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There was a growing recognition of the Deaf community their ability to learn.
- Physician Geronimo Cardano was one of the first to acknowledge that deaf individuals could reason were capable of being educated. Even attempted to teach his son using a set of symbols. -
Pedro Ponce de Leon (1520-1584) established a school for the deaf at the San Salvador Monastery in Oña.
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Charles Michel De L’Epée established French Sign Language
- Founded a shelter for the deaf in Paris and a school for deaf children in Truffaut, France. -
The First American Deaf School was founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was interested in deaf education.
- Travels to Europe meets Laurent Clerc. Upon return to America with Clrec, they found the American School for Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.
- Alice Cogswell, Gallaudet’s initial inspiration to teach the deaf, is the first to graduate from the American School. -
The National Association of the Deaf was established in America
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The 1960s held several key events in Deaf History such as:
- (1960) First Linguistic book and defense of ASL as a language by William Stoke
- (1964) Deaf inventor, Robert Weitbrecht, creates the first teletypewriter and Oral Deaf Education was labeled as a 'Failure'
- (1967) National Theater of the Deaf is established -
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 includes a section requiring that the disabled be given access and equal opportunity to use the resources of organizations that receive federal funds or that are under federal contracts.
- this act was finally passed in 1978 -
DPN - Deaf President Now
Students and faculty at Gallaudet University protest the selection of another hearing president. -
The Americans with Disabilities Act outlawed discriminatory practices and obstacles to accessibility for the handicapped