The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, also known as AG Bell, is an organization that aims to promote listening and spoken language among people who are deaf and hard of hearing. It is headquartered in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, with chapters located throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and a network of international affiliates.

History

The Association was originally created as the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (AAPTSD). In 1908 it merged with Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Bureau (founded in 1887 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge relating to the deaf"), and was renamed as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf in 1956 at the suggestion of Mrs. Frances Toms, the mother of a deaf son who was able to achieve high academic standings in mainstream schools with the organization's help."Bell Ceremony: Give Glimpses of Life Of Telephone Inventor; "Always Loved Canada" ", ''

Brantford Expositor The ''Brantford Expositor'' is an English language newspaper based in Brantford, Ontario and owned by Postmedia. It provides the readers with coverage of local news, sports and events to the community as well as coverage of provincial, national a ...

'', 14 September 1953, pp. 13, 19. In 1999 the Association was finally renamed to the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Controversies and criticism

The organization has a long history of stanch opposition to any positive depictions of the use of sign language, which the organization views as a threat to speech development. After NBC broadcast a theater performance using ASL in 1967, the organization wrote a letter to the company demanding that the show be pulled, claiming that sign language was artificial and foreign and that showing it on television was destroying the efforts of parents who tried to teach their deaf children speech. However, NBC refused to cave in to their demands. Later on in 2008 the organization also protested the 2008 Pepsi commercial at the Super Bowl that showed signing; the organization's statement insisted that Pepsi should have used the money for the commercial to sponsor hearing aids and other hearing assistance technology instead of promoting sign language. In 1992 the organization issued a resolution stating its opposition to the use of sign language in deaf education, and although the 2008 position statement does not explicitly condemn ASL, the organization continues to discourage its use, promoting exclusively oral methods that forbid the use of sign language, mainly the Auditory-Verbal and Auditory-Oral approaches. The foundation has been heavily criticised for misleading and inaccurate claims made in relation to the use of American Sign Language among the Deaf community after

Nyle DiMarco Nyle DiMarco (born May 8, 1989) is an American model, actor, and deaf activist. In 2015, DiMarco was the winner of The CW's reality television series ''America's Next Top Model'' in season 22, becoming the second male winner and the first deaf w ...

was announced as the winner of season 22 of ''

America's Next Top Model ''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to b ...

''. The

Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc (RID) is a non-profit organization founded on June 16, 1964, and incorporated in 1972, that seeks to uphold standards, ethics, and professionalism for American Sign Language interpreters. RID is current ...

, the National Association of the Deaf, the

National Black Deaf Advocates The National Black Deaf Advocates (NBDA) is the leading advocacy organization for thousands of Black deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. Black Deaf leaders were concerned that deaf and hard-of-hearing African-Americans were not a ...

and academics accused the foundation of inaccuracy, bias,

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable clai ...

xenophobia Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...

and

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...

. The organization is heavily sponsored by cochlear implant and hearing aid companies.

History

Controversies and criticism

References

Further reading