Charles-Michel de l'Épée

Charles-Michel de l'Épée (1712-1789) was an eighteenth century French Catholic priest and philanthropic educator known as the Father of the Deaf. Working in Paris, he became convinced that deaf people could be educated through a systematic sign language rather than being left without formal instruction, and in 1760 he established what became the first public school for the deaf, later formalized as the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris. He advocated sign language as the preferred method of teaching deaf students, developing a system of methodical signs that influenced deaf education across Europe and the Americas for generations after his death.