Gamas Wanderings has a nice blog on the word "avdism" and how it should be discontinued because it creates more problems than it does solve them. Namely one of them is the constant abuse of the word used as a weapon of choice to attack rather than to educate about a particular form of discrimination. It would be better to keep it neutral as possible and at the same time educate those who do not understand about the issues of deafness. Pointing fingers at them and scream, "Avdist! Avdist!" like some scene in the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" certainly does not help the situation any more than people use a cop out word "Racist!" It just creates more problems than it does solving it.
It's time to retire the a-wordism once and for all and focus on the actual education of the public through neutral means and less attacking those who do not fully understand the issue of deafness and even the culture behind it.