Disability History Week

1793

Phillipe Pinel, a doctor at La Bicetre, a Paris asylum, unchains the mental patients at the institution. The unchaining of the insane became known as the "moral treatment" and was replaced with the use of straitjackets. Seven years later he would create a four part classification system of major mental illnesses, a first of its kind.

1800

Jean-Marc Itard began his training sessions with Victor, the "Wild boy of Aveyron." Over the course of one year Victor is able to form the word "milk" or "lait" in French using metal letters. Itard is later discouraged when he realizes that Victor can only say the word and does not actually relate it to the object.

1801

Jean Marc Gaspard Itard attempts to teach and train Victor the "Wild Boy of Aveyron." Itard, whose career started in the medical field, devised methods of instruction that are still influential.

1817

Thomas H. Gallaudet established the first free American school for the deaf and hearing impaired in 1817. The school was built in Hartford, Connecticut and was named the Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons and later became known as the American School for the Deaf. Gallaudet was also an advocate of manual training in all schools. Vocational education was added to his school's curriculum in 1822.

1832

The Perkins School for the Blind is opened in Boston, Massachusetts by Samuel Gridley Howe. Howe became the country's leading expert on educating the disabled. In 1848, Howe establishes the Massachusetts School for Idiotic Children and Youth, one of the first of its kind in the United States. His most famous student was Laura Bridgman, a blind and deaf girl, who became very popular with the public.

1838

Jean Etienne Esquirol publishes Des Maladies Mentales. Esquirol was the first to distinguish between mental illness and mental retardation. He also established a classification system for mental disabilities.

1839

Edouard Seguin opened the first school for the severely retarded in France. His methods for educating mentally disabled children by using sensory training became famous throughout the world. In 1850 Seguin immigrated to the United States and established other teaching centers that utilized his methods.

1841

Dorothea Dix advocates for separation of the disabled incarcerated in penitentiaries and poorhouses. Her efforts lead to the establishment of 32 state run mental institutions across the United States.