‘To ask the value of speech is like asking the value of life.’ Alexander Graham Bell,
inventor of the telephone and advocate of mainstreaming deaf education once said…
Before he tried to wipe out sign language, deaf marriage and deafness altogether!
[facepalm]
Hello lovely people!
Whilst Hearing people often assume that Deaf people would naturally want to ‘fix’ their
hearing, the truth is quite different. And when it comes to the complex relationship
between Alexander Graham Bell and the Deaf Community the truth is VERY different!
Society tends to view Alexander Graham Bell as a famous, wealthy and influential American
hero
[cough] he was Scottish [cough]
And inventor of the telephone, metal detector and a variety of other inventions. He was
also a teacher of deaf children, had a deaf mother and a deaf wife. He was very familiar
with the Deaf community.
Because he wanted to wipe it out!
Bell feared "contamination" of the human race by the propagation of deaf people (even though
most deaf people statistically are born to hearing parents.)
I first started the conversation about eugenics and disability in my profile on Helen Keller,
which you can find in the card above, right… now!
Today we’re going to be continuing to talk about how sometimes good intentions are actually…
bad intentions… that then sporn a multimillion pound company that makes money from deafness.
What? I’m just your impartial narrator.
In all truth though, as a deaf person- but someone who went deaf later in life due to
a separate medical condition- I’m vaguely objective. Kind of.
Well let’s find out...
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boots.
On with the show...
Alexander Bell was born on the 3rd March 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Eliza Grace Bell
and Alexander Melville Bell, a famous phonetician-
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies the sounds of human speech, or—in
the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign.
He had two brothers: Melville James Bell and Edward Charles Bell, both of whom would die
of tuberculosis before the age of 30.
When he was 10 he made a plea to his father to have a middle name like his two brothers.
For his 11th birthday his father allowed him to adopt the middle name "Graham", chosen
out of respect for Alexander Graham, a family friend.
Whilst he was a child, his best friend, Ben Herdman’s, family operated a flour mill
which became the site of his first invention. In the mill wheat had to be dehusked through
a laborious process but at the age of 12, Bell built a homemade device that combined
rotating paddles with sets of nail brushes, creating a simple dehusking machine that was
put into operation and used steadily for a number of years. In return Ben’s father
gave both boys the run of a small workshop in which to "invent".
Alexander showed a talent for art, poetry and music from an early age, including mastering
the piano without formal training. He was clearly very interested in sounds and apparently
revelled in mimicry and ventriloquism.
His mother began to lose her hearing when he was 12 and he was deeply affected by this,
even learning a manual finger tapping language so he could sit at her side and silently tap
out what was going on for her. He developed a technique of speaking in clear, modulated
tones directly into his mother's forehead, which apparently she found easier to understand.
Personally, this particular relationship with his mother is what makes his later position
seem so strange to me. He realised that his mother needed something other than spoken
English to understand what was going on… so why did he then push to extinguish that
later?!
Hang on though, we’re not there yet!
The Bell family was long associated with the teaching of elocution: Alexander’s grandfather,
uncle and father were all elocutionists. His father’s book The Standard Elocutionist
from 1860 is still well known today. In the book Bell senior explains his method of how
to teach deaf people to articulate words and read other people's lips.
His system ‘Visible Speech’ is much like the modern International Phonetic Alphabet
as one shape corresponds to each sound that is found in human speech as well as notations
for tone, pitch and suction. It’s essentially a kind of mimicry that means you learn how
to correctly position your tongue and lips for each syllable so you can then pronounce
words perfectly, even if you’ve never come across them before or never heard them.
It’s similar to what I do in front of the mirror to train my own voice.
Well, to keep it trained.
The young Alexander may have taken it a little far however as he took to experimenting on
the family dog. He first taught the terrier to growl continuously then Bell would reach
into its mouth and manipulate the dog's lips and vocal cords to produce specific sounds.
Okay...
If he did them in the right order, it sounded like the dog was talking!
Bell grew up to teach his father’s Visible Sound method to actual humans. Largely, deaf
ones. He taught at a number of deaf schools including ‘Horace Mann School for the Deaf’
and a number of outposts of the ‘American Asylum for Deaf and Dumb Persons’...
Just going to let that name sink in for a few minutes…
The American… asylum…
Anyway! This is why we rename things!
In October 1872, Alexander Bell opened his "School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics
of Speech" in Boston, teaching his father’s system. His first class numbered 30 students
and one of his private pupils was Helen Keller, who later said that Bell dedicated his life
to the penetration of that "inhuman silence which separates and estranges"
Oh just wait for the estrangement to come!
You see, at the time, the most influential people in the field-
(who were all Hearing)
- viewed deafness as something that should be eradicated. They believed that with the
proper resources and effort, they could teach deaf people to speak and avoid the use of
sign language, which they saw as being a barrier to communication.
Ie: “a small minority of people have formed their own language so they can easily communicate
with each other and not be isolated. But I can’t understand them so they should be
forced to learn my language and enunciate properly! They would try harder if they felt
isolated again.”
Yeah
At the age of 26 Bell met 15-year-old Mabel Hubbard who became the object of his affection…
she was also one of his pupils. She had lost her hearing after a bout of scarlet fever
when she was five so had already been able to speak and had a head-start in the speech-only
classroom.
During this time he also began experimenting with the physiology of speech and methods
of recording and transmitting sounds… which then lead to him inventing the telephone.
Which is nice.
He was also a massive racist.
Not so nice.
He decried immigration into the United States of what he termed “undesirable ethnical
elements,” as he felt it stopped the “evolution of a higher and nobler type of man in America.”
(he means ‘white people’)
He described sign language as “essentially a foreign language” and argued that “in
an English speaking country like the United States, the English language, and the English
language alone, should be used as the means of communication and instruction.”
wow...
[Sarcastically ]Not at all relatable to the current political climate...
As such he was an important figure in the spreading of audism — the belief that it
is inherently better to be able to speak and hear.
Again, if you’re Hearing or you’ve never come across Deaf Culture that might seem like
an ‘of course’ statement to you but I will explain why it’s not an intrinsically
good position in a moment…
Just know to begin with that Bell’s views on immigration, deaf education, and eugenics
overlap and intertwine.
In 1883 Bell presented his paper Memoir Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human
Race to the National Academy of Sciences. In it he applied his study of eugenics to
the ‘deaf race’ stating: "Those who believe as I do, that the production of a defective
race of human beings would be a great calamity to the world, will examine carefully the causes
that will lead to the intermarriage of the deaf with the object of applying a remedy."
To review: deaf people were forming clubs, socializing with one another and, consequently,
marrying other deaf people(!) and the creation of a “deaf race” is a
“great calamity” that may ruin humanity forever!
(again: 90% of deaf children are born to Hearing parents. Because that’s not how genes work)
How did he propose to reduce the number of deaf people? By discouraging deaf-to-deaf
marriages, promoting oral-only education and removing deaf teachers from the classroom.
Oh, you’re a teacher who also happens to be deaf? You’re fired!
Oh, you struggle to lipread? You’re failing this class!
Oh, you ‘sound deaf’? You’re getting caned!
Oh, you’ve fallen in love with another deaf person? You’re banned from seeing them!
In 1880, encouraged by Bell’s talks, 164 delegates met for the Second International
Congress on Education of the Deaf.
Only one of these delegates was deaf. Of 164!
At the conference, a resolution was passed that banned sign language in schools, in an
effort to encourage spoken language skills, and thus “[restore] the deaf-mute to society.”
Other passages in the resolution urge us to “consider the incontestable superiority
of speech over signs,” and argue that teaching deaf people to speak English will “give
them a more perfect knowledge of language.” After its passage, schools in Europe and the
United States ceased all use of sign language.
Funnily enough, due to this and his efforts to suppress the teaching of sign language,
Bell is often viewed negatively by those embracing Deaf culture.
Shocker!
“What is Deaf culture?” you ask? Well…
The word ‘deaf’ with a lowercase ‘d’ refers to the audiological condition of not
hearing. The word ‘Deaf’ with an uppercase ‘D’ refers to a particular group of deaf
people who share their own language- sign language- and culture. They’ll go to Deaf
club nights, follow Deaf artists, participate in Deaf sports teams, generally all know each
other! It’s a distinct community of people.
Much like an ethnic minority or the LGBT community.
- not so much the knowing each other thing! Just because your cousin is a lesbian, doesn’t
mean I know her!
As I previously mentioned: it’s also easy to assume that a deaf person would want their
hearing to be ‘fixed’- but that isn’t always the case, in fact it’s often far
from the truth.
Personally, if someone offered to give me 100% perfect hearing in both ears tomorrow
I would probably be terrified.
Both because (A) magic now apparently exists and (B) that’s actually a really scary prospect.
I’ve spent half my life not being able to hear birds singing. I like the idea but I
think it would be really startling.
And, again, I’m someone who went deaf as a teenager, after years of being able to hear
(not particularly well but still…) AND I went deaf due to a medical condition and disability.
If someone has been profoundly deaf their entire life, that’s… just their life.
People in the Deaf community don’t feel like they have a problem because everything
in their life works perfectly fine for them, it’s just different to ‘the norm’
- pah! Who wants to be normal anyway? Says the deaf, disabled lesbian...
Deaf people don’t like being seen as sick, disabled or in some way deficient. Ever wondered
why I call myself ‘deaf AND disabled’? Because I don’t see deafness as intrinsically
disabling.
My chronic pain? Completely disabling.
My chronic fatigue? Beyond disabling.
My lax joints and ability to paralyse my limbs for any length of time? … disabled!
Disabled!
I can’t say for sure obviously because it’s not the case but were I to just be deaf I
don’t know that I would see myself as disabled. I lipread well, I don’t generally have problems
with people understanding me, I have a sign language interpreter for work events, meetings
and so on…
Obviously, I’m not saying that all deaf people feel the same way.
These are just my feelings, I could hear reasonable well for 15 years
So there's a roll over effect on that
There are many who
feel their deafness is disabling.
But it’s a personal feeling, not something that can be decided for you by another person…
To members of Deaf culture, Sign Language is a cultural cornerstone. It’s part of
who they are. A child who is born deaf should have access to that community and learn about
themselves.
Others feel that ‘fixing’ deafness is the way to go: using things like a cochlear
implant or hearing aids and learning to pronounce things clearly.
The problem there though is that the child in question would still BE deaf. They would
just have an accessory that helps them move through the wider world.
A paraplegic person is still paralysed when they are in their wheelchair… they’re
just able to wheel around.
And when it comes to sign language… if a family have been deaf for six generations
and then suddenly the children are no longer using sign language, they’re not only losing
part of their culture, they’re literally unable to communicate with their parents and
grandparents because they’re speaking a different language.
It’s okay to have opinions on both sides. I can see why parents go straight to giving
their children cochlear implants- the unknown is really scary! But it’s not okay when
people make a decision about other people’s lives without considering their opinions.
And putting 1 deaf person on a panel of 164 is not considering their opinions!
But if you think that was bad, we’re about to start talking eugenics…!
[slow clap]
First off: ‘what is eugenics’?
Eugenics is the set of beliefs and practices that aims at improving the genetic quality
of the human population through higher rates of sexual reproduction among people with desirable
traits and reduced rates of reproduction or sterilization among people with less-desired
traits.
It became particularly popular at the start of the 20th Century, with many countries adopting
eugenic policies with the intent to improve their population. Such programs included both
"positive" measures, encouraging individuals deemed "fit" to reproduce, and "negative"
measures such as marriage prohibitions and forced sterilization of people deemed unfit.
Unfit people included those with mental or physical disabilities, people who scored in
the low ranges of an IQ test, criminals and members of disfavored ethnic minority groups.
Alexander Graham Bell was heavily connected with the eugenics movement in the United States
due to his work with deaf people…
And sheep.
His hobby of livestock breeding to his appointment to biologist David Starr Jordan's Committee
on Eugenics, under the auspices of the American Breeders' Association.
I know...
Because humans and the animals we raise to eat are exactly the same (!)
The committee unequivocally extended farm animal principles to human beings, advocating
the passing of laws that established the compulsory sterilization of people deemed to be, as Bell
called them, a "defective variety of the human race".
But at least he gave us the telephone!
[ding]
By the late 1930s, about half the states in the U.S. had eugenics laws, and California's
compulsory sterilization law was used as a model for that of Nazi Germany.
Oh you thought we could talk about eugenics without bringing up the Nazis? Nope!
Many of the defendants at the Nuremberg trials attempted to justify their human rights abuses
by claiming there was little difference between the Nazi eugenics programs and the U.S. eugenics
programs.
So, yes… In the decades following World War II, with the institution of human rights,
many countries realised they were being colossal arseholes.
But!
‘Eugenics’ doesn’t always imply forced sterilisation and mass murder. We also find
things like genetic testing of embryos for extreme diseases falling under this umbrella.
Many, many people would argue that’s a wonderful scientific innovation.
I actually met with a genetic nurse just last week to discuss fertility options and it is
a very heavy, very complex issue with a lot of different things to consider.
For example: testing only tells you the embryo has something, not the degree to which they
have it. I have family members with my neurological disability in their genes but they’re asymptomatic.
They would get a positive reading on a test but the condition wouldn’t actually have
any affect on them. It also varies in its presentation: I’m a particularly bad case
but for some people even though it’s activated it never really bothers them, it’s just
a minor inconvenience. Again, they would have had a positive result on the test.
Let’s get even more personal:
If I had been genetically tested as an embryo I would not be here today. Does that mean
I’m against genetic testing? No.
That doesn’t mean I don’t want to have been born. Calm down.
I think it’s a case by case basis and we can’t make sweeping statements. A test that
shows your baby has Downs Syndrome, for instance, doesn’t tell you to what degree they’ll
be affected or how you’ll be able to cope with that as a parent.
Again: it’s a really complex issue.
And it’s difficult to make a decision without all the facts.
The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing- which is thankfully
shortened to AGB- are often protested by the Deaf Community. The company’s stated mission
is to aid “families, health care providers and education professionals understand childhood
hearing loss and the importance of early diagnosis and intervention.” They emphasize spoken
language and de-emphasize the use of sign language. They also heavily promote cochlear
implants…
(from companies they have shares in!)
(don’t sue me)
(I’m not worth it)
Deaf activists feel that AGB plays on the fear of Hearing parents that their deaf child
may not be able to lead a functional and fulfilling life. If you haven’t seen something first
hand, it’s very difficult to imagine it’s possible.
Which is, of course, why varied representation is so important!
Look, during his life, Alexander Graham Bell achieved many successes and broke new ground
in a number of areas. Go him.
In some respects he changed the way deaf children are educated for the better… particularly
when it comes to desegregation: there is now the option to be part of mainstream school
or go to a deaf school.
But… his ideas also ushered in an era of seeing deaf people as ‘less than’ and
stigmatized a unique language and culture.
It’s important that we think critically about history and historical figures, even
if we’ve been taught that they are heros.
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