I Fill This Small Space: The Writings of a Deaf Activist

Is There a Light at the End of the Tunnel?

39 Concluding address, CAID Convention, July 2, 1987, Santa Fe, New Mexico 14. Respectively: the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf, the Council on Education of the Deaf, and the Council of American Instructors of the Deaf. 15. Total Communication is an approach to deaf education that aims to make use of a number of modes of communication—signed, oral, auditory, written and visual aids— depending on the particular needs and abilities of the child. Today, this approach is disdained by advocates of bilingual education. See Ronnie B. Wilbur, “Modality and the Structure of Language: Sign Languages Versus Signed Systems, in Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies, Language, and Education (Psychology), ed. Mark Marschark and Patricia Elizabeth Spencer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 332–346. Is There a Light at the End of the Tunnel? Today, in spite of the fact that the education of the deaf has been marred by controversy on methods and techniques of communication , the numbers of deaf people educated, the quality of their education , the diversity of approaches, the sheer weight of research studies are a marvel to behold. Gradually, we have—through CEASD, CED, CAID,14 and individual independent abilities—established standards for teacher certification, sharing of information of successful projects and programs, meaningful learning materials and devices to the point which have enabled our deaf people to become the best educated, socially sophisticated, and economically advanced of any group of deaf people in the world. Our historical landscape has been full of potholes, of hills and valleys with struggles to have a flexible means of communication as embodied in the Total Communication philosophy,15 to have quality education with deaf role models, to start infant preschool programs and parent education. Although there is still a long road to travel, there has been an increase in mental health services, upward mobility in employment, captioned television, telephone accessibility, and so on. The skills and abilities of deaf people have been made visible both on Broadway and Hollywood by the talents of Tony Award winner, Phyllis Frelich and 40 Oscar Award winner, Marlee Matlin, one acting in the stage version of Children of a Lesser God and the other in the movie version.16 Perhaps a lesser god has made us and had not force to shape us as he would, but we have come to a point in time when the light for us glows brightly at the end of the tunnel. We, deaf people, as never before, are living a quality life. Open to us are a broad range of services, taken for granted by those who can hear. But—and this is a strong but—we have also come to a point in time when many of our gains are threatened by the interpretation or, rather, the misinterpretation of PL 94–142. Ironically, PL 94–142 would have been the salvation of our deaf counterparts in Europe way back in the 18th and 19th centuries because of its insistence on a free appropriate public education for all handicapped children. It is still a form of insurance for us deaf people, especially those of us who have additional handicaps, insurance against those who, in ignorance, would deny us an education. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Does it flicker at all or does it glow brightly? We are in a dark place in the tunnel at this point in time. We have been inundated by an overwhelming tide whose underlying force is its generic approach to all handicaps. The temper of our society is such that educating handicapped children with non-handicapped children is viewed as sacrosanct as motherhood and apple pie. In spite of it all, I see a flickering light with possibilities to glow brightly. There is a force to be dealt with—the deaf people’s historical struggle and need for equal educational opportunities which is denied by the push to phase out Special Education by infusing it into the regular public school. The deaf people’s sense of injustice was demonstrated by their march on a national LRE conference funded by the federal government and held in Indianapolis a few weeks ago which attracted media attention to our cause. 16. Frelich originated the role of Sarah Norman in the play by Mark Medoff and became the first deaf person to win the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1980. Marlee Matlin played the role in the screen version and became the...