Gallaudet's Accomplishments

Nora Groce, in “Everyone here spoke sign language: Hereditary deafness on Martha’s Vineyard,” explains that she discovered that the deaf population on Martha’s Vineyard was about .006% higher than the total American deaf population. She comments “In the nineteenth century, and presumably earlier, one American in every 5,728 was born deaf, but on the Vineyard the figure was one in every 155,” (Groce, 1985, p. 111). She describes how this usually creates many problems, the main one being that it can inhibit their “ability to communicate” which can cause them to become socially isolated (Groce,1985, p. 112). Groce was aware that unlike on Martha’s Vineyard, most hearing people do not know sign language making every part of life involving communication extremely difficult for the deaf and hearing impaired. Fortunately

The schools built began to shun sign language, focusing on oral education. A conference brought the decision that oral based education was more effective than manual education. Despite the diminishment we see in education during the 1900’s, we see huge strides for Deaf advocacy from both Deaf people side by side with hearing people. The first home run was performed by Deaf ballplayer William Hoy. The first hearing aid is developed. William Taft protects Deaf people’s rights to federal jobs in 1909. WWI along with WW2 provided jobs for Deaf people. The first African American graduate from Gallaudet College, Ida Wynette Gray Hampton. Captions are established 1958. In 1960, ASL was beginning to be recognized as a language. The first cochlear implant device constructed. Ending a time of Educational decline, Congress claims that oral education a “dismal

Of all the candidates who were up for the presidency of the university, only one of them was not deaf. This fact only fueled the fire when candidate was chosen. More or less sending a message into the deaf community that deaf people still seemed to be less capable or qualified as a hearing person. Yet, although DPN was a movement for equality and many other issues, it was a milestone in the Deaf Culture. "Deaf President Now" showed the world that deaf people and the deaf world could be united around a common issues and "fight." Especially one of this importance. "Gallaudet University represents the pinnacle of education for deaf people, not only in the United States but throughout the world." (Van Cleve p.172) Would it not be fitting for a university founded within deaf culture, be headed by one who was a part of that culture? Obviously there is no question.

He realized that his younger siblings would not play with her because she was “different”. Gallaudet wanted to communicate with her. He wrote the word “hat” in the dirt, in hopes she would understand, and she did. He was determined to find a better way to communicate with her because writing in the dirt was not most efficient. He met with Alice’s father, Dr. Mason Cogswell, who offered to pay Gallaudet’s travel expenses to Europe in hope that he could learn a way to communicate with Alice while he was there. While in Europe, he first lived with the Braidwood family, who owned several deaf schools. Their style of teaching was known as the oral way. The oral way of teaching is to teach the deaf students to speak and read lips, but Gallaudet did not like that style. He then met Abbe Sicard, who was the director of The Institute Royal Des Sourds-Mutes in Paris, France. He signed up to attend this school and found he loved their way of teaching, which was the way of sign language. Unfortunately, after a year, he realized he did not have enough money to attend any longer. He asked one of the students, Laurent Clerc, to join him on the journey back to the United States, and Clerc agreed. Over time, Clerc taught Gallaudet, further, how to sign, and Gallaudet taught Clerc, further, how to speak English. In April of 1817, the first school for the deaf was opened by Gallaudet and

Darrow’s article was easy to read and focused on the importance of how to teach deaf students. Although I enjoyed reading it, the writer lacked to inform how students with hearing losses can differ and how this can

Two centuries ago, the Deaf community arose in American society as a linguistic minority. Members of this community share a particular human condition, hearing impairment. However, the use of American Sign Language, as their main means of communicating, and attendance to a residential school for people with deafness also determine their entry to this micro-culture. Despite the fact that Deaf activists argue that their community is essentially an ethnic group, Deaf culture is certainly different from any other cultures in the United States. Deaf-Americans cannot trace their ancestry back to a specific country, nor do Deaf neighborhoods exist predominantly throughout the nation. Additionally, more than ninety percent of deaf persons are born

In the past, many deaf or even hard-of-hearing students were sent away to special schools for the Deaf, and were not able to associate with the hearing at all. Now, many schools, both public and private, have programs to help these students and make sure that they can stay in a regular school that is close to home.

"Deaf Awareness," "Deaf Power," and "Deaf Pride" were now slogans often emblazoned on the shirts of the students at Gallaudet.

The Deaf President Now movement and Gallaudet University protest did not only achieve its aims, this revolution brought unity to the Deaf Community and awareness to the general public. This revolution grew into a civil rights movement, consequently enacting legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and The Telecommunications Accessibility Enhancement Act of 1988, to benefit deaf and hard of hearing citizens as well as many other disabled Americans. The events of February and March 1988 are still a great source of pride and enlightenment that are still nostalgically looked back on by this generation of deaf citizens. The Deaf community can be described as being a relatively private community, consisting of many people with various ranges of hearing loss. Like any culture, the deaf have their own community, culture, language, and essentially a separate world from the hearing majority. However, it has only been in the last few decades that there has been awareness and acceptance of this culture, nevertheless there is not full acceptance and understanding of this community and deafness in general. Prior to this revelation, deaf people had been oppressed and ostracised throughout history. Dating back to Ancient Greece, deaf people were seen as a subordinate minority. Aristotle theorised that people could only learn through spoken language, therefore deaf people were seen as being unable to learn and were not given an education. This was a common

According to Edwards, the Deaf community began to rise in response to the social view of deafness as a handicap rather than a difference that a whole “Deaf” community is characterized by. Their shared

The Deaf President Now movement at Gallaudet University is essentially a call for action or change from the barbaric ways of how the school was run. The school is credited with being the first and only university for the deaf in if not just the country, then the world. Gallaudet offers those who cannot hear or for better terms, hard of hearing, a chance to gain an education in an environment which caters to their specific needs. The students in the university attend classes with other deaf students which also helps strengthen their sense of community. One of the biggest reasons why the Deaf President Now movement stands out is because the movement eventually leads to the creation of the “Americans with Disabilities Act”. The creation of the

Although most state schools today have been adjusted to meet the needs of deaf pupils by providing help, such as, interpreters, note takers and radio aids; in previous years when schools could not afford to obtain the help, educational accomplishment for most hearing impaired pupils would have been fictional. Only 29% of deaf children were accomplishing the standard five GCSE’s A*-C, compared to 51% of their hearing peers (Cathy Heffernan, 2011).

Hearing-impaired students face significant challenges in the Coeur d’Alene school district and do not often go on to higher education.

The technique that Clerc taught was by the use of his hands, which he communicated with French sign language, blended with a bit of signs used by students in the United States. To Gallaudet the language was a inspiration which he called it, “Highly poetical” (Weta and Florentine films/Hott productions Inc., 2007), but to Clerc and many of the deaf people, the using of sign was natural and useful. This was a result of a created acculturated nonverbal language known as American Sign Language (ASL). As new schools for the deaf spread west and south, American sign language also evolved as well in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois. By the year of 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed a law constituting the first college in the world for deaf students called Gallaudet University and all these schools used sign as a curriculum (Weta and Florentine

Now, the authors have stated three main points in this article regarding improvements to the education of ethnic-minority Deaf college students. First, the authors emphasize the importance of diversity in the work force so that students can make their own decisions in choosing their own role models. This article states that “role models are both essential and critical. They serve several purposes: (1) We talk about the importance of cultural diversity, but having that kind of representation on campus demonstrates a real commitment on