Earlier this month, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed two historical bills into law. One is the Deaf Cultural Digital Library (DCDL) bill in which the Division of Library Development and Services (DLDS) of the Maryland State Department of Education is required to establish as the primary information center on deaf resources for library customers and staff in the state. The law also requires that DCDL shall conduct a needs assessment to identify gaps in library services for deaf patrons and to implement strategies to fill the gaps and better coordinate library services for the deaf in Maryland. The law requires that the services be coordinated by a deaf or hard of hearing person. The other bill replaces the antiquated term “hearing impaired” with the more appropriate term “hearing status” for the statewide Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Program, the first ever change of its kind in the country. The bill also added the Governor’s Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH) to the EHDI advisory council.
The NAD applauds the state of Maryland and tireless advocates such as the Maryland Association of the Deaf (MDAD) President Charm Smith, Alice Hagemeyer, Ray Conrad, Kat Brockway, Alec McFarlane, Kelby Brick, Jennifer Reesman, Cheri Dowling, Emily Ferran, and the Governor’s Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH) Director Lisa Kornberg to mention a few, who worked hard on behalf of those bills for this important achievement. We encourage other states that may be interested in doing the same to reach out to the MDAD and ODHH.
Read the bills:
Read MDAD’s Legislative wrap up (including vlog), here.