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Jan 1, 1550
Fray Pedro Ponce de Leon - Spanish Monk
Spain Benedictine Fray Pedro Ponce de León began tutoring deaf children of wealthy patrons , he is the earliest recognised teacher for the deaf. His work with deaf children focused on helping them to learn how to speak language audibly. -
Jan 3, 1550
Licenciado Lasso - Spanish lawyer
Spain Spanish lawyer Licenciado Lasso. Lasso penned a Legal Treatise on Deaf-mutes, In this treatise, he argues that those deaf people who come to be able to speak are immediately eligible to inherit estates. In his publication, Lasso asserted that deaf persons able to speak could not be classified as "dumb" and were, thus, elligible for inheritance. -
Feb 1, 1550
Manuel Ramirez de Carrion - Spanish Deaf educator
Spain Claimed himself to be the inventor of speech training for Deaf people. Carrion taught speech using a phonetic method, which involved pronouncing individual letters of the alphabet correctly.There is no direct knowledge of how he went about instructing deaf students, for he left no written record of his methods. -
Feb 1, 1550
Gerolamo Cardano - Italian Mathmatician/Astrologer/Physician
Itay Proclaimed that deaf people could be taught to understand written combinations of symbols by associating them with the thing they represented. -
Juan Pablo Martin Bonet - Priest
Spain First to publish a method for educating the Deaf. According to this method, the Deaf were taught to read, write, and use the one-handed manual alphabet system. -
First Deaf person in Martha's Vineyeard
The first recorded deaf person on Martha's Vineyard was a man named Jonathan Lambert, who arrived in 1692. -
John Conrad Amman - Physician
Netherlands
John Conrad Amman was a Swiss physician practicing in the Netherlands. He wrote about instruction for the deaf and for those who stuttered. In his book Surdus loquens (The Talking Deaf Man) in which he strongly stated that the oral method was the best for deaf people. -
Jonathan Lambert - Carpenter
USA
First mentioned Deaf person in Martha's Vineyard. Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) was a village sign language. For over 200 years, Deaf and Hearing worked, lived, and socialized side-by-side in the rugged isolation of Martha’s Vineyard. In 1714, Jonathan Lambert was the first documented deaf individual mentioned on Martha’s Vineyard. -
Jacob Rodrigue Péreire - Teacher
Born Portugal
Educated France He formulated signs for numbers and punctuation and adapted Juan Pablo Bonet's manual alphabet by adding 30 handshapes each corresponding to a sound instead of to a letter. He is therefore seen as one of the inventors of manual language for the deaf and is credited with being the first person to teach a non-verbal deaf person to speak. Strong oralist. -
Abbe Charles-Michel de l'Épée - Priest
France Priest who created a School for the Deaf in Paris, France. Developed method for sign language, which served as the foundation for American Sign Language and other world sign languages. -
Thomas Braidwood - Teacher
Scotland
Thomas Braidwood established the first school for deaf children, ‘Braidwood's Academy for The Deaf and Dumb’ in Britian. The use of sign language and speech was implemented. -
First Deaf School Paris
Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris
Deaf founded by Charles-Michel de l'Épée in 1760 in Paris, France. -
Samuel Heinicke
Germany Heinicke opened the first German public school for the education of the deaf. He insisted that lipreading was the best training method because it made his students speak and understand the language as it was used in society. He bitterly opposed dependence on sign language and in 1780 published a book attacking the Abbé de l’Epée, whose Parisian school for the deaf taught communication through gestures. -
Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard -Priest/School Principal
France Priest and Principal of the School for the Deaf in Bordeaux, France. Replaced Abbe' de l'Épée as Principal for the School of Deaf in Paris, France.One of de Epee’s students, the Abbé Sicard, continued his work. He opened a school of his own, and in 1818 he published an important study called “Theory of Signs”, which included a grammar and dictionary of sign language. Invited Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to visit the Paris school. -
Reverend John Townsend -Priest
Engand
Founder of the The Asylum for the Support and Education of the Deaf and Dumb Children of the Poor for neglected deaf children. -
Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
USA Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first institution for the education of the Deaf in North America, The school used sign language based on Abbé de l’Epee methods. Thomas Gallaudet's work was instrumental because it allowed society to understand that those who are deaf could be educated. -
Rev. John Stanford - Priest
New York - USA Rev. John Stanford gathered a small group of deaf children in downtown New York City to teach them the alphabet and basic language skills. He is the founder of the New York School of the Deaf. -
First Deaf School America
The American School for the Deaf (ASD). It was founded April 15, 1817 in Hartford, Connecticut by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc -
Laurent Clerc - Head Teacher for Deaf
France Co-Founded the American School of the Deaf with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet in USA. He was a Deaf student of Sicard in France and was called "The Apostle of the deaf in America" -
Jean Massieu - Deaf Teacher
France He was a pioneering Deaf educator, having been born Deaf and educated by Sicard. He taught at the famous school for the Deaf in Paris where Laurent Clerc was one of his students. Later he founded a Deaf school in Lille, France. -
Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian - Hearing Educator
France Bebian devoted himself to the study of the system of education of the deaf and dumb. He followed the courses of instruction given by Abbe Sicard and gave special attention to Laurent Clerc. Published several books inclusive of Mimographie. Directed and founded several schools. -
Edward Miner Gallaudet - Principal of Gallaudet University
USA Edward Miner Gallaudet, the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of the first school for deaf students in the United States, became the principal of Gallaudet University. -
Amos Kendall - Politician
USA In 1857, Kendall opened a school for deaf children, which later expanded and became Gallaudet University for the deaf. -
Frederick John Rose -Headmaster of School
Born English
Lived Australia Established and became Superintendent of Victorian School for Deaf Children. born Deaf -
First Deaf School Sydney Australia
Thomas Pattison, a deaf migrant to Australia from Scotland, established the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in 1860. -
First Deaf school in Melbourne Australia
The Victorian College for the Deaf, previously known as the Victorian School for Deaf Children was established in the 1860s by a deaf man Fredrick J Rose. -
St Gabriel Hogan - Nun
Born Ireland
Lived Australia Sister Gabriel Hogan (deaf) arrived from Ireland with other Dominican nuns, and was involved in starting and running the Waratah school in Newcastle. The first pupil was Catherine Sullivan. -
Thomas Pattison - Founder of Deaf School Sydney
Born Scotland
Lived Australia Thomas Pattison, a deaf migrant to Australia from Scotland, established the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in 1860. -
Milan Conference
In 1880, there was an international conference of deaf educators, the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf. At this conference, held September 6-11, 1880, a declaration was made that oral education was better than manual (sign) education. A resolution was passed banning sign language. The only countries opposed to the ban were the United States (represented by Edward Miner Gallaudet, Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, Issac Peet, James Denison, and Charles Stoddard) and Britain. -
Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor/Scientist
USA Technology! (Telephone) Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. He also used his influence to implement the practice of oralism, banning the use of sign language in 1880 at the Milan conference – thus restricting communication for the deaf blind. Helen Keller was a student of AG Bell. -
Gallaudet University
In 1856, Amos Kendall donated land to establish school for deaf and blind students. Edward Miner Gallaudet, the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet became the new school's superintendent. Today Gallaudet was granted university status in October 1986.
