Every year on the last Sunday of the first month of autumn, a holiday is celebrated all over the world - Day of the Deaf, approved in 1951 in connection with the creation of the International Association of the Deaf and Dumb. Now it is celebrated on September 27-29 annually.
According to statistics, every ninth person on Earth has difficulty hearing. The causes of this disease are completely different: the consequences of the disease, accidents, congenital malformations. There are about 30 million deaf and dumb people all over the world, and Russia accounts for about 40%, 5% of which are children under the age of majority. A large number of people, united by one common problem, realized the idea to define the International Day of the Deaf.
The history of the international deaf community dates back to 18th century France.
Charles-Michel de l'Epe's teaching method
The origins of the Association of the Deaf lie in the association of graduates of the Paris Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in the early 18th century. Like most educational institutions, this school was created by a clergyman, namely Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Epe. He not only created the world's firstspecialized educational institution for the deaf, but was also the founder of gesture pedagogy based on the works of European philosophers D. Diderot and J. Comenius.
Deaf education included the use of various speech means: verbal (written and oral speech) and non-verbal (sign language) methods. The last one was the main one. Thus, a mimic teaching technique was developed, which later became a way of communication for the deaf and dumb.
Day of the Deaf in France
The King of France approved the activities of the priest and provided financial support to the school, which became widely known throughout Europe. But the help was not enough, and the abbot had to spend all his income on the maintenance of the educational institution, which ultimately ruined it.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, graduates of the Institute of the Deaf and Dumb in Paris annually celebrate the birthday of Charles-Michel de L'Epe, celebrations in his honor have become traditional. This is also a kind of deaf day in France.
Later, three more specialized institutions for the deaf and dumb appeared in France - in Bordeaux, Metz, Chambéry, and in Paris it still exists. The deaf are not singled out in France as a separate category, they are not treated in a special way - they lead a normal ordinary life.
Sign languages
2, 5 thousand languages exist on Earth. But the language of glances and gestures is one of the most interesting forms of communication. Back in the 50th year, the World Federation of the Deaf developed a system of gestures - zhestuno. The need for this language arose to serve such events as congresses, symposiums, conferences, olympiads.
The first dictionary published in 1965 contained three hundred gestures, while the 1975 edition contained 1500.
Zestuno was not an ideal language and had a number of shortcomings:
- missing grammar rules;
- gestures were difficult to use in context;
- based on only 4 languages - British, Italian, American and Russian.
Subsequently, there was a need for a language that could get around these problems. This is how international gestural communication appeared, which developed naturally, without artificial scientific intervention. This system allowed deaf and dumb people from different countries to communicate.
Attitude towards the deaf and dumb in Russia
Today in Russia the World Day of the Deaf is also celebrated, but few people know that the first Russian school for the deaf and dumb was opened in 1802 under Alexander I. Under him, the first higher educational institution for the deaf was founded according to European standards.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the first not only in Russia, but also in Europe, a kindergarten for deaf children appeared in Moscow. At that time, institutions of learning for preschoolers werein a single quantity. Special education developed into a system and was developed only in the early 1930s. the last century. So by the mid-1990s. In the 20th century, there were about 84 schools for the deaf (in which up to 11,500 people studied), 76 schools for the hearing, but weakly (they had 10,000 people). At present, the number of special educational institutions where qualified teachers teach has increased significantly. And the International Day of the Deaf in such educational centers is one of the main holidays.
For parents of children with hearing problems in large cities of Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg) there is an opportunity to arrange their child to study in special educational institutions and visit these institutions on a standard basis every day. The state took a deaf person from birth under its care and control back in Soviet times. There was a well-organized system of education: starting in kindergarten, continuing at a boarding school, then vocational schools and universities.
Deaf Education System
This system has been preserved to this day. The gardens are able to accept children from 1.5 years old. In cities where there are no special institutions for deaf children, special groups are being opened in ordinary educational institutions. Children are taught not only to read texts adapted to their abilities, write, communicate using the dactyl alphabet, but also work with the child's correct perception of the world, the development of their own "I". They play with them, arrangeall kinds of recreational activities. Deaf Day is also celebrated every year. For children, this is really a real holiday.
All-Russian Society of the Deaf (VOG)
The All-Russian Society of People with Hearing Impairments, formed in 1926, still exists today. There are already more than 90,000 deaf people united in one large community.
The All-Russian Society of the Deaf has 76 regional and almost 900 local branches that serve deaf citizens living on the territory of the Russian Federation.
This society includes more than 340 institutions of cultural significance (both regional and local levels), the Moscow Theater of Mimicry and Gesture, rehabilitation centers and organizations.
Main tasks of VOG
Protect the rights and improve the quality of life of the deaf person - these are the main tasks of the VOG. The society actively interacts with government authorities and as a result, a new federal list of rehabilitation measures, as well as equipment and services that are provided to people with disabilities free of charge: hearing aids, special mobile phones, faxes, signaling devices, televisions, sign language translation services, etc..
Another task of the VOG is to inform society about the life of people with disabilities, their problems, and ways to solve them. A socially oriented approach to the celebration in our country of such an event as the International Day of the Deaf is also partly their merit.
Legislative approval of sign language in Russia
Not without the active participation of the VOG in Russia legislativelyapproved the sign language at the end of 2012, and also approved amendments to Federal Law 181 “On the Social Protection of Disabled Persons in the Russian Federation”, which clarifies the status of sign language in Russian transcription, defining it as a language of communication in the presence of hearing and / or speech problems. According to this Federal Law, when the hearing impaired receive education, the state is obliged to provide them with special textbooks, manuals and other educational literature, as well as the services of a sign language interpreter.
Unfortunately, in reality, the law is not implemented one hundred percent. At present, the attitude towards sign language has only changed, but there are not enough translators and qualified teachers. It is to be hoped that the situation will change soon. Of course, everyone understands that this will take more than one day. Deaf people will be heard, sooner or later! It is not for nothing that the deaf-mutes throughout the history of civilization have been able to transmit their own thoughts and emotions through other senses. There are many outstanding and truly talented individuals among them.
