Deaf history

For medical-related history of the auditory organ, see Hearing impairment#History.

The history of deaf people and its culture makes up a bunch of deaf history. The deaf culture is an ethnocentric culture that is centered around signed language and relationships among one another. Unlike other cultures the Deaf culture is not associated with any native land as it is a global culture. Although by some, deafness maybe viewed as a disability, the Deaf-World sees itself as a language minority. Throughout the years many accomplishments have been achieved by deaf people. To name the most famous, Ludwig Van Beethoven and Thomas Alva Edison were both deaf and contributed great works to culture.

Deaf history

Like most people in other language minorities, deaf people are born into it. Unlike other cultures, the Deaf culture is not associated with a native land. It is actually a culture based on relationships among people providing common ground. The deaf culture sees itself as a language minority instead of a disability group.^[1]

Deaf people who know Sign Language are proud of their history. In the United States, they recount the story of Laurent Clerc, a Deaf educator, coming to the United States from France in 1816 to help found the first permanent school for deaf children in the country. In the late 1850’s there was a debate about whether or not to create a separate deaf state in the west. The idea was based off of the event when the American Congress, at that time, gave part of Alabama to the American Asylum. This deaf state would be a place where all deaf people could migrate, if chosen to, and prosper, however, this plan failed and the whole debate died.^[2]

Another well-known event is the 1880 Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Milan, Italy, where hearing educators voted to embrace oral education and remove sign language from the classroom. This effort resulted in strong opposition within Deaf cultures today to the oralist method of teaching deaf children to speak and lip read with limited or no use of sign language in the classroom. The method is intended to make it easier for deaf children to integrate into hearing communities, but the benefits of learning in such an environment are disputed. The use of sign language is central to the Deaf peoples as a cultural identity and attempts to limit its use are viewed as an attack.^[3]

Bond history of the deaf culture

Signed language is the most important instrument for communication between deaf people and the deaf culture. Using signed language deaf people can join social networks, local and globally, which join the deaf culture together. Signed language is actually the American Sign Language (ASL) and is what the culture is centered around. Another powerful bonding forced in the deaf culture is Athletics. Athletics open up a path to achievement where many others are shut out by prejudice due to the level playing field of certain sports. The American Athletic Association of the Deaf (AAAD) is huge help for deaf people by representing Deaf clubs and organizations throughout the entire American states.^[1]

Political deaf history

The first ever political movement in deaf history happened in 1880 in Milan, Italy and was called the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf. This first international conference consisted of deaf educators and is commonly known as "The Milan Conference". The conference held deliberations from September 6, 1880, to September 11, 1880, and declared that oral education was superior to manual education and decided to ban the use of sign language in school. Since the passage in 1880, schools in European countries and the United States have switched to using speech therapy without sign language as a method of education for the deaf.^[3] The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has 22,000 direct members and is a vigorous advocate for signed language and the rights of Deaf people. The NAD helped conduct the first census of the Deaf population, it supports a legal defense fund, sponsors annual camps, and helps fight for the rights of the Deaf community.^[1]

Famous deaf people

• Juliette Low - The founder of the Girl Scouts.
• Dummy Hoy - The first deaf major-league baseball player.
• Ludwig van Beethoven - Was completely deaf for the last part of his life and yet managed to produce some of the greatest music of all time.
• Cal Rodgers - The very first deaf pilot in the USA in 1911.
• Thomas Alva Edison - An American scientist, inventor, and businessman.

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Timeline

• 1000 B.C. - Hebrew Law Denies Deaf Rights. Torah protects the deaf from being cursed by others, but were denied properties rights, the ability to be a witness in court, and not aloud to fully participate in temple rituals.
• 355 B.C. - Ancient Greeks Deny Deaf Education and Aristotle believed that "Deaf people could not be educated without hearing, people could not learn." and those "born deaf become senseless and incapable of reason.”. The Greeks also viewed the Greek language as perfect and anyone who could not speak to be a barbarian, thus deaf people were barbarians.
• 345-550 A.D. - Early Christians See Deafness as Sin because St. Augustine tells Christians that deaf children are a sign of God’s anger at the sins of their parents.
• Dark and Middle Ages- Deaf adults are objects of ridicule and are committed to asylums because their speech and behaviors were viewed as people being possessed by demons.
• 1500's - Geronimo Cardano was the first physician to recognize the ability of the deaf to reason and tries to teach his son using a set of symbols. Pedro Ponce develops a form a sign language and successfully teaches speech to deaf people from birth
• 1620- Juan Pablo- early advocate of sign language and wrote the first well-known book of manual alphabetic signs for the deaf.
• 1690-1880- 200 immigrants from Kent county that carried either dominant or recessive genes of deafness settled at Martha's Vineyard. All inhabitants whether deaf or not were equal and established the American School for the Deaf in 1817.
• 1755-Samuel Heinicke was a German oral teacher of the deaf who started the first oral school for the deaf in the world.
• French Sign Language Established in 1760.
• First American Deaf School Founded in 1817.
• 1850's - A Deaf State Is Proposed.
• 1872 - Alexander Graham Bell Promotes Deaf Education and opens a school in 1872 for deaf people.
• 1880’s - The Conference of Milan.
• 1892 - Electrical Hearing Aid Invented.
• 1960 - ASL is a Language and the first linguistic book and defense of ASL as a language is written by William Stoke.
• 1964 - Phone for Deaf Invented by Robert Weitbrecht, who is also deaf.
• 1972 - Program Captioning Introduced by The Caption Center at WGBH in Boston open captions "The French Chef" the country's first nationally broadcast captioned program. It airs on PBS. By 1980 Close Captioning is developed and the first show broadcast. Close Captioning hides the text from view unless the user has a decoding device. By 1993, the FCC requires that all newly manufactured televisions have the decoding chip.
• 1973 - 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.

^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Bahan, Harlan Lane ; Robert Hoffmeister ; Ben (1996). A journey into the deaf-world. San Diego, Calif.: DawnSignPress. ISBN 0-915035-63-4. 
2. ^ Krentz, Christopher (2000). A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing 1816-1864. Gallaudet University Press. ISBN 1563681013. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Baynton, Douglas (1996). Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226039641. 
4. ^ "Famous Deaf People". http://www.start-american-sign-language.com/famous-deaf-people.html. 
5. ^ "American Deaf Culture Historical Timeline". http://www.canyons.edu/departments/sign/powerpoint%201%20-%20historical%20perspective.htm.