2. Teaching and articulation lesson of sound at the School for the Deaf in Turku( Archive of the Finnish Deaf History Society)
Historical and present injustices
The Finnish sign language community emerged in the mid-1800s, when Carl Oscar Malm established the first school for deaf people in Finland in 1846. Malm had studied in Sweden, where he received an education in sign language, and brought those methods back to Finland. For a time, sign language education flourished. However, by the late 1800s, it began to decline due to the rise of eugenic ideology, which heavily influenced education and social policy.
This ideology promoted oralism— the belief that deaf people should only use spoken language— while sign language was actively suppressed. As a result, sign language was banned in schools for deaf students from the late nineteenth century until the 1970s. This prolonged period of prohibition left deep and lasting harm— not only to deaf individuals and the sign language community, but also to Finnish society as a whole. It reinforced the idea that sign language and deaf culture were inferior to spoken language and mainstream culture. These stigmas, rooted in eugenics, continue to shape societal attitudes and contribute to intergenerational pain within the community.
The harm extended beyond language suppression. The deaf were also subjected to state policies that restricted their reproductive rights. Between the 1920s and the 1970s, eugenics-based legislation was enacted and enforced, including the Marriage Act( 1929 – 1969) and the Sterilization Act( 1935 – 1970). These laws targeted people deemed " unfit for society," such as persons with disabilities and the deaf, based on the belief that they would pass on undesirable traits to their children.
For example, deaf women were sometimes required to consent to sterilization in order to receive permission to marry. In addition, many deaf children and adults were subjected to forced rehabilitation programs and experimental medical procedures, sometimes without
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Observing Memories ISSUE 9