Notable moments in deaf history

No one is born with an inherent immunity to hearing loss. Indeed, anyone can suffer from partial or total hearing loss at some point in their lifetime.

Hearing loss is expected to rise over the next couple of decades. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates that 700 million people across the globe will have disabling hearing loss by 2050, which would mark an increase of roughly 270 million individuals over the next quarter century.

Though the projected growth of people with hearing loss is notable, it's also noteworthy that hundreds of millions of individuals already live with deafness every day. Those individuals and others may want to celebrate these notable moments in deaf history.

· Salomon Alberti publishes Discourse on Deafness and Speechlessness in 1591. Alberti was an influential German physician and used his book to assert that hearing and speech were separate functions. Alberti also asserted that deaf people were rational and capable individuals, a departure from previous views of deaf individuals as incapable of reason that dated all the way back to Aristotle, if not earlier.

· Ludwig van Beethoven notices his hearing is beginning to fade in 1798. The timing of Beethoven's initial hearing loss is significant, as it did little to diminish his productivity or affect his reputation. Indeed, Beethoven composed for decades after his hearing first began to fade, producing notable works such as his Ninth Symphony and the opera "Fidelio" after 1798.

· The first American School for the Deaf is founded in 1817. The school was founded in Hartford, Connecticut, by Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, who taught deaf students in Paris prior to coming to the United States. Gallaudet is believed to have been inspired to open the school by Alice Cogswell, a young deaf girl who also was Gallaudet's neighbor and one of the original seven students to enroll in the school. Gallaudet would go on to found Gallaudet University in 1864. That school remains open today.

· Bonnie Sloan breaks down a barrier in professional football in 1973. A standout defensive tackle at Austin Peay State University in the early 1970s, Sloan also was deaf. That did not deter the six-foot-five, 260-lb. lineman from pursuing his dream of playing professional football, a goal he achieved after being drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the tenth round of the 1973 draft. A knee injury limited Sloan to four games before his professional career drew to a close, but he broke down a barrier nonetheless.

· The Deaf President Now protest occurs in 1988. By the late 1980s, Gallaudet University was in search of a new president, and ultimately settled on Elisabeth A. Zinser, who was not deaf. Students had been protesting for years that the university should have a deaf president, and that ultimately came to a head with the Deaf President Now movement in 1988. Among the students' demands was that Zinser step down, a deaf president be chosen in her place and that 51 percent of the university's Board of Trustees should consist of deaf people. The university eventually agreed to the students' demands.

Deaf history is rich in inspiring stories that helped to prove individuals with substantial or total hearing loss are fully capable of contributing to the wider world.