Need of a Changed Regard for the Deaf
Thus in many ways are the deaf made to suffer from popular misconceptions, and quite unnecessarily. Too long have designations been employed regarding them that call up undeserved associations. Too long have they been set down as a strange and uncertain body of human beings, removed in their actions, manners and modes of thought from the rest of society. The interests of the deaf require a different consideration and treatment. They demand that the deaf be regarded exactly as other people, only unable to hear. Theirs will be a great boon when they are looked upon no more as a distinct and different portion of the race, but entirely as normal creatures, equally capable and human as all other men.[145]
FOOTNOTES:
[136] Very often in the public mind the deaf and the blind are associated, the two classes sometimes becoming more or less merged the one into the other, and the problems of the one are not infrequently assumed to be those of the other. As a matter of fact, there is but one point of similarity in the two classes—both are "defective" in that they are deprived of a most important physical sense. The gulf that really separates the blind from the deaf is far deeper than that which lies between either of the two classes and the normal population.
[137] In this connection it may be interesting to note the regard for the deaf as has been indicated by the deaf characters that have been created in fiction. Though not a large number are found, there is displayed towards them an attitude largely of kindly sympathy, in some cases mingled with wonder. Such characters appear in Lew Wallace's "Prince of India", where three deaf-mutes are instructed to speak; Scott's Fanella in "Peveril of the Peak"; Dickens' Sophy in "Dr. Marigold" (an unusually attractive and lovable character); Collins' Madonna Mary in "Hide and Seek"; Caine's Naomi in "The Scapegoat"; Haggard's "She"; Maarten's "God's Fool"; de Musset's "Pierre and Camille"; and elsewhere. Thomas Holcroft's "Deaf and Dumb; or the Orphan Protected" is an adaptation from the French play "Abbé de l'Épée" of J. N. Bouilly, in 1802, in which the founder of the first school for the deaf and his pupils are touchingly portrayed. Feigned characters are also found, as Scott's mute in "The Talisman"; in Moliere's "Le Médecin malgré Lui"; Jonson's "Epicoene"; and John Poole's "Deaf as a Post". Defoe has a character, Duncan Campbell, which is possibly based on one from real life, being referred to by Addison in the Spectator and the Tatler. On the subject of the deaf in fiction, see Silent Worker, Dec., 1893; Annals, xxxix., 1894, p. 79; Indiana Bulletin of Charities and Corrections, June, 1897; Athenaeum, Feb., April, 1896.
[138] It may be recorded here that in the present compilation of the Bibliography of the United States Bureau of Education, the expression formerly used, "Delinquents, Dependents and Defectives", has been dropped in favor of the term, "Special Classes of Persons". On this subject, see Proceedings of National Educational Association, 1901, p. 876.
[139] A possibly more serious misapprehension respecting the deaf arises from the impression often current among a large number of people, and apparently encouraged not infrequently in the proceedings of some scientific bodies, to the effect that nearly all deaf-mutes are so either because of a similar condition in their parents or because of the existence in the parents of some physical disease, sometimes of an immoral character. This is in a great part due to the increasing emphasis upon eugenics, with the desire to weed out from the population as many as possible of the "unfit" or "defective". In consequence has been the belief that if there were proper regulation of certain marriages, especially of the deaf and of others suffering from particular maladies, "deaf-mutism", which is looked upon as an excrescence upon society, would in the course of a short time be stamped out. An illustration of this conception is the following extract from the Handbook of the Child Welfare Exhibit held in New York in 1911 (p. 38): "Mating of the Unfit. 'The Law'. Marriages of cousins, insane or feeble-minded, alcoholic, syphilitic parents and effects. The cost—7,369 blind infants, 89,287 deaf and dumb, 18,476 feeble-minded". See also Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1912, p. 277; Report of Philadelphia Baby Saving Show, 1912, p. 37; Annals, lvii., 1912, p. 284. As a matter of fact, as we have already seen, the question of deafness is not one so much of eugenics as of medical science, although eugenics may well be called in play in respect to the marriages of persons under unfavorable conditions, including to an extent the congenitally deaf and those having deaf relatives. The total number of the deaf, however, marrying under unfavorable conditions, is not large. Every effort to remove or diminish deafness is entitled only to the highest praise; but when it is made to appear that deafness generally results from such causes as are often ascribed, it is seen how wrongly the deaf, upon whom a great affliction is already resting, may be made to suffer.
[140] P. 45. See also Proceedings of Empire State Association of Deaf-Mutes, xii., 1888, p. 35; National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1883, p. 416.
[141] P. 76. See also p. 96. Similarly Professor C. R. Henderson in his "Dependents, Defectives and Delinquents" says (p. 170): "Many of the deaf and blind are so deficient in industrial efficiency, owing to their infirmity, that they must be cared for in adult life and old age".
[142] In the special census report of Benevolent Institutions of 1904 schools for the deaf and the blind are included, because they contain "free homes for care and maintenance". In some charity directories schools for the deaf are listed.