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First Signing Community

One of the earliest Deaf communities in the United States was established on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in the middle of the 1800s. Because there was a high number of Deaf people residing in this small, island community, sign language was easily and necessarily accepted by all of its residents. The community on Martha’s Vineyard functioned in this way, not because of any set policy or because of a particularly enlightened sensibility, but because there were so many people who were Deaf, it made sense for everyone to be able to communicate.

For 250 years, these Vineyarders never heard the idea that an inability to hear or speak was a handicap. In their community, Martha's Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) was a language that everybody knew. Children learned to sign from a young age and adults worked together to assist community members in communicating.¹

It is thought that this community would have continued to grow at such rapid rates, if the growth of Deaf education on the mainland had not come about so strongly. As Deaf Vineyard children attended schools off-island, they tended to settle off-island, married mainland mates, and gradually the Deaf Vineyard population died out. The last Deaf Vineyard native passed away in the 1950s.

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¹Kageleiry, Jamie. The Island That Spoke By Hand. Yankee Magazine. March 1999.