Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, actually considered himself a teacher of the Deaf. He fully supported the use of lip-reading and speech training (the oral method) in the teaching of Deaf children in order to “integrate” them into the general society.

He went even further with this perspective by attempting to ban the uses of ASL in instruction, and outlawing the use of sign language in the everyday life of the Deaf. He advocated for a legal ban on the marriage of Deaf people with one another, claiming it would increase the population of deafened individuals.

George Veditz was born to German immigrants and was fluent in both German and English before losing his hearing at age 8 to scarlet fever. Following his graduation from Gallaudet College in 1884, Veditz began to work as a teacher at the Maryland School for the Deaf.

In 1904, Veditz was elected president of the National Association of the Deaf of the United States, whose greatest preoccupation was the preservation of sign language, which he saw as being threatened by the advancement of the oral method in residential schools for the Deaf.

During this time, cinema gained popularity, and Veditz dedicated the NAD to gather money to finance recordings of speeches in sign language. The shootings of the NAD were the first registry done of sign languages in the world and are considered an invaluable document of Deaf history. In the film, Veditz makes an enthusiastic defense of the right of the Deaf people to use sign language and talks of its beauty, as well as its value to humanity.