It’s interesting to see deaf people portrayed in literature by hearing authors. Victor Hugo wrote “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in the 1880s—the same era at the Milan Conference which exhaled oralism and condemned sign languages. Deafness proved to be a strategic limiting factor, getting the Hunchback thrown in jail and another time fired upon while defending the Cathedral. Yet, literature focuses on his visible disabilities and the love story. I didn’t even know that Victor Hugo dedicates vast amounts of pages to discussing deafness until I picked up the book.