Contact: Dr. Karen Dilka Eastern Kentucky University n Date submitted to deafed.net – May 29, 2007 n To contact the author for permission to use this PowerPoint, please n To use this PowerPoint presentation in its entirety, please give credit to the author.

Alexander Graham Bell Advocate for the Deaf By: Stacy Raff & Cindy Patterson

Many forces helped shape the genius of Alexander Graham Bell. As the son and grandson of speech experts, he had a unique knowledge of the possibilities of sound. As the son of a deaf mother, he had a true appreciation of the effort required to live in a hearing world. In turn, these factors led to mr. Bells humanitarian acts in regard to the deaf and hard of hearing.

Bells Family Background n n His father, Alexander Melville Bell, had spent many years teaching elocution (showing people how to speak correctly), and had studied the mechanics of speech: how we use our larynx, mouth, tongue and lips to form sounds. He was the inventor of "Visible Speech," a code of symbols which indicated the position and action of the throat, tongue and lips in uttering various sounds. His mother, Eliza Grace Symonds was hard of hearing, but could use a speaking tube to hear some sounds. Eliza was a powerful example for Bell. Despite her hearing loss, Eliza was her son's principal teacher.

n n 1847 March 3 Alexander Bell is born to Alexander Melville and Eliza Symonds Bell in Edinburgh, Scotland. n n 1864 April Alexander Melville Bell develops Visible Speech, a kind of universal alphabet that reduces all sounds made by the human voice into a series of symbols. n n 1868 May 21 Bell begins teaching speech to the deaf at Susanna Hull's school for deaf children in London. Bell attends University College in London. n n 1871 April Moving to Boston, Bell begins teaching at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes.

n n 1872 March Bell teaches at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Boston and at the American Asylum for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. n n 1872 April 8 Bell meets Boston attorney Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who will become one of his financial backers and his father-in- law. n n 1872 Fall Bell opens his School of Vocal Physiology in Boston and starts experimenting with the multiple telegraph. n n 1873 Boston University appoints Bell Professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at its School of Oratory. Mabel Hubbard, his future wife, becomes one of his private pupils.

n n 1874 Spring Bell conducts acoustics experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He and Clarence Blake, a Boston ear specialist, begin experimenting with the mechanics of the human ear and the phonautograph, a device that could translate sound vibrations into visible tracings. Summer In Brantford, Ontario, Bell first conceives of the idea for the telephone July 11Mabel Hubbard and Bell are married. n n 1883 At Scott Circle in Washington, D.C., Bell starts a day school for deaf children.

n n 1886 Bell establishes the Volta Bureau as a center for studies on the deaf. n n 1887 February Bell meets six-year-old blind and deaf Helen Keller in Washington, D.C. He helps her family find a private teacher by recommending that her father seek help from Michael Anagnos, director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind. n n 1890 August Bell and his supporters form the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. n n 1922 August 2 Bell dies and is buried at Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia.

Bell was interested in teaching the deaf his entire life. He was the leading supporter of the oral philosophy, strongly believing that the deaf should be taught to speak. His contributions greatly influenced the way deaf children are taught both in his time and today. The oral system is still promoted by the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. This organization, founded in 1890 by Bell, serves as an information provider and support network while continuing to spread the ideas of its founder.

Useful Sites n n bell.uccb.ns.ca/ n brainspin/alexbell/ n html n lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml