Deaf Awareness Week is celebrated the last full week in September to commemorate the first World Congress of the Deaf by the World Federation of the Deaf in September 1951.
Some of the primary purposes of DAW is to celebrate deaf people's history, language and culture, as well as to recognize notable deaf people; to bring attention from politicians and lawmakers to deaf issues and concerns, and to provide information about educational programs, support services, and resources that are available to all hearing impaired people.
This diary is a hodgepodge of deaf-related trivia.
 Laurent Clerc, called the Apostle of the Deaf, is the first deaf teacher in the United States. Born in France in 1785, he became deaf as a child when he sustained a blow to his head after falling from a chair. He was sent to the renowned school for the deaf in Paris where he learned sign language. He, along with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founded what would later be known as the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. |
 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia in 1787. He initially became a preacher, but after he met his nine year old deaf neighbor, Alice Cogswell, her father asked him to go to Europe to learn deaf education methods. While in Europe, he met Laurent Clerc. Gallaudet University is named for him. The photo on the left is a statue of Gallaudet teaching Alice the manual letter A. The statue, which graces the front entrance of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., was created by Daniel Chester French, the same person who did the Lincoln Memorial. Legend has it that the statue of Lincoln shows his hands forming the manual letters A and L, his initials, but National Parks Service disputes this. |
 Ferdinand Berthier who was born in 1803 in France was a contemporary of Victor Hugo (see Quotes below), the author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, whose main character, Quasimodo was deaf. Ferdinand was also a student at the school for the deaf in Paris and he was one of the first advocates of deaf identity and culture. |
| Dr. Andrew Foster Born in Alabama in 1925, he later became deaf from spinal meningitis when he was a child. In 1951, He was the first and only black person to be admitted to what was then Gallaudet College, and the first black person to graduate there. While he was a student at Gallaudet, he worked with deaf inner city kids, which influenced his decision to become a missionary for the deaf in Africa. As a missionary, he founded many of the schools for the deaf there. |
| Gallaudet University, established in 1864 when Abraham Lincoln signed a charter to establish a national college for deaf students, is the only liberal arts college for the deaf in the United States. |
| Deaflympics, formerly World Games of the Deaf is one of the oldest Olympics-sanctioned events, after the Olympics itself. Unlike the Paralympics, they receive no funding from the International Olympics Committee. They held their summer event this year. The winter event for 2011 was cancelled due to, you guessed it, lack of funds. |
| National Theater of the Deaf is an acclaimed theater company that has performed plays in sign language since 1967. They have both deaf and hearing actors. The hearing actors use ASL for their own roles, and act as voice interpreters for the deaf actors on stage. I have seen two different plays by this company, and wow, are they ever so mesmerizing! |
Some Famous Deaf Americans
 Deaf Smith was one of Sam Houston's best scouts and was involved in a couple of battles in Texas. |
 "Dummy" Hoy was a deaf major league baseball player in the 1890's. The umpires hand signals were created because of him. |
| Black Coyote was a Lakota Sioux who may have been one of the first, if not the first, to be killed at Wounded Knee. When the tribe was ordered to disarm, the army went around searching for more weapons, and found Black Coyote who didn't want to give up his newly purchased gun. Tribe witnesses reported that they tried to tell the soldiers that Black Coyote couldn't hear and probably didn't understand them, but they shot him, starting the massacre. The video below tells his story, narrated by a deaf Native American. |
| Marlee Matlin is the only deaf actor to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Actress in 1987 for her role in the movie, Children of a Lesser God. She can currently be seen in the ABC Family drama, Switched at Birth, an ASL-heavy series about two children, one hearing and one deaf (played by another actress), who were switched at birth. |
| Heather Whitestone, the first deaf woman to win the title of Miss America in 1995. |
| Lou Ferrigno, a body-builder best known as the alter ego of Dr. David Banner in the 1970's TV series, The Incredible Hulk. |
Quotes
Every decent man, and every real gentleman in particular, ought to apply himself, above all things, to the study of his native language, so as to express his ideas with ease and gracefulness.
Laurent Clerc, 1864
What matters deafness of the ears when the mind hears? The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.
Victor Hugo to Ferdinand Berthier, 1845
The world that you are hearing now
Is the same world that I see
verse from I Hear Your Hand by Mary Jane Rhodes, mother of a deaf child
The problem is not that the students do not hear. The problem is that the hearing world does not listen.And for a bit of humor, this fake quote attributed to Beethoven, who himself lost his hearing.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, during the Deaf President Now protest in 1988. He gets it.
