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1000 BCE
Early Hebrew Law
About 1000 BC, Hebrew Law from the Talmud did not allow deaf people to own property. Additionally, the deaf could not serve as ritual slaughterers or testify in court. They could not participate in many religious ceremonies either. -
360 BCE
Sparta and Athens
Spartan and Athenian society babies who are born deformed had one possible outcome; be left in a gully of Tavgetus, death. There is little information about the fate of children who were deaf. Since deafness at that time would be hard to detect those babies would most likely have at least survived until they were well into toddlerhood -
350 BCE
Early Beliefs of Aristotle
Aristotle and others believed that men who are deaf are in all cases dumb. This meaning was originally understood as speechless. This impacted later ideas about people who were deaf. -
430
St. Augustine and Sin
Yes, early beliefs were that deaf people were the result of sin and could not receive sacraments, however, Augustine eventually believed they could reason and communicate. -
Jan 1, 1576
Awakening Perhaps? Girolamo Cardano
Cardano believed words were not necessary to understand ideas. His code for teaching his deaf son was never used by others, but could his ideas change peoples ideas about people who were deaf? -
Those Monks!
Monks vowing silence to God often took in children of the Aristocracy to their monasteries. Pedro Ponce de León was known to have taught several Deaf disciples to speak. -
1700s A Time of Expansion in Deaf Education
Abbe Charles Michel de l'Epee established the Royal Institution of Deaf and Mutes in Paris.
1760
Thomas Braidwood founded the first British Academy for the deaf.
1776
Abbe de l’Eppee published “Instruction of deaf and dumb by means of methodical signs.” -
Samuel Heinicke Opens German Oral School
He opened his school for the deaf. He taught lip-reading because he felt it was best for the deaf to understand the majority culture's language. He is known as the "father" of oralism. -
Martha's Vineyard Deaf in the 1800s
Martha's Vineyard's Squibnocket deaf people owned farms, ran businesses and served in town government. All townspeople used sign as naturally as spoken English: between deaf and deaf, deaf and hearing, and one hearing person to another. -
Organized Deaf Education Comes to America
1812: John Braidwood opens his school in Virginia at the Cobbs, Goochland County, Virginia
1817: American School for the Deaf is founded by Mason Cogswell, Thomas H. Gallaudet, and Laurent Clerc.
1818: The New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb is founded. -
Alice Cogswell : An Admired Symbol of Hope
Alice Cogswell was born on August 21, 1805, in Connecticut. Alice became ill and lost her hearing. At the age of 9, she met her neighbor, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. This meeting started the ball rolling for the establishment of the most famous institution in deaf education. -
Thomas Gallaudet: A Revered Deaf American Hero
In 1814, Thomas Gallaudet visited his cousins in Hartford, Connecticut. He noticed that his younger brothers and sisters were not playing with his neighbor, Alice Cogswell. He communicated with Alice by writing words in the dirt and pantomime. -
Meanwhile...in France another deaf revered man...Clerc
Laurent Clerc was born December 26, 1785, When he was one, became deaf at one year after falling into a fire. At twelve he entered the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris, directed by Abbé Roch Ambroise Sicard. The instruction was in the French system of sign language. In 1815 Clerc went to London to exhibit the Institution’s educational methods...which led to... -
Thomas and Laurent Meet and...
The first school, Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons. The school became the first to get state aid to education. The Connecticut General Assembly awarded its first annual grant to the school in 1819. Then the United States Congress awarded the school a land grant in the Alabama Territory in 1820. This was the first federal aid to elementary and secondary special education in the United States. -
Oral Schools: Lexington and Clarke
Lexington School for the Deaf in New York opened in 1864.
Clarke School in Massachusetts opened in 1867 and
Mable Hubbard was one of its first students.
These first schools served as models for other programs using
an oral pedagogy. -
President Lincoln
On April 8, 1864, Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress to “authorize the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, now Gallaudet to confer degrees.” Deaf students studied education to become teachers. -
Helen Keller: Dual Sensory loss
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880. At the age of two, she had an illness that left her blind and deaf. She was educated at home and spent winters at the Perkins School for the blind. -
A Dark Period in Deaf Education: Milan Conference
Sep 6, 1880 – Sep 11, 1880
There were 164 participants at the Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf.
87 Italians,
56 French
8 English
5 Americans,
8 others.
Italians and French favored the “oralism”. Americans favored both speech and sign language depending on needs of the child...but -
Alexander G. Bell still impacts the education of Deaf people today
Alexander Graham Bell used the decision in Milan to pressure the residential schools in effecting changes. As a consequence, ASL became banned in residential schools. -
20th Century Deaf Schools
Up until 1975, deaf students were mainly
educated at residential or day schools for the deaf.
Since then, special education in the U.S. has expanded, and
deaf students have increasingly been mainstreamed into public education with hearing children. -
ESEA: The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
This law provides funds to schools for “...initiation, expansion, and improvement of programs and projects . . . for the education of handicapped children." Leading to... -
Education of the Handicapped Act (P.L. 91-230)
The Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments of 1970 repealed Title VI as of July 1971 and created the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA), P. L. 91-230. -
PARC 1971 Parents sue school districts for all children with disabilities
Congress investigated schools finding that millions of children were not receiving an appropriate education. Consent Decree was the foundation for the Education for All Handicapped Children Act -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ensures individuals with disabilities can participate in public schools receiving federal financial assistance. Free Appropriate Public Education"...regular or special education and related aids and services are designed to meet individual needs of handicapped persons as adequately as the needs of nonhandicapped persons are met..." -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act
Pub. L. 94-142
Schools were required to evaluate children with disabilities.
Create an educational plan with parent input.
Provide educational experiences like non-disabled students. LRE -
EAHCA or EHA, or Public Law (PL) 94-142)
The act was an amendment to Part B of the Education of the Handicapped Act enacted in 1966. School districts must provide administrative procedures so that parents of disabled children could dispute decisions made about their children’s education. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act
Previously known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) from 1975 to 1990; the IDEA is to provide children with disabilities the same opportunity for education as those students who do not have a disability. It has 4 parts. -
Improvements: Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004
IDEA requires states to establish goals for the performance of children with disabilities that are consistent with the goals and standards for nondisabled children. States are also required to improve graduation rates and dropout rates, and to report the progress of children with disabilities on state and district assessments. -
Where are we today?
Families play an important part in their child's education which begins early with interventions. Parents have options for communication with their children and get assistance from experts in the field. The options for education are numerous.; mainstream, reverse mainstreaming, resources rooms day schools, or charter schools. Speech and language, auditory therapy, and Teacher of the Deaf services are all offered within the student's neighborhood school. -
Technology Improvements allow communication access to users
Hearing aids, Cochlear Implants, Hybrid Cochlear Implants, Bone Conduction Bahas allow users access to communication.
Zoom, Glide, Facebook, Snapchat, Sorenson allow deaf users access to others near and far. Schools follow access laws providing interpreters, hearing assistive technology, and CART to make sure the student has the same opportunities to learn as other hearing students.
