I did not become deeply committed to the cause of bilingualism by pure chance : my commitment stemmed from my own observations and thoughts on the communication situations that I had experienced throughout my personal and professional life.

Before describing the birth of the bilingual education movement, this book recalls the gradual rise of the interest in sign language that then developed into the struggle for bilingualism, starting in the nineteen seventies and right up to the present day.

This growing interest and the many different initiatives and actions that it prompted through the French bilingual movement in the final decades of the 20th century, finally led to the official recognition of French Sign Language in 2005.

André Minguy is deaf and was born in Plessala in 1949 in the Côtes d'Armor "department" in Brittany.

At the age of 7, he discovered the world of visual gestural communication, and it has been with him ever since.

He began his Professional career in carpentry, then went on to become a special needs technical subject teacher for the deaf until his retirement.

He has been an active member of several Deaf Associations, and has fought all his life for the recognition of sign language and bilingual education for deaf children.

The Deaf Awakening is his first book.