Deaf History Month occurs in April. It is an opportunity to commemorate the historic barriers to inclusion that deaf Americans have faced and to recognize their achievements in overcoming such extraordinary challenges. Accommodations for deaf Americans in all facets of society are a recent development. Deaf History Month recognizes the great strides made toward equality and acknowledges the crucial work that still needs to be done.
The First Public School for the Deaf
The origins of Deaf History Month reach back to the early 19th century. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a Yale graduate and New England preacher, traveled to visit his family in Connecticut in 1814. While at his family home, he observed his younger brothers and sisters playing outside but noticed they were excluding a certain 9-year-old girl who lived nearby. That girl’s name was Alice Cogswell, and the Gallaudet children had been refusing to play with her because Alice was deaf.
As the legend goes, Thomas went outside to meet Alice and, through trial and error, worked out a rudimentary way of communicating with her. Thomas would write a word in the dirt, like “hat” and point to the corresponding object, like the hat on his head, to demonstrate what he meant. This brief interaction with Alice Cogswell ignited a lifelong passion for education in Thomas.
At the time, no formal American institutions could educate deaf children. After observing the two develop this basic form of communication, Alice’s father, Dr. Mason Cogswell, enlisted Thomas’ help in changing that. The pair knew of several renowned schools for deaf students in Europe. Dr. Cogswell sent Thomas to England and France to study the methods used in these schools. The goal was to translate the educational principles employed at these schools to deaf education in the United States.
While in Paris, Thomas met Laurent Clerc, a teacher at L’Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris (The National Institute for Deaf Children of Paris). Clerc traveled back to the U.S. with Thomas to develop a method for teaching deaf American children. The two opened the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, CT on April 15, 1817. This marked the founding of the first American school to educate deaf children.
Gallaudet University
Thomas’ son Edward also sought to further American deaf education after Thomas died in 1851. A businessman and investor named Amos Kendall convinced Edward to move south to Washington, D.C. Kendall opened a school for children with disabilities after taking custody of several deaf and blind orphans from a local conman who used the children to swindle well-meaning philanthropists under the guise of raising money for the children’s education. Kendall took the children under his care and worked to make that fictional education a reality.
In 1857, Kendall invited Edward Gallaudet to D.C. to run the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind. While initially similar to the American School for the Deaf, its educational resources soon expanded. Rather than only educating school-aged children, the Columbia Institution also began training future deaf educators. Eventually, college-level classes were offered. The school gained federal funding from a charter bill signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. That year, the Columbia Institution became Gallaudet University–the first higher education institution for deaf Americans.
Despite strides toward inclusion at the university’s founding, lingering inequalities persisted. Gallaudet University faced challenges with representation in top leadership roles, with every president being hearing for over 100 years. In 1988, the majority hearing Board of Trustees appointed Elizabeth Zinser as the next university president. She was not deaf and did not know American Sign Language (ASL).
In response to this appointment, students at Gallaudet University commenced a weeklong protest under the banner “Deaf President Now.” They blocked university entrances, chained gates around campus and boycotted classes. On March 13, 1988, the Board of Trustees appointed Dr. I King Jordan to replace Zinser. Jordan was the first deaf university president in Gallaudet’s 130-year history.
An Inclusive Deaf History Month
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) introduced the first Deaf History Month, celebrated in 1997. For 25 years, Deaf History Month lasted from March 13 to April 15. These dates commemorated the founding of the American School for the Deaf and the appointment of Dr. Jordan. However, much of the history commemorated by these dates was not inclusive of the diverse experiences within the deaf community.
Thomas and Edward Gallaudet founded the American School for the Deaf and Gallaudet University before the end of the American Civil War. At the time, the majority of Black Americans were enslaved and had no access to education of any kind. Even free, hearing Black Americans struggled to access education, and education for Black Deaf Americans was unheard of. The first school to provide specialized education for Black Deaf children opened in North Carolina in 1869. This was 52 years after the founding of the American School for the Deaf. After the Civil War, many deaf schools were segregated until as late as 1978. Gallaudet University itself didn’t admit Black students until 1950.
The historic segregation of Black Americans led to the development of a unique dialect of ASL, known as Black ASL. For many, this dialect represents the historic struggle of the Black deaf community to carve their own path forward in the face of institutions and systems that sought to exclude them for over 200 years.
In 2022, the NAD acknowledged the historic exclusion of Black Americans from the deaf community and the organization’s complicity in it (the NAD prohibited Black membership until 1965). The dates of Deaf History Month were changed to April 1 to April 30. This change was meant to be inclusive of all marginalized groups within the deaf community, especially people of color.
Today, Deaf History Month provides an opportunity to explore the complex intersectional identities of deaf Americans. It also serves to highlight the need for a holistic approach to inclusion. True inclusion promotes equity for people of all abilities, gender identities and ethnicities.
