History of ASL and Gallaudet University Explained

The history of ASL and Gallaudet University are so deeply intertwined that understanding one requires knowing the other. From the founding partnership of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in 1817 to the Deaf President Now movement that electrified the world in 1988, these stories trace how American Sign Language evolved from an unrecognized communication method into a fully acknowledged language — and how one university became the cultural and intellectual heart of the American Deaf community.

The Origins of American Sign Language

American Sign Language did not spring from a single invention — it grew from the convergence of multiple signing traditions in early 19th-century America. Before any formal deaf education existed in the United States, Deaf people in various communities had developed their own local sign systems. The most notable was Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL), used on Martha’s Vineyard island in Massachusetts where hereditary deafness was unusually common. MVSL was used by both Deaf and hearing residents, creating a uniquely integrated bilingual community.

The pivotal moment came in 1815 when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a hearing minister from Hartford, Connecticut, traveled to Europe seeking methods to educate his neighbor’s deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell. After being rebuffed by British oral schools that guarded their methods as trade secrets, Gallaudet visited the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris. There he met Laurent Clerc, a brilliant Deaf educator who communicated in French Sign Language (Langue des Signes Française, or LSF).

Gallaudet persuaded Clerc to return with him to America. During the 52-day sea voyage, Gallaudet taught Clerc English while Clerc taught Gallaudet LSF. In 1817, they co-founded the American School for the Deaf (ASD) in Hartford — the first permanent school for deaf students in the United States. At ASD, LSF merged with the various home sign systems that students brought from across the country, including elements of MVSL. This organic blending produced what we now know as American Sign Language.

This origin explains why ASL shares significant vocabulary with French Sign Language but is completely unintelligible to users of British Sign Language, despite the shared spoken language between the U.S. and UK. The linguistic roots of ASL are French, not English — a fact that surprises many people learning the history of ASL and Gallaudet University for the first time.

Founding Gallaudet University

The success of the American School for the Deaf inspired a national movement. By the 1850s, dozens of residential schools for deaf students had opened across the country, all using sign language as the medium of instruction. This growing network of educated Deaf adults created demand for higher education.

In 1856, Amos Kendall, a wealthy former Postmaster General, donated land in Washington, D.C. for a school serving deaf and blind children. He recruited Edward Miner Gallaudet — Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet’s youngest son — to lead the institution. Edward was just 20 years old, but he had grown up immersed in Deaf education and was fluent in sign language. His mother, Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, was Deaf, making Edward a CODA (child of Deaf adult) before the term existed.

Edward Miner Gallaudet advocated tirelessly for the school to offer college-level education. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation authorizing the institution — then called the National Deaf-Mute College — to confer college degrees. It was the first institution of higher education in the world specifically designed for Deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The college was later renamed Gallaudet College in 1894 and achieved university status as Gallaudet University in 1986.

Gallaudet quickly became the intellectual and cultural center of the American Deaf community. Its campus in Washington, D.C. served as a gathering place where Deaf scholars, artists, educators, and leaders from across the country connected, debated, and shaped the future of Deaf education and rights. The university’s influence extended far beyond academics — it was where ASL was refined, studied, and ultimately defended against attempts to eliminate it.

The Dark Era of Oralism

The history of ASL and Gallaudet University cannot be told without addressing the devastating oralism movement that nearly destroyed sign language education. In 1880, the International Congress on Education of the Deaf (ICED) held in Milan, Italy, passed a resolution declaring oral education (lip reading and speech) superior to sign language. Deaf educators were largely excluded from the vote.

The Milan Congress triggered a seismic shift. Schools across Europe and North America banned sign language from classrooms. Deaf teachers — who had comprised a significant portion of faculty at deaf schools — were systematically replaced by hearing teachers who used only oral methods. Students caught signing were punished, sometimes physically. The goal was to make Deaf children appear hearing, prioritizing speech production over actual education and comprehension.

The results were catastrophic. Generations of Deaf students received substandard education because they could not fully access the curriculum through lip reading and speech alone. Literacy rates plummeted. Many Deaf adults from this era describe their school years as a time of confusion, isolation, and suppressed identity. The irony is that ASL never disappeared — it simply moved underground, thriving in dormitories, Deaf clubs, and private homes where students signed freely among themselves.

Gallaudet remained a crucial refuge during this period. While many programs shifted toward oralism, the university maintained sign language as a living part of campus life. Gallaudet’s Deaf faculty, Deaf student body, and signing campus culture preserved ASL through the darkest decades of the oralist era.

The tide began to turn in 1960 when linguist William Stokoe, a hearing professor at Gallaudet, published research proving that ASL met every linguistic criterion of a true language — it had phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, just expressed through a visual-gestural modality instead of an auditory-vocal one. Stokoe’s work, initially ridiculed by both hearing and some Deaf academics, eventually revolutionized the field and laid the scientific foundation for ASL’s recognition.

Deaf President Now and Modern Legacy

The most dramatic chapter in the shared history of ASL and Gallaudet University unfolded in March 1988 with the Deaf President Now (DPN) protest. When the Gallaudet Board of Trustees selected a hearing president — Elisabeth Zinser — over two qualified Deaf candidates (I. King Jordan and Harvey Corson), students erupted in protest.

For a week, students, faculty, staff, and alumni shut down the campus. They barricaded the gates, marched to the U.S. Capitol, and attracted national media attention. Their four demands were clear: appoint a Deaf president, remove the board chair (who had dismissively stated “Deaf people are not ready to function in the hearing world”), restructure the board to include a Deaf majority, and impose no reprisals against protesters.

On March 13, 1988, all four demands were met. I. King Jordan became the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University. His famous statement — “Deaf people can do anything hearing people can, except hear” — became a rallying cry that echoed far beyond campus. DPN is widely considered the most significant event in American Deaf rights history, comparable in impact to major civil rights milestones.

DPN’s ripple effects were profound. It accelerated passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. It inspired Deaf communities worldwide to advocate for their own sign language rights. It shifted public perception of Deaf people from objects of charity to a self-determined cultural and linguistic minority. And it cemented Gallaudet’s role not just as a university but as the symbolic heart of Deaf self-determination.

Gallaudet Today

Today, Gallaudet University serves approximately 1,100 undergraduate and 400 graduate students from all 50 states and over 40 countries. The university offers more than 40 majors, has a thriving research program in sign language linguistics and deaf studies, and operates the only university press focused on Deaf topics.

ASL-English bilingualism is the university’s educational philosophy. Classes are conducted in ASL, with English as a co-equal academic language. Faculty include Deaf scholars who are leaders in fields ranging from linguistics and education to neuroscience and public policy. Gallaudet’s campus in the Kendall Green neighborhood of northeast Washington, D.C. remains one of the few places in the world where ASL is the dominant language of daily life.

The university continues to be a site of activism and cultural evolution. In 2006, a second major protest — sometimes called “Unity for Gallaudet” — challenged the appointment of a president perceived as insufficiently connected to Deaf culture and values, resulting in the appointment being rescinded. These events demonstrate that the Gallaudet community remains deeply engaged in questions of identity, language, and leadership.

Gallaudet also drives research that benefits the broader world. Its VL2 Center (Visual Language and Visual Learning) studies how visual languages are processed in the brain, producing insights relevant to bilingual education, cognitive science, and language acquisition. The Gallaudet Research Institute collects demographic and educational data about deaf and hard-of-hearing students nationwide, informing policy decisions at every level.

Understanding the history of ASL and Gallaudet University is not just academic — it is essential context for anyone learning sign language, working with Deaf individuals, or advocating for communication access. These intertwined stories remind us that language rights are human rights, and that the Deaf community’s fight for recognition and respect has shaped not only their own world but the broader landscape of civil rights in America.

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