Deafness and Wizarding

A former student of mine once made a rather clever (to my mind) analogy between the wizarding world in the Harry Potter novels and Deaf society in America. After the break are the main areas of comparison he made:

Wizards make up a small minority of the overall population Muggle parents are usually not prepared to raise a magical child Harry Potter is expected to hide his wizarding skills and try to blend in to the Dursley family There are special schools for wizards Wizards from magical families come to school already knowing some spells and all about the wizarding world unlike those with muggle parents Wizards have a history of being persecuted by muggles

The deaf make up a small minority of the overall population Hearing parents are usually not prepared to raise a deaf child Deaf children are often expected to learn oral skills to be more like their hearing family There are special schools for the Deaf Deaf students with deaf parents come to school already knowing how to sign and all about Deaf culture unlike those with hearing parents Deaf people have a history of being persecuted by hearing people

The analogy isn't perfect of course. To give just one example, non-magical children of wizards (squibs) are often ostracized by the wizarding community which is hardly comparable to the experience of hearing children of deaf adults (CODAs). But in many ways the analogy does illustrate how it can be that groups of people living in the same country and sharing familial connections can still be sharply culturally divided because of who we are at birth.