In an earlier blog I made the point that much of deaf history is merged into the history of disability generally.
Having said that I have managed to pull together the following information about Deaf History which actually stretches back as far as 1000 BC when in Hebrew Law Deaf Rights were denied and "In Jewish legislation deaf and dumb persons are frequently classed with minors and idiots” (1) There is a lot of detailed deaf history available on the Deaf History – Europe website https://deafhistory.eu/ but much of it is not relevant to this article. (2)
Quintus Pedius is the first record of the education of a deaf child and this was in +/- 5BC which took place in Ancient Rome. (3)
British Sign Language as we know it today began in the 1700s with the growth of towns in Britain so that large numbers of Deaf people were close enough to form their own communities. When Deaf schools were opened in the 1800s, BSL became an established language. (4)
In 1760 the First School for the Deaf in the UK was opened in Edinburgh (5)
In 1792 the First Public School for the Deaf in the UK was opened in London (6)
The first firm to begin commercial production of the ear trumpet was established by Frederick C. Rein in London in 1800. (7)
In 1880 the Milan Conference was the first international conference of deaf educators held in Milan, Italy. After deliberations from September 6 to 11, 1880, the conference declared that oral education (oralism) was superior to manual education and passed a resolution banning the use of sign language in school. (8) From what I have read oralism was promoted and supported by non-deaf people whereas the manual approach, that is, sign language was the choice of deaf people.
The British Deaf Association (BDA) was formed in Leeds as The British Deaf and Dumb Association (BDDA) on 24th July 1890. It was not until 1971 that it dropped the word dumb from its title (9)
1898 saw the invention of the electrical hearing aid (10)
In 1911 the RNID – Royal National Institute for the Deaf was founded to make life fully inclusive for deaf people and those with hearing loss. (11)
In 1947, Emmerson Romero developed the first captioning for a movie (12)
Dr. Malcolm Norwood, stands out in the deaf and hard of hearing community as “the father of closed captioning.” As television developed in the 1950s and 1960s the deaf were virtually left out. (13)
As television developed in the 1950s and 1960s the deaf were virtually left out. As the head of DCMP (the Described and Captioned Media Program), Norwood became a leading advocate for the development of closed captioning on television and was singularly responsible for popularizing the captioning technique now used in television. First with special caption decoders, and later integrated into the television circuitry.
Norwood’s pioneering contribution in making television and film accessible to people with disabilities became a beacon for other individuals and companies to follow.
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) was established in 1951 during the first World Congress in Rome, Italy. (14)
In 1958 the International Week of the Deaf was launched by the World Federation of the Deaf (15)
1967 saw the invention of the Cochlear Implant by Graeme Clark (16)
In 1978 the Centre for Deaf Studies was set up as a department of the University of Bristol in the field of deaf studies, which it defined as the study of the "language, community and culture of Deaf people". The Centre claimed to be the first higher educational Institute in Europe "to concentrate solely on research and education that aims to benefit the Deaf community". Sadly, the centre was closed in 2013 (17)
1979 saw the introduction of Closed Captions and Subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing people on TV. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the UK was the first broadcaster to include closed captions (subtitles in the UK) in 1979 based on the Teletext framework for pre-recorded programming. It now offers a 100% broadcast captioning service across all 7 of its main broadcast channels. (18)
The first test SMS message was sent in 1992. Short message service (SMS) is the text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet, and mobile device systems. Since it is used by most hearing people, it gives deaf people direct and independent access to long distance communication with both hearing and deaf people. (19)
British Sign Language (BSL) was recognised on 18th March 2003 as an official minority language of the UK (20)
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) was adopted on 13 December 2006 and was opened for signature on 30 March 2007. It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century and is the first human rights convention to be open for signature by regional organizations. The Convention entered into force on 3 May 2008. (21)
The Equality Act 2010 consolidated all existing Equalities legislation into one Act of Parliament but also further enhanced the rights of disabled people (22)
In December 2010, the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU) ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). The UK was a member of the EU at this time and was one of the signatories of the UN CRPD (23)
On the 20th May 2015, the European Parliament conducted a plenary debate after which it adopted a resolution in which it expressed its strong support to the full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). It was adopted with an overwhelming majority among the political parties. (24)
In 2017 the UN General Assembly proclaimed 23 September as the International Day of Sign Languages in order to raise awareness of the importance of sign language in the full realization of the human rights of people who are deaf. The first International Day of Sign languages was celebrated in 2018 under the theme “With Sign Language, Everyone is Included!” (25)
The British Sign Language Act 2022 recognised British Sign Language as a language of England, Wales and Scotland became law on 28th April 2022 (26)
The above is only a brief snapshot of Deaf History and it would be great to pull together a lot more information about Deaf History both from a UK perspective and from an international perspective.
Would anyone be interested in helping me or working with me to produce a booklet about Deaf History which could be published in the run up to Deaf Awareness Week 2025 which will be held between 5th and 11th May 2025? If you are interested in helping please email me at deafkevin59@gmail.com
(10) https://deafhistory.eu/index.php/component/zoo/item/1890-british-deaf-association-bda?Itemid=155
(17) https://deafhistory.eu/index.php/component/zoo/item/invention-of-the-cochlear-implant-by?Itemid=155
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