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From ancient times until the 16th Century, deaf people generally had few rights and little access to education. In Europe some individuals were hired by the upper classes to train their deaf children to speak. These, however, were generally tutoring programs, not established schools.
 Abbe
The German teacher Samuel Heinicke established a school for the deaf in 1778 that embraced the basic ideas of oral deaf education (called Oralism). He argued that spoken language was essential to thinking, and that spoken language was essential for the Deaf to access the world around them. At the school, teachers focused on speech training and spoken languages only.
In the early 19th Century, the American Congregationalist Minister Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was interested in teaching the deaf, went to Europe to research how deaf schools were instructing their pupils.
 Laurent Clerc
The deaf graduates of this school established schools of their own across the country. By 1864, the world's first university for the deaf was founded in America, today called Gallaudet University. The early-to-mid 19th Century is generally regarded as the peak of Manualism.
But by the late 19th Century, Oralism had strongly fought back. A number of well-known hearing  Alexander Graham Bell
Perhaps the most important political battle was the Second International Conference on Education of the Deaf, held in Milan in 1880. Delegates, most of whom were known oralists, passed resolutions declaring oral education superior to manual education and banned sign language. The U.S. and Britain were the only countries opposed to the ban.
Through much of the 20th Century, educators used the newest technologies and teaching methods to train deaf people to speak, lipread, and hear. Sign language was often forbidden in classrooms.
Alongside this growth in Oralism was a new philosophy of Mainstreaming. Instead of deaf children attending deaf schools, they would instead be sent to their local schools, where their needs would be accommodated.
The battle between Manualists and Oralists was fierce and, to some extent, still continues today. The new schools of thought center around a philosophy of Total Communication, which makes use of both oralist and manualist ideas, and Bilingualism/Biculturalism (Bi-Bi), which emphasizes Sign Language as deaf children's first language, but recognizes that many deaf children come from and live in hearing environments.
Advocates of mainstreaming, oralism, and medical and technological advances designed to limit deafness generally view deafness as a disability, which lowers the quality of life and believe deaf people should be assimilated into hearing society as much as possible. Advocates of manualism, separate schooling, and deaf culture and pride generally view deafness as a distinct minority group with its own language, culture, traditions, and rights.
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