President Abraham Lincoln signed the Enabling Act legislation, on April 8, 1864, establishing the world's first institution of higher education for deaf and hard of hearing students. the National Deaf-Mute College, known today as Gallaudet University.
The law provided federal funding for the education of deaf individuals, enabling the institution, located in Washington D.C. to offer university-level liberal arts and sciences degrees.The Institution had been originally incorporated in 1857, the Enabling Act, allowed it to expand, adding the collegiate division in 1864 which was renamed in 1894, as Gallaudet College in honor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of the first permanent U.S. school for the Deaf. It is now a world-renowned university.
