Deaf History

Ok so I know I promised I would play with "Through Deaf Eyes" this week. But I found a really cool site.

Deaf and Unemployed in Dubuque: The DiMarcos Remember the Great Depression
by David Shannon


Here is the introduction, the interview was conducted in 1938:

The New Deal launched a series of federal employment programs, including the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which not only provided jobs but also initiated many important studies of the depressionÌs human toll. One such study, published by the WPA Division of Research in 1939, included transcripts of interviews by WPA workers with Dubuque, Iowa, families. The DiMarcos interview revealed that the disabled faced a double challenge during the depression: finding employment while competing for scarce jobs with the able-bodied. The DiMarcos, a deaf couple with a small child, recall in their own words (because they were deaf they had to write responses to the WPA interviewer’s questions), the struggles they endured during six years of unemployment.

I hope you find it as interesting as I did.