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1550
Pedro Ponce de Leon
Spanish Benedictine monk who is often credited as being "the first teacher for the deaf" establishes a school for the deaf at the San Salvador Monastery in Madrid in later part of 1500's. -
Juan Bonet
Early in the 1600’s Juan Bonet developed an early version of finger spelling for individuals who were deaf. Considered the first modern treaty of phonetics of signed language and the use of signed language to teach speech to the deaf. -
Paris School for the Deaf
In 1760, the Abbe’ de l’Epee opened a school in Paris for individuals who were deaf, and organized education for people who were deaf was started. -
National Institution of Young Blind People
An associate of the Abbe’ de l’Epee, Alentine Juay, became interested in people who were blind and vowed to improve their lot in life after witnessing the exploitation for public entertainment of 10 men who were blind. By 1784 he had established a school for individuals who were blind, the National Institution of Young Blind People. -
Establishment of Institutions in Europe
By the 18th Century institutions for students with sensory impairments (blind, deaf) had been established in Europe. They were not supported by the government, but by wealthy individuals who had some empathy for the disabled. This was followed in the early 1800's by institutions for the mentally ill and mentally retarded, although there was no distinction made between these two groups. -
Jean Marc Gaspard Itard
Due to his work with Victor, the "wild child of Aveyron" Itard is generally acknowledged today as the "Father" of special education. Many of the techniques he developed to teach Victor are still in use today and formed the beginning of education for people with disabilities. -
Laurent Clerc
Louis Laurent Marie Clerc, the first deaf teacher of the deaf in America, and who became known as "The Apostle of the Deaf in America, meets Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet will giving a lecture in England. -
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet is sent by Mason Cogswell, a wealthy American businessman and father of a young deaf girl, to Europe to study established systems for teaching the deaf in hope of bringing such methods to the United States. -
American School for the Deaf
Gallaudet and Clerc promote education of the Deaf in the United States and establish the American School for the Deaf which became a state-supported school. -
Louis Braille
Blinded in both eyes as a result of an early childhood accident, Louis Braille masters his disability while still a boy and develops a system of reading and writing for use by the blind or visually impaired at the age of 15. His system remains virtually unchanged to this day, and is known worldwide simply as braille. -
Perkins School for the Blind
Samuel Gridley Howe, a social reformer and educator, establishes the Perkins School for the Blind in 1829. Howe is an early promoter of inclusion of individuals with disabilities in the general community. -
Édouard Séguin
Édouard Séguin, a student of Itard, establishes the first private school in Paris dedicated to the education of individuals with intellectual disabilities and in 1846 publishes what is considered to be the earliest systematic textbook dealing with the special needs of children with intellectual disabilities. He emigrates to the US in 1848 and becomes a leader in educating individuals with intellectual disabilities. -
Dorthea Dix
Dorthea Dix and Samuel Gridley Howe establish the Walter E. Fernald State School, the Western Hemisphere’s oldest
publicly-funded institution serving the individuals with intellectual disabilities. -
Public school class for deaf children
The Boston School for Deaf-Mutes (now named Horace Mann School for the Deaf), is founded under the direction of the Boston School Board. It is the first free public day-school for the deaf ever established. -
Public school class for children with intellectual disabilities
First public school class for children with intellectual disabilities
established in Providence, Rhode Island in 1896. -
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell suggests that classes for children with hearing impairments, visual impairments, and intellectual disabilities be provided in public school buildings. -
Elizabeth Farrell
Elizabeth Farrell, considered to be first person to teach a class of special education students in an American public school and later to become the first president of the Council for Exceptional Children, is given permission to create a a program for “backwards” or “slow learning” children in New York City. Many other classrooms patterned after her model open across the city. -
Council for Exceptional Children
The International Council for the Education of Exceptional Children is organized by a group of administrators and supervisors attending the summer session at Teachers College, Columbia University, and their faculty members on August 10, 1922. The Council begins with 12 members. Elizabeth E. Farrell is the Founder and first President.
