Gerald “Bummy” Burstein died on this date (Aug. 31) in 2018 at the age of 91 in Riverside, California. Bummy is worth remembering for his tireless work on behalf of the deaf community even after he retired. The student center at the local deaf school carries his name. Burnstein was the certified Professional Parliamentarian for the National Association of the Deaf and the author of two books. His work for Gallaudet University led the Board of Trustees to rename the Gallaudet

Barbara Kannapell died four years ago on August 11, 2021 in Washington, DC at the age of 83. Image from Gallaudet.edu According to the New York Times , as a CODA, Kannapell considered American Sign Language her native language and... made it her life’s work to empower deaf and hard-of-hearing people with a sense of identity and an appreciation for their own distinct culture ... Throughout her early schooling, Dr. Kannapell felt the sting of what is now known as audism — reje

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 consi

Ursula Bellugi, the first to demonstrate that ASL is a true language, died at the age of 91, two years ago today (April 17, 2022)....