History -- Deaf History

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355 B.C. - Artistotle writes that deaf people are limited in thought, because they cannot speak.

1501-1789- Deaf learn through sign language in Italy, Spain, and France.

1766-1874 - Oralism used only in Germany.

1817 -- The American School for the Deaf is founded in Hartford, Connecticut. This is the first school for disabled children anywhere in the Western hemisphere.

1841 -- The American Annals for the Deaf begins publication at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.

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1860 -- The Gallaudet Guide and Deaf Mutes' Companion becomes the first publication in the United States aimed at a disabled readership.

1861 -- Helen Adams Keller is born in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

1864 -- The enabling act giving the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind the authority to confer college degrees is signed by President Lincoln, making it the first college in the world expressly established for people with disabilities. A year later, the institution's blind students are transferred to the Maryland Institution at Baltimore, leaving the Columbia Institution with a student body made up entirely of deaf students. The institution would eventually be renamed Gallaudet College and then Gallaudet University.

1880 -- The International Congress of Educators of the Deaf -- at a conference in Milan, Italy -- calls for the suppression of sign language and the firing of all deaf teachers at the schools for the deaf. This triumph of oralism is seen by deaf advocates as a direct attack upon their culture.

1880 -- The National Convention of Deaf Mutes meets in Cincinnati, Ohio, the nucleus of what will become the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). The first major issue taken on by the NAD is oralism and the suppression of American Sign Language.

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1901 -- The National Fraternal Society of the Deaf is founded by alumni at the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint. It becomes the world's only fraternal life insurance company managed by deaf people. Through the first half of the century, it advocates for the rights of deaf people to purchase insurance and to obtain driver's licenses.

1918 -- The Smith-Sears Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation Act is passed, creating a vocational rehabilitation program for disabled soldiers.

1920 -- The Fess-Smith Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act is passed, creating a vocational rehabilitation program for disabled civilians.

1935 -- Congress passes and President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act, establishing federal old-age benefits and grants to the states for assistance to blind individuals and disabled children. The act also extends the already existing vocational rehabilitation programs established by earlier legislation.

1945 -- Boyce R. Williams is hired by the federal Office of Vocational Rehabilitation as Consultant for the Deaf, the Hard of Hearing, and the Speech Impaired. He begins close to four decades of work at OVR, designing and implementing educational and vocational programs for deaf Americans.

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1950 -- The Social Security Amendments of 1950 establish a federal-state program to aid the permanently and totally disabled (APTD). This is a limited prototype of later federal disability assistance programs, such as Social Security Disability Insurance.

1954 -- Congress passes the Social Security Amendments of 1958, extending Social Security Disability Insurance benefits to the dependents of disabled workers.

1963 -- President Kennedy calls for a reduction "over a number of years and by hundreds of thousands, (in the number) of persons confined" to residential institutions. Although not labeled at the time, this is a call for deinstitutionalized and increased community services.

1964 -- Robert H. Weitbrecht invents the "acoustic coupler," forerunner of the telephone modem, enabling teletypewriter messages to be sent via standard telephone lines. This invention makes possible the widespread use of teletypewriters for the deaf, now called TTYs, offering deaf and hard of hearing people access to the telephone system.

1965 -- William C. Stokoe, Carl Croneber, and Dorothy Casterline publish A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, establishing the legitimacy of American Sign Language and beginning the move away from oralism.

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1965 -- Congress establishes the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY.

1969 -- Pub. Law 91-320 established the Centers and Services for Deaf-Blind Children. The regional centers have had a profound impact on the development of services to the MHHI students in all settings.

1971 -- The Caption Center is founded at WGBH Public Television in Boston, and it begins providing captioned programmed for deaf viewers.

1973 -- Passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 marks the greatest achievement of the disability rights movement. The Act -- particularly Title V and, especially, Section 504 -- for the first time confronts discrimination against people with disabilities. It prohibits programs receiving federal funds from discriminating against "otherwise qualified handicapped" people.

1975 -- The first convention of the American Association of the Deaf-Blind is held in Cleveland.

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1975 -- The Education for all Handicapped Children Act (Pub. Law 94-42) is passed, establishing the right of children with disabilities to a public school education in an integrated environment.

1978 -- The National Center for Law and the Deaf is founded in Washington, DC.

1979 -- Self Help for hard of Hearing People, Inc. is founded in Bethesda, Maryland, by Howard "Rocky" Stone.

1982 -- National Black Deaf Advocates is founded.

1982 -- The Telecommunications for the Disabled Act mandates telephone access for deaf and hard of hearing people at important public places, such as hospitals and police stations, and that all coin-operated phones be hearing aid-compatible by January 1985.

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1986 -- The Employment Opportunites for Disabled American Act is passed, allowing recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance to retain benefits, particularly medical coverage, even after they obtained work. The act is intended to remove the disincentives that keep disabled people unemployed.

1986 -- The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1986 define supported employment as a "legitimate rehabilitation outcome."

1986 -- The Commission on the Education of the Deaf was established by the Education of the Deaf Act of 1986 to study the quality of education of deaf persons and report findings to the President and Congress.

1987 -- Marlee Matlin wins an Oscar for her performance in "Children of a Lesser God."

1987 -- The Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA) is founded in Chicago.

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1987 -- California opens first state-wide, 24-hour, 7 days a week relay service, operated by AT&T.

1988 -- The Commission on the Education of the Deaf sent its report, Toward Equity: Education of the Deaf, to the President and Congress of the United States. The Commission viewed SSI as a disincentive for deaf students, proposed the establishment of an Office on Deafness and Communication Disorders, encourage the incorporation of deaf culture in the education curriculum, and urged that more attention be given to the needs of minorities who are deaf.

1988 -- Students at Gallaudet University organized a week-long shut-down and occupation of their campus to demand selection of a deaf president after the Gallaudet Board of Trustees appoints a non-deaf person as president. On March 13, the Gallaudet administration announces that I King Jordan will be the University's first deaf president.

1990 -- The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) becomes law, requiring the establishment of national dual party relay service, access to emergency services, and more.

1990 -- Television Decoder Circuitry Act is passed, requiring all new televisions 13" or larger to have built-in captioning by July 1, 1993.

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1990 -- The Education for All Handicapped Children Act is amended and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

1992 -- Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia establish telecommunication relay services.

1996 -- Telecommunication Act of 1996 is signed into law by President Clinton, paving the way for the communications industry to consolidate operations within the local and long distance telephone sectors.

1996 -- Second VideoRelay trails are undertaken by spring preparing the way for major trials to be conducted in several states nationwide in 1997.

1996 -- Congress passes legislation eliminating more then 150,000 disabled children from the Social Security rolls, as well as individuals who are alcohol or drug dependent.

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1996 - The University of Tennessee Knoxville, California State University at Northridge, SPTC, and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf are named regional postsecondary technical assistance and outreach centers, funded through IDEA.

1997 -- FCC makes available 711 for easy access to telecommunication relay services (TRS).

1997 -- Wireless TTYs are tested in the marketplace.

1998 -- The first PEPNet (Postsecondary Education Programs Network) Conference, "Empowerment Through Partnerships," was held in Orlando, FL.

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