1867 - Lexington (NY) and Clarke Oral School (Boston) established in America 1880 A.D. - Congress of Milan (International Conference on Education of the Deaf) Alexander Graham Bell represented the American delegation. Oral method established as the preferred method of education Sign language forbidden in the classroom Deaf teachers are dismissed in large numbers; 22% of teachers are Deaf
1880 - National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is founded in Cincinnati, Ohio (later moving to its present site in Silver Spring, MD) in part to fight against the rise of Oralism and to protect American Sign Language. NAD supports the Junior NAD Youth Leadership Camps and the American Sign Language Teacher's Association (ASLTA). The current executive director is Nancy Bloch
1880 - Helen Keller is born in Tuscambia, Alabama. Taught at home by her friend and teacher Annie Sullivan and later at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Mass. Helen graduated from Radcliffe College. She lost both her hearing and sight at 19 months, but went on to become an educated person.
1920's - The football huddle is created at Gallaudet College to prevent other deaf teams from seeing the signs used to set up plays
1927 - Oralism in America is at its zenith. Only 15% of teachers are Deaf
1941-1945 - World War Two creates a need for labor. Deaf men and women are hired in record numbers to work in defense industries. Many relocate to work in factories in California, Ohio, New York and Washington, DC. Many employers note the abilities of Deaf workers for the first time.
1951 - World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) is formally organized in Rome, Italy. The current president is Yerker Andersson, a native of Sweden and Professor of Sociology at Gallaudet University
1960 - First Linguistic book and defense of ASL as a language by William Stoke
1964 - TTY is developed by Robert Weinbrecht, a deaf electrical engineer
1964 - Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf is organized at Ball State University
1965 - Congressional Babbidge Report- investigates Oral deaf education; pronounces pure Oralism a "dismal Failure". The report recommends alternative methods.
1965 - Bernard Bragg, a deaf actor and mime, stars in "the Silent Man", a TV program in California. Bragg, a graduate of the Fanwood School for the Deaf in White Plains, New York was a co-founder of the National Theater of the Deaf and has toured America with his one-man show
1966 - Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) established on the campus of Gallaudet University in Washington, DC
1967 - National Theater of the Deaf is established
1968 - Bilingual Education Act (P.L. 89-10) is passed. American Sign Language is not included because it is not recognized as a language
1970 - Total Communication (use of sign and speech) is developed as a philosophy
1970-1972 - Signed English, Seeing Essential English and SEE II methods are developed in order to create a manual code for English that can be used to supplement the Oral method. These sign systems are to be used simultaneously with speech to promote the development of English skills.
