The voice within: an online ethnography on the experiences of Deaf students in a public high school in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic

This online ethnography narrates the learning experiences of Deaf students in a public high school in Quezon City, Philippines, and the institutional factors that affected the learning processes and deliveries for Deaf students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaf students encountered various difficulties during the 2 years of online learning: (a) intermittent internet connection, (b) hearing-centric class discussions, (c) failure of teachers and parents to accommodate Deaf students' needs, (d) discriminatory acts against Deaf students, and (e) the inferior societal regard for Deaf individuals and their community. Guided by the principles of critical ethnography and utilizing online ethnography, this study affirmed that the Filipino Deaf community remains a linguistic minority and marginalized community. However, while societal processes are mostly dominated by hearing communities' ideologies, the visual meaning-making-the process of encoding and decoding signs visually-and the unique assemblage of Deaf students' community are ever present and visible despite the physical separation brought about by the pandemic.