National Deaf History Month is celebrated from March 13th to April 15th each year to commemorate the achievements of people who are deaf and hard of hearing. 

On April 8, 1864, America’s only higher education institution for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, Gallaudet University was founded, following President Abraham Lincoln’s approval of the charter that established the prestigious college. The university is named after notable educator and minister, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who pioneered research and advocacy for an improved educational system for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the U.S. Lastly, American School for the Deaf (ASD) in West Hartford, Connecticut — the first permanent public school for the deaf and hard-of-hearing — was founded on April 15, 1817. 

The celebration of the National Deaf History Month is traced to two deaf employees at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington D.C. who taught their colleagues sign language on March 13, 1996. This event spurred the library management led by the deaf librarian, Alice Hagemeyer — who also initiated Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action (FOLDA) — to create the Deaf Awareness Week in 1997. In 2006, the American Library Association (ALA) and National Association of the Deaf (NAD) designated March 13 to April 15 of every year as Deaf History Month and a month-long nationwide event. Since then, both advocacy organizations have continued to clamor for a federal proclamation of National Deaf History Month by the White House and/or Congress. In 2022, NAD changed Deaf History Month to the full month of April. 

On March 13, 1988, the ‘Deaf President Now’ — also known as the DPN Movement — successfully campaigned for the appointment of a deaf president at Gallaudet University. Dr. I. King Jordan subsequently became Gallaudet University’s first deaf president. 

Prominent Figures in Deaf History: 

  • Laurent Clerc (1785-1869) “The apostle to the Deaf people of the New World” 
  • Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851) Educator and namesake of Gallaudet Univ. 
  • Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Inventor and deaf educator who unfortunately believed in Eugenics and warned of the creation of a deaf race’ 
  • George W. Veditz (1861-1937) Educator who founded the Maryland School for the Deaf Alumni Association and the Gallaudet College Alumni Association. 
  • William C. Stokoe (1919-2000) Educator and inventor of a written notation for sign language.   
  • Dr. I. King Jordan (b. 1943) – Educator and president of Gallaudet 
  • Marlee Matlin (b. 1965) Deaf, award winning actress and author. 
  • Chuck Baird (1947-2012), American painter and performer, one of the founding members of the De’Via Deaf art movement 
  • Ferdinand Berthier, French intellectual, published several articles, first deaf person to receive the French Legion of Honour, founder of world’s first deaf organization.