, the deaf and the blind are grouped as "defectives" along
with the feeble-minded and consumptives.[138] Though in such a
classification, any untoward signification is disclaimed, and it is held
to be merely one of convenience of arrangement, it remains true that
terms are employed and associations involved that to a certain extent do
a very real injury to the deaf.[139]

VIEWED AS AN UNHAPPY CLASS

People are also prone to think of the deaf as an unhappy, morose or
dejected class. Professor E. T. Devine in his "Misery and its Causes"
(1909)[140] enumerates the deaf, among other classes, as embodiments of
misery--"not for the most part," he is careful to state, "personally
unhappy," but rather with reference to their imperfect senses. This view
is clear enough, and in one sense is doubtless correct; but it does not
express the entire situation in respect to the deaf. While their
deafness must always be a serious and distressing affliction, and even
handicap and burden as well, and while the deaf must often bemoan their
fate, it yet seems to be true that the deaf as a lot are not "unhappy."
They are good-natured, see the world from an odd angle sometimes, yet
are as much philosophers as the average man; and when in the company of
their deaf associates are able to derive fully as large a portion of
happiness as any other group of human beings. The deaf are cheerful,
swayed by the same emotions as other mortals, responsive equally to all
the touches of life, and are not, at least in these days of education, a
morbid, brooding, passionate folk, as is too often the popular judgment.

VIEWED AS A DEPENDENT CLASS

In some quarters the deaf continue to be looked upon as one of the
dependent classes of society. Mr. Robert Hunter in his "Poverty"
(1904)[141] under the head of "Dependents and their Treatment" places
the deaf and dumb as "absolute dependents." Such views, however, are no
longer general, the deaf having themselves demonstrated to what extent
they are a self-supporting part of the community. But where this belief
is still shared, the deaf are thought in many cases to be in need of aid
or public charity; or at any rate to be economically inferior to the
rest of society. Deaf pupils in the schools, for instance, are often
referred to as "inmates" or even as "patients," not only by the public
but by newspapers as well; and the schools themselves are often spoken
of as "asylums" or as charitable institutions.[142]