온라인 농인 커뮤니티 사례 연구:'한국농아대학생연합회'를 중심으로

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A Case Study of Online Deaf Community -Focused on ‘Korean Association of Deaf University Students’-

by Park Eun-Kyoung Advisor : Prof. Yu-Sung Heo, Ph.D Major in Special Education Graduate School of Education, Chosun University

This study is aimed to explore the on-line community culture of hearing impaired people by analyzing on-line hearing impaired university student community. The investigation was made by focusing on the internet community 'Korean Association of Deaf University Students (KADUS)' that has interests in the hearing disabled, who use internet more than any other disabled people, and in the community activity itself among internet community's several concentrating purposes. Through the analyzing process I would like to know important characteristics of hearing impaired university students on-line community and clarify what is important characteristic of each constituting menu of the community. Firstly, KADUS is a closed, warm and cafe-style community in its nature. The boundary of the group is clear. Members have strong sense of belonging to the community. It is a closed community where the relationship in real space is connected to cyber space. It can be defined as a warm community in which members seek their benefit and value not by pursuing individual benefit but by the general good. Secondly, KADUS is the community that effectively connects on-line and off-line. The members, who are distributed nation-wide, meet not only on-line but also off-line to promote friendship and to form personal relationships. In conclusion on-line community arouses off-line meetings, and off-line meetings vitalize on-line activities and then they go through virtuous cycles that make them experience strong sense of belonging. Thirdly, KADUS has a strong nature of having clear purpose. KADUS has clear purpose of the community as 'to protect the right of the hearing impaired university students, to promote friendship between areas and universities and to exchange informations'. It provides hearing impaired students with informations about campus lives and the right of education that are necessary to the hearing impaired students. And it provides off-line events for the promotion of fellowship among members and information exchange. Fourthly, members of KADUS expand and refine the informations about hearing impairment through community discussion, and they actively use it to make their identity more clear in domestic situation. Fifthly, as KADUS is a space where university students are centered, members exchange their experiences and informations about their university affairs. Sixthly, collecting extensive opinions and discussions are made at 'Free notice board' and 'Anonymity discussion room' in the on-line community. Through them members harmonize their ideas with other people's and they develop their opinions by commenting to other people's opinions as well. I aimed to understand even a small area of hearing impaired university students' current lives through above characteristics.