Comment by mintplant

Deaf culture, for example, was deliberately undermined and suppressed for centuries to prevent its emergence as a distinct identity. Alexander Graham Bell, a central figure in the establishment of deaf education, opposed teaching sign language to children and insisted upon oral education, to push pupils to assimilate into the hearing world. He also argued against intermarriage between deaf people, to avert the "great calamity" of "the production of a defective race of human beings".