Pär Aron Borg

Pär Aron Borg (4 July 1776 – 22 April 1839) was a Swedish educator and a pioneer in the education for the blind and deaf.

Biography Borg was born in the parish of Avesta in Dalarna, Sweden. After studies at Uppsala University (1796–1798), he became a secretary in the Central Government Office in Stockholm.

After having seen a play where a deaf boy communicated by gestures, he was inspired to create a manual alphabet. He began to educate deaf and blind students regularly in 1808. Following the example of l'Abbé de l'Épée founded by Charles-Michel de l'Épée in Paris, in 1809 he founded (Public Institute of the Blind and Deaf at Manilla; Manillaskolan). The institution received support from Queen Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte (1759–1818). The school had deaf teachers, and the instruction was taught in sign language.

Borg made a trip to Portugal in 1823–1828, where he founded a school for the deaf; thereby Portugal was given the same manual alphabet as Sweden. Pär Aron Borg died in 1839 and was succeeded as director of the institute by his son, Ossian Edmund Borg (1812–1892).