| Abstract | This paper explores the significance of Deaf individuals' communicative practices and the orientation outcomes they enact when engaging with sign language interpreters through co-cultural theory. Orbe's co-cultural theory is grounded in the idea that over time one co-culture, European-American heterosexual middle/upper-class males, have acquired dominant group status in a variety of institutions (Orbe, 1998). A significant portion of research centering on co-cultural theory focuses on race, gender, and sexual orientation, and fewer studies engage with the Deaf community. Identifying the Deaf community as a co-cultural group, the researcher recruited six Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants to share their lived experiences when interacting with sign language interpreters. The interviews were analyzed, and through assessing the six universal factors that influence the process for co-cultural groups to select communicative practices, three emerged as most prevalent in their experiences: field of experience, navigating perceived risk-reward, and abilities. Based on these factors, the communication practices enacted determined the overall communication orientation. Within this study, two negotiation strategies most salient to the interactions for the co-cultural group, Deaf people, were: nonassertive assimilation and assertive accommodation. |
