean deaf and signing communities by discussing two ethical challenges that were central to understanding their narrative ground: the communicative construction of categories of linguistic membership and advocacy of social justice and human rights.

Keywords:

• deaf
• sign language
• caribbean
• dialogic ethics
• research

Notes

¹ Although American Psychological Association style generally uses person-first language (such as “person who is deaf” or “communities who are deaf”), in this article I use terms such as “deaf communities” and “deaf person” to respect the convention of deaf communities to refer to themselves in a way that emphasizes a deaf cultural identity (preceding the person) rather than a descriptive audiological status (following the person).