National Association of the Deaf

Representatives from the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) will attend the 9th annual Early Hearing Detection & Intervention (EHDI) Conference March 1-2, 2010 in Chicago, IL. NAD participation in this year’s EHDI Conference is a part of an ongoing effort to educate EHDI professionals on the importance of American Sign Language (ASL) in the language acquisition of deaf and hard of hearing babies.

EHDI programs have a critical responsibility to ensure that deaf and hard of hearing babies get the equal access to language that they deserve. The NAD will stress the importance of involving deaf and hard of hearing people in all aspects of EHDI programs and services. Such participation is essential to ensure that every family gets the appropriate care, balanced information/resources, and support services that they need.

Conference attendees will learn about the NAD position on EHDI programs, ASL, our organization, and other relevant issues at the NAD exhibit booth. NAD Chief Executive Officer Nancy J. Bloch will participate on a panel titled, “Connecting the Dots: Deaf Community Participation in EHDI Programs.”

The NAD is strongly committed to ensuring that parents of newly identified deaf or hard of hearing infants receive accurate information about the benefits of acquiring and developing proficiency in both ASL and English. Deaf and hard of hearing infants must be given the opportunity to acquire ASL, a fully accessible visual language, as early as possible, including the opportunity to access and acquire the spoken language(s) used by their families through the use of assistive technologies and other strategies.  

The NAD urges EHDI programs and professionals to adopt the following initiatives:

• Invite deaf and hard of hearing community members to every EHDI meeting
• Appoint deaf and hard of hearing community representatives to the state EHDI advisory panel
• Highlight deaf and hard of hearing community members in state and national EHDI conferences
• Identify, develop, and advertise ASL resources for families
• Establish and operate deaf and hard of hearing mentorship programs
• Adopt a family support system for families that use ASL
• Encourage active deaf and hard of hearing community roles in parent and professional organizations
• Encourage informal networking

Click here to view “EHDI Programs and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community: Working Together” which includes descriptions of each initiative listed above. Early language advocates should share this document with EHDI professionals in their states.