Thomas H. Gallaudet established the first school for the deaf in the United States in Hartford, CT. It now is known as The American School for the Deaf. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, for many years was a teacher of the deaf. Throughout the late 1900s, Gallaudet & Bell debated the preferable method of instructing the deaf: the oral method or sign-language method, or a combination of both methods. The controversy continues. The United States long has been in the forefront of providing opportunities for hearing-impaired people.