Valade-Gabel, J[ean?] J[acques?]

Hearing. One of the first and chief French advocates of oralism and opponent of sign language. Teacher in the Paris Institution for the Deaf, head of the Bordeaux school for the deaf, then Inspector-General of Institutions for the Deaf. Authored Methode a la Portee des Instituteurs Primaires, pour Enseigner aux Sourds-Muets la Langue Francaise sans l'Intermediaire de Langage des Signes (1857), which attacked the system of teaching though sign language and pushed for the oral system. This was the beginning of the move in France to suppress sign language and teach the deaf by the oral system only. The changeover began in 1879 and was virtually complete by 1886.