nonspeaking deaf person – a deaf-mute – a concept and a population that the oralists were trying to make obsolete :
The meeting was called the National Convention of Deaf-Mutes , and that ’ s that . If oral magicians , who yank educational rabbits out of silk hats and pearls of speech out of the mouths of those who have never heard , choke over it , why bless ‘ em !
He was the National Association of the Deaf ’ s seventh president , from 1904 to 1907 , and from 1907 to 1910 – the first to be re-elected . Oralists hated and feared him . Even in the Deaf community , he was a controversial figure – regularly lambasted in the LPF for being power-hungry and unscrupulous , and meddling in partisan politics .
He was outspokenly critical of Alexander Graham Bell , who was treated with great deference by the LPF . In his address , “ The Future of the American Deaf ,” at the Eighth Convention ( Norfolk , Virginia ) on July 5 , 1907 , Veditz denounced :
… Dr . Bell , whom his wealth has rendered the most powerful , and his hobby-riding propensity the most subtle , because he comes in the guise of a friend , and [ is ], therefore , the most to be feared enemy of the American deaf , past and present .
Two of Veditz ’ s notable achievements as NAD President were helping to get the regulation barring deaf applicants to Civil Service ( where they were classified with criminals , mentally incompetent , and insane ) rescinded , and spearheading the establishment of the NAD ’ s Moving Picture Fund , ably administered by Roy J . Stewart .
On August 7 , 1913 , Veditz met with President Woodrow Wilson at the White House ( their interchange conducted through writing ), and brought back Wilson ’ s handwritten pledge to the 1913 NAD Convention in Cleveland : “ Please give my warmest greetings to the convention and assure them that I shall do all I can to see that the utmost justice is done the deafmutes .” It was another unprecedented event .
On the cover of the Proceedings of the NAD Convention , St . Louis , August 1904
Source : Deaf Life , August 2011 , p . 37
Fearing that sign language , in its beauty and grandeur , was being corrupted by the growing influence of oralism and would be lost to future generations of deaf people , Veditz solicited funding from the community for an ambitious and revolutionary project : preserving examples of what we now call ASL , as used by master deaf and hearing signers , in the new medium of motion pictures . He raised $ 5,000 for the project – a considerable sum , especially for the Deaf community .
Veditz ’ s 14-minute address , “ The Preservation of Sign Language ” ( 1913 ), is to Deaf culture what Lincoln ’ s Gettysburg Address is to American history . It is a seminal visual document , impassioned , poetic , urgent , and timeless in appeal . It concluded with these stirring words :
“ A new race of pharaohs that knew not Joseph ” are taking over the land and many of our American schools . They do not understand signs for they cannot sign . They proclaim that signs are worthless and of no help to the deaf . Enemies of the sign language , they are enemies of the true welfare of the deaf .
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The Power of ASL 8 Winter 2017 – Issue 8