Response to Deaf President Now (Dpn) Movement

424 Words2 Pages
ASL 55B Response Paper #2 Jolene Russell March 21, 2013 Deaf President Now was a movement that took place in the late 1980’s at Gallaudet University. It was sparked by the decision to appoint a hearing candidate as president of the Deaf university. This decision to appoint this person was made under the audist attitude that Deaf people are less capable than hearing people. However, this opened the floodgates of Deaf equality and the ensuing protest absolutely disproved this idea. Gallaudet University was the only place for higher education for the Deaf community in America. The school was founded on principles of sign language and Deaf culture; Gallaudet and Clerc, as the founders, held a “deep respect for the sign language that Deaf people themselves had developed” (Van Cleve & Crouch, 1989). The issue was not just that the woman elected, Elisabeth Zinsser, was hearing, but that she was the only hearing person in the group of contenders. Furthermore, she had no connection with, or knowledge of, the Deaf community at all. Her election was an insult to Deaf society; it revealed the audist inclinations of the election board. The action exposed the underlying attitude of condescension towards Deaf people, the thought they are not as qualified or as capable as a hearing person. Deaf President Now was more than a weeklong fight for equal rights for Deaf people. The protest was very organized. The demands were planned and clearly presented to the Board (taken from https://www.gallaudet.edu:443/Gallaudet_ University/About_Gallaudet/DPN_Home/Issues/Week_of_DPN.html): 1. Zinser will resign and be replaced with a Deaf president, 2. Chairwoman Spilman must resign from the Board of Trustees, 3. The Board of Trustees must be, at minimum, 51% Deaf members, 4. And there will be no penalties given to the protesters. The fact that the

More about Response to Deaf President Now (Dpn) Movement

Open Document