Deaf President Now (DPN) Movement of 1988: Undocumented Voices of Deaf Women Leaders- BB Bourne-Firl

Image Description: Most of the video is Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, an adult woman wearing a blue cardigan, signing behind a table against a wall painted to look like the ocean. Narrator Jane Bempong at the beginning and end of the video is a black young adult woman against a gray backdrop. She is wearing a green tee shirt and has wavy brown, shoulder-length hair.

Note: The 'uppercase D" Deaf is used to describe a particular group of deaf people who share a language (American Sign Language) an a culture. The "lowercase d" deaf refers to the audiological condition of not hearing.

Notes on Bourne-Firl's mentions in the video:

In 1982, the Rowley Case involved a ten-year old deaf girl named Amy
Rowley and her right to have a sign language interpreter for academic
classes. The Board of Education v. Rowley focused on the definition of “free and appropriate education,” the underlying tenet of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975.

Jane Norman, PhD Director of DPN Public Relations

Jackie Roth Coordinator of Student Leaders Public Relations

Nancy Connors  DPN Public Relations on print media and radio

Student Leaders of the 1988 DPN Movement
Bridgetta Bourne-Firl
Greg Hlibok
Tim Rarus
Jerry Covell

Deaf Women Role Models
Known for human rights advocacy, Mary C. Malzkuhn, PhD (1928-2016) was Government and History Professor at Gallaudet University. She was regarded as the “Mother of DPN” who supported the four student leaders of the Deaf President Now movement in 1988. They took her classes.

Bette Hicks – an educator and coach at the Maryland School for the Deaf (MSD) who later became MSD High School Principal. She was the Director of Artistic Sign Language at the Kennedy Center among the plays “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

Roslyn “Roz” Rosen, PhD is a well-known Deaf leader at the local, national and international levels. She was the first female Deaf Dean of the College for Continuing Education (1981-1993) and first Deaf female provost at Gallaudet University. NAD President (1990 to 1993), board member of the World Federation of the Deaf (1995-2003), and Director of National Center on Deafness (NCOD) at California State University at Northridge (CSUN).

Marie Jean Philip (1953-1977) was a tireless advocate for sign language rights and was the Bilingual-Bicultural Coordinator at The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Gertrude “Gertie” Scott Galloway, PhD (1930-2014) was the first woman to be elected president of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) during 1980-1982 as well as the first deaf superintendent of the Marie H. Katzenbach School for the Deaf (MKSD) in Trenton, N.J. among other first time appointments.

The “Ducks” were an all-male group of Gallaudet University alumni behind the DPN movement as follows: Dwight Benedict, Stephen Hlibok, Mike O’Donnell, Jeff Rosen, Paul Singleton, Jamie Tucker, and Fred Weiner. They played a key role in pushing the DPN student leaders to achieve the goal for a Deaf president at Gallaudet.

For more information, contact PI Deirdre Schlehofer, EdD at dxsnss.rit.edu