SASL Newsletter - Fall 2017 Issue Issue 7 - Fall 2017 | Page 2

SASL Executive Council 2015 – 2017 President Samuel J. Supalla University of Arizona [email protected] Vice President Deirdre Schlehofer Rochester Institute of Technology [email protected] Recording Secretary / Newsletter Editor Andrew P. J. Byrne Framingham State University [email protected] Treasurer Harvey Nathanson Austin Community College [email protected] Membership Director Ron Fenicle [email protected] SASL Journal Editor-in-Chief Jody H. Cripps Towson University [email protected] Members-at-Large Russell Rosen CUNY – Staten Island [email protected] Gabriel Arellano Georgetown University [email protected] By Andrew P. J. Byrne Mabel Bell’s Change of Heart To follow up with the previous issue on Mabel Bell’s perspective on American Sign Language (ASL) and deaf people, this issue focuses on some changes in her thinking and behavior towards the end of her life. She struggled with herself as a deaf person for many years. As you will see in this piece, a tragic event in 1897 was a starting point that took her almost 25 years to finally accept the identity as an oral deaf person. Did Mabel have a full change of heart? Not necessarily so. I will explain. The news of the death of Mabel’s father in 1897 came as a crushing blow for her. While poring over his writings, she did not realize how much he had done for the promotion of the teaching of the deaf. For many years, Mabel's father was actively involved in the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (now known as the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Washington, DC) and served on the Board of Trustees of the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts (now known as the Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech). In a letter to her son-in-law, Mabel wrote: I have now awakened to a realization that I have not done my duty by the memory of the wonderful father and mother who not only did much for their child but so unselfishly labored for the benefit of other deaf children. (Toward, 1996, pp. 237-238) To pay a tribute to her father, Mabel collected his writings and published a book entitled The Story of the Rise of the Oral Method in America as Told in the Writings of the Late Hon. Gardiner G. Hubbard in 1898. As an editor, she wrote: The story as told in this little book is gathered chiefly from Mr. Hubbard’s writings. It has occasionally been found necessary to make some changes in the phraseology in order to make a connected story from the different publications, but these changes have been few and unimportant. Some additions have been made where they seemed to strengthen or elucidate Mr. Hubbard’s story. All statements of facts within Mr. Hubbard’s personal knowledge and all opinions expressed by him are given in his own words. ([Mabel] Bell, 1898, p. 13) (Continue on the next page) The Power of ASL 2 Fall 2017 – Issue 7