"Deaf people can do anything hearing people can do, except hear."

April 12, 2018 8:13 AM

Thirty years ago, students at Gallaudet University protested the appointment of (yet another) non-Deaf President. The week-long protest led to the appointment of a Deaf President for the first time in the school's 124-year history and was cited as a "major contribution to the passage of the [Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990].” The fight for Deaf representation and awareness continues.
posted by Etrigan (5 comments total)

Stuff you Missed in History Class did a piece on this too.

Deaf President Now!
posted by Toddles at 9:52 AM on April 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

Wow, thirty years ago. I recall hearing about it at the time and being impressed.
posted by praemunire at 10:15 AM on April 12, 2018

From Pacific Standard: How 'Deaf President Now' Changed America
posted by Lexica at 11:30 AM on April 12, 2018

I seem to remember Oliver Sacks was involved. I know he wrote an article for The NY Review of Books which is mostly behind a paywall.
posted by Obscure Reference at 12:57 PM on April 12, 2018

There is a chapter on this protest in No Pity, Joseph Shapiro's very good book on disability rights.

This section, from a 1988 article of his, gets at how radical the disability rights movement really is:

At the core of this growing collective identity is a new philosophy. Rejected is the traditional mindset that it's up to the individual to overcome his or her own physical limitation. That kind of thinking has given rise to the public's glorification of what Mary Johnson, editor of the disability rights movement's irreverent Disability Rag, calls "supercrips" -- achievers such as Terry Fox, who ran across Canada on an artificial leg, or Jim Dickson, the blind sailor seeking to solo across the Atlantic. Extraordinary achievement is laudable, but it does not reflect the day-to-day reality of most disabled people, she says.

Instead, according to the disability rights movement, it is not so much the individual that needs to change -- but society. The biggest obstacle facing people with physical impairments, Johnson says, are people's prejudices about disability -- whether it's a refusal to hire someone with epilepsy or a failure to make buildings accessible to people in wheelchairs.

posted by gauche at 6:19 AM on April 13, 2018 [1 favorite]