The belief was used to justify the forcible sterilization of disabled people, a program that Hitler admired and is said to have learned from. Bell was against forced sterilization himself, but instead believed getting rid of sign language was the key to eradicating deafness. Without sign, deaf people would integrate into the general population rather than marry one another, thereby producing fewer deaf babies. Besides his ethics, Bell’s actual science was wrong—most deafness isn’t directly hereditary—but his ideas remain prevalent in deaf education circles today.
