Alexander Graham Bell was a man with many talents, but his work in the education of the deaf community was one of his most important contributions. Bell’s mother was deaf, which likely spurred his interest in the subject. His father, an elocutionist, developed Visible Speech, a system of symbols to help people speak words in any language. Bell taught this system at various schools for the deaf before he began promoting oralism. He believed that all deaf people should learn to communicate by lip-reading and speaking, rather than with sign language.
Bell opened his own private school to teach articulation to deaf people in Boston in the fall of 1872. Among his first students was George Sanders, the deaf son of one of his investors. Bell also taught a young deaf woman named Mabel Hubbard, who eventually became his wife. Bell’s name became synonymous with oralism, and he used his fame and wealth from the telephone to advocate for it. He believed that oral skills were essential to deaf Americans’ social integration and personal and professional advancement.
Bell’s endorsement of oralism made the assimilation strategy of oralist educators palatable to important groups of hearing people, including parents of deaf children. The promise of a more homogenous society allowed oralism to emerge as the most attractive option to educate deaf people. However, not all deaf people can learn to speak, and many believe they should not be compelled to do so. Critics argue that the philosophy of oralism, that speech is inherently better than sign language, still has a harmful ripple effect to this day.
Bell’s visible speech method was based on a phonetic representation of the alphabet developed by his father, who was an elocutionist. He taught this method at various schools for the deaf before he began promoting oralism. Oralism was growing in popularity among deaf educators, and Bell believed that it was essential to deaf Americans’ social integration and personal and professional advancement. The goal was that deaf people could move through the hearing world without anyone knowing they were deaf.
One “unspoken part” of oralism was that while deaf and hard of hearing students were learning spoken language, the use of sign language was to be discouraged — even punished. Foley, a man who attended an oralism school in Massachusetts as a child, said he experienced that bias. He was forced to try to speak, and if he did try to sign, he would be punished. While most of his peers had hearing impairments, he was fully deaf and found it difficult to learn while teachers spoke aloud to the class, sometimes with their backs facing the students.
Bell is also heavily criticized for a speech he gave to the National Academy of Sciences in 1883, published as “Memoir Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race,” in which he called for the promotion of oralism. He argued that if deaf people continued to marry each other, a deaf variety of the human race would form, and suggested measures to dissuade the transmission of hereditary deafness. These measures included removing sign language from schools, replacing deaf faculty with hearing teachers and staff, and establishing non-residential day schools or schools that would partially integrate deaf and hearing students.
Despite the criticisms of Bell’s approach, his enormous influence on deaf education can be traced in the trajectory of oralism and the rise of day schools. By the early twentieth century, oral methods dominated deaf education in the United States. Bell’s success in promoting oralism has generated much hostility from the signing deaf community for its deleterious impact on their culture that continues today. Bell often recollected that his greatest contribution was not the invention of the telephone, but his work on behalf of oral education.
The general impression of today’s deaf community concerning Alexander Graham Bell is divided. Some see him as a villain for his push for oralism and his belief that deaf people posed a threat to society. Others see him as a contributor to the deaf community because of his work in deaf education and teaching and his role in establishing the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. Some see him as a controversial figure because of his views and actions toward the deaf community. In contrast, others acknowledge the positive impact of his invention of the telephone in connecting the deaf community with the hearing world. Overall, as it concerns the deaf community, Alexander Graham Bell’s legacy is complicated and remains a topic of great debate in the deaf community.
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