The History of Hearing Impairment

By caillou52

  • Martha Vinyard Island

    During this time, Martha created sign language and community in Masschuesets for people who are deaf or can hardly hear. Due to her effort, there was a way to communicate with people who could not hear.

  • French Sign Language Begins

    In the year 1760, French Sign Language was developed and it allowed for education for the French Natives who were affected by their hearing impairment.

  • Laurence Clerc

    The year of 1816, made a huge impact on the deaf community in the United States when Thomas Gallaudet brought over Laurence to help the United States create a education for people with an hearing impairment.

  • Hartford Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb

    During the year 1817, the first school was established and they brought together Martha Vineyard Sign Language and French Sign Language to form American Sign Language.

  • Gallaudet University

    In the year 1864, the United States made history when President Lincoln signed off an act that allowed Gallaudet University to open up which is a school for the deaf.

  • Oralist School

    In the year 1872, a man named Alexander Graham Bell argued that people who are deaf should be learning how to lip read and speak so they can fit into society instead of learning sign language. Following that he opened his own school for the deaf in Boston.

  • Banning of Sign Language

    In the year of 1880, a meeting was held in Milan where all of the deaf educators from every country came together to discuss what method was better to teach the people. Alexander Graham Bell argued for the use of lip reading and communicating, while others fought for American Sign Language. After the meeting congress voted for oralism and then banned the use of American Sign Language in classrooms.

  • The Development of NAD

    In the year 1890, NAD was developed which protected the rights of deaf people and protected the deaf community using American Sign Language.

  • The End of MVSL

    In the year 1952, the last person who knew how to teach Martha Vinyard method passed away and it led to the disappearence of the language she created.

  • First dictionary of ASL

    In the year 1965, a man named William Stokoe wanted to show people that ASL had its own structure and vocabulary, so he created the first dictionary at Gallaudet University with the help of his two colleagues Carl Croneberg and Dorothy Casterline.

  • 1973 Rehabilitation Act

    In the year 1973, the Rehabilitation Act was created to combat discrimination in programs that were ran by the federal government or that recieved aid from the government.

  • 1975 PL 94-142

    In the year 1975, the government passed 94-142 which allowed students with disabilities to get a free education in a public setting.

  • Americans with Disabilities Act

    In the year 1990, congress passed an act that didn't allow discrimination to people with disabilities.

  • Communications and Video Accessability Act

    In the year 2012, the Communications and Video Accessibility Act was passed that enforced that all televised material must have the optioned to be captioned while live or when its distrubuted to online sources.