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Page signs, the signs were used to perform a direct, word-for-word translation of English.)
However, as Stokoe's works became more widely disseminated, other professionals who recognized the superiority of sign language were able to cite them as the scientific "evidence" needed to support their experiences and observationsthe "you could look it up" factor so important in convincing parents, teachers, administrators, and funding agencies of the need for change.
Furthermore, as Stokoe himself observed, Noam Chomsky had made the field of linguistics relatively popular one result was a greater interest in Stokoe's research than perhaps would have existed before. As renowned linguists in the United States and
Europe began to praise Stokoe's work, people who had refused to recognize the importance of signing, particularly educators and administrators, found it harder to ignore Stokoe's findings.
The early s was a time of great change in the United States, as minority groups began to assert their rights to be recognized and respected. At the same time, the number of congenitally deaf students increased. The result was a large population of deaf people demanding their right to be recognizednot as handicapped but as a cultural minority.
While Stokoe's influence expanded in the outside world, at Gallaudet, he recalls, the effect of the publication of his paper was like that of Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses posted on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Stokoe's publisher was the
Department of Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Buffalonot exactly a hotbed of radicalism. But the reaction at
Gallaudet was no less heated or hostile than that of Pope Leo X to Martin Luther. Stokoe was not excommunicated from
Gallaudet, but had he been, many people wouldn't have minded. Gil Eastman recalls that "my colleagues and I laughed at Dr.
Stokoe and his crazy project. It was impossible to analyze our sign language" 26 Robbin Battison explains why Stokoe's work inspired so much resistance:
The first reason concerns the prevailing attitudes among educators of deaf people and deaf people themselves. At that

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