Brown Noise and the Propagation of Expressivist Audist Attitudes

Abstract

This commentary responds to Erik Magnusson's Hasting Center Report article “Disability, Relational Equality, and the Expressivist Objection.” The commentary's author uses the setting of her classroom at Gallaudet University, the world's only bilingual American Sign Language and written English liberal education university serving deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing students, to explore the expressivist objection in the context of her students’ lived experience as deaf people. As Magnusson explains, the expressivist objection comprises two claims: that the provision or use of prenatal testing to select against having a child with a disability “expresses negative judgments about existing people with disabilities” and that the expression of such judgments wrongs these people. The commentary proposes the concern that solely focusing on the expressivist objection to prenatal diagnosis and testing can obscure other, related harms that deserve attention too.