Deaf Education

By kmax

  • Thomas Galluadet

    1815-- Thomas Gallaudet, an American, went to Europe with the hopes of learning a method of teaching deaf children. He studied at the National Institute for Deaf-Mutes under Laurent Clerc (1785-1869).

  • Conneticut Asylum

    1817-- Clerc and Gallaudet founded the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons in West Hartford, Connecticut (now known as the American School of the Deaf). This was the first permanent public American school for the deaf. Clerc was America’s first deaf teacher of the deaf, and is responsible for bringing OFSL to America, where it would play a large part in the development of American Sign Language. (Sixty percent of ASL signs come from OFSL.)

  • Kentucky School for the Deaf

    Kentucky School for the Deaf opens, the first state supported school.

  • American Annals of the Deaf

    American Annals of the Deaf begins publication at the American School in Hartford.

  • The New England Gallaudet Association

    1853-- The New England Gallaudet Association of the Deaf was founded to address concerns of education of deaf children, discrimination, and a general lack of public understanding about deafness.

  • Galluadet University Founded

    1864-- The National Deaf-Mute College (now Gallaudet University) was founded by Gallaudet’s son Edward, who was fluent in ASL as well as English. The school was authorized by Abraham Lincoln to confer college degrees. Women were first admitted to the college in 1887. (By comparison, Middlebury College began accepting women in 1883.)