The Butterfly Cage

By Rachel Zemach,

Book cover of The Butterfly Cage

Book description

A tender and perspective-shifting book that offers a rare level of understanding about the subtle and and no-so-subtle layers of internalized oppression and deep feelings and dilemmas of Deaf people, written by former Deaf teacher Rachel Zemach.. This mesmerizing, funny, and disruptive narrative invites you to be a fly on…


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Why read it?

1 author picked The Butterfly Cage as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The author shows us how audism is practiced in most public schools where deaf children are educated. Audism is discrimination against deaf people. It’s expressed in the attitude of hearing people. They don’t try to communicate with the deaf and have the false assumption deaf people can’t do things. Many hearing people consider deafness a tragedy. They reject the use of sign language, expect deaf individuals to rely on their residual hearing or lip-reading. They also assume the Deaf and hard-of-hearing (HOH) are idiots and lower their standards for them in an educational setting.

All of this and more is…

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