History of Deaf Education in Europe

Main Point: Deaf education in Europe began in the 16th century and evolved through competing methods—manual (sign) and oral—leading to today’s bilingual programs.

Early attempts to teach deaf students date to the 1500s in Spain. Pedro Ponce de León, a Benedictine monk, taught noble children to speak, read, and write, sometimes using simple hand signs[1]. In 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published the first book on a manual alphabet for the Deaf, showing that handshapes could represent letters of written language[2].

In 1755, Abbé Charles-Michel de l’Épée opened a free school in Paris. He learned signs used by deaf Parisians and developed “methodical signs,” a system combining French Sign Language with a manual alphabet. His school later became the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris and inspired over twenty similar schools in Europe[3].

Soon after, other countries followed:

• United Kingdom (1760): Thomas Braidwood started a private academy in Edinburgh, teaching both speech and signs, known as the “combined method”[4].
• Germany (1778): Samuel Heinicke founded a public school in Leipzig. He opposed sign language and emphasized lipreading and speech, a style called the “oral method”[5].
• Netherlands (1790): Henri Daniel Guyot founded a deaf public school in Groningen after he met l’Epée in Paris. 

By the 1800s, Europe had two main camps:

• Sign Language Method: This method believed that sign language was the best and most natural way for deaf people to learn and communicate. Teachers believed that deaf children could understand lessons better through signs, because sign language was their real language. It allowed them to express themselves fully and learn in a way that suited them best.
• Oral Method:This method focused on speaking and lipreading. The goal was to make deaf people more like hearing people and help them live in hearing society. Teachers often thought that sign language was abnormal and should not be used. Deaf children were expected to speak, read lips, and communicate only with hearing people instead of using signs.

This “method war” peaked at the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Milan, Italy, in 1880. Educators voted 160 to 4 to ban sign language in schools and require pure oral education. Deaf teachers lost jobs and sign languages were suppressed for nearly a century[6].

The result, often called the “Dark Age of Deaf Education,” left many deaf students without a natural language and with limited literacy. By the early 1900s, educators recognized that oral methods alone failed many learners. Gradual reintroduction of sign language began to support speech training[4].

In the 1970s, research by William Stokoe and others proved that sign languages are full natural and real languages. This scientific validation sparked the modern rights movement and renewed respect for sign language[4].

Today, most European countries adopt bilingual education: deaf children learn both sign language and the local spoken/written language. Models include:

• Schools for the Deaf using sign language.
• Mainstream classrooms with sign language interpreters.
• Bilingual programs integrating two languages: sign and speech.

These approaches ensure deaf students access language, culture, and academic content from an early age. The shift from exclusion of sign to embracing bilingualism highlights the importance of natural language for all learners[7].