Way back in 1880, deaf education suffered a major blow when the International Congress on Education of the Deaf voted to ban sign language from deaf education. As we know, sign language survived, and even thrived. Then in an article about the use of cell phones to help mainstreamed deaf children in Africa, I spotted this paragraph:
This summer in Vancouver, the 21st International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED) will convene from Sunday to Thursday with the hope of abolishing a resolution from the 1880 ICED that removed sign language from educational programs.
Say what? It is 2010, and the ICED still has not overturned the Milan 1880 edict? I had to read the article twice because I was in disbelief. Can anyone verify for me that the Milan 1880 edict has been in effect all these years ?
perhaps of interest:
http://audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com/2010/06/afas-vlog-and-letter-to-iced-re-apology.html
http://audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com/2010/07/iceds-reply-to-afa-re-apology-and-our.html
peace
patti
Yes it has, Jamie. To date, the ICED has not offered any sort of apology or repudiation of its 1880 edict. They have even tried to deny it by saying they are not the same group that made the edict back then, even though the ICED’s own website clearly shows they had their second meeting in Milan, Italy in 1880!
This resolutions of Milan 1880 have been defeated! ICED issued a press release as they agreed to overturn and issued regrets… It’s a major victory for Deaf Communities around the world!