A recent film that documents a 1988 major protest at a university for deaf students in Washington, D.C., found a very receptive audience Wednesday night in Rochester.
The documentary, released earlier this year, is called “Deaf President Now” and looks at the protest that roiled the campus of Gallaudet University, a renowned university for deaf and hard of hearing students. The protest was sparked by the appointment of a hearing president over other deaf candidates.
As a result of that protest, a deaf president for Gallaudet was chosen, and the university also accepted other demands from the students.
“Deaf President Now” was screened at The Little Theatre with an audience that included students and staff from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, based at RIT.
NTID President Caroline Solomon, who previously taught at Gallaudet, attended the screening. Speaking through an interpreter, told WXXI’s Inclusion Desk that the documentary makes key points about respecting the abilities of deaf people.
“It’s really about showing that deaf folks can lead,” Solomon said. “Prior to that, the concept wasn’t really there. It wasn’t in people’s forethought, but now people realize that deaf folks can lead, and they can lead in different capacities.”
Solomon is the first woman to lead NTID since it was established in the 1960s. She is a researcher and scientist, and Allie Aleman, a third-year psychology major at NTID, said through an interpreter that it is inspiring to get a woman with a science background to lead the college.
“RIT has a lot of science programs on campus, and so I think that that will help to bring more deaf folks in, showing that they can do anything,” Aleman said. “They can work in the medical field, in the research field, in the science field, and it's really cool to have a woman president with a STEM background.”
Solomon said the 1988 protest at Gallaudet was part of a movement that led to the American with Disabilities Act and other advances for people with disabilities.
But she added: “Society has a long way to go when it comes to inclusion.”
This story is reported from WXXI’s Inclusion Desk.
