Unheard of: an Exploratory Ethnographic Research into the Musical Practice of d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing People in the Netherlands

Abstract

As deafness is often understood as total hearing loss and music discourse prioritizes hearing over the other senses, many people believe that d/Deaf and hard of hearing people cannot experience music. Recent academic attention to Deaf musical practice, primarily within American Deaf culture, has sought to correct this misperception, but it persists. In line with such recent efforts, this thesis aims to acquire insight in the musical practice of d/Deaf and hard of hearing people in the Netherlands and the misconceptions surrounding this subject. Via semi-structured interviews with several informants from the Dutch Deaf musical practice, and an online survey, I explore what d/Deaf, hard of hearing and hearing people know about and think of the status of the Dutch Deaf musical practice. The results of this exploratory ethnographic research show that there are too few music events for d/Deaf and hard of hearing people, that there is a lack of knowledge about the possibilities of experiencing music in other ways than predominantly auditory, and that a number of misconceptions concerning the ideas around the Deaf musical experience and sign dancing exist. However, the demand for a musical practice of d/Deaf and hard of hearing is considerable which makes further exploration of the possibilities of a Dutch Deaf musical practice worthwhile.