Was Alexander Graham Bell deaf?
Alexander was not deaf himself, but he did have a strong tie to the deaf community. To give you a little background history, Bell reportedly developed the microphone in part to assist people with hearing loss. Bell taught deaf students at schools for the deaf (a school in London, Boston School for Deaf Mutes, the Clarke School for the Deaf, and at the American Asylum for the Deaf). He also opened a school for deaf and hearing students together, but the school had to be closed after just two years. Weird enough, even though he married a deaf woman, a former speech pupil, Mabel Hubbard, Bell strongly opposed intermarriage among deaf people. Bell feared “contamination” of the human race by the propagation of deaf people even though most deaf people statistically are born to hearing parents. In addition, Bell’s mother was hard of hearing/deaf.
