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.

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

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

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

Karen Alkoby became the first deaf woman in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in computer science on this date (June 15) in 2008. She graduated from Chicago's DePaul University, helping to pioneer a computer-animated dictionary. Alkoby’s dissertation involved determining how the human brain interprets shapes like those made by hands in ASL. This may help with the creation of an ASL-to-English dictionary. She now teaches computer science at Gallaudet University. Read more about her acc

Julie Brace was born on June 13, 1807. At the age of 17, the deafblind woman enrolled at the American School for the Deaf, in Hartford, Connecticut. The story of Julia Brace: Born in Hartford County, Connecticut. Became deaf-blind at age five from typhoid fever. Developed a home sign that she used with her parents. On June 11, 1825, she moved to the Hartford Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb (now called the American School for the Deaf). She learned tactile signing, depite being

Here are two videos filmed in 1954 at the UK's Royal School for Deaf Children in Margate.

On this date (June 1) in 1948 Bonnie Sloan was born in Tennessee. Bonnie would become the first deaf player in the NFL at the age of 25 when he ran onto the field when the St. Louis Cardinals took on the Philadelphia Eagles in 1973. His career only lasted one season because of a knee injury, but he made his mark. The 6-foot-5, 260-pounder came out of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, where he was the first player to bench press 500 pounds. Sloan was an A

About 20 years before Helen Keller’s education, Laura Bridgman became first deaf-blind American to gain a significant education in the English language. The two were connected through Bridgman's friend Anne Sullivan who became Helen Keller's teacher and aide. Born in New Hampshire on Dec. 21, 1829, Bridgman lost her sight and hearing at two years of age to scarlet fever. She had limited communication skills until the director of the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown,

It was on this day (May 23) in 1862 that William Ellsworth Hoy was born. Known professionally as "Dummy" Hoy, he played in the major leagues for seven seasons, mostly for the Cincinnati Reds. Born on May 23, 1862, in Houcktown, Ohio, near Toledo. Hoy lost his hearing at the age of three due to meningitis. He graduated from the Ohio State School for the Deaf as class valedictorian in 1879. The school honored him with a plaque in March of 2023. WXYX-TV has a report on it here.

Frank Gallo Jr., born on May 16, 1947, in Lanham, Maryland, became the first deaf member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) in 1972. In 1990, Gallo became the first person to win both tournaments of the National Deaf Bowling Association. The rules were then changed to prevent professional bowlers from participating in these tournaments. Gallo was married on April 4, 2004, in Las Vegas, while bowling in the ABC Seniors Masters. He worked in computer programming with

It was on this date (May 5) in 1889 that Frederick Barnard died at the age of 80. His full name was Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard. The deaf American educator was quite the renaissance man. Besides teaching college students, he was a scientist, writer and mathematician. Barnard served as president of the University of Mississippi, then took the same position at Columbia College in New York City (it later became a university). The year he died, an affiliated college for wom

The Texas Archive of the Moving Image has posted footage showing a day at Austin's Texas School for the Deaf in the 1960s. The activities include students in the classroom, playing basketball, and in their dormitory.

One of the first deaf actresses to have a major role on a TV series died on this day (April 22, 2015) in Fremont, California. CBS Photo archive Audree Norton was 88 years old. A founding member of The National Theatre of the Deaf, Norton appeared on the CBS show Mannix in 1968 and later on The Streets of San Francisco and Family Affair. When she was cut out of a role just because she was deaf, Norton filed a complaint with the Screen Actors Guild. John Schuchman suggests in h

On this date (April 20) in 1786, John Goodricke died. Goodricke only survived to the age of 21, but the deaf astronomer made a major impact on his field. Working with Edward Pigott, Goodricke learned to measure the variation of light coming from stars. This would eventually lead astronomers to figure out the distance of galaxies from the Earth. While still a teenager, the Royal Society of London awarded him the Copley Medal, making him the youngest person to be given its high