for Deaf people because of the history of discrimination deaf individuals faced. Many deaf individuals faced audism, a new term meaning to discriminate based on the inability to hear. Deaf people historically have often been considered incapable of abstract thinking, since they lacked speech to express thoughts. This tradition of thought was overturned during the period of Enlightenment. The ideology during this period was focused on scientific thinking. Two major schools of thought emerged concerning which method of education would benefit deaf children: with a visual sign language or with solely speaking and lipreading, manualism vs. oralism. Since sign language was associated with prejudices of inferiority, of (allegedly) being unequal with spoken languages, of (allegedly) lacking abstract vocabulary, and of (allegedly) possessing no grammar, the Oralist ideology was able to win significant levels of control in the education of the deaf. Through this type of education, deaf children acquire certain negative notions of deafness, of superiority of speaking over signing, of hearing people being smarter. The stigma from this movement largely affects many deaf people today. There is a large need to disassociate from this oppressive thinking in their adult lives, when they participate in the deaf culture. When William Stokoe and other linguists showed that American Sign Language was a true language with its own grammatical structure, deaf people in America became more motivated to seek recognition from mainstream society on the legitimacy of American deaf culture and their status as a linguistic minority. Deafhood has received recognition during the protests at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. in May and October 2006. Gallaudet University is still the world's only university in which all programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students. See also Deaf culture Identity politics Islay (novel) References Further reading Ladd, Paddy (2003). Understanding Deaf Culture: In Search of Deafhood. St.Paul, Letter to the Romans, 10:17 St. Augustine, Contra Iulianum, 3:10 and Academicus libris tres, 3:3 Ella Mae Lentz definition of Deafhood found here: Paddy Ladd discusses definitions of Deafhood Bauman, H-Dirksen L. Introduction: Listening to Deaf Studies Open Your Eyes Berk, Jamie. Deafhood Defined: Everyone Has Their Own Personal Definition Deaf culture Identity politics