Deaf people as pioneers

The Finnish deaf community has a long and complex history behind it. The surrounding society has related to deaf people in different ways during different periods of time. Attitudes towards deaf people extend to areas such as language, community, art, education, ideologies, and the use of technology. On the one hand, technology has helped deaf people to overcome daily challenges and to achieve a more equal status in society. On the other hand, technology can also be associated with negative experiences. These are encountered when the linguistic choices made by deaf people are not respected. Users can also feel that the technology offered to them does not make their daily lives any easier at all.

Over recent decades, deaf people have quickly adopted communication methods that have arisen due to developments in information technology. They have been pioneers in the information society. Deaf people adopted textphones, e-mail and text messages into their daily lives as soon as the technology was made available. Young deaf people in particular have created their own culture, in which the active use of information networks and the Internet plays an important role.