The Silent History of Deafness

by Miss Charlene

I was honored to be asked to write an article on deaf history. I love every opportunity I can to teach others about deafness. I will list some facts and history about deafness, and I also encourage all of you to do extra research on your own. This is a fascinating topic!

Unfortunately, deaf people have had a hard struggle all throughout history. Many were misdiagnosed as mentally retarded. This happened for a long time until the seventies. These deaf people had to live a life confided in homes for the mentally ill when they could have led normal lives. Times were very hard back then and they are still a struggle today.

This can be found far back in history. Aristotle the philosopher said that deaf people could not be educated and that people without hearing are incapable of learning. A lot of people accepted this saying and it became accepted for a long time. From this saying, the deaf son of King Croesus of Lydia could not be recognized as the heir to the throne.

Deafness was also recognized as “sin.” St.Augustine told people that they had deaf children because God was angry at the sins of the parents. We see that in some churches today where deafness is viewed as a sin, but I want to remind everyone of the verse in Exodus 4:11:

“And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?”

During the renaissance, people started experimenting with symbols and sign language to educate the deaf. Juan Pablo Bonet wrote the very first book of alphabet sign languages for the deaf in 1620. The French were the first place that started sign language when Abbe Charles Michel de L’Epee of Paris developed a system of gestures, hand signs and fingerspelling.

Signing was also found in America by the Great Plains Indians. Although this was originally for intertribal communication, it is still surprising to see the similarities of their signs and the present signs today. In America, we have established a national sign language system called ‘American Sign Language’ also known as ASL. Each country has their own and it can vary slightly in different areas of each country.

The first American school for the deaf was founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Abraham Lincoln signed the charter for the college to open in Washington D.C.

(Interesting Fact: The sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial statute of Abraham Lincoln in Washington DC, Daniel Chester French, designed Lincoln’s hands to sign an A on one hand, and an L on the other to pay tribute to him for having signed the federal legislation giving Galludet the authority to grant college degrees. Daniel had a deaf son and was familiar with sign language.)

The college is still standing today in Washington D.C. and another deaf college has opened in Rochester, New York called National Technical Institute for the Deaf. There are two in America today.

In the 1870’s, Alexander Graham Bell experimented with the conduction of sound through electrical devices that were originally intended for deaf children to hear but he made the telephone instead. Miller Reese Hutchinson invented the first electrical hearing aid in 1901. The early versions of hearing aids were very heavy, and awkward to wear. They consisted of separate microphones, amplifier, headphones and a bulky battery. It wasn’t easy to carry around. The designs improved more over the years and now we see digital and lightweight versions that can easily be hid inside the ear.

In 1920, Galludet University’s football team would huddle around and sign their secret plays to each other. That started a new tradition of huddling and using hand gestures in football.

Closed captioning was established in 1972 and they are typed words that go on the bottom of the television screen. Those words tell the deaf audience what is being said in the movie. Deaf people had to buy a separate captioning box to hook up with the television for captioning, but now we have captioning and subtitles already included with the television and dvd players. We can see the symbol of a square with a CC inside on the back of movies to check if it includes closed captioning.

Marlee Matlin became the first deaf actress to win an academy award. She won the award for the movie, “Children of a Lesser God.” She has performed many movies since then, including the most recent movie, “Sweet Nothing in My Ear.” I recommend these movies to understand the deaf culture better!

A deaf woman named Heather Whitestone from Birmingham, Alabama won the title of Miss America in 1995. She performed ballet en pointe to the song “Via Dolorosa” as her talent in spite of being profoundly deaf. She also wrote an inspiring book about her experiences called “Listening with My Heart.”

Many deaf people throughout history have made amazing accomplishments. Imagine living in a world where people thought you couldn’t do anything, and then being able to enjoy the exhilaration of proving that you could. Disability is only in the mind and it is the result of not believing in yourself. We are all able, with whatever body God gives us. It has been proven many times in history.

Here is a good website to learn about all the deaf people and their amazing accomplishments.

http://www.deafpeople.com/history/index.html

Personally, I was born deaf and I come from a deaf family. My cause for deafness is hereditary and that does not happen often. I am very blessed to have a deaf family. This is my ‘normal’ and I wouldn’t change it even if I had the chance. Many of us feel the same way.

Deafness is also the only disability that has formed it’s own culture. We have our own history, our own language, characteristics, technology and things that we embrace in our ‘deaf world.’ It is a gift from God to enjoy a variety of cultures and meeting different people. I encourage all of you to take some time and learn about the deaf culture. There are so MANY deaf and hard of hearing people out there and it is a blessing to see more people take an interest in learning about us.

Thank you for reading this article!

And here is a fun fingerspelling guide that you can practice if you’re interested in learning!

Charlene is a deaf mom of two boys, one being hard of hearing. Her heart for God shines through her life and she has the ‘law of kindness’ in her words. She writes for AGMinistries, and you can read more about her at ‘Bring on the Rain‘.