The quiet campus of Gallaudet University [1] in Northeast Washington was always a place where students could speak the unspoken language of deaf America and be understood, reports the Washington Post. That is no longer so true. For the first time in living memory, significant numbers of freshmen at the nation’s premiere university for the deaf and hard of hearing arrive lacking proficiency in American Sign Language and experience with deaf culture. Rising numbers of Gallaudet students are products of a hearing world…