The Long Story
Hearing loss, disabilities and the quest for wellness through the ages. Every milestone names the source it comes from.
1817 Hearing & Deaf history
America’s first permanent school for the deaf opens
Laurent Clerc, a Deaf teacher from France, and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet opened the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. Its classrooms helped give rise to American Sign Language.
Read more in Timecyclopedia →Source: American School for the Deaf
1864 Hearing & Deaf history
Lincoln signs the charter for what becomes Gallaudet University
President Abraham Lincoln signed the law allowing a college for deaf students in Washington, D.C. It remains the world’s only university designed around deaf and hard of hearing students.
Source: Gallaudet University
1887 Disability rights
Anne Sullivan arrives to teach Helen Keller
Sullivan reached the Keller home in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and soon spelled “water” into young Helen’s hand. Keller went on to become a world-famous author and advocate for people with disabilities.
Read more in Timecyclopedia →1948 Wellness
Health is defined as more than the absence of disease
The World Health Organization’s constitution took effect, defining health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” That whole-person idea still guides wellness today.
Source: World Health Organization
1948 Disability rights
The Stoke Mandeville Games lead to the Paralympics
Dr. Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition for injured World War II veterans in England. It grew into the Paralympic Games, first held in Rome in 1960.
1973 Disability rights
Section 504 bans disability discrimination in federal programs
The Rehabilitation Act made it illegal for programs receiving federal money to exclude people with disabilities. Protesters’ 1977 sit-ins won the rules that put it into force.
1975 Disability rights
Every child gains the right to a public education
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act — today called IDEA — guaranteed children with disabilities a free, appropriate public education.
Source: U.S. Department of Education
Mid-1980s Hearing & Deaf history
Cochlear implants are approved in the U.S.
The FDA began approving cochlear implants, devices that send sound signals directly to the hearing nerve. Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide now use them.
Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
1988 Hearing & Deaf history
Deaf President Now
Gallaudet students shut down campus for a week until the board named I. King Jordan its first deaf president. The protest became a turning point for Deaf rights.
Source: Gallaudet University
1990 Disability rights
The Americans with Disabilities Act becomes law
President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA, protecting people with disabilities in jobs, public places, transportation and telecommunications.
2021 Wellness
WHO: 1 in 4 people may have hearing problems by 2050
The first World Report on Hearing estimated that about 2.5 billion people will have some hearing loss by 2050, and called hearing care part of everyday health.
Source: World Health Organization
2022 Hearing & Deaf history
Hearing aids go over the counter
The FDA allowed adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss to buy hearing aids without a prescription or exam.
2024 Wellness
Gene therapy restores hearing in children born deaf
Early trials for a rare inherited form of deafness (the OTOF gene) let children hear for the first time — a glimpse of medicine that repairs hearing at its source.
Source: Mass Eye and Ear