Ursula Beluggi

I wanted to write a little bit about a woman I’d never heard of, Ursula Bellugi.  She just passed away at the age of 91.  What drew my immediate attention was an article in the https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/science/ursula-bellugi-dead.html New York Times, which focused on her life’s work.  She was a pioneer in proving that American Sign Language is a real language and not a short-cut version of English.

Dr. William Stokoe, a professor at then Gallaudet College, said he believed that sign language was itself a language separate from English in 1960.  At that time, he was ridiculed.  People believed that sign language was all just pantomime, mimicking spoken English.

Dr. Bellugi was a researcher at the Salk Institute and the director of the behavioral neuroscience department.  She worked closely with her husband, Dr. Edward Klima,  on how language develops in the brain, both spoken and signed.  Dr. Bellugi found that American Sign Language, with all its vocabulary, syntax and grammar, is passed from generation to generation of Deaf people.

The left side of the brain is predisposed to language development, both spoken and signed.  That’s true for all the different sign languages in the world as well as spoken foreign languages.  The brain doesn’t discriminate between signed or spoken languages; they are the same.

Dr. Bellugi’s and Dr. Klima’s findings helped people accept sign language.  Here in the U.S., American Sign Language is taught as a foreign language in many schools.  Not too many years ago, it was officially recognized in the United States as a legitimate foreign language.

There was a movement in the 1980s called Deaf President Now.  Until then, educators of the Deaf were hearing.  Hearing educators decided how Deaf students would be taught.  For many years, the restrictive oral method was prevalent.  Deaf students were encouraged to use their voices and to lipread.  Families and the students were discouraged from using any form of signing.

The previous presidents of Gallaudet College were also hearing.  The current president was leaving and candidates were interviewed for the position.  Some were hearing; some deaf.  To the anger and frustration of the Deaf students, a hearing woman was selected to be the next president.  The students revolted.  They wouldn’t go to class.  They gathered in protest, feeling that they were being slighted.  A Deaf person was perfectly capable of understanding the needs of Deaf students, they believed.

As the news spread around the country via television, radio and newspapers, many hearing people supported the students.  Deaf communities joined in the protests.  Deaf people can do anything but hear.  Why not give Deaf people the opportunity to make decisions on their education and other issues?

Eventually, the hearing woman withdrew her application.  Bowing to all the pressure and publicity, I. King Jordan was selected to be the next president.  Jordan was deaf, and the students and communities were wild with joy.

Now, after all those years, we finally had a movie showing Deaf people not as helpless victims but as hard working, successful adults.  The movie was Coda.  Hopefully there will be more “normalization” of Deaf World.

This started out to acknowledge Dr. Bellugi and to say I’m grateful for her research.  She also made significant contributions in understanding Williams syndrome and in the development of language in children.  She was an amazing woman and I wish I’d heard of her long before now.