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The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf was an international conference of deaf educators held in Milan, Italy in 1880. It is commonly known as the "Milan Conference" or "Milan Congress". This Congress was preceded by the First International Congress in Paris in 1878. Joseph Marius Magnat, a Swiss former oralist, received a significant donation to organize the more well-known Second Congress two years hence.[1]
After deliberations from 6 to 11 September 1880, the Milan Conference declared that oral education (oralism) was superior to manual education (sign language) and passed a resolution banning the use of sign language in school. After its passage, various European and American schools largely switched to using speech therapy without sign language as a method of deaf education until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when sign language started to be recognised as the ideal method of deaf education.
In 2010, a formal apology was made by the board at the 21st International Congress on Education of the Deaf in Vancouver, BC, Canada, acknowledging the detrimental effects of such a ban as an act of discrimination and violation of both human and constitutional rights.[2]
- ^ Van Cleve, J. V., & Crouch, B. A. (1989). A place of their own: creating the deaf community in America. Gallaudet University Press.
- ^ Moores, Donald F (2010). "The 21st International Congress on Education of the Deaf and the Repudiation of the 1880 Congress of Milan". American Annals of the Deaf. 155 (3). Gallaudet University Press: 309–310. doi:10.1353/aad.2010.0016. Retrieved 10 October 2023.