- “2-4-6-8 We Want a Deaf President Now” was the chant of women students at Gallaudet University during the week of March 6, 1988. Gallaudet University, founded in 1864 in Washington, D.C., is the only liberal arts college in the U.S. mandated to provide educational services for people who are deaf or hearing-impaired. The impetus for the protest was the selection of a woman who is hearing and did not know sign language as the next University president. In nonviolent protest, students demanded a president who is deaf; the replacement of the board chairperson; the appointment to the board of more members who are deaf; and no reprisals against student leaders. At week’s end, all protest Page 402 →demands had been met. The Gallaudet protest, termed “the Selma for people who are deaf,” continued the tradition of civil disobedience among people with disabilities fighting for self-determination.
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