Deaf Education, 1700 - 1800
1712 - 1789: Abbé Charles Michel de l'Epée (FR)
"Abbé Charles Michel de l'Epée of Paris founded the first free school for deaf people in 1755."
"He first recognized and learned the signs that were already being used by deaf people in Paris and then developed his sign system. He added a signed version of spoken French."
1715 - 1780: Jacob Rodrigues Pereira (FR)
Jacob Rodrigues Pereira (born April 11, 1715 in Peniche , Portugal ; died September 15, 1780 in Paris ) was a Portuguese-French Jewish educator. As a pedagogue, he developed a teaching method for the deaf and is considered a pioneer in France .
1715 – 1806: Thomas Braidwood (UK)
Thomas Braidwood (1715–1806) was a Scottish educator, significant in the history of deaf education. He was the founder of Britain's first school for the deaf.
Braidwood changed his vocation from teaching hearing pupils to teaching the deaf, and renamed his building Braidwood's Academy for the Deaf and Dumb, the first school of its kind in Britain.
The educational approach utilized a "combined system" incorporating sign language, articulation, speech, and lip-reading. Braidwood's input into the development and application of a signed language has been credited as one of the most significant influencers of what would become British Sign Language.
1727 - 1790: Samuel Heinicke (DE)
"Samuel Heinicke was born April 14, 1727, in the part of Europe that is now the eastern part of Germany. In 1754, he began tutoring students—and one of them was deaf. This deaf student reportedly was a young boy. He used the manual alphabet to teach that deaf pupil."
"In 1777, his reputation as a deaf educator was so well established that he was asked to open the first (oral) public school for the deaf. This school opened in Leipzig, Germany and it was the first school for the deaf officially recognized by a government."
1742 - 1822: Abbé Sicard, Teacher of the Deaf (FR)
Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard (20 September 1742 – 10 May 1822) was a French abbé and instructor of the deaf.
In 1789, on the death of the Abbé de l'Épée, he succeeded him at a leading school for the deaf which Épée had founded in Paris.
1747 - 1799 : Pierre Desloges (FR)
In 1779, Piere Desloges wrote what may be the first book published by a deaf person, in which he advocated for the use of sign language in deaf education.
It was in part a rebuttal of the views of Abbé Claude-François Deschamps de Champloiseau, who had published a book arguing against the use of signs.
Desloges explained, "like a Frenchman who sees his language belittled by a German who knows only a few French words, I thought I was obliged to defend my language against the false charges of this author." He describes a community of deaf people using a sign language (now referred to as Old French Sign Language).
1753 - 1829: Ottavio Assarotti (IT)
"Ottavio Giovanni Battista Assarotti (25 October 1753 in Genoa – 24 January 1829) was an Italian philanthropist and founder of the first school for deaf people in Genoa, Italy."
1755: First School for the Deaf in France, Abbé Charles Michel de l'Epée
"Abbé Charles Michel de l'Epée of Paris founded the first free school for deaf people in 1755."
1760: First School for the Deaf in the UK, Edinburgh
In 1760, Scottish teacher, Thomas Braidwood founded Braidwood Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in Edinburgh. The school's rapid gain of public attention could be credited to Thomas Braidwood's brazen advertising of his methods and his institution.
1772 - 1836: Roberto Francisco Prádez, first Deaf teacher of the Deaf in Spain
Roberto Prádez was Spain's first deaf teacher of the deaf. Although he has been neglected historically, Prádez is a founding father of deaf education, a heroic figure who contributed crucially to the establishment and operation of Spain's first state-sponsored school.
1772 - 1846: Jean Massieu, First Deaf Teacher of the Deaf in France
Jean Massieu (1772 – July 21, 1846) was a pioneering deaf educator. One of six deaf siblings, he was denied schooling until age thirteen when he met Abbé Sicard, who enrolled him in the Institute national des jeunes sourds de Bordeaux-Gradignan, the Bordeaux School for Deaf Children.
