In most classrooms, Deaf history is barely a footnote. Names like Laurent Clerc, Thomas Gallaudet, or the bold visual artists of the De’VIA movement don’t show up in standard history textbooks. The story we’re usually told is one where Deaf people were passive recipients of help from hearing saviors — a distorted narrative that centers speech over signing and conformity over culture. But the truth is, long before hearing institutions tried to dictate how Deaf people should communicate, Deaf communities had already been building languages, traditions, and identities on their own terms. Sign languages have been around for centuries. Deaf people have always created culture — in art, theatre, storytelling,…