Sign language is a natural and expressive way of communication for deaf people, but it was not always accepted or respected by the hearing society. In fact, sign language faced centuries of oppression and persecution, and was almost destroyed by a conference held in Milan in the late 19th century.
The conference, attended by educators from Europe and America, declared that oralism, a method of teaching deaf people to speak and lip-read, was superior and preferred to sign language. The conference passed eight resolutions that banned sign language in schools for the deaf, and promoted the idea that deaf people should try to assimilate into the hearing society by learning to speak.
This policy had devastating effects on the lives and education of deaf people, who lost their jobs, their culture, and their identity. Many deaf people resisted the oppression and continued to use sign language secretly or in private settings. However, sign language was not recognized as a legitimate language by linguists until the 1960s, when William Stokoe, a professor at Gallaudet University, published his research on the structure and grammar of American Sign Language (ASL).
His work paved the way for the acceptance and revival of sign language as a natural and expressive means of communication for deaf people. As one Reddit user commented on the post that sparked this article, “The rediscovery of sign language in the 1960s by American scholar William Stokoe, together with his deaf research assistants Dorothy Casterline and Carl Croneberg, led to a renaissance within the deaf community.”
But before this renaissance, sign language had to endure not only the ban imposed by the Milan conference, but also the horrors of Nazi persecution. During the 1930s and early 1940s, an estimated 17,000 deaf Germans were sterilized. Under Nazi rule, a number of deaf Germans also underwent forced abortions or were killed. Deaf Jews were sent to concentration camps; only 34 of Berlin’s prewar population of 600 deaf Jews survived the war. Altogether, an estimated 1,600 deaf people died at the hands of the Nazis.
The history of sign language is a history of struggle and resilience. It shows how deaf people fought for their rights, their dignity, and their language against all odds. It also shows how sign language survived and thrived despite centuries of oppression and persecution. As one article on Deaf history stated, “How deaf people experience life today is directly related to how they were treated in the past. It wasn’t long ago when the deaf were harshly oppressed and denied even their fundamental rights.”
Relevant articles:
– TIL after centuries of use in America there was an international effort to ban sign language. Educators from Europe wanted to force the deaf to try to focus on oral communication instead. Linguists rejected American Sign Language as a language until William Stokoe proved it had grammar in the 1960s., Reddit, December 25, 2012
– Deaf history – Sign Language, Education, Advocacy | Britannica, Britannica, January 2023
– Ban on Sign Language at the Milan Conference of 1880, Verywell Health, June 16, 2023
– History of Sign Language – Deaf History | Start ASL, Start ASL, February 15, 2021