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 organise the more well-known Second Congress two years hence.
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.
Background
In the 1870s, Alexander Graham Bell and Edward Miner Gallaudet, both prominent US figures in deaf education, had been debating the effectiveness of oral-only education versus an education that utilises sign language as a means of visual communication, culminating in the 1880 Milan Conference that passed eight resolutions on deaf education.
The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf was an international meeting of deaf educators from at least seven countries. There were large delegations from Italy (87) and France (56), eight delegates from the UK, five Americans, three Swedes and 1 representative each of Belgium and Germany, respectively. The Congress was planned and organised by a committee created by the Pereire Society, an oralist organisation. More than half of the people invited were known oralists; therefore, the Congress was heavily inclined to the oralist camp and most, if not all, of the resolutions that were voted on by the delegates gave results in favour of the oral method. Many of the resolutions were worded in ways that supported the oral method, such as "Considering the incontestable superiority of speech over signs in restoring the deaf-mute to society, and in giving him a more perfect knowledge of language,/Declares –/That the Oral method ought to be preferred that of signs for the education and instruction of the deaf and dumb".
The Pereire Society was an organisation formed by the French family of Jacob Rodrigues Pereira and financed by their railroad and bank holdings (including the Société Générale du Crédit Mobilier). The Society was a strong proponent of oralism and sought to have this ratified by an international conference. They secured this outcome by carefully selecting who was invited to the Milan Conference, inviting the delegates to see the self-declared oralist success in a local school, and by encouraging negative reactions to those giving speeches supporting sign language and cheering those supporting oralism.
Delegates
The Milan Conference was attended by 164 delegates of various countries. Out of these 164 delegates only one, James Denison, was Deaf. The conference president was Abbe Giulio Tarra.
The remaining delegates' nationalities are unknown. The five US delegates present were James Denison, Edward Miner Gallaudet, Reverend Thomas Gallaudet, Isaac Lewis Peet and Charles A Stoddard.
Conference
The Conference was held in the Regio Instituto Tenico di Santa Martha in Milan from 6 to 11 September 1880. The conference was essentially an attempt by the oralist camp to legitimise an official ban of sign language from deaf education. Furthering the goal of the oralists, during the conference twelve speakers spoke on the contemporary issues connected with deaf education. Nine of the twelve speakers gave an oralist perspective, and three (the Gallaudet brothers, and Richard Elliot, a teacher from England) supported the use of sign language.
Eight resolutions
1. The convention, considering the incontestable superiority of articulation over signs in restoring the deaf-mute to society and giving him a fuller knowledge of language, declares that the oral method should be preferred to that of signs in education and the instruction of deaf-mutes. Passed 160 to 4