People of the Eye: Stories from the Deaf World

The storytellers are old and young, and their lives reflect the diversity and commonality of Deaf experience. The pain acknowledged by a generation brought up forbidden to sign contrasts with the confidence of young people using New Zealand Sign Language as they assert 'Deaf pride'. Children growing up in Deaf families talk of their identity quite differently from those in hearing families. There is joy and sadness, confusion and resolution, regret and optimism.Several generation of Deaf voices speak here of their experience in the wider context of New Zealand life: they echo the research and new political consciousness that identifies the Deaf as a cultural-linguistic community. And their words hold a mirror to mainstream society's ill-informed perceptions of being Deaf.