Facts & Information

• 90% of all deaf parents have hearing children.
• India has one of the highest deaf populations in the world with approximately 6% of the population suffering some kind of hearing loss.
• Four out of 1,000 children in India are born deaf.
• Alexander Graham Bell, whose own mother and wife were deaf, invented the telephone.
• It is estimated that 90% of deaf adults who were deaf as children use Sign Language, and most of them learned it at schools for the deaf.
• Thomas Edison, the inventor of electricity was deaf.
• American Sign language is the third-largest foreign language in the U.S., out-ranked by Spanish and Italian.
• India celebrates the International Week for the Deaf in September, and September 26 is recognized as the "Day of the Deaf" in India.
• Frenchman, Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée founded the world's first public school for deaf in Paris in the 18th Century.
• Famous German composer and pianist, Beethoven's hearing began to deteriorate in his twenties. Even after he became completely deaf, he continued to compose music.
• Gallaudet University in the U.S. is the world's only university with courses and services specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students. The University was founded in 1864.