Thomas Gallaudet was an educator who, upon meeting a deaf girl, was inspired to find better

ways to teach the deaf.

During his search he realized that there were no schools in the United States that educated the
deaf.

In his attempt to learn how to teach deaf people, he traveled to London and then to France,
where he met Laurent Clerc, a deaf man who taught sign language to deaf children. and
together with Clerc began the adventure of forming a school to educate the deaf and blind in
America.

Opened in 1857 as a school for the deaf and blind. Seven years later, in 1864, Congress
allowed higher education to be offered with a law signed by President Abraham Lincoln, and in
1986 it was granted the title of university.

Gallaudet University is the only university in the world created for deaf and hard of hearing
people to graduate and earn a college degree.

Gallaudet University emerged to address the exclusion that deaf and blind people experienced
at other institutions and has managed to demonstrate that being deaf/blind is not a limitation
to learning.

The success of this institution demonstrates that not only are there amazing forms of learning
worthy of recognition, but that the deaf community has managed to create a deeply valuable
culture. It is a culturally important and recognized center of the deaf world, as its networks
extend nationally and internationally.

As a fundamental principle, Gallaudet University maintains that deaf people can do anything:
they should have no limits.