National Association of the Deaf

Greetings!

I want to take this opportunity to extend warm wishes to you and your loved ones for this year’s holiday season and New Year, on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) Board of Directors and staff.

As many members of the Deaf Community, and especially those in the Deaf Education field know, there is a severe nation-wide shortage of Deaf Education teachers who are proficient in American Sign Language (ASL). According to DeafED.net, there are currently seventy D/HH teacher training programs in the United States, but it is not known exactly how many programs train the future teachers to use ASL.

com⋅pla⋅cen⋅cy
a feeling of quiet pleasure or security, often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

If you are a professional in an early intervention program, a teacher of deaf students, a deaf mentor, or if you interact with families with deaf and hard of hearing children in some way, you belong at the National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Conference.

Weiner. Rosen. Stern. Hurwitz.

Wow!!!! What a magnificent group of finalists for the search of Gallaudet University’s 10th President!  All of the finalists are well suited and qualified to take on the role of the Presidency of an important cultural cornerstone of our Deaf Community.

On July 30th, the United States signed the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD) which will help to ensure equal rights for people with disabilities throughout the world. A “convention” is an international treaty or an agreement. Countries that are members of the UN can sign the convention. A country that signs the convention agrees to the principles stated in the convention.

The Board of Directors of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announces that it has begun search efforts for a successor to Chief Executive Officer Nancy J. Bloch, in preparation for her departure on March 31, 2011. Appointed in 1992 as the first female director, Bloch also serves as ex officio member of the Board.

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed 
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”  The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. 
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”  Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?

We launched this brand-new and beautiful website on June 30. Our deep gratitude goes to headquarters staff, who worked very hard to pull this off in a very short timeframe, just three months – a task that usually takes six months or more. This would not have been possible without the support of our web development team at Brilliant Echo, hosting services with DeafVision, and most of all, the strategic web sponsorship of Sprint, Purple Communications, and The Z.

Juror Summons I have received jury duty summons four times while a resident of Sacramento, California. I went to the court house for three of the four summons and the fourth one will happen next year as I was able to secure a postponement. At the outset, I can tell you as a potential juror, in my experience, the attorneys and the judges were looking for people who were unbiased in the area the trials were centered on.