National Association of the Deaf

Submitted by Tayler Mayer on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 20:15 Blog:

• NAD Conference

The NAD 50th Biennial Conference Opening Ceremony began with Betsy Ross sewing the American flag while thinking about what was happening in the country -- to name one, the tax paid to England. Our founding forefathers decided it was time to gather round to discuss issues confronting the colonies. Together, they debated and drafted the Declaration of Independence, and on the Fourth of July, 1776, the Continental Congress announced its adoption and that the thirteen American colonies were now independent states.

Miss Deaf America (MDA) contestants came on stage as Betsy Ross (emcee Melissa Draganac-Hawk) moved into the background. Light effects rang throughout the ballroom as the “Star-Spangled Banner”, the national anthem of the United States of America was sung by all the MDA contestants in synchronicity.

Next, NAD President Bobbie Beth Scoggins describes the deaf community as a family, of which NAD is a part. In this family, all kinds of deaf people have the right to language, she adds before introducing the conference sponsors.

The first sponsor on stage, SorensonVRS, represented by Diana Herron, declared NAD as one of the most important organizations in the deaf community. Next, Tim Rarus, of ZVRS, explained how he grew up watching his parents working in the NAD. “Because of them, our lives are better,” said Rarus. Access Interpreting’s Brad Leon announced that the Washington D.C. community interpreting service was providing interpreting for the conference and to stop by their booth. CSD Board Member Larry Prudoff described the foundations CSD laid for videophones and the VRS industry. Mark Bella, Purple executive, congratulated departing CEO Nancy J. Bloch for her 18 years of service. A representative of AT&T stated that they are and will advocate for legislation advocating adoption of new accessible technology impacting the deaf community. Gallaudet University President Alan Hurwitz described the inspirational vision that NAD is pursuing. NTID Vice President of Advancement Gerald Buckley wished the RIT College Bowl team luck, who stood up to audience cheers. Finally, the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing made the announcement that NAD will be hosting the 2012 NAD conference in Louisville, Kentucky, in conjunction with their successful DeafFestival.

Emcee Melissa Draganac-Hawk returns to stage to introduce the first keynote speaker, Dr. MJ Bienvenu. Her slideshow presentation, titled “Deaf Gain,” described how we need to reject the negative labels associated with how the general hearing society perceives our culture and language, and in turn, “reframe” it with a better understanding of our contributions to the society. For example, sign language helped linguists and other scientists better understand language in general, as well as how the brain worked. “American Sign Language is used in the same region in the brain as the English language,” explained Bienvenu, “showing that ASL is a language as recognized by the brain.” Literacy instruction reached a paradigm shift when a researcher discovered that literacy wasn’t limited to only reading and writing. “It’s everything visual”.

Another example is the latest trend in architecture, Deaf Space, designing windows  and various corridors to accommodate deaf people’s usage of indoor space. Gallaudet University’s students and faculty worked to implement new architectural rules into Gallaudet’s newest campus building, the Sorenson Language and Communication Center (SLCC). The groundbreaking design brought several University administrators to study the building. One of them was Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who eventually invited Gallaudet students to their Boston campus for further collaboration on this new open concept. Summarizing the keynote, Bienvenu emphasized, “All kinds of deaf people come together to make contributions to society.”

Before Scoggins announced the first award, she next took the opportunity to recognize past NAD presidents including Gertude Galloway, Merv Garretson, Alan Hurwitz, Larry Forrestal, Roz Rosen, and Andy Lange. The Media Advocacy Award is for bringing awareness to the community; and was awarded to Marlee Matlin, NAD’s celebrity spokesperson. “Marlee is skilled in the art of lobbying. She made several visits to legislators. Her generous and spirited presence has made our job easier.” In acceptance of the award, Marlee Matlin appeared in a video outlining her work in advocating and promoting internet captioning, in the form of S.3304 and HR 3101, the legislative bills in Senate and House. Matlin recommitted her efforts to push the internet captioning bills into law.

The second keynote speaker, Claudia Gordon, is the first deaf African American female lawyer. Gordon was recently appointed as Special Assistant to the Director of the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Recapping what NAD has accomplished and how far our rights and technology has come, she cited instant communication videophones as examples. “The younger generation thinks it’s always been that way,” remarked Gordon. “Instead we’re standing on the shoulders of those who advocated before us.” Appealing to the youth, “Be involved”, and to everyone, “Step out of the comfort zone and challenge ourselves. We cannot sit back and expect NAD will take care of everything for us.”

NAD Board Member Sean Gerlis took the stage to hand out the Accessibility Award to the individual or organization that increased or enhanced access. Ken Harrenstein, a deaf engineer accepted the Accessibility Award for his employer, Google. Harrenstein signed, “NAD’s work has impacted me personally as a deaf individual”. Naomi Bilodeau, another Google representative, briefly stated that more deaf people view YouTube videos than the citizens of Italy.

The next award for Accessibility was presented by Howard A. Rosenblum and Alexis Kashar to the National Football League (NFL). Before NAD started working with the NFL, 10% of Super Bowl commercials were captioned. Today 80% of commercials are captioned. The co-recipient to this award was CBS, the TV network which broadcasted the 2010 Super Bowl. Not only were commercials captioned, promos were too. Rosenblum congratulated CBS and NFL for going beyond what the law required and for raising the bar. With that, the CBS representative announced that by the fourth quarter, CBS’ internet player will support captions and all TV shows will be captioned.

To close the ceremony, BJ Wood quickly announced the newly established scholarship to honor departing CEO Nancy J. Bloch. The audience roared with applause. Bloch has served as NAD CEO for 18 years. The scholarship is designed to support interns as they work at the NAD, providing needs such as stipends and housing. The scholarship to be fully implemented by Summer 2011, Wood and her committee has a goal of fundraising $18,000 by the end of the conference. One can donate as little as $18 and receive a blue sticker, to attach to their conference badge, which reads “18 Years. Thank You, Nancy!”

And with that, the opening ceremony ended!