National Association of the Deaf

Submitted by Howard.Rosenblum on Tue, 07/28/2009 - 16:18

Vlog transcript.  Hello, my name is Howard Rosenblum. I’m here at the White House as you can see. Why am I here on July 24, 2009? The White House wants to recognize the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), their long achievement in American history and to recognize its impact on the rest of the world.

Why did I mention the world? President Obama announced today that the U.S. intends to sign on to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This means people all over will look up to the ADA as it spreads equality all over the world for the better. Several deaf people gathered and listened to President Obama. Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State was present and in the crowd were many other high-ranking politicians and government people. They are all ready to commit to more protection and rights for people with disabilities.

It is not a done deal, we have more work to do- even the President said we have more work to do. He made a lot of points and spoke without a script, he spoke from memory and knew and understood what we want, our dreams, our goals, common opportunities so the deaf can advance in the future. Now today what I saw, I was amazed, the President and Secretary and other people recognized we are equal and I was looking forward to that and I know you, NAD, are looking forward to that too.

Hello, I’m Chris Kearney. I went to the White House like Howard mentioned, I was with my friend Ian Lazarus and he said he was inspired by Obama and the Secretary of State Hillary’s speeches. I can see that before I was born, ADA was established and now 19 years later I am inspired. I can see Obama is very committed and now I am confident that his progress up to now will make more progress. I can see that Obama is getting the big push and I’m looking forward to seeing what will come, and I hope you will, too.

Hello, I’m Jeff Rosen. Really, I’m very thrilled about today, whew; it’s a moment in history where we will always look back, like the signing of the ADA 19 years ago, when I was here for that. And now today, I feel inspired as an advocate for the deaf community all over. This is important because of the UN Treaty on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) that was signed two years ago on March 30, 2007. There were many, over 130 countries that signed it, however the U.S. didn’t not sign it. Why? Because we think at that time President Bush did not feel it was necessary, that there was the ADA already. But nope, we must have that, we have many ways we want to join with the world where we travel, where your brothers and sisters anywhere in the world can connect.

Now, in regards to the Treaty, I want you to read it, because it lists and recognizes many sign languages and deaf issues. I’m not kidding you, the first Treaty to recognize deafness in many different ways, in Education, Language rights, rights to information in Sign Language. It’s amazing, as a result, several countries have already started integrating and recognizing official acknowledgment of Sign Language. Oh, this is really important, it will cause the world to look up and realize the role this has.

I want to thank the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD); they really strongly pushed and were involved in this. I was involved in this, as was my mom, Roz Rosen (hi Mom!). They both really were very involved in that effort, wow. If not for the WFD I don’t think we would not see much in this Treaty. Now, I see the USA, like I mentioned previously, ready to roll up their sleeves and wanting to be involved in and support and spread this also. I happened to talk to President Obama when I first got involved in his campaign, just like Howard, we were involved in supporting, and it was a great feeling for the country, and when I first met him. Wow, he’s just… very human, really just a normal person to listen to and talk to. I was really impressed. I could feel a bond, but then when he spoke about CRPD, he was such a leader, I looked up to him and there are two comparisons as a person, whew, really amazing.

Now I want to close by thanking NAD, specifically Nancy J. Bloch and Yerker Andersson. They both gave wonderful support all this time, and really Nancy encouraged the idea of CRPD Treaty before many deaf people really felt anything about that. It was mentioned in the Broadcaster [sic], and explained all this, and Peggy Prosser wrote an article (for the NADmag) that was fabulous. So many thanks to them. Now I see we are really rolling up our sleeves and being active. One final important thanks to the cameraman, Branic Kelz, thank you for helping make this video.

Greetings and see you soon!