1714 -Martha’s Vineyard had a very high population of Deaf individuals (as high as 1 in 4 in some areas), so residents created and learned Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language. Because of this, there was no communication barrier between deaf and hearing residents.

 

1760- French Sign Language was founded.

 

1816- Laurent Clerc, a Deaf man from France, was brought to the US by Thomas Gallaudet to help set up an educational institute for the deaf in America.

 

1817- Hartford Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb established.

 

1864- President Lincoln signed off on an act that allowed for the establishment of a school of the Deaf, which remains the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf and hard of hearing students.

 

1872- Alexander Graham Bell founds oralist school. During his lifetime, Alexander Graham Bell widely promoted both eugenics and oralism, the belief that Deaf individuals should be taught speech and lip-reading over sign language. While his mother was Deaf, his father, Melville Bell, created ‘Visible Speech,’ a system of symbols meant to assist people in speaking languages they could not hear. Bell’s name became synonymous with oralism in the Deaf community.

 

1880 Milan conference - stresses Oralism, bans sign language

 

1890 National Association of the Deaf founded. NAD is an organization that promotes the civil rights of deaf individuals in the United States, created to defend the ability of the American deaf community to use sign language and organize around important issues.

 

1952- The last deaf individual from Martha’s Vineyard that knew MVSL, Katie West, passed away, effectively making MVSL an extinct language.

 

1960- TTY invented by Robert Weitbrecht.

1964- Video Relay Service invented by Robert Weitbrecht. Expands means of communication for the deaf. Video Relay Service is a form of Telecommunications Relay Service that enables people who use American Sign Language to communicate with voice telephone users through video equipment, rather than through typed text.

 

1965- William Stokoe finishes ASL Dictionary. Stokoe was a linguist who worked to show the general public that ASL was a fully-formed language with its own grammatical structure and rich vocabulary, rather than a visual form of English or mere pantomime. 

 

1973- Rehabilitation Act. The Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies, in programs receiving federal financial assistance, in federal employment and in the employment practices of federal contractors.

 

1975- PL 94-142 passed allowing disabled children free, appropriate public education

 

1988- Deaf President Now at Gallaudet