Education and Workforce Development Cabinet
KCDHH celebrates Deaf History Month with Web display

Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

FRANKFORT, Ky.  — Names of famous deaf champions, such as Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin and best-selling author Connie Briscoe, are familiar to scores of fans worldwide. However, the successes they have celebrated in their fields may not have been possible without the gains made in the deaf civil rights movement, which is well into its third century.

Deaf History Month, celebrated annually from March 15 - April 15, highlights three milestones in the deaf and hard of hearing community including

• March 13, 1988 – The victory of the “Deaf President Now” movement when students at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. staged a protest demanding the first deaf president for the university;  
• April 8, 1864 -  The signing of the charter for Gallaudet University by President Abraham Lincoln establishing a college for the deaf; and
• April 15, 1817 - The founding of the first public school for the deaf, American School for the Deaf, by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.

 The Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (KCDHH) is celebrating Deaf History Month with a video display on the agency’s Web site at http://www.kcdhh.ky.gov. The slide show illustrates the struggles and successes of the deaf and hard of hearing community over the past two centuries and includes photographs of the Deaf President Now movement, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and modern deaf icons, such as actresses Linda Bove, Phyllis Frelich and Matlin, college football standout Martel Van Zant and former Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, who is hard of hearing.

At the end of the slide show a list of featured links detailing more information about the slides is available.  A Deaf History Month information sheet is also posted below the slide show. 

(30)

The Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing has spent a quarter century providing effective and efficient leadership, education, advocacy and programs to eliminate barriers and to meet the social, economic, cultural and intellectual needs of deaf and hard of hearing Kentuckians. For more information, contact:

Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

632 Versailles Road  -  Frankfort, KY  40601

502-573-2604 (V/T)

800-372-2907 (V/T)

502-573-3594 Fax

www.kcdhh.ky.gov

kcdhh@kcdhh.ky.gov