Deaf rights movement

The Deaf rights movement encompasses a series of social movements within the disability rights and cultural diversity movements that encourages deaf and hard of hearing people and society to adopt a position of respect for Deaf people, accepting deafness as a cultural identity and a variation in functioning rather than a communication disorder to be cured.

Oralism focuses on teaching deaf students through oral communicative means rather than sign languages.

There is strong opposition within Deaf communities to the oralist method of teaching deaf children to speak and lip read with limited or no use of sign language in the classroom. The method is intended to make it easier for deaf children to integrate into hearing communities, but the benefits of learning in such an environment are disputed. The use of sign language is also central to Deaf identity and attempts to limit its use are viewed as an attack.

Parents of deaf children also have to opportunity to send their children to deaf schools, where the curriculum is taught in American Sign Language. The first school for the education of deaf individuals was the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, which opened on April 15, 1817. This was a coeducation insitiution. This school was later renamed the American School for the Deaf, and was granted federal money to set up of deaf institutions around the country. Many teachers in these schools were women, because according to PBS and the research done for the film Through Deaf Eyes, they were better at instructing due to the patience it took to do something repetitively. The American School for the Deaf was set up based on a British model of education for deaf individuals with instruction in the subjects of reading, writing, history, math, and an advanced study of the Bible.

Gallaudet University is the only deaf university in the world, which instructs in American Sign Language, and promotes research and publications for the deaf community. Gallaudet University is responsible for expanding services and education for deaf individuals in developing countries around the world, as well as in the United States. Many deaf individuals choose to be educated in a deaf environment for their college level education.

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