“My children don’t see 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.”

— Marvin T. Miller, who is deaf, speaking through an interpreter about the town for the deaf he intends to build on a sparsely populated stretch of land in South Dakota (Salem, the neighboring town, has 1,300 residents).  The proposed town, Laurent — named in honor of Laurent Clerc, a 19th-century teacher of the deaf — has already attracted 92 families who intend to move to the village, where all services, including stores, the fire station, restaurants, and businesses would be deaf-friendly. American Sign Language would be the dominant language in the village.

Mimi Hanaoka