From Civil Rights to Human Rights
This article traces the development of the Deaf President Now movement and its
similarities to the black civil rights movement.
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President’s Panel: A Conversation with I.
King Jordan, Robert Davila, and T. Alan Hurwitz
Former Gallaudet presidents I. King Jordan and Robert Davila join current
president T. Alan Hurwitz on a panel moderated by Brian H. Greenwald as they
share their experience leading this institution of higher education and offer
insight into the transformative changes brought about by the Deaf President Now
movement.
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Deaf President Now and the Struggle for
Deaf Control of Gallaudet University
Deaf President Now, or DPN, should be viewed as a process, not as a single
event. The forces that led to the installation of the first deaf president at
Gallaudet were set in motion long before 1988, and they continued to be
significant through the protests of 2006. Among the many changes wrought by the
1988 DPN movement is a fundamental shift in the demographics of the Gallaudet
workforce, such that the percentage of deaf people among the pool of employees
has doubled from 25 percent to 50 percent. This article attempts to put DPN in
historical context, and it argues that this shift in the Gallaudet workforce has
led to profound changes in the institutional culture.
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Our Time: The Legacy of the Twentieth
Century
We are probably only at the beginning of our understanding of a period of time
that gave us a new name for an old language, “ASL,” a new consciousness called
“Deaf culture,” a national uprising called “DPN,” and a science fiction-like new
technology called “VP.” The two halves of the twentieth century might be viewed
as two separate units of analysis. The intent is to examine the second half of
the twentieth century, or the period from 1945 to 2000. Key revelations and five
critical changes during this period are discussed and contextualized in the
article.
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The Legacy of Deaf President Now in South
Africa
The impact of DPN on South Africa is remarkable particularly the profound
transformations in the country since 1988. When citizens find that their civil
rights are not being granted, they may form movements to claim equal protection
for all citizens. They may also call for new laws to stop current
discrimination. In 1988 it was the Deaf President Now movement that shook the
world and it became a catalyst for other movements across the world including
South Africa.
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