The Issues

An Introduction to Deaf President Now!

In 1988, Gallaudet University was the site of student-led protests that today is called Deaf President Now, or simply DPN. But DPN was more than a protest. It was also a unique coming together of Gallaudet students, faculty, and staff with the national deaf community-all bound by clear and defined goals.

The DPN supporters believed that the time had come for a deaf person to run the world’s only university for deaf and hard of hearing students. When this didn’t happen, the result was a protest whose effects still reverberate today.

DPN was remarkable not only for its clear sense of purpose, cohesiveness, speed, and depth of feeling but also for its ability to remove the barriers and erase the lines that previously separated the deaf and hearing communities. In addition, it raised the nation’s consciousness of the rights and abilities of deaf and hard of hearing people.