A town for the deaf? Would a town where sign language is the norm be a boon to deaf people--or further isolate them from the rest of society?

• Author: Davey, Monica

Standing in an empty field along a windswept highway in South Dakota, Marvin T. Miller, who is deaf, and his mother-in-law, M.E. Barwacz, who is not, envision the town they want to create here: a place built around American Sign Language, where teachers will sign, the town council will hold its debates in sign language, and restaurant workers will be required to know how to sign orders.

Nearly 100 families from as far away as Australia have already declared their intention to live in Miller and Barwacz's village, to be called Laurent, after Laurent Clerc, a French educator of the deaf from the 1800s. The families include people who are deaf or hard of hearing, or who can hear but just want to communicate in sign language.

"Society isn't doing that great a job of, quote-unquote, integrating us," says Miller, 33. "My children don't see [deaf] role models in their lives: mayors, factory managers, postal workers, business owners. So we're setting up a place to show our unique culture, our unique society."

GLASS & OPEN SPACES

While deaf enclaves have cropped up throughout the nation, this would be the first town expressly created for people who sign, its developers say. The homes and businesses would incorporate glass and open space for easy visibility across wide distances. Fire and police services would be designed with more lights and fewer sirens. And shops, businesses, and restaurants would be required to be sign-language friendly.

In Salem, a farming town of 1,300 people three miles from the proposed site of Laurent, people seem unsure of what to make of the idea. Some wonder how the proposed town of 2,500 would mesh with McCook County's economy of corn, cows, and pigs. Others doubt Laurent will ever become a reality.

A CONTENTIOUS IDEA

And, in the complicated political world of deaf culture, Laurent is an increasingly contentious idea. For some--like Miller; his wife, Jennifer, who is also deaf; and their four deaf children--it seems the simplest of wishes: to live in a place where they are fully engaged in day-to-day life. Others, however, particularly advocates of technologies that help deaf people use spoken language, wonder whether such a town would merely isolate and exclude the deaf more than ever.

"We think there is a greater benefit for people to be part of the whole world," says Todd Houston, executive director of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Washington, D.C. "I understand the desire...