Blog Post #3 - The Fight for Deaf Rights

Like any minority group, a constant struggle for rights and equality is a driving force in the culture and for some groups is the only thing that brings the spotlight into the public eye. Deaf Culture has essentially been through a hidden and tumultuous history - how many of you were taught the struggles of the Deaf Community in school?

Through our history classes, we are told of people who changed the world, through revolution, technology, and other methods. Many of your learned about the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell (hopefully all of you are aware of that name, actually). But, as with other people in history, a sense of "heroification" has been applied to Bell and his life. What is heroification? Well, we all learned about his invention and his mark on history. But did any of your textbooks contain this information? Click this link and read.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/throughdeafeyes/deaflife/bell_nad.html

Throughout this course we will further discuss political issues in the Deaf community and how quiet their outbursts and protests have seemed to the rest of the world. However, there was one moment in time where the world took notice.


Click this link, and read everything you can about the Deaf President Now! movement.



http://www.gallaudet.edu/x42164.xml


I'm gonna take a stab in the dark here and assume none of you had heard the information presented here today - maybe a little at most. So, what's your take on all of it? Why don't we learn about is stuff in school? Give me some reasons why we should, or if you think there isn't room or it lacks overall importance, voice your opinion.

If you have a point to make (you should), back it up. Provide a link to a fact or an article or something that supports your claims. It's one thing to give an opinion, but it's another thing to back and support it.