The Milan Conference of 1880 is one of the most significant events in Deaf history as it came to represent a pivotal point in Deaf education. It’s also probably the best argument there is for Deaf representation. That is, a seat at our own table.
Officially known as the Second International Congress on the Education of the Deaf, the conference took place in Milan, Italy, from September 6–11, 1880. Educators from around the world gathered to discuss how deaf children should be educated.
What happened there would affect Deaf people for generations.
Before Milan
In the early 1800s, many deaf schools used sign language as part of instruction. Deaf teachers worked in schools, Deaf communities were growing, and sign languages were thriving.
At the same time, a movement known as oralism was gaining support.
Oralism is the belief that deaf children should learn to speak and lip-read instead of using sign language. Supporters believed speech would help deaf people integrate into hearing society.
Many oralists viewed sign language as inferior and believed it prevented deaf people from becoming fully part of the hearing world.
One of the most renowned supporters of oralism held significant influence at the time.
Alexander Graham Bell was already a highly respected public figure whose views carried considerable weight. Because of his prominence and advocacy, Bell is often associated with the oralist movement and the educational policies that followed Milan.
The Conference
The conference included approximately 164 delegates from around the world. 163 were hearing.
Only one delegate was deaf: James Denison, a teacher and the principal of the Primary Department of the Columbia Institution (later to become Kendall School for the Deaf) in Washington, D.C.
Many of these hearing educators had worked with deaf children for years. The problem was that Deaf people themselves were almost entirely excluded from decisions made here about their own language, culture, and education.
Supporters of oralism dominated the proceedings. Advocates of sign language were given limited opportunities to present their views.
At the end of the conference, delegates voted in favor of a series of resolutions including an “oral-only” approach, declaring oral education superior to sign language education.
It is better for deaf children to speak than to sign, they said.
Although these resolutions were not the law, schools around the world adopted them.
The Impact on Deaf Education
After Milan, most deaf schools shifted to oral-only instruction. In many, sign language was prohibited.
Deaf teachers lost their jobs and were replaced by hearing teachers who specialized in speech training.
Punishment for signing was common. Students’ hands were slapped, they were forced to sit on them, or face other disciplinary measures if they used sign language.
The Deaf child’s educational priority was now to spend large portions of the school day practicing speech and lip-reading instead of focusing on academic subjects in a fully accessible language like ASL.
It’s a practice and an attitude toward Deaf education that would continue for more than a century.
Alexander Graham Bell’s Influence
Although Bell was not directly responsible for the resolutions of the Milan Conference themselves, he was one of the most influential supporters of oralism during that period.
Despite having a deaf mother and wife, Bell believed that speech and lip-reading were preferable to sign language. His views extended beyond education. He argued that sign language separated deaf people from hearing society and expressed concerns about Deaf people forming strong social communities with one another.
In 1884, he published Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race, expressing concern that Deaf people were forming social networks, marrying one another, and creating a distinct community. Bell argued that society should discourage the conditions that encouraged Deaf intermarriage. While these ideas reflected broader eugenic thinking of the era, they also reinforced his belief that Deaf people should assimilate into hearing society rather than maintain a separate linguistic and cultural identity.
His writings and advocacy helped strengthen attitudes that favored oral education and discouraged the use of sign language.
Hearing people are usually surprised by this because Bell is widely celebrated as one of the inventors of the telephone, while many Deaf people remember him for his efforts to promote oralism over sign language.
For decades, oralism remained the dominant philosophy in most schools despite growing evidence that sign languages are complete, natural languages capable of supporting full cognitive, social, and academic development.
Language Deprivation
One of the most harmful consequences of the oral-only movement was language deprivation, which occurs when a child does not have full access to a language during the critical years of development.
Many deaf children could not fully access spoken language through hearing alone. But, they were also prevented from using sign language.
As a result, some children grew up without complete access to any language.
The effects of language deprivation can be catastrophic, leading not only to delayed language development, but academic struggles, social isolation, as well as long-term difficulty with learning and communication.
Audism and Cultural Erasure
The Milan Conference is a strong example of audism.
Audism is the belief that hearing people, hearing behaviors, or spoken language are superior to Deaf people, Deaf culture, or sign language.
The conference basically reflected the idea that deaf people should change to become more like hearing people. Rather than society including another language and adapting to support different ways of communicating, the priority was given to change the Deaf child.
At what cost? A child’s education? Their language? Their community? Their worth?
The Milan conference is widely viewed as an attempt to suppress sign languages and erase Deaf culture.
The Legacy of Milan
The effects of Milan lasted for more than a century.
Despite widespread efforts to eliminate sign language and Deaf ways of life, Deaf people persevered: signing, teaching, and preserving our ways and language.
Sign language survived not by institutions protecting it, but because Deaf people passed it from generation to generation.
But so much damage was done. And Deaf people are understandably cautious.
Even today, a medicalized view of deafness often takes precedence in discussions with new parents of deaf babies before any notion of ASL and the Deaf experience surfaces. This has a big impact on deaf children, from language acquisition to educational approaches to information access and livelihoods.
But it’s honestly very hard to look at deafness any differently when this has been the majority view for the last 100+ years.
Although it took place in 1880, the influence of the Milan Conference continued well into the twentieth century and beyond. In his memoir Deaf Utopia, Deaf activist Nyle DiMarco describes attending a Deaf school in the 1990s in which students were required to wear hearing aids during the school day and spent significant time devoted to speech and listening activities over academics. Experiences like these demonstrate how oralist philosophies remained embedded in Deaf education long after the Milan resolutions passed.
Still the Deaf community has done a lot of work to undo the effects since then. And in that time, research has helped to anchor credibility in ASL as a whole, complete language as well as document the effects of language deprivation.
As a result, today, many educators support bilingual approaches that provide deaf children with full access to sign language while teaching academics, including the use of ASL interpreters and direct ASL communication classrooms found in schools for the Deaf.
Final Thoughts
The Milan Conference serves as a reminder that Deaf people need meaningful representation in decisions that affect Deaf lives. Not tokenism, real teeth.
That can only happen when representatives are truly “of, by and for” the Deaf community. And even then, not just our trusted allies. Us.
We Deaf ensured the survival of our language and culture. A flame in the darkness kept alight.
So we carry the torch. Support our journey and help clear the path, but we’re carrying the fire.
Nothing about us, without us, ever again.
Next: Deaf President Now: The 1988 Movement That Transformed Deaf History–Back in the Spotlight