1880

The International congress for Teachers of the Deaf met in Milan and resolved that “The Congress, considering the incontestable superiority of speech over signs in restoring the deaf mute to society and in giving him a more perfect knowledge of language, declares that the oral method ought to be preferred to that of signs for the education and instruction of the deaf and dumb”

St Saviour’s therefore swam against the tide of opinion in supporting sign language while major providers of education for deaf people would only teach lip reading.