Asl

History of ASL

By MeganButcher

  • Martha's Vineyard

    Martha's Vineyard
    A society with an unusually high number of deaf people thrives for 200 years...Read more about the story here.

  • Abbe de Le'epee opens first Deaf school in France.

    Abbe de Le'epee opens first Deaf school in France.
    What a milestone! Read more about him

  • First American School for the Deaf opens!

    First American School for the Deaf opens!
    Wow, finally! Click to read more about how that happened.

  • Conference in Milan changes ASL history

    Conference in Milan changes ASL history
    And not in a very good way. Teaching the Deaf to speak was forced on them, and sign became banned from classrooms for almost 100 years. See this video to understand more.

  • William Stokoe declares ASL a legitimate language.

    William Stokoe declares ASL a legitimate language.
    A hearing linguist studied ASL and proved that it was a real language that had all the same features of spoken ones.

  • Deaf President Now Movement

    Deaf President Now Movement
    Click here to read about what happened at Gallaudet in the 1980's, a turning point for ASL.

  • 1990's: ASL accepted as foreign language credit

    1990's: ASL accepted as foreign language credit
    Many high schools and colleges begin to offer ASL as a foreign language credit for hearing people. Popularity of ASL soars and continues to be in high demand.