A brief history of violence against deaf people in the United States

The United States has a long (and still thriving) tradition of violence and subjugation of minorities, and d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing people are no exception. On some of the physical and mental violence and oppression leveled at d/Deaf people:

1. Historically deaf children were forcibly institutionalized and bound and beaten to prevent them from using sign language.

2. Historically, attempts were made to forcibly sterilize deaf people and prevent them from marrying.

2a. The leading anti-deaf group in the eugenics movement still exists and advocates against deaf rights today: the Alexander Graham Bell Association.

2b. You can find Bell's detailed "eradication plan" in his lecture "Memoir Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race."

3. Today, deaf people continue to be denied the right to education solely on the basis of their deafness:

• at the early education level
• at the secondary and higher education level

4. Deaf people continue to be denied the right to work based solely on their deafness.

• including systematic bypassing of ADA laws by HR departments
• in the arts: repeated use of hearing actors to play deaf characters

5. Deaf people are arrested without being told their rights, and jailed while denied an interpreter and pen or paper.

6. Today, deaf people are attacked and killed by the police for "failing to respond to verbal commands." Most recently:

• Pearl Pearson (beaten on side of highway, Oklahoma)
• Edward Miller (shot and killed in his car for "talking too loud," Florida)
• John Williams (shot and killed walking down the street, Seattle)

7. Deaf people are endangered daily in hospitals without access to sign language interpreters or mental health professionals.

8. Sometimes within hours of a deaf child's birth, doctors inform parents their child is "broken" and can only be "cured" with CIs and preventing the use of sign language.

8a. Hearing children are encouraged to sign.

9. Doctors and tech companies knowingly inserted defective cochlear implants into the skulls of infants, children and adults (for years, for $).

10. Deaf boys are 3X and deaf girls 2X more likely to experience sexual assault than their hearing peers.