Gallaudet: The Deaf President Now Movement

A deaf person can do anything a hearing person can do, except hear. A deaf person can read this paper. A deaf person can understand the arguments being made. There is no difference between how able a deaf person and a hearing person can read this paper. The idea that a deaf person can do everything a hearing person can do was not always a universal thought. In fact, before the eighties, the deaf community was rarely taken seriously. When the American’s with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, rights were set out to give these ideas a legal platform. But this was not the platform for the thought that they are just as abled as every other American, except in regards to hearing. The Deaf President Now movement showed people that the deaf community …show more content…
Gallaudet is a University that is founded on the idea of a barrier-free world class education for deaf and hard of hearing students, but this only became a reality after years of hearing people fought for deaf rights. The university was founded after many hearing people worked together to make it happen. In 1857, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet established the first deaf university in Washington DC. Although Gallaudet was hearing, he thought it was important for the deaf community to have access to a proper education. Gallaudet became interested in deaf education after he met an intelligent deaf child who was not receiving a proper education. Even though this meeting was in 1814, the crossed path of a hearing person and a deaf person made a world wide impact. As well, a hearing person took something out of a meeting with a deaf person. The thought at this time was that a hearing person must be the ones to teach a deaf person. But in this case, even though it was not an academic teaching, a deaf person taught a hearing person. Gallaudet took this knowledge and created something amazing out of it. The work that he did to found Gallaudet University would never have occurred without the joint communication between a deaf and a hearing person. The American’s With Disabilities Act was signed in 1990, but the idea to protect those with disabilities …show more content…
After hearing people have been aiding people for so long, the deaf community wanted to start running things for themselves. Their first start was to have the university that is for solely deaf and hard of hearing students be run by a deaf of hard of hearing person. In 1988, Gallaudet was to elect a new president of the University. Out of the finalists for the position, two of the three were deaf. Before the announcement of the new president, there was a small rally lead by students to show their support for a deaf president. The rally was unique. It was deaf students fighting for their own rights. They showed who they were in support of through this demonstration. Through this demonstration, the students of Gallaudet showed the board that they were not going to take this decision lightly. The students actively presented what their views are. The students did this to try and convince the hearing board to elect a deaf president. They wanted to work with the board, or rather guide the board, in the direction so that they did not have to protest. In flyers, the protest was likened to a civil rights movement. It drew parallels between the deaf community and other minority groups. Once a hearing president was chosen, the deaf community was personally offended. It looked as though the board did not take the rally seriously because it was lead