1767 - 1828: Jean-Baptiste Pouplin (BE)

Jean-Baptiste Pouplin was a Belgian teacher of French origin. He was the founder of one of the first schools for deaf students on the European continent, in Liège in 1819.

1819: First School for the Deaf in Belgium - Walloon

"A school for the deaf and the blind opened in Liège, thanks to the efforts of Jean-Baptiste Pouplin.

In Februari 1819, the institute was founded and Pouplin became its director. Six months later, Joseph Henrion (1793 - 1868) was appointed as a deaf teacher to assist Pouplin, his father-in-law. Henrion was a former pupil of Sicard."

1820: First school for the deaf in Belgium - Flanders

The first school for the deaf in Flanders was established in 1820 in the mother monastery of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary in the Molenaarsstraat in Ghent.

In 1819, the young candidate sister Theresia Verhulst went to Paris for nine months to manage the school in order to learn the sign language method of priest Charles-Michel De l'Epée. After her return, she became the first principal of the school until her death in 1854.

1936: Doof Vlaanderen (BE)

Doof Vlaanderen is a federation of Flemish Deaf organizations that works towards equality, emancipation and development of deaf people and their language, the Flemish Sign Language, in society.

2003: Walloon - Belgium, Legal Recognition of French Belgian Sign Language

Belgium's Parliament of the French Community recognised French Belgian Sign Language (LSFB) by decree in October 2003. The recognition entails:

• cultural (symbolic) recognition
• the formation of a commission to advise the Government of the French Communityin all LSFB-related matters

2005 - 2007: Helga Stevens President of EUD

EUD President, 2005 - 2007: Helga Stevens (  Belgium)

2006: Flanders - Belgium: Legal Recognition of Flemish Sign Language

Flemish Sign Language (Dutch: Vlaamse Gebarentaal or VGT) was recognised on 24 April 2006 by the Flemish Parliament.

Cultural recognition entails that the Flemish Government recognises the Flemish Sign Language as the language of the Deaf Community in Flanders.

2014: Helga Stevens second Deaf Member of the European Parliament

In May 2014, Helga Stevens was elected Member of the European Parliament. In November 2014, she was elected vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. In addition to her committee assignments, Stevens served as president of the European Parliament’s Disabilities Intergroup.