National Association of the Deaf

Submitted by Rachel Mazique on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 22:30

Hello! It's already February! Time has flown by quickly since July, when the NAD Conference was held in Philadelphia, PA. It has been seven months since I have been crowned as Miss Deaf America Ambassador! In January, the NAD Board met in Austin, Texas. It was an exciting experience for me to observe their board meeting. The NAD also held a fundraiser where a variety of cupcakes, donated by various bakeries, were auctioned! I truly enjoyed that event.

After the NAD Board left, I went back to my studies at the University of Texas, where I'm a graduate student, studying for my doctorate in English Literature, with a focus in Deaf Literature. I also work on accessibility issues. University of Texas wasts to increase the standards and best practices nationwide. More and more universities across the country are using multimedia online with videos which are not always captioned. University of Texas wants to establish requirements in accessibility to ensure that all individuals with disabilities have access to information provided via multimedia. I'm truly excited to be a part of that project.

I am working on a grant proposal. where we hope to host a Summer program, bringing individuals specializing in digital media from all over to meet and talk about improving accessibility with media. I am thilled to be working on this project because it fits with NAD goals of advocating for accessibility. As we all know, volunteerism is truly important. I want to give back to the community. I contribute to volunteerism with the hearing and deaf communities. With the hearing community, I spread awareness about the NAD through various activities. For instance, participating at the Habitat for Humanity, I had the opportunity to work with other proud women in building a home! I learned a lot from that experience! With the deaf community, I volunteered for the Chicago Lighthouse, deaf-blind program during deaf-blind Awareness Day, helping out volunteers and Service Support Providers (SSP). They were thrilled to have me there! I learned a lot from that experience.

These types of volunteer activities help me remain passionate about advocacy issues. Hopefully one day I'll work at the Disability Rights Office (DRO) at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and continue to improve the lives of all. I look forward to seeing you on a monthly basis going forward to give you updates on what's happening with the NAD Miss Deaf America Ambassador Program!