Charles-Michel de l'Épée

Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée, (born November 25, 1712, Versailles; died December 23,1789, Paris) was a philanthropic educator of 18th century France who has become known as the "Father of the Deaf."

Charles-Michel de l'Épée was born to a wealthy family in Versailles, the seat of political power in what was then the most powerful kingdom of Europe. He trained as a Catholic priest but was denied ordination, as a result of his refusal to denounce Jansenism, a popular religious reform movement of the time. He then studied law, but soon after joining the Bar was finally ordained as an Abbé - only to be denied a license to officiate.

Épée turned his attention toward charitable services for the poor, and on one foray into the slums of Paris he had a chance encounter with two young deaf sisters who communicated using a sign language. Épée decided to dedicate himself to the education and salvation of the deaf, and in 1760 he founded a shelter which he ran with his own private income. In line with emerging philosophical thought of the time, Épée came to believe that deaf people were capable of language, and concluded that they should be able to receive the sacraments and thus avoid going to hell. He began to develop a system of instruction of the French language and religion. In the early 1760s, his shelter became the world's first free school for the deaf, open to the public.

Though Épée's original interest was in religious education, his public advocacy and development of a kind of "Signed French" enabled deaf people to legally defend themselves in court for the first time.