Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. Bilingualism-biculturalism and the deaf experience: an overview. On interpreting the deaf experience within the context of cultural and language diversity / Ila Parasnis -- Living with two languages and two cultures / Francois Grosjean -- Perspectives from the history and the politics of bilingualism and bilingual education in the United States / Kenji Hakuta, Elizabeth Feldman Mostafapour -- Cognitive and language development of bilingual children / Josiane F. Hamers.

Part II. Psychosocial, cognitive, and language experiences of deaf people. From the cultural to the bicultural: the modern deaf community / Carol A. Padden -- Early bilingual lives of deaf children / Carol A. Padden -- Communication experiences of deaf people: an ethnographic account / Susan B. Foster -- Marginality, biculturalism, and social identity of deaf people / R. Greg Emerton -- Attitudes of the deaf community toward political activism / Gerald C. Bateman -- Cultural and language diversity in the curriculum: toward reflective practice / Bonnie Meath-Lang -- Minority empowerment and the education of deaf people / Joan B. Stone -- Social assimilation of deaf high school students: the role of school environment / Thomas K. Holcomb.

Part III. The Deaf experience: personal reflections. Growing up deaf in deaf families: two different experiences / Susan C. Searls, David R. Johnston -- Another new birth: reflections of a deaf native signer / Patrick A. Graybill -- Raising deaf children in hearing society: struggles and challenges for deaf native ASL signers / Gary E. Mowl -- In search of self: experiences of a postlingually deaf African-American / Dianne K. Brooks -- Living in a bilingual-bicultural family / Lynn Finton -- On being both hearing and deaf: my bilingual-bicultural experience / Patricia Mudgett-DeCaro.