Casterline made a major contribution in the 1950s to a book that revolutionized the study of Deaf culture. image: Gallaudet.edu Casterline was a young researcher when she begain helping Gallaudet University professor William C. Stokoe on what would become A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. Eventually published in 1965 with help from another professor, Carl Croneberg, it was the first comprehensive dictionary of American Sign Language and conside

Deaf since the age of 4, deaf actor and drummer Bob Hiltermann was born on this day (August 1, 1952) in Germany, the 10th of eleven children born. A bout with meningitis left him deaf but he wasn't diagnosed until the age of ten. Hiltermann learned ASL while attending Gallaudet University and later formed MuSign (a Signing/Mime company). He acted with Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God, was featured in See What I'm Saying and The Hammer, he created ASL videos called Sh

It was on this day (July 26, 1990) that President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disability Act into law. Senator Tom Harkin says the ADA law was inspired by his deaf brother. The Iowa Democrat says watching his brother, Frank, struggle against social barriers motivated him to push the ADA bill through the U.S. Congress. The law prohibits private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating against qualified indi

On this date (July 23) in 2003, a revival of Big River opened on Broadway with a cast of hearing and deaf actors. Roger Miller's 1985 musical about Huck Finn was the first Broadway show to do so since the 1980's Children of a Lesser God. The show was a co-production of the Roundabout Theater Company and West Hollywood's Deaf West Theater. Big River won 7 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Here's a video of that 2004 Tony Awards ceremony.

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Ed "Dummy" Dundon, who was born on July 10, 1859, went on to become the first deaf player to play baseball professionally . After attending the Ohio State School for the Deaf, Dundon went on to play several years of professional baseball. He had two seasons with the Columbus Buckeyes before retiring and becoming an umpire. During his hitch with the Buckeyes in 1883 and 1884, Dundon had a record of 9-20 and a 4.25 ERA. Like many deaf ball players at the time, he got a common (

It was on this date (July 10) in 2002 that a District of Columbia judge sentenced Joseph Mesa, Jr. to life without the possibility of parole for the murders of two Gallaudet classmates. The 22-year-old from Guam was convicted of first beating Eric Plunkett to death in September of 2000 and then stabbing Benjamin Varner to death in February of 2001. Both attacks took place in Gallaudet dorm rooms. Mesa took money from both victims but turned himself in to police a few days af

Actress Shoshannah Stern is now 46 years old! image: thepaparazzigamer Here are some things to know about her: Shoshannah was born July 3, 1980 in Walnut Creek, California. She is fourth-generation deaf. Her first language is American Sign Language. Both of her grandmothers are Holocaust survivors. She attended the California School for the Deaf, Fremont and Gallaudet University. She is married and has one daughter. Stern has also served as an executive story editor for the M

On July 1, 1993, the FCC began requiring all U.S. analog television receivers with screens 13 inches or larger to include built-in decoder circuitry that could display closed captioning.

Helen Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe College on June 28, 1904. . She became the first deafblind person to graduate from college with a B.A. Radcliffe was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a part of Harvard University.

Here is a newsreel showing Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan with open captions and audio descriptions. Keller was born on June 27, 1880.

The statue of Thomas Gallaudet, greeting visitors to the university that bears his name, was unveiled on June 26, 1889. The work of sculptor Daniel Chester French, the bronze statue shows Gallaudet teaching a little girl, Alice Cogswell. She holds a book to her heart, with the alphabet running across the page. They are practicing the letter “A” of American Sign Language. She was a neighbor of the Gallaudets in Connecticut. Thomas noticed Alice did not play with the other c

Deaf Finnish rap artist Signmark (Marko Vuoriheimo) was born on this day (June 26) in Helsinki, Finland, in 1978. image from myhelsinki.fi The child of deaf parents, Signmark stumbled into Hip Hop music while translating songs into sign. He felt a connection between the rapper's hand gestures and sign language. He now works with other artists who sing as he signs, becoming the first deaf rapper to sign with a major label. His first album was released in 2006. Signmark came i

It was on this date (June 23) 1943, that Vinton Cerf, who is hard of hearing, was born in New Haven, Connecticut. (image Royal Society) President Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert Kahn, in 1977 for founding and developing the Internet. In 2004, the pair received the ACM Alan M. Turing Award, often called the "Nobel Prize of Computer Science." In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Cerf and Kahn the Presidential Medal

Below are some facts about James Caverly, who already has a number of acting credits. He was born on this day (Jun 16) in 1989. Born deaf on June 16, 1989 in Royal Oak, Michigan “I am close to profoundly deaf, but I don’t use that term … it’s a medical term. I prefer to use ‘Deaf’ since it’s more of an identity nomenclature than a medical one.” His parents and two younger brothers are hearing, but he has a sister who is deaf His entire family uses ASL He attended a hearing pu