ABSTRACT

When the speaker answered that society, not professionals, stigmatized deaf persons, I replied, “But aren’t professionals a part of society?”

“Yes, I suppose we are. But we’re not going to get into it here,” he said. I dropped my questioning. But I did not drop my interest in how

professionals, including myself – a clinician, teacher, and researcher in audiology – can stigmatize individuals with communication disorders. Indeed, this incident and similar ones over my career have led me to ask the following questions that I will address in this chapter.