What is De’VIA:
Deaf View/Image Art, also known as De’VIA, is art that examines and expresses the Deaf experience from a cultural, linguistic, and intersectional point of view. Deaf and Deaf-Blind people created works that reflected the Deaf experience long before the term Deaf View/Image Art was coined in 1989. After De’VIA recognized as a genre of art, scholars began to identify De’VIA themes, symbols and motifs.
De’VIA works can be recognized by the way they show the Deaf and Deaf-blind point of view via themes and motifs that represent life amongst Deaf and Deaf-blind people. Just as works about other disenfranchised groups (African-American, Native Americans, LGBTQ, etc) challenge oppression and celebrate their culture, so too do Deaf and Deaf-blind artists.