Born hearing in the small city of Houcktown, Ohio, Hoy became deaf after suffering from meningitis at age three and since he was so young this also affected his ability to speak. In Hoy's time, the word "dumb" was used to describe someone who could not speak. Since the ability to speak portrayed a person’s intelligence, the terms "dumb" and "dummy" became associated with deaf people because they could not speak well. With time Hoy himself often corrected people who addressed him as William, and referred to himself as Dummy even though he was in fact, said to be one of the …show more content…
Although he was not born deaf, he lost his hearing early enough on his life that he never learned to talk, making communication harder. William “Dummy” Hoy made an impact on the deaf community by setting records and following his dreams even if though the rest of society thought he was dumb. During this time period there was very little knowledge about the Deaf community. This was a great opportunity for many people of that time to be introduced to the way deaf people interact with society with the same physical abilities just different communications. It goes to show that deaf people can still do the same things as hearing people, proving that hearing loss is not a