Gallaudet’s Students Rebel

The more successful integration of deaf people into mainstream society is a hugely beneficial development for all of us. And the debates within the deaf world – about identity, "normality", and "disability" – are fascinating to me. The first deaf president of Gallaudet, an immense figure, is now retiring. And students are up in arms about his successor. I take it as a good sign that the issue now is simply whether she is up to the job from the students’ point of view. Isn’t that in itself a positive development?