The Deaf community does not view their hearing loss as a disability but as a culture that includes a history of discrimination, racial prejudice, and segregation. According to the PBS home video “Through Deaf Eyes,” thirty-five million Americans are hard of hearing (Hott, Garey & et al., 2007). Of the thirty-five million people, it is estimated that 300,000 are completely deaf. More than ninety percent of deaf people have hearing parents. Additionally, most deaf parents have hearing children. This being an example, deaf people communicate on a more intimate and meaningful level with hearing people their entire lives. “Deaf people are found in all ethnic groups, in all regions and in all economic classes. » Deaf and hard of hearing culture has many arguments and divisions regarding living in a hearing world without sound. However, this absence will be the starting point of an identity within their culture as well as hearing culture. These days, it is possible for a deaf family to present themselves as an all-American family. For centuries, hearing people considered deafness a terrible misfortune. As Doug Baynton (historian at the University of Iowa) reports, in the early 1800s, most deaf people in America lived in rural areas isolated from each other and with little communication with those around them. “They also had a limited understanding of what they could do – of their own possibilities. People with deaf children really had no idea what their children could accomplish. » Very few Americans looked beyond the stereotype and considered the educational possibilities of deaf people. In 1817, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (a Connecticut clergyman) opened...... middle of paper ......fness in disguise: Chronology of hearing aids and early education of the Deaf [Fact sheet ]. Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO: Author Gallaudet University. (1997). Public Relations Gallaudet University: The beginnings. Gallaudet University, 1-17. Retrieved from http://pr.gallaudet.edu/ Hott, LA (producer), Garey, D. (director), & et al. (2007). PBS Home Video: Through the Eyes of the Deaf [DVD]. United States: PBS Television. Nakamura, K. (2008). Resource Library for the Deaf: About American Sign Language. Resource Library for the Deaf, 6-6. Retrieved from http://www.deaflibrary.org/National Institute of Health. (2011). National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders: Improving the lives of people with communication disorders. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders,2-2. Retrieved from http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/