1971 - First open captioned commercial television in Boston, Mass.
1975 - Congress passes Public Law 94-142, the "Education of all Handicapped Children Act." Mainstreaming is accepted as current educational philosophy. Number of Deaf teacher's drops to its lowest point - 11%.
1978 - Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is passed. The law requires that all businesses, colleges and organizations which have federal contracts or receive federal funds be open and accessible to physically disabled persons
1979 - The Signs of Language Klima and Bellugi. First Linguistic research on ASL
1979 - The National Captioning Institute was established to coordinate and encourage captioning of commercial and public television broadcasting
1980 - First closed captioning of commercial television aired for deaf and hard of hearing viewers in Boston, Mass. with the captioning of Masterpiece Theater.
1980 - First sign language books by deaf authors - Padden, Humphries and O'Rourke's "ABC's of ASL"
1983 - Boyce Williams retires after 38 years with the US Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. He was the first deaf person to become Chief of the Deafness Branch of VR Services for the Deaf
1984 - Cochlear implant first approved for clinical use for persons 18 and older. Some Deaf leaders view it as a conspiracy to destroy Deaf Culture
1985 - Deaf Mosiac begins broadcasting from Gallaudet University Television Studios in Washington, DC. The program, which ended production in 1995, won Emmy awards for, the producers and hosts Mary Lou Novitisky and Gil Eastman
1986 - Marlee Matlin wins academy award for the movie "Children of a Lesser God", later stars on the television program "Reasonable Doubts" as a Deaf lawyer.
1988 - Signing Naturally Curriculum published, written and produced by Deaf authors Ella Mae Lentz and Ken Mikos
1988 - "Unlocking the Curriculum" published by the Gallaudet University Linguistics Department. This proposes a return to ASL as the first method of instruction for Deaf children. It refutes the Manually Coded English approaches, using speech and sign.
1988 - Congressional Report published - "Toward Equality: Education of the Deaf." Report recommends that ASL be used as a primary medium of language instruction with English as a second language. Also recommends that ASL be included in the Bilingual Education Act. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) investigates the possibility of adding ASL and Deaf children to the Bilingual Education Act, but again it is not approved because of the status of hearing parents and questions regarding ASL as a foreign language.
1988 - Students and faculty at Gallaudet University protest the selection of Dr. Elisabeth Zinser a hearing president. Deaf President Now Protest (DPN) continues for one week, ending with the selection of I. King Jordan as the first Deaf President of Gallaudet University and a change in the members of the college Board of Directors
