Deaf with a Capital D: The History of Deaf Culture

You may have noticed that you’ve seen the word “deaf” written with both a lowercase d and a capital D. But did you know this is more than just the writer’s preference and signifies a difference in the meaning of the term? While “deaf” is a medical diagnosis for people who experience hearing loss, “Deaf” represents an entire vibrant culture filled with its own languages, perspectives, and way of life.

American Deaf Culture History

Largely tied to the establishment and founding of Deaf education and schools for the Deaf, modern American Deaf culture is considered to date back to 1817, with the start of the American School for the Deaf in Hartford founded by Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. However, the existence of American Deaf culture can be seen before this.

Martha’s Vineyard

One of the most notable Deaf communities that existed before the establishment of the American School for the Deaf is one that was located within Martha’s Vineyard, starting in the 17th century. With a peak rate of deafness of 1 in every 155 islanders, the community’s rate far exceeded the rate of deafness in the general American population.

Appearing as complete deafness at birth, Vineyard deafness was caused by an inherited genetic mutation traced back to emigrants from Kent County, England who settled in Martha’s Vineyard in the late 17th century.

Individuals from this community with deafness developed sign language, which was used by both those who were deaf and those who were hearing. Hearing islanders learned sign language in childhood and used it regularly. This means there was no communication barrier, allowing deaf individuals to be fully integrated into the community and daily life.

Gallaudet University

When President Lincoln signed an act that allowed for the establishment for a school from the deaf in 1864, Gallaudet University was founded. Though it was originally founded as a grammar school, it is now a private federally chartered university and remains the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Oralism Movement

In 1872, Alexander Graham Bell founded a school based on oralism. Oralism is the belief that Deaf individuals should be taught speech and lip-reading over sign language. This movement grew until the early 20th century. Though both his mother and wife were deaf, Bell sought to eradicate deafness by working to pass laws to prevent intermarriage within the Deaf community. He also worked to eradicate the use of American Sign Language. Bell’s efforts during this time caused a suppression of Deaf culture.

Recognition of ASL

It may be difficult to believe now, but before the 1960s, many did not recognize American Sign Language (ASL) as a true language. Many considered it to be more of a “code” for English rather than a standalone language. In 1960, linguist William Stokoe published a book called Sign Language Structure. He proposed that ASL was as much of a language as English. This book then caused other linguists to publish books legitimizing sign language. Other books published during this time include ASL Linguistic Principles and the ASL dictionary. Stokoe is now considered the founder of sign language linguistics due to this impact.

Closed Captioning

In the 1970s, the National Bureau of Standards and ABC began experimenting with digitally encoding precise time information into a portion of the television signal. Though this experiment failed, it sparked the idea that would later become closed captioning. In 1972, “The French Chef” with Julia Child was the first open captioned program to air. This means the captions could not be turned off and appeared to everyone. Though progress was made with captioning throughout the 70s, it wasn’t until 1979 that the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare inaugurated the National Captioning Institute (NCI). NCI’s purpose is to provide access to television programs for the deaf and hard-of-hearing audience through closed captioning technology.

Deaf Employment and the ADA

The enactment of the American Disabilities Act in 1990 played a key role in removing some of the barriers to employment for people of all disabilities, including those within the Deaf community. The ADA prohibits discrimination against an individual with a disability throughout their employment journey. This includes job application procedures, hiring, advancement, job training, termination, and other conditions, terms, and privileges of employment. It also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations, such as ASL translators, to job applicants and employees with disabilities. This allowed for one of the most significant barriers, communication, to be addressed among Deaf individuals in the workforce.

It’s important to remember that American Deaf culture is an ever-evolving narrative shaped by countless individuals and events. The highlights contained in this article are just a glimpse of the long history and efforts of the people who have helped shape it. As part of Deaf Awareness Month, we’d like to take the time to show our appreciation for a culture that has such a rich history and diverse community.