Katie Booth (2)

Despite it's size, it is a solid biography of Alec G. Bell (Alexander Graham Bell preferred this spelling) and his invention of the telephone. "The deaf, at that moment in time, were not imagined to have access to the complexities of language.." or thought. Alec disagreed, having a deaf mother and a deaf wife. His father created "Visible Speech", a system used to teach the deaf how to speak. On the other hand, "...ASL was widely considered...a rudimentary language for rudimentary beings."

This is of course incredibly problematic and offensive, as today those who are deaf are certainly not abnormal and ASL is encouraged. Following his father's lead, Bell pursues the use of the telephone as a device in assisting deaf individuals to learn to talk aka "oralism", therefore stamping out the need for ASL. Later, as his obsession grows, his beloved wife becomes troubled, especially as students like Helen Keller are labeled as the standard, instead of the exception. "For every child who learned to speak there were nine children who struggled." Although his deaf wife wasn't fond of ASL, she didn't believe in a single, extreme oralist approach. Eventually a darker Bell emerges, a man so obsessed with "curing" the deaf that today, "he is sometimes referred to as the father of audism, of discrimination against the deaf." And yet, he himself had 2 children with a deaf woman.

An accessible, compelling and enlightening historical account, that honestly anyone could read. This is the author's first book and I do sincerely hope she writes more.… (mais)