For their contribution to Deaf Education and Sign Language, cartoon images of Gallaudet and Clerc appear more than once in my ASL Dictionary. In celebration of tomorrow’s International Day of Sign Languages 2023, the ASL Name Signs for these two teachers. For Gallaudet’s Name Sign, I gave him a ‘wilder appearance’ than his stoic portraits. Possibly a subconscious reference to the long trips Gallaudet took across land and sea to achieve his mission. The wide G hand by the side of the eye pulls back into a closed G, a descriptive reference to the educator’s glasses. The ASL hand sign is also the sign for GLASSES.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a minister and American educator whose work and dedication brought sign language and deaf education to the Western Hemisphere. He was an educational pioneer who co-founded, along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, the first American School for the Deaf in 1817.
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