 
We have a wealth of knowledge today from both
historical scholarship and the collective,
lived experiences of Deaf people about AG Bell.
We know that AG Bell was a strong supporter of the eugenics movement.
He supported language oppression, leading to a legacy of linguicism in Deaf history.
Eugenics began and was practiced here in the United States before
being adopted in Nazi Germany.
Thus, Bell was part of the development of
the notion of a “better stock of human beings”
which clearly indicated that Deaf
people were unacceptable.
Bell’s ideology shows repeated pattern of language oppression,
systematic destruction of Deaf people’s culture and way of life.
Such systematic
ways of destroying any culture
needs to be stopped right now.
 
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) organization
has reported that 70 million Deaf and Deaf Blind people
around the globe  use sign language.
Additionally, WFD has worked closely with the United Nations
in developing the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
The UNCRPD
focuses on the rights of Deaf people
including recognition of the human
right to sign language as a first language.
The CRPD, therefore, recognizes and promotes
the sign languages of Deaf people worldwide.
A related CRPD principle reaffirms the education
of Deaf children
through sign language followed by reading
and writing skills in the language of their
home countries. This is their human right.
The recent letter from the
AG Bell Association mentions sign
language as simply one of many “options.”
Thus, the AG Bell Association has
blatantly denied Deaf children
the human right
to sign language that has been   asserted by WFD/UN CRPD.
I’ve noticed among Deaf students here at
NTID that they tend to communicate most
successfully through sign. These students
are diverse: many from international
countries and from various states; their educational
backgrounds include
experiencing mainstream schools and Deaf schools.
When they all come together
and need to communicate effectively in the
moment, they all use sign.
Speech doesn’t work well because many of the international
students do not lipread English
nor use spoken English. When they come together,
they all can sign and smoothly collaborate.
This experience is evidence that
it is signing which allows diverse
students to be successful communicators.
 
For many years, AG Bell has reinforced the
concept that speech is equated with the
ability to learn language which is misleading
and erroneous.
Focusing on developing literacy is different from speech training.
Being able to use speech may be a convenient way to communicate with many people,
but it does not lead to literacy–that is, skills such as the ability
to think, reason, negotiate, read and write.
Research has indicated that in America today
there are about 30 million people who
use speech fluently, but who cannot read and
write. When you give your child
language, you need to remember that Deaf children
always are bilingual or multilingual.
Today in 2016, we have a lot
of research that AG Bell’s assumptions have been wrong.
In 2008, the President and CEO of AG Bell Assoc. wrote a letter to the Pepsi
Company chastising them for having shown a
commercial which included Deaf
people signing. It was just one short commercial
shown on one day out of a whole
year’s worth of commercials. Yet, the President
and CEO of AG Bell were so upset
that they felt they needed to respond.
At NTID/RIT, the students, faculty, staff, community members and
members of the Orange
and Brown Coalition decided that
we must confront you about this injustice.
We demanded that you rescind your letter to the Pepsi Company
and apologize
for offending and misrepresenting Deaf people.
At the same time, people at NTID/RIT
began to question the integrity of
having a building named in honor of AG Bell on our campus. Students began to study
Bell’s history and notice his pattern of
oppressing Deaf people’s language and
culture as well as his destructive impact
on the individual lives of Deaf people.
Because of this history, they felt NTID/RIT
should not show honor much less
tolerance for people who represent such actions.
After much discussion, the name
and plaque honoring AG Bell was finally removed from our campus.
That was in 2008.
Now, in 2016, you have again written a letter
publically insulting Deaf people,
Deaf
culture, and ASL. You seem resistant to learning.
Your pattern of harassment and
insults to our culture and our language is
unacceptable and must stop.
It is harmful to parents, children, and adults. We have
had enough.
