Born in 1937 to deaf parents, Barbara Kannapell attended Indiana School for the Deaf, graduating in 1956. She went on to attend Gallaudet College, where she received a bachelor’s degree in Deaf Education in 1961. The next year, Kannapell began work at Gallaudet’s Office of Institutional Research as a research assistant under Dr. Harry Bornstein, the creator of Signed English. She collaborated with Dr. Bornstein on several books and papers and was responsible for co-writing several Signed English books for children, as well as teaching Signed English and statistics courses at Gallaudet.

Kannapell took her master’s degree in Educational Technology at the Catholic University of America in 1970, and in 1973 she transferred to Gallaudet’s Office of Educational Technology, where she worked as a research assistant specializing in the use of media and technology in deaf instruction. During this period, she also taught signed English and American Sign Language (ASL) courses at Gallaudet and the University of Maryland.

In 1972, Kannapell co-founded Deafpride, Inc, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the rights of deaf children and adults, especially minorities, as well as promoting bilingual education for the deaf. She served as its president until 1985.

Kannapell took a new position as a linguistics specialist at Gallaudet’s Instructional Development and Evaluation Center (IDEC) in 1979. IDEC, a newly founded division of Gallaudet’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), consulted with educators at all levels and providing new instructional technologies and techniques. As a linguistics specialist at IDEC and a member of the Deafness-Related Concerns Council (DRCC), Kannapell played a leading role in developing a revised orientation curriculum for Gallaudet faculty and staff.

In 1985, Dr. Kannapell received her Ph.D. in Sociolinguistics at Georgetown University. However, in early 1986, federal budget cuts led the Gallaudet administration to close IDEC, eliminating Dr. Kannapell’s position. She took a fellowship with Dr. I. King Jordan while continuing to teach classes in deafness and deaf culture at Gallaudet, and then worked as a freelance researcher and teacher for the remainder of the time period covered by these papers. Dr. Kannapell also taught at the Community College of Baltimore County from 1997 to her retirement in 2014.