İzmir School for the Deaf

The first school for the dumb in the Ottoman period was opened on Monday, September 30, 1889 in Trade School in Cağaloğlu during the reign of Abdülhamid II (1, 2). The Director of the school Mr. Grati from Austria cited the importance of the lack of a school for the deaf and dumb saying “Schools have been established throughout the homeland in accordance with the needs of the public. However, it is highly important from the humanitarian point of view that the lack of a school for the deaf and dumb is not an issue to be neglected” in a memorandum that he gave to the Ministry of Education. This proposal was accepted by the Council of Ministers rapidly and it was considered favorable to establish “a day school for the dumb children in which the scheduled lessons would be instructed and the education period of which would be four years” (3).

During the Ottoman period, the second School for the Deaf and Dumb was established within the Merzifon American Anatolian College in 1910. However, it could not be very long-lasting and closed in 1917 due to the years of war (4).

The first “School for the Deaf and Dumb” of the period of Republic was established by Albert Carmona in İplikçizâde Pavilion (Figure 1) in Karşıyaka, İzmir with the name of “İzmir Dumb School” (3). Albert Carmona (Figure 2), who was born in 1900 in Kuşadası, was a deaf and dumb person. Mister Albert Carmona who went to Paris in 1910s and studied in a School for the Deaf and Dumb there established a School for the Deaf and Dumb in İzmir after his return from Paris. However, after a few years, with the proclamation of the Republic, the İzmir Dumb School was handed over to the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance in 1923 and the first Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind was established in 1924 in Karşıyaka, İzmir (Figure 3). Dr. Necati Kemal was assigned as the director of this school (Figure 4). Dr. Necati Kemal (Kip) was a neurology specialist, studied in France and learned about the issues of Special Education (5).

Figure 1.

The first Dumb School in Karşıyaka, İzmir (the building in the middle of three buildings)

Figure 2.

Albert Carmona, 1921

Figure 3.

The Institution of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in İzmir

Figure 4.

Dr. Necati Kemal, the Director of the School for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in İzmir

Hearing of the students was evaluated in the beginning of this School for the Deaf and Dumb that was established in İzmir and speech training was given through “Methode Orale” (Figure 5). While the subjects of reading, mathematics and physics were taught here on one hand, professions such as carpentry, carving, ironworking, metalworking, welding, shoemaking, tailoring and weaving were taught to these students on the other hand and they were intended to be raised as a manufacturer in the first years of the republic (Figure 6) (6).

Figure 5.

İzmir School for the Deaf, sound trials and sound laboratory, 1937

Figure 6.

Workplace of ironworking in the School for the Deaf and Dumb

The number of students of this organization that started the education with 25 students in the period of republic in 1924 increased in the following years and it had 115 students in 1937 (Figure 7).

Figure 7.

The increase of the number of students in the School for the Deaf and Dumb, İzmir, between the years 1923 and 1937

The vocational distribution of the 73 people that the institution of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind of İzmir graduated until 1937 is given as in the graphics drawn that day (Figure 8).

Figure 8.

The number of graduates of the institution until 1937

Speech training was also initiated through speech method (Methode Orale) in this school where “Voice and Pedagogy Laboratory” was established. Dr. Behçet Kamay told about the successful outcome of this education in a radio speech as: “Two years after the establishment of the institution, Mr. Necati Kemal introduced 4 children whom he educated for the first Turkish Medical Congress. He was in the Lodge of Great Ataturk. After Necati Kemal showed the application of the methods on these 4 children one by one, he gave the floor to this child who was born deaf and dumb. When this poor little child started speaking “Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha”, the deep silence of astonishment and appreciation invaded the whole room and the sound of the blessed hands of Ghazi also joined the applause... “(7).

This school had a total of 68 students 52 of whom were deaf and dumb in 1932. “The Association for protection of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind” that was the first non-governmental organization created to meet the social shortcomings of these students was established in İzmir in 1937.

Because the number of the deaf and dumb increased in the following years and the school in Karşıyaka became insufficient, the visually handicapped students were separated from this school in 1951, deaf students were moved to the building of the former British hospital and the school’s name was changed as “İzmir School for the Deaf” (Figure 9).

Figure 9.

Former British Hospital building used as a school for the Deaf after 1951

Dr. Övünç Günhan from the Ege University completed his specialization thesis here in 1963 and studied the subject of deaf-dumbness over 127 deaf students (Figure 10) in a scientific way by evaluating their hearings through Atlas audiometer device (Figure 11) (8).

Figure 10.

Preschool for the Deaf and Dumb, İzmir, 1963

Figure 11.

Hearing measurements in the school for the deaf and dumb in İzmir, 1963

In the same years (1964), “The Preschool for the Hearing Impaired” was opened in the Otolaryngology Department of the Ege University, speech training of 12 children began and the positive results obtained were started to be presented in scientific platforms.

The school for the deaf which gave education in British hospital for 40 years after 1951 moved to the new building in Bornova in 1992 and has been continuing education for 24 years here as “Primary school for the hearing impaired” with a total of 150 students, 86 boarding and 64 non-boarding.

The young Turkish Republic launched important applications for the handicapped people as in every field. The schools for the deaf were separated from the school for the blind and the school for the mentally retarded which they previously continued education with. The children with hearing loss reached contemporary educational facilities and “the school for the hearing impaired” instead of “the school for the deaf” with the beginning of education in the science of audiology, the development of guidance services and the increased emphasis on special education in our country (9).

Since 1998, the patients with severe hearing loss regained their hearings thanks to more than 2000 cochlear implant surgeries that were performed in the hospitals of Bozyaka, Ege University, Dokuz Eylül University and Tepecik in İzmir and the Institution of the Deaf and Dumb of İzmir has claimed its place in history.