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This is a list of deaf firsts noting the first time that a deaf person achieved a given historical feat. This list also includes some deafblind persons.
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This is a list of deaf firsts noting the first time that a deaf person achieved a given historical feat. This list also includes some deafblind persons.
Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when she was 19 months old. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller language, including reading and writing. After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, Keller attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Marlee Matlin is an American actress, author, and activist. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind.
Deafblindness is the condition of little or no useful hearing and little or no useful sight. Different degrees of vision loss and auditory loss occur within each individual. Because of this inherent diversity, each deafblind individual's needs regarding lifestyle, communication, education, and work need to be addressed based on their degree of dual-modality deprivation, to improve their ability to live independently. In 1994, an estimated 35,000–40,000 United States residents were medically deafblind. Helen Keller was a well-known example of a deafblind individual. To further her lifelong mission to help the deafblind community to expand its horizons and gain opportunities, the Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults, with a residential training program in Sands Point, New York, was established in 1967 by an act of Congress.
Tactile signing is a common means of communication used by people with deafblindness. It is based on a sign language or another system of manual communication.
The history of deaf people and deaf culture make up deaf history. The Deaf culture is a culture that is centered on sign language and relationships among one another. Unlike other cultures the Deaf culture is not associated with any native land as it is a global culture. By some, deafness may be viewed as a disability, but the Deaf world sees itself as a language minority. Throughout the years many accomplishments have been achieved by deaf people. To name the most famous, Ludwig van Beethoven and Thomas Alva Edison were both deaf and contributed great works to culture.
The National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) is a Connecticut-based theatre company founded in 1967. It is the oldest theatre company in the United States with a continuous history of domestic and international touring, as well as producing original works. NTD productions combine American Sign Language with spoken language to fulfill the theatre's mission statement of linking Deaf and hearing communities, providing more exposure to sign language, and educating the public about Deaf art. The NTD is affiliated with a drama school, also founded in 1967, and with the Little Theatre of the Deaf (LTD), established in 1968 to produce shows for a younger audience.
A child of deaf adult, often known by the acronym CODA, is a person who was raised by one or more deaf parent or legal guardian. Ninety percent of children born to deaf adults can hear normally, resulting in a significant and widespread community of CODAs around the world, although whether the child is hearing, deaf, or hard of hearing has no effect on the definition. The acronym KODA is sometimes used to refer to CODAs under the age of 18.
Henry Winter Syle was the first deaf person to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in the United States.
Sophia Kindrick Alcorn was an educator who invented the Tadoma method of communication with people who are deaf and blind. She advocated for the rights of people with disabilities and upon retiring from her long career in teaching, she worked with the American Foundation for the Blind.
Father Cyril Bernhard Axelrod,, CSsR is a deafblind Catholic priest of the Redemptorist Order, known for his work with deaf and deafblind people. He has ministered to the deaf and deafblind around the world, including in South Africa, China and the United Kingdom. In 2014 he became the first deafblind person to become an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Haben Girma is an American disability rights advocate, and the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School.
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law is a memoir by Haben Girma, disability rights advocate and first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School.
Agatha Tiegel Hanson was the second woman to graduate from the National Deaf-Mute College in 1893 and the first woman to receive a Bachelor of Arts from the school. She worked as an educator for deaf students and advocated for the deaf community throughout her life. Hanson also wrote poetry and edited a newspaper for the deaf.
Angeline Fuller Fischer was an American writer. She is considered one of the earliest deaf feminists due to her advocacy for the equal education of deaf women. Her poems and articles were published in publications across the United States; in 1908 the newspaper The Silent Worker called Fischer "one of America's great deaf poets".
CODA is a 2021 coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Sian Heder. An English-language remake of the 2014 French-Belgian film La Famille Bélier, it stars Emilia Jones as Ruby Rossi, the child of deaf adults (CODA) and only hearing member of her family, who attempts to help her family's struggling fishing business while pursuing her aspirations to become a singer.
Edith Mabel Nelson was a librarian known for being the first Deaf woman in the Gallaudet Hall of Fame, and the last Deaf library director at Gallaudet University.
Troy Michael Kotsur is an American actor. Born deaf, Kotsur made his acting debut in the late 1980s working with the National Theatre of the Deaf. His television debut was in a 2001 episode of Strong Medicine and his film debut was in the 2007 thriller The Number 23.
Anindya Bapin Bhattacharyya is an Indian American technology instructor for the deafblind. He coordinates the National Outreach Technology Development and Training Program at the Helen Keller National Center for DeafBlind Youths and Adults, traveling the country teaching deafblind people to use adaptive technology. Deaf from birth and blind at the age of nine, Bhattacharyya has been an advocate for deafblind individuals in the United States and beyond.
The first deaf mute clergyman in the United States was the Rev Henry WL Syle who was ordained deacon by Bishop Stevens of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in October 1876 and advanced to the priesthood in 1883