Place of speech, structural audism, and the politics of deaf bodies: ethical responsibilities of hearing people in the social production of difference

Abstract

This article critically analyzes the concept of place of speech based on the contributions of Djamila Ribeiro and articulates it with the debate on structural audism (Almeida, 2025), discussing the ethical responsibility of hearing people in deaf education. Drawing on a situated methodological approach grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis, the Philosophy of Difference, and decolonial perspectives, the study problematizes how certain social positions—especially the hearing position—have historically occupied the center of educational discourse and produced forms of silencing and normalization of deaf difference. It is argued that place of speech does not operate as a discursive barrier, but rather as an analytical device to make visible the power relations that authorize some to speak while restricting the voices of others. Just as men must position themselves against sexism and white people against racism, the article argues that hearing people have an active responsibility in critiquing audism and in defending bilingual and decolonial practices in deaf education. The article concludes that the critical participation of hearing people does not replace the centrality of deaf experience, but is a necessary condition for dismantling historically constructed structures that produce linguistic, epistemic, and pedagogical inequality.