Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian

Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian (4 August 1789 – 24 February 1839) was one of the first hearing educators in France to achieve native-level fluency in French Sign Language. In 1825, he published an important book, Mimographie, which utilized a method of writing signs.

Early life
Born on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, Bébian was sent to France by his father to obtain a high school education under the auspices of his godfather, the Abbé Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard, who was the successor of the Abbé de l'Épée as the director of the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets de Paris. The Abbé Sicard sent Bébian to live with the Abbé Jauffret. He completed high school at the Lycée Charlemagne in Paris, where he was regarded as a brilliant student. Afterwards he dedicated himself to studying Deaf education.

Career
Following the advice of Abbé Sicard, Bébian began working with three Deaf teachers—Jean Massieu, Ferdinand Berthier, and Laurent Clerc—at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets de Paris. In 1817, he published the book Essai sur les sourds-muets et sur le langage naturel, which dealt with the educational philosophy and methods of the school, as well as the nature of French Sign Language.

Bébian turned down offers to become principal of schools for the Deaf in New York City and St. Petersburg, instead establishing a school on Montparnasse Boulevard in Paris. Later he became principal of a school in Rouen, then moved back to Guadeloupe, where he founded a school for Black students.

He won an award from the French Academy of Sciences for writing a eulogy for the Abbé de l'Épée titled "Éloge historique de l'abbé de l'Epée" (1819).