Formalized sign language and public deaf education
Lengua de signos formalizada y educación pública de sordos
- Date
- c. 1760 (escuela 1771) · confidence medium
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Charles-Michel de l'Épée
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The first free public school for deaf people, where l'Épée systematised the signs used by Paris's deaf community into 'methodical signs' to teach written French. It recognised sign language as a means of education rather than a deficiency.
L'Épée did not invent sign language, which Paris's deaf community already used; his achievement was its formalisation and public education. Samuel Heinicke founded the rival oralist school in Leipzig (1778).
What it led to
- The National Institute for Deaf Youth (1791) and schools across Europe
- American Sign Language (Gallaudet and Clerc, Hartford, 1817)
- Deaf community and culture
- The oralism-manualism debate (the Milan Congress, 1880)
Built on
- Reducción de las letras y arte para enseñar a hablar a los mudos (Bonet)1620
- Juan Pablo Bonet's manual alphabet (1620)
- Signs of the Parisian deaf community
- Pedro Ponce de León (16th century)
Made possible
- American Sign Language (ASL)
- Gallaudet University (1864)
- Schools for the deaf worldwide