How did blind and/ or deaf people communicate before braille and sign language were implemented?

Answer 1

Blind people can talk, so communication isn't really impaired for them. Before Braille was invented there were some versions of raised lettering that were used to allow blind people to learn to read and write.

As for the deaf, sign languages develop in much the same way as spoken languages, rather than being "implemented". People in a community invent them to be able to communicate. Many families with deaf children invent their own "home signs" to facilitate communication.

American Sign Language as it's used today developed from an indigenous sign language used on Martha's Vineyard, where there was a great deal of hereditary deafness, and from French Sign Language, brought from Europe by Laurent Clerc and Thomas Gallaudet, who established the American School for the Deaf in Hartford CT.

If you're refering to deafblind people, until the last 150 years or so, they really had very few options when it came to communication. Most deafblind children at that time were institutionalized and given up as hopeless causes.

Answer 2

Communication was almost non-existent prior to the development of braille and signing. Deaf people often had difficulty speaking as they had never heard properly when they were learning to speak, and their language was very poor and very difficult to understand. Often they were regarded as being dumb (mute) as well as deaf, simply because they could not communicate with hearing people. Blind people were in a similar dilemma. There were few jobs for the deaf and even fewer for the blind, who were often reduced to begging for a living.
Braille and sign language gave both the blind and the deaf a window to the outside world and, once they were able to establish communication, were able to prove that they were neither dumb nor useless. Far from being hidden away in the back bedroom, many today have turned their liability into an asset. For example, photograph darkroom work was easily done by the blind, who were more adept in the darkroom than their sighted co-workers.
Today, science is promising to lower even more barriers with the possibility of replacement inner ear systems, and the possibility of artificial visual systems, which would stimulate the visual centres of the brain - something like having a little movie camera that would capture what was in front of a person and playing it in the brain so they could actually 'see' what was there. The possibilities are exciting and endless.

Answer 3

The blind can speak and hear, the deaf can read lips, and judging on when the deaf became deaf, can speak. So, blind can speakand hear, deaf can read, write, read lips, and possibly speak. Answer your question?

Answer 4

Read anything written about Helen Keller