Is deafness a disability to be prevented or the uniting trait of a cultural community to be preserved? Combining the history of eugenics and genetics with deaf and disability history, this book traces how American heredity researchers moved from trying to eradicate deafness to embracing it as a valuable cultural diversity. It looks at how deafness came to be seen as a hereditary phenomenon at all, how eugenics became part of progressive reform at schools for the deaf, and how, from the 1950s on, more sociocultural approaches to disability and minority led to new cooperative projects between professionals and local signing deaf communities. Analysing the transformative effects of exchange between researchers and objects of research, this book offers new insight to changing ideas about medical ethics, reproductive rights, the meaning of scientific progress and cultural diversity.

Introduction: Of Races and Genocides1. The Sciences of Deafness: Deaf people as objects of research, reform and eugenics, 1900-302. Concerned and puzzled: Heredity research and counselling at the Clarke School, 1930-603. Minorities and pathologies: Psychogenetic counseling at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, 1955-694. Preventing tragedy, negotiating normalcy: Usher Syndrome and the emergence ofDeaf-blind activism, 1960-19805. Signing risk and chance: Collaborating for culturally sensitive counselling, 1970-90Conclusion: From Bell to BiodiversityBibliographyIndex