Inside A Deaf School’s Fight For Civil Rights | AJ+

Transcript [Music] [Sirens] [Sound of crosswalk] I identify myself as a Black Deaf woman. Lower Third: Cahlah Chapman, Gallaudet University Senior Cahlah Chapman: I’m Cahlah Chapman. I’m from Washington, DC. I’m a 5th-year student at Gallaudet University. I'm majoring in government and considering two minors: public health sciences and criminal justice. Maybe I'll run for Congress one day. You never know. All Deaf individuals can do everything except hear. Title Card: Untold America Deaf in America Proud to Be Deaf On my first day, I was a little taken aback. I was taking it all in, you know, just introducing myself to people … Lower Third: Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, Gallaudet University, Class of ’89 Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: Gallaudet is unique because it's the only one of its kind in the world. I mean, the only one. It's the only university for Deaf people that provides education designed specifically for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students. [cheering] Cahlah Chapman: The first time sometimes people meet a Deaf person, they might feel overwhelmed, and then they'll just decide, you know what, I don't even want to engage with this Deaf person. But I am happy to pull out a pen and a piece of paper. I'm ready to communicate with anyone who wants to communicate with me. If there's even a guy who's hitting on me, we can write back and forth. That's fine. I can even navigate the dating scene, writing notes with someone who might be interested in me. So that doesn't bother me at all. Around seven months old, something happened where I had a hearing loss. We’re not sure if it was due to an illness, but after that I became Deaf, and so I began to learn ASL, got a cochlear implant, and that led me to who I am today. I remember when I finally came into the Deaf community, it was in high school and I felt like the Deaf community was something new to me, that there was this whole Deaf world where everyone was signing, you know, everyone was communicating openly and freely with one another. Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: American Sign Language was first began by Deaf people. American Sign Language is our language. Research has shown that many children would benefit from having access to a visual language, be they Deaf or hearing. And it adds a certain dimension to your brain in terms of the way your brain processes language. Gallaudet University was founded in 1864. Fast-forward to 1988. At that time, Gallaudet was 124 years old, and in that 124 years, we had never had a Deaf president lead this institution. Archival footage: “We want a Deaf president now! We want a Deaf president now!” Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: My role 30 years ago has been one that I’ve carried with me throughout that time. Part of Gallaudet’s history, something that we call “Deaf President Now” – DPN – which was a movement that happened here in DC but involved people throughout the country. TEXT: In 1988, Gallaudet University’s board chose a new president. Lower Third: Jane Bassett Spilman, Board of Trustees Archival footage, Jane Bassett Spilman: “We picked Dr. Elizabeth Ann Zinser as the 7th president of Gallaudet.” “Nooooo.” TEXT: Elisabeth Zinser wasn’t deaf and didn’t know American Sign Language. Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: Gallaudet University had to have a Deaf president because that was the whole purpose of the university's establishment in the first place, to advance educational opportunities, to advance the lives of people who were Deaf. Archival footage: “Deaf president now! Deaf president now!” “The world can’t stop us!” Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: We closed the gates of the campus. We get a lot of media attention. We had rallies every day, sometimes two or three times a day, in fact. Archival footage: [cheering] Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: “The effort grew, and it didn't just impact folks here in the United States. It went global, and all of that happened within one short week. We call that, “That’s the week the world heard Gallaudet.” TEXT: After days of protests and national media coverage, Elizabeth Zinser decided to resign. Archival footage, Elizabeth Zinser: “I tendered my resignation last night to pave the way for the Board of Trustees to consider the selection of a president who is hearing impaired.” Lower third: I. King Jordan, First Deaf President, Gallaudet University Archival footage, I. King Jordan: "I am thrilled to accept the invitation from the Board of Trustees to become the president of Gallaudet University." [Cheering] Archival footage: "Today, we can say, is the proudest day in the history of Deaf people." Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: We had won. We won. We had made it happen, you know, all that hard work can result in something that was successful. And we proved that to be the case, that we made this enormous impact. It was incredible. Archival footage, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: "We made the first step. It's not over yet – this is just the beginning. And we'll keep on making steps until we run, and run ahead. Until we succeed!" Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: King had a famous quote: Archival footage, I. King Jordan: “Deaf people can do anything that hearing people can, except hear.” Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: And that quote was shared broadly. Cahlah Chapman: DPN has inspired me, actually. What I learned was that Deaf people really can do anything and everything, and that really inspired me to get involved in politics. Because we don't have any Deaf individual at this time serving in Congress, and I want to be the person that makes that happen. You know, maybe by the time I'm 25, who knows? I'm actually the only Deaf member of my family, so I come from a hearing family. I do remember my mom telling me that when she found out that I was Deaf and had a hearing loss, she was a little taken aback at first. You know, of course there's that grief that you experienced because, you know, she didn't know what to do with a Deaf child. Sometimes I felt lonely and isolated. You know, I was a Deaf student in a hearing classroom and in a hearing environment. I actually went to three different programs for Deaf students. The first that I attended was an oral program. That didn't work out. And then I stopped speech training when I was in middle school because, of course, I was a rebellious teenager at that point, right. Like I didn’t want to use my cochlear implant. I thought I was perfectly fine. I knew who I was, and I didn’t feel like I needed to hear. I didn't do that well in school. I was getting in trouble a lot, I wasn't able to participate and do well in class, finish my homework. But once I got to the school for the Deaf, it was like night and day. Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: Because of the Milan decision back in 1880 [that banned sign language in schools], from that point forward, Deaf education really did not focus at all on sign language. Children were supposed to only focus on spoken language. And so Deaf and hard-of-hearing children who were trying to sign to communicate with one another, using their hands in any way for communication, were punished. TEXT: The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, was influential on deaf education and suppressed sign language.   TEXT: He feared intermarriage in the Deaf community would lead to a “defective human race.” Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: We grew up hearing, seeing stories shared by our parents about them going to work and coming home having experienced discrimination in the workplace. We could see yet how strong our parents were, battling against oppression and making their way in the world, very strong willed and believing that Deaf people could do anything they set their mind to. TEXT: DPN played a critical role in passing the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. TEXT: The ADA requires accommodations like interpreters and wheelchair access. Bridgetta Bourne-Firl: The younger Deaf population, the younger children these days, they don’t know this story and they need to have this story shared with them. It’s true, I don’t hear certain things that those of you who can hear are able to hear. And yet why should that be the focus, on that deficit way of thinking, when instead we could focus on all the good that life brings to people who can’t hear, the amazing things that people who are Deaf have, as opposed to focusing on what it is they don’t have. AJ+ Producer: This video is part of a larger series on the Deaf community. Here are some of the incredible people featured in this series. Follow our Watch page to catch all of these stories on this season of Untold America. And let us know what community we should cover next. Credits: Senior Producer Maggie Beidelman Producers Emily Gibson Jun Stinson Camera / Video Editor Michael Nguyen Animator Marisa Cruz Archive Material Gallaudet University Cahlah Chapman Executive Producer Sarah Nasr Interpreters Kari Bahl Stephanie Baran Candas Barnes Folami Ford Jeffrey Hardison Carolyn Ressler Ariel Pearson Jen Olson Deaf Access Solutions Special Thanks Kati Mitchell Robert Weinstock Story Consultant Melissa Elmira Yi

Now after watching this video, I want to switch my language class from French to ASL.

Very enlightening. I'm not deaf, but having Closed Captioning on my 📺s made me better at language. Just the other day I was talking about how modern tech can often lag when addressing disabilities, as exemplified by HD📺s not being able to use CC because the CC signal can't transmit through HDMI cables. I remember when Facetime📱 was first introduced and everyone (myself included) called it useless. Not long after, I saw a young woman on a train using it to sign ASL into her phone. It was eye-opening for me.

thank you thank you thank you thank you so so much!!! i had the incredible privilege of taking an ASL class with a Deaf professor and it felt like my eyes were opened to a whole new world, an entire community and culture of people who live below the mainstream consciousness this video gave me so much hope for the future of the Deaf community—I want her to be the first Deaf Congressperson!!—and also for all the other minorities around the world, thanks again!

Very eye opening and wow it hurts to see how someone can infringe on the rights of a group of people that need to comunicate

I have deaf cousins and they told me about the BS they went through dealing with those who hear. They went to a school that focused on speaking and reading lips and they hated it. I can read sign and can respond by fingerspelling quickly (I don't sign back well - I confuse some words with similar motions lol) . 😅 Signing was useful on field trips until the teachers put a stop to it thinking we were throwing gang signs 🙄

I'm beyond proud to be a part of this community ❤️ I'm HoH, never went to Gallaudet, was raised oral, and didn't learn sign until ~14. DPN still inspired me; I remember learning about it in school in a video in a history class and I was brought to tears because up until then I thought I had to hide my deafness in order to be successful in life and at that point I understood that I was completely wrong. I'm so proud to consider myself Deaf 🤟🤟

Proud to be Deaf!

Please acknowledge the language deprivation commonly found in 95% deaf community were born into Hearing family. Those families often failed to acknowledge the importance of Language access to Deaf babies. 0-7 years old deaf children are the most critical times of their language development. Unfortunately this has been neglected and ignored world wide. Those children without language access suffered deprivation and trauma. They often were raised in a frustration language barrier home. This leads to Mental health issues and trauma increased. Please recognise the rights of Deaf babies to access to sign language even if they have hearing aids or cochlear implants. Do not be fooled in wasting times of hoping they will learn to speak if they don’t sign. Every minute of their childhood counts and you are robbing their language because of your ignorance and pride or shame of your child being deaf.

This is awesome I learned so much! Can't wait for the rest of the series!

I'd love to hear more about the origins and history of black ASL

Thank you so much for showing the signer while showing the other clips! Most videos just use an interpreter voiceover or captions and don' t let you see the person signing for much of the video.

Thank you for always sharing so many stories which are rarely if not ever covered at all. I never knew about Gallaudet and am grateful to learn more about this community. Keep up the good work!

👏🏾🙌🏾 Switched At Birth taught me a lot about the deaf community.

so stoked to finally take an asl class next semester

Two “five” hands waving above my head! Bravo.

CAHLAH IS THE BEST!!! I love you girl. Proud to know you. You are meant for amazing things and I’m so inspired by you in class and in life. I

I'VE LOST ALL AROUND ME OFF THE HRS DO 2 WERING MY HEARING AIDS N MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY KSS. MY MOM JUST PASSED away n it's the most LONEST place EVER

My nieces are successful at home, work and continuing education because of our family support, Gallaudet and California School for the Deaf. Love getting a close up of what their experience(s) were at Gallaudet. Progressive, positive environment turns out progressive, positive graduates. #can'thear LOVE

Y'all got my love thanks keep it going