National Association of the Deaf

Submitted by Jeannette Johnson on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 14:43 Blog:

• NAD Conference

Barbara Raimondo gave a commission on educational policy and deaf children today. The room was full of curious attendees who wanted to learn more about how government policy plays a role in deaf education. She opened the session by explaining that she got involved because of her two deaf children, and she is passionate about deaf education and law.

Some facts she shared were quite interesting – 94% of the newborns are screened now, and 64% of the newborns with deafness are enrolled in Early Intervention programs. However, reality does not necessarily meet people’s expectations. Only 45% of the 388 Early Intervention sites in 19 states have service providers with degrees in deaf education.

There is a Joint Committee on infant hearing, with multiple deaf organizations involved; however, the majority of them are slanted towards the medical model on deafness. There is clearly no solid system in place to truly engage and collaborate with the parents and deaf professionals on how deaf education and early intervention should be operated. The Joint Committee now recognizes this, and is releasing a position paper outlining what needs to change. Most of the recommended changes were changes that the deaf community would like to see. When these changes will happen isn’t known, but it seems that it will happen at some point, so this is much needed progress!

Barbara went on to explain how the deaf community can do, which are the following:

• Go to EHDI conventions
• Join the state EHDI advisory panels
• Mentor families with deaf children
• Join professional and advocacy organizations that are involved with this issue

After that section, she shared with us about how the government plans to reform the educational system, so all children, especially marginalized populations like us deaf, will get more funding and support to ensure our future generations succeed and thrive. 4 billion dollars in grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a huge part of this plan, and it’s exciting for me to see some real changes finally happening for our community!