Deaf Education Research Paper

617 Words3 Pages
Deaf education has gone through many changes through the years and is still changing today. Deaf education hasn’t always been an area of concern. In fact, deaf people used to never get an education and were often discriminated against due to the lack of understanding of what deafness really was. Deafness doesn’t make someone incapable of learning, it is just an obstacle. Everyone has obstacles. Changes in the ways deaf people are taught have helped them overcome their obstacles and claim their place as equal to everyone else. Deaf education began in the 1800s when Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc opened a school for the deaf in 1817. This was the first time that anyone had taken such interest in making the lives of deaf people easier through education. Still, they faced public discrimination and alienation. “It is a desperately isolating condition, made worse by society's lack of understanding and the slowness of businesses to adapt.” (Parkinson, Michael. The Telegraph). Some said they were damned and cursed for their “illnesses” while others feared communication with them because they didn’t understand how to overcome the obstacle of deafness. In order for deaf people to communicate with hearing people the hearing people either have to learn sign language, or the hearing person has to speak and read lips. “The ability to learn oral skills depends in large part on the degree of hearing loss, the age at which the student became deaf (especially whether it was before or after acquiring spoken language), and other factors” (American School for the Deaf). Hearing people are rarely willing to learn sign language because it is time consuming and they don’t feel like it’s worth the time so usually deaf people have to learn oral skills which is much more challenging than hearing people learning sign language. If hearing people would be more understanding and more
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