Villains of Deaf History

Introduction

This week, Brad took a scholarly approach and wrote about the complicated, oft-lauded, and simultaneously evil Alexander Graham Bell. There is a mythical, hero-worship that has sprung up around him as well as a few other key historical figures in the deaf/hard of hearing realm including Anne Sullivan and my archnemesis, Helen Keller. Click here to watch my epic rant against Helen Keller.

For the purpose of my half of this week’s blog post, I decided to extract a few moments of the long and complicated deaf/hard of hearing historical timeline. This is a small sample and not a comprehensive retelling of an extremely negative, misinformed, and ignorant treatment against the deaf/hard of hearing across time, cultures and countries.

I begin my time traveling journey in Ancient Greece and end just before the Milan Conference in which Alexander Graham Bell was in attendance. Brad’s blog then picks up the thread and dives deeper into one of the most villainous people in an already complicated history. I present factual information in short paragraphs, followed by how I would respond to each person and situation if presented with the opportunity through the imagined magic of time travel. My responses are in italics.

Ancient Greece

The Ancient Greeks viewed the Greek language as perfect, and therefore, anyone that could not speak Greek was considered a barbarian. By their logic, deaf people were barbarians.

Barbaric? Me? Well…maybe…if the lore of my time in college is to be believed. I mean, I made some questionable decisions that may be considered barbaric in polite company – a “Lord of the Flies” themed party comes to mind. Too bad I wasn’t aware of this historical tidbit back in 1995 during my increasingly frequent conversations with the good people of campus security. I could have blamed it all on my hearing loss – and continued to have engaged in increasingly barbaric behavior.

Socrates

Socrates supported this attitude by his declaration that “Deaf people are incapable of language and ideas.”

Listen, Socrates, I wish I had the luxury here in 2025 of sitting around in a sheet expounding on everything and nothing at the same time. I would love to have known how you came to the conclusion that people like me are incapable of languages and ideas. My hearing loss lends itself nicely to language based pursuits such as reading and writing. I am a voracious reader and prolific writer – my inner world is enhanced by my continuous engagement with language. I am fascinated by your perception of our inability to communicate and share our ideas and would love to have known how you reached that conclusion considering the complete inability to gauge and understand what happens within another’s mind.

Aristotle

Aristotle added to the narrative, and proclaimed the following: “Deaf people can not be educated without hearing, people can not learn without hearing.” Undeterred he continued, “Those born deaf become senseless and incapable of reason.”

Per Aristotle, I should not have the following education: educated exclusively in a hearing-centered education system; National Honor Society inductee as a junior in high school; early acceptance to Boston College; had three majors as an undergraduate student; Masters in Special Education; Graduate Certificate in Autism; and hold multiple certifications in specialized content area programs. I think I accomplished a fair modicum of education by any historical standard.

To Aristotle’s second point, it cannot be overstated that anyone that has sat near me while watching my beloved Boston College Eagles, New England Patriots, or Boston Bruins – has witnessed my descent into complete senselessness and absence of reason. Is it due to my hearing loss or am I just from Boston?

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages/Dark Ages didn’t do much to improve the perception of the deaf, as St. Augustine declared to early Christians sometime between 345-550 AD. that deafness was a punishment from God. Additionally, he asserted that deaf people were unable to have faith because they were unable to hear the word of God. The concept of eternal damnation was probably tossed around in there somewhere.

I am not sure which God St. Augustine was referencing, but I was raised Catholic, and the God that I was familiar with was a merciful and accepting God. My spirituality is deeply personal and in no way reliant on my ability to hear without artificial assistance. My hearing loss is the result of a genetic roll of the dice, as far as we can discern, as I did not have any illness, high fevers, or untreated infections. I do not view my hearing loss as a punishment – if anything, it is an advantage to be able to turn off a noisy world and descent into silence at the click of a switch.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance in Europe didn’t really boost much hope for the deaf, either, as the legal tradition there dictated that prelingually deaf people, being unable to hear or speak, could not understand the world around them. They were denied the legal right to make a will, get married or be held responsible in a court of law because they were legally treated as “infants”.

Admittedly, I burst out laughing at this one. The idea of legally being treated as an infant actually sounds tempting as this “adulting” nonsense over here has grown tiresome. I would welcome the opportunity to stamp my feet, fling myself to the floor, scream at the top of my lungs, and insert a few well-placed kicks amidst the wails. I can just imagine it – being given a directive at work for something I found less than desirable – and a socially acceptable response is a first-class tantrum that no one blinks an eye at, but murmurs slowly spread around me with hushed voices saying, “Oh – it’s the hearing loss”.

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell, a familiar name around whom hero worship has sprung with regards to deaf education, released a paper in 1883 entitled, “Deaf Variety of the Human Race”. This paper detailed his concerns about deaf people marrying and having more deaf children, thus creating a “deaf race”. He nearly succeeded in having a law passed that would ban marriage of deaf people to one another. He took it a step further, proposing a possible sterilization program of deaf people. This is to say nothing of his campaign for oralism.

Alex, Alex, Alex…oh, Alex. You are the second most complicated and divisive historical figure in line with my other favorite historical Alex – Hamilton, of course. Your firm stance on what is essentially eugenics and genocide is horrific enough. The fact that your own wife was deaf? Well, that just adds another level entirely. Brad wrote all about you this week – so I will leave the rest to him. I, personally, find you to be despicable. Cheers!

Giulio Tarra

Giulio Tarra, an Italian priest and educator, was called to serve and educate the “poor deaf and dumb” as his mission. He served as the rector for the Pio Istituto dei Sordi (Pious Institute for the Deaf), from 1854 until his death in 1889. Giulio Tarra also served as the President of the Milan Conference.

Padre Tarra…you started off ok in my eyes, but when you decided that oralism – defined as the system of teaching deaf people to communicate exclusively using spoken speech and lip-reading rather than sign language. There are a million issues with this philosophy and approach, too many for me to list here in a blog post, but I have to call you out as a fellow Italian. Padre, historically we are a people that talk with our hands! I punctuate my sentences with a fork while I eat, and fling my hands up, down, left, right and sideways to ensure that every point I make is driven across loud and clear. What were you thinking in your attempt to eliminate a communication system based on hand gestures?

Conclusion

In closing, though I attempted to infuse modern humor in response to historical ignorance, it gave me pause that I am still dealing with inequity in accommodations, near daily microaggressions, and continuous advocacy due to ongoing misconceptions about my hearing loss. Have we really made that much progress in the course of recorded history?

SOURCES

Brad’s AGB Research

Not every important figure need be perfect. In fact, I think it does them a disservice to refuse to acknowledge any foibles or flaws they may have. And Alexander Graham Bell had a doozy of a flaw.

Every wee lad and bonnie lass knows that he invented the telephone. Most have even heard (#sorrynotsorry) that his wife and mother were deaf. But it takes an interest in Deaf Culture to know that his legacy is…complicated. Deaf folks sign his name with the anger of an Oil Baron talking about renewable energy. I guess that’s what happens when you advocate for the extinction of deafness and Deaf people.

While doing research for a paper, AGB discovered deaf-deaf marriages more often than not lead to deaf kids. This didn’t surprise him. But the fact that the deaf population was growing faster than hearing one did. He knew that must be stopped or the majority of the people in the world would be deaf. Thus his flirtation with eugenics was solidified. While never completely comfortable with the eugenics movement, he did believe deafness should be bred out of the world.

With apologies to Julie, I must now talk about Helen Keller. But it’ll be brief, I swear!

Helen Keller and her family went to AGB for help. He sent them to The Perkins School for the Blind who, in turn, introduced them to Ann Sullivan. Ann was at Perkins because she wanted Laura Bridgeman’s advice. Laura Bridgeman was the Claudette Colvin to Helen Keller’s Rosa Parks. She was the first deafblind (not a typo, that’s how the label is spelled) person to receive a formal education. Ann took what she learned from Laura and applied that the her teaching of Helen. Which wouldn’t have happened if AGB hadn’t gotten involved

I’m pretty sure I just forever tarnished Bell’s reputation in Julie’s eyes. That done, I’m going to move onto AGB and his history with Oralism; which is the educational method that tries to teach the Deaf to talk at the expense of learning sign language.

As a wee bairn, AGB tried to teach his dog to talk. It didn’t work. Shocker. But this didn’t deter him. It would prove the basis for his Oralist leanings. And he’d eventually use the method to help one Mabel Hubbard. The woman who would become his wife.

Bell didn’t just teach his bride-to-be. He wanted to help as many deaf people as possible. To that end he set up, and was the first teacher of, the soon-to-be first Oralist school in Greenock, Scotland in 1878. Even his famed invention was part of this desire. The telephone was originally meant to be a lip-reading machine..

As recently as 2021, the Clarke School for the Deaf, Teachers cover their mouths when working with kids who have cochlear implants to stop them from lip-reading. I gasped when I read this in Katie Booth’s The Invention of Miracles Then days later, I was talking with my dad who said that the doctors who gave him his CI told him he shouldn’t lip-read either. I told him that was poppycock. Why would you not do anything to help you communicate?

Speaking of family…

AGB’s mom was against his marriage to Mabel because she feared any children would be deaf, too. (They weren’t.) AGB was insulted on Mabel’s behalf. She eventually got over herself and became friendly with her daughter-in-law. But I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better for the Bells, and maybe even Deaf Culture, had AGB not married Mabel. Theirs was a tragic marriage.

After the phone took off, AGB went back to teaching. Mabel didn’t like this because it reminded her of something she thought was wrong with her; her deafness. The self-loathing went heart-wrenchingly further. Mabel blamed her deafness for the death, hours after birth, of Edward, her first son. And their second son, Robert, also died hours after birth. At the time AGB was pushing for Oralism and essentially this began his eugenicist views.

Is hearing divine?
A sign of intelligence?
Nothing’s so simple.

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