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50 free Deaf Culture & History trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free Deaf Culture & History trivia questions with answers. Deaf history is full of stories most hearing people have never heard: an island where one in twenty-five residents signed, a 1880 conference that banned sign language from classrooms for ninety years, a linguist who proved ASL was a real language, and a week-long student shutdown that put a Deaf president in charge of Gallaudet. This deaf trivia quiz covers Deaf culture and its capital-D convention, American and British Sign Language, the founders of deaf education in France and America, the Deaflympics, cochlear implants and the debate around them, and Deaf achievers in film, television, sport and theatre from Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur to Nyle DiMarco and Rose Ayling-Ellis. The 50 questions run from easy to genuinely hard and are written for Deaf awareness events, ASL classes and general trivia nights alike. Every answer is checked against documented history and primary sources.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Deaf culture, what does writing 'Deaf' with a big D signify, as opposed to a small d?
Cultural identity rather than just the audiological condition
Many members of Deaf communities see deafness as a difference in human experience rather than a disability.
Q 02ASL is most closely related to the signing of which country?
France
ASL is not based on English and is not universal; BSL is a completely different language.
Q 03ASL emerged in the early 19th century at which institution?
The American School for the Deaf in Hartford
It blended Old French Sign Language, Martha's Vineyard signs, other village sign languages and home signs.
Q 04Which deaf French teacher co-founded North America's first permanent deaf school with Gallaudet in 1817?
Laurent Clerc
He was called 'the Apostle of the Deaf in America' and had been taught in Paris by Sicard and Massieu.
Q 05In which Connecticut city was the first permanent American school for the deaf founded?
Hartford
It opened in the old Bennet's City Hotel and is now the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford.
Q 06Gallaudet University is the world's first institution of higher education for the deaf. In which city is it?
Washington, D.C.
It began in 1864 as a grammar school for deaf and blind children and is officially bilingual in ASL and English.
Q 07Which US head of state signed the 1864 act allowing Gallaudet to confer college degrees?
Abraham Lincoln
April 8 is still celebrated on campus as Charter Day.
Q 08Which everyday piece of American football is said to have originated on the Gallaudet team?
The huddle
The team huddled so opponents couldn't read their signed plays.
Q 09What was the 1988 Gallaudet protest that shut down the campus called?
Deaf President Now
It began when the board chose a hearing candidate, Elisabeth Zinser, over two Deaf finalists.
Q 10Who became Gallaudet's first Deaf leader as a result of the 1988 campus shutdown?
I. King Jordan
All four of the protesters' demands were met within a week.
Q 11The 1880 Milan Conference passed a resolution doing what?
Banning sign language in schools for the deaf
Oralism dominated deaf education for nearly a century; a formal apology came in 2010.
Q 12Which Gallaudet linguist's 1960 book Sign Language Structure established that ASL is a true language?
William Stokoe
He coined the term 'cherology' and invented a written notation for signs.
Q 13On which US island did a village sign language flourish because so many residents were born deaf?
Martha's Vineyard
Q 21Which inventor, whose mother and wife were both deaf, championed oralism and taught at the Clarke School?
Alexander Graham Bell
His pupil Mabel Hubbard, deaf since childhood, became his wife in 1877.
Q 22Which two engineers invented the original single-channel cochlear implant in 1957?
André Djourno and Charles Eyriès
The multi-channel implants used today were developed separately by Graeme Clark in Australia and the Hochmairs in Austria.
Q 23How does a cochlear implant deliver sound?
By electrically stimulating the auditory nerve directly
In Chilmark one person in 25 was deaf, and hearing islanders signed too.
Q 14Who was the last deaf person born into the island signing tradition, dying in 1952?
Katie West
A few elderly hearing residents could still recall the language when researchers arrived in the 1980s.
Q 15In which country did deaf schoolchildren spontaneously create a new signed language in the late 1970s and 80s?
Nicaragua
Staff thought the children were miming until the Ministry of Education called in linguist Judy Kegl in 1986.
Q 16According to the British Deaf Association, roughly how many people in the UK use British Sign Language?
About 151,000
Of those, about 87,000 are Deaf; the rest are relatives, interpreters and others.
Q 17Which deaf composer wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament to his brothers about his hearing loss?
Ludwig van Beethoven
At the 1824 premiere of the Ninth Symphony a soloist had to turn him around to see the applause he couldn't hear.
Q 18How did Beethoven's friends communicate with him once his hearing had gone?
By writing in conversation books
Around 1818 his hearing had deteriorated so far that visitors wrote their side of conversations down.
Q 19Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing at what age?
19 months
She went on to become the first deafblind person in the US to earn a college degree, at Radcliffe.
Q 20Which word did Helen Keller first understand when Anne Sullivan spelled it into her palm at the pump?
Water
The moment was dramatised in William Gibson's play and film The Miracle Worker.
Some in the Deaf community regard implants as 'audist' and a threat to signing culture.
Q 24Who was the first deaf performer to win an Academy Award, for Children of a Lesser God?
Marlee Matlin
At 21 she remains the youngest Best Actress winner; Henry Winkler discovered her in a children's theatre production.
Q 25Which political drama gave the first deaf Oscar winner the recurring role of pollster Joey Lucas?
The West Wing
She also appeared in The L Word and Switched at Birth, having found more roles for deaf actors on TV.
Q 26CODA won Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars. What does the title stand for?
Child of deaf adults
It was the first Best Picture winner from a streaming service and the first featuring predominantly deaf actors in leading roles.
Q 27Which deaf actor won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the father in CODA?
Troy Kotsur
He also devised the Tusken Raider sign language for The Mandalorian and ended up playing their lead.
Q 28CODA is an English-language remake of which 2014 French-Belgian film?
La Famille Bélier
Apple paid a Sundance-record $25 million for it.
Q 29For which Star Wars series did the CODA Oscar winner develop the Tusken Raider sign language?
The Mandalorian
He didn't mention he was an actor for fear of seeming sycophantic; when producers found out, they cast him.
Q 30In Sound of Metal, Riz Ahmed plays what kind of musician losing his hearing?
A heavy-rock drummer
Paul Raci, a CODA himself, was Oscar-nominated for playing the leader of the deaf sober-living community.