History of Sign Language

Deaf History

The events that occurred in the history of sign language are actually pretty shocking.

How the deaf experience life today is directly related to how they were treated in the past. It wasn't long ago when Deaf people were strongly oppressed and denied even their basic rights.

The are many famous deaf people who have made a name for the deaf throughout the history of sign language and proved that deaf people can, in fact, make history.

Aristotle was the first person to make a recorded claim about the deaf. His theory was that people could only learn through hearing spoken words. This was the beginning of the oppression of deaf people in the history of sign language. Deaf people were therefore seen as being unable to learn or be educated at all.

Therefore, they were denied even their basic rights. In some places, they weren't allowed to marry or own property. Some were even forced to have guardians. The law had them labeled as "non-persons."

This claim was finally challenged during the Renaissance in Europe. Scholars were making their first attempts to educate the deaf and prove the 2,000 year old beliefs wrong. This mark in the history of sign language was the beginning of the development of signed language.

The Beginning of Deaf Education

At around the same time in Spain, Pedro Ponce de Leon was educating the deaf children of Spanish noble families. Pedro Ponce de Leon was a Benedictine monk and was very successful with his teaching methods.

Juan Pablo de Bonet

Juan Pablo de Bonet was inspired by Leon's success to use his own methods to teach the deaf as well. He was also a Spanish monk and used the earlier methods of reading, writing, and speechreading as well as his own manual alphabet to educate the deaf. This was the first known manual alphabet system in the history of sign language. The handshapes in this alphabet represented the different speech sounds.

Organized education of the deaf did not exist until the 1750s. This was when the first religious and social association for the deaf was established in Paris by Abbe Charles Michel de L'Epee, a French priest. Abbe de L'Epee is one of the most important people in the history of sign language.

A common story retold throughout the history of sign language claims that L'Epee met two deaf sisters by chance when visiting a poverty stricken part of Paris. Their mother wanted him to educate her daughters in religion. After discovering their deafness, he was inspired to educate them. Soon after, he completely devoted his life to deaf education.

Abbe Charles Michel de L'Epee established the first free public school for deaf children in 1771. It was called the Institut National des Jeune Sourds-Muets (National Institute for Deaf-Mutes). Children came from all over the country to go to this school. The children had been signing at home, and L'Epee learned all of these different signs. He used the signs he learned to teach his students French.

These signs soon became a standard language L'Epee taught. More schools were founded, and the many students brought this language home to their communities. This first standard language in the history of sign language is now known as Old French Sign Language. This language spread widely throughout Europe as more and more students were educated.

Today, Abbe de L'Epee is known in the history of sign language as the "Father of Sign Language and Deaf Education" because of the twenty-one schools he established and all he has done for the deaf.

Laura Bridgman

Many people say that Abbe de L'Epee invented sign language. This is not true. If you want to know who invented sign language, read my "Who Invented Sign Language" article.

Although Abbe de L'Epee claimed sign language was the natural language for the deaf, a man named Samuel Heinicke supported the oral method. Oralism was brought about as people used a system of speech and speechreading to teach deaf students instead of signs and fingerspelling. Samuel Heinicke was a German educator. He taught his students how to speak by having them feel the vibrations of his throat when he spoke.

After all of this positive advancement in the history of sign language, oralism was the bump in the road.

Like Abbe de L'Epee is the "father of sign language," Samuel Heinicke is known as the "father of oralism."

Helen Keller

In relation to the deaf-blind, the first deaf-blind person to be educated was Laura Bridgman. She was born 50 years before Helen Keller, but is usually not credited with being the first deaf-blind person to learn language.

Helen Keller is the most well-known deaf-blind person (she has taken the credit before Laura Bridgman). Even though she wasn't the first deaf-blind person to be educated, Helen was the first one to graduate from college, and she did it with honors.

Another common topic in the Deaf Community is deaf people and sports. My favorite deaf athlete is William "Dummy" Hoy. Dummy Hoy was the first deaf major league baseball player. He hit the first grand-slam home run in the American league, and created the hand signals that are still used in baseball today.

I think it is so amazing that one deaf athlete can have so much impact and break so many records in baseball, yet many people don't know about him. Truly amazing.

American Sign Language

The history of American Sign Language has earned its own page. Please don't forget to read about this important part of the history of sign language in the United States.

Speech versus Sign

Sign language is now accepted as a natural method of communication and education for the deaf. However, it wasn't always this way.

Even though sign language became widely used by both deaf and hearing people, supporters of oralism believed the deaf need to learn spoken language to fully function in the hearing world.

In 1867, the Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes in New York and the Clarke Institution for Deaf-Mutes in Northampton, Massachusetts, began educating the deaf using only oral methods, and encouraging all deaf schools to do the same. Methods of teaching speech, speechreading, and listening spread to school all across the country.

One of the most devoted supporters of oralism was Alexander Graham Bell (yes, the man who invented the telephone). Bell started a school in Boston in 1872 to train teachers of the deaf to use the oral method. He was one person in the history of sign language who really tried to damage the lives of deaf people.

In 1890, he established the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, Inc. This is now called the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf.

Alexander Graham Bell

The debate of signed communication versus spoken language intensified during 1880 to 1990. In 1880, the International Congress on the Education of the Deaf met in Milan, Italy, to address this issue. Many educational leaders attended this conference. This meeting is now known as the Milan Conference.

The supporters of oralism won the vote. Congress passed a declaration stating "the incontestable superiority of speech over sign for integrating the deaf-mute into society and for giving him better command of the language."

The results of this conference were devastating. Over the next ten years, the use of sign language in educating the deaf drastically declined. Some oralism supporters wanted to eliminate sign language entirely. This milestone in the history of sign language almost brought the Deaf back to ground zero after all of their progress.

80 percent of deaf children were taught in oral programs by 1920. Teachers of the deaf went from being 40 percent deaf and 60 percent hearing to only 15 percent deaf in the 1860s.

Even though oralism won the battle, they did not win the war. Outside of the classroom, sign language was still widely used. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) was founded in the United States and supported the use of sign language. They gained a lot of support concerning the verdict at the conference in Milan. The NAD kept the use of sign language alive as they argued that oralism is not the right educational choice for many deaf people.

In 1960, something big happened. William Stokoe, a hearing Gallaudet College professor, published a breakthrough monograph that proved ASL is a real language once and for all.

Stokoe presented his thesis in Sign Language Structure that American Sign Language is a unique language separate from English. He testified that ASL is not a translation of English, but a language with its own grammar and syntax. Stokoe stated that ASL can communicate abstract ideas and complex information just like spoken languages.

American Sign Language was henceforth recognized as an important national language.

Stokoe later co-authored the Dictionary of American Sign Language in 1965. He also established the Linguistic Research Laboratory at Gallaudet University in 1970.

In 1964, Congress issued the Babbidge Report on the oral education of the deaf. The report stated that oral education was a "dismal failure." This finally dismissed the decision made in Milan.

A movement that began in 1970 did not choose either signed or oral education for the deaf. Instead, the movement attempted to blend several educational methods to form Total Communication. This method became a new philosophy for the approach to deaf education.

Heather Whitestone heatherwhitestone.com

Allowing deaf people the right to any information through all possible means, Total Communication can include fingerspelling, sign language, speech, pantomime, lipreading, pictures, computers, writing, gestures, facial expressions, reading, and hearing aid devices.

Public Law 94-142 was passed in 1975, requiring handicapped children in the US to be provided with free and appropriate education. This law allowed many to be mainstreamed into regular public schools. The students still receive special instruction, but are able to interact with the general public school population.

Another huge event in the history of sign language was the Deaf President Now (DPN) movement. The DPN movement unified deaf people of every age and background in a collective fight to be heard. Their triumph was a testament to the fact that they don't have to accept society's limitation on their culture.

In 1995, a woman named Heather Whitestone became the first deaf woman to be named Miss America in the Miss America pageant. She showed the world that a deaf person can do anything a hearing person can do, and that all things are possible with God's help.

Deaf Culture

The history of sign language greatly affects how deaf people live their lives today. The fact that deaf people have a history is only one reason why they also have their own culture...

Deaf Culture. Deaf culture is culture like any other. Deaf people share a language, rules for behavior, values, and traditions. The way the Deaf culture is living today is a direct result of the Deaf history that preceded it.

Who is Your Favorite Person from Deaf History?
Share Your Thoughts!

There are so many people who played a significant role in the history of sign language. So, naturally, everyone is bound to have a favorite!

Who is YOUR favorite historical figure? Is it Abbe de L'Epee? Thomas H. Gallaudet? Alexander Graham Bell? Share your thoughts!

And don't forget to tell us why this person is your favorite as well--make it a good well thought-out answer! And please make sure your submission is more than 200 words or I won't be able to post it! It will be fun to see why everyone chose who they did! :)

Click below to see the favorite historical figures from other visitors to this page...

Deaf history book recommendations: