Deaf rights movement

Oralism focuses on teaching deaf students through oral communicative means rather than sign languages.

There is strong opposition within Deaf communities to the oralist method of teaching deaf children to speak and lip read with limited or no use of sign language in the classroom. The method is intended to make it easier for deaf children to integrate into hearing communities, but the benefits of learning in such an environment are disputed. The use of sign language is also central to Deaf identity and attempts to limit its use are viewed as an attack.

Parents of deaf children also have the opportunity to send their children to deaf schools, where the curriculum is taught in American Sign Language. The first school for the education of deaf individuals was the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, which opened on April 15, 1817.[1] This was a coeducation institution.[1] This school was later renamed the American School for the Deaf, and was granted federal money to set up of deaf institutions around the country.[1] Many teachers in these schools were women, because according to PBS and the research done for the film Through Deaf Eyes, they were better at instructing due to the patience it took to do something repetitively.[2] The American School for the Deaf was set up based on a British model of education for deaf individuals with instruction in the subjects of reading, writing, history, math, and an advanced study of the Bible.[1]

Gallaudet University is the only deaf university in the world, which instructs in American Sign Language, and promotes research and publications for the deaf community.[3] Gallaudet University is responsible for expanding services and education for deaf individuals in developing countries around the world, as well as in the United States.[4] Many deaf individuals choose to be educated in a deaf environment for their college level education.[3]

I. King Jordan had made history in 1988 for becoming the first deaf president of Gallaudet University. After the protest, Deaf President Now Students, with the support of many alumni, faculty, staff and friends, protested the Board of Trustees' continued appointments of hearing presidents over highly qualified deaf candidates in an institution established to serve the deaf.

There have been many individuals who have made advancements in the deaf community. These individuals have been both deaf or hearing. A few of the most recognizable names include: Alexander Graham Bell, who is known for the invention of the telephone but to the Deaf, is seen as a villain of sorts; Heather Whitestone, the first deaf Miss-America; Marlee Matlin, a well known deaf actress; Laurent Clerc, a well-known deaf professor; and Helen Keller, the most commonly known deaf-blind woman.

However, this is only a small number of individuals who have made advancements in the deaf community.

Within the Deaf community, there is strong opposition to the use of cochlear implants and sometimes also hearing aids and similar technologies. This is often justified in terms of a rejection of the view that deafness, as a condition, is something that needs to be fixed.[7]

Others argue that this technology also threatens the continued existence of Deaf culture, but Kathryn Woodcock argues that it is a greater threat to Deaf culture to reject prospective members just because they used to hear, because their parents chose an implant for them, because they find environmental sound useful, etc.[8] Cochlear implants may improve the perception of sound for suitable implantees, but they do not reverse deafness, or create a normal perception of sounds. The Deaf community still insists that a child not be fitted with a cochlear implant until old enough to decide for themselves because the affects are irreversible and could cause a lifetime of pain, regret, and hatred/isolation.