ZAINAB: Hello, my name is Zainab. My sign name is (like Z). I am Policy Counsel for the NAD. I’m sharing several exciting federal policy highlights. Three highlights related to transportation. First, finally a new law was passed to establish a new federal advisory committee for passengers with disabilities. The purpose of this is to negotiate and reach consensus with the airlines and the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding recommendations on various flight accessibility issues. I am currently serving on this FAA Advisory Committee. This is exciting. Secondly, we continue our advocacy efforts by pressing the airlines to provide 100% captioning for in-flight entertainment. This includes TV shows and movies you watch while in flight, which should be 100% captioned all the way. And we’re also pressing airlines to provide captioning of public announcements like on the seatback entertainment device or on communal screens, also connected on your smartphone. Same goes for trains and buses to provide caption access. Thirdly, we filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Transportation that asks them to repeal the regulations we strongly oppose related to CDLs (Commercial Driver’s License) as Deaf truck drivers should have the same equal process as hearing truck drivers without taking hearing tests. Many of our affiliates and state associations signed on the comment supporting our petition. Thank you! Next, I want to share highlights related to telecommunications access and video captioning access. One big thing we did was that we advocate and work with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve the relay service system. We have asked the FCC to implement quality standards. Same for captioning access. We have filed a joint petition with other organizations asking the FCC to establish a new regulation for the quality of captioning, urging the need to establish metrics – how the quality of captioning is measured. We strongly encouraged them to prevent the use of ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition). The NAD’s position is that ASR is not to be utilized until the quality improves and it is ready. Now, I want to share highlights related to Emergency Communications. We submitted a memo to the FCC related to emergency alerts sent out on your smartphone and through TV broadcasts. We shared about the need to improve the accessibility of these alerts. Secondly, we continue to advocate to increase availability of r Text to 911. We have developed a map on our website where you can view and find out if your state has Text to 911 ability, check your state’s percentage of Text to 911, and the availability across the U.S. Thirdly, the FCC has approved the 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline but upon our review, we notified the FCC that access was missing and emphasized the importance of Text to 988 access and direct video call for 988 prevention hotline. Next, the last category of highlights related to coronavirus access and miscellaneous other advocacy issues. First, we developed and released several guidelines and position statements that explain the best ways for communication access during the coronavirus pandemic. Topics include education, employment, telework (including remote meetings) , how to communicate while using masks, hospital access, telehealth, and many more. Next, we have established the ASL Voter Hotline. This hotline still operates continuously. We noted several popular common questions. We collected them and developed FAQ (Frequently Asked Question(s) videos. Next, we have filed many comments related to information and communications technology (ICT) with various federal agencies – for example, U.S Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, FCC and many more. Lastly, we continue to have open dialogue with and provide guidance to various corporations. This concludes my policy report. Now, I turn over to Tawny Holmes Hlibok for her Education policy Report.
TAWNY: Thanks, Zainab. Education policy updates in the past two years cover a wide spectrum of issues. I will share some specific highlights. For example, we went to several meetings at the U.S. Congress to advocate for two important bills: Cogswell/Macy Act, which has the goal to amend the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to improve language access and education access for deaf, hard of hearing, blind and visually impaired, DeafBlind students. We look forward to making sure that the bill passes. We work with our partner Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf (CEASD) on that bill. Also, we were thrilled to see a new bill introduced, titled, “Signing is Language”. The purpose of this proposed bill is to provide English language learning services for both deaf children and hearing children of Deaf adults known as Kids of Deaf Adults (KODA) by providing bilingual language services related to supporting English language acquisition through their home language such as ASL or their native sign language from other countries. We look forward to having this bill passed soon. We also have been actively involved in many events and conferences. We are proud to continue our involvement with the National Education Advocacy summit in partnership with CEASD, Gallaudet University, and blind organizations. We collaborate with them to provide training on legislative strategies and advocacy to deaf high school students which helps them understand the legislative proceedings and prepare them to attend meetings in the U.S. Congress. This has been annual and started two years ago. 100 students participated in this training. Also, we have been providing training through our webinars related to coronavirus policies, early intervention access, and language access related to law and advocacy strategies to various audiences, including parents/families, community members, professionals and many others. We provided over 25 presentations and trainings. We also provided direct intake and resources to over 163 individuals, families, and teachers. We also believe in valuing collaboration with different organizations through communities. For example, Language Accountability, Support and Empowerment Roundtable (LASER), which has seen great progress, with over 21 different organizations including diverse ones and those who care about education. And also colleges and universities joined. The goal was to make sure we communicate, exchange resources, and develop strategies. We also worked to have important meetings with different U.S. federal agencies. For example, we want to make sure that the U.S. Department of Education changes their perception on the least restrictive environment (LRE), which mandates mainstream/inclusive education but at the same time they need to consider the individual needs of students and not exclude deaf schools and deaf programs in mainstream schools. We also have several meetings related to Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) to make sure that the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) doesn’t forget about specific important changes in the EHDI bill passed in 2017 such as providing deaf mentors, language acquisition assessments, and visual language resources. We need to make sure the changes are followed through on and that also includes making sure the Center for Disease Control and Prevention collects language acquisition assessment scores. We really have been continuously pressing the federal level agencies and also we have been working closely with the state associations. That’s why I now turn over to Kim Bianco-Majeri to explain a little bit more about our work in that area.
KIM: Over the last two years, the policy institute has been active. We hosted the NAD’s first ever Interpreter Summit with over 50 people discussing an overview of interpreter issues. The discussions at the Interpreter Summit will translate into a position statement that will be released soon. The policy institute has started to research and assess issues surrounding caregivers who take care of people with Alzheimer’s or Related Dementias. The NAD will develop policy recommendations. We continue to train state associations related to the legislative process, help them with proposing bills, and review bills that they want to propose. In two years, the following were the top six proposed bills: 1) LEAD-K, 2 ) Interpreter Licensure Bill, 3) Deaf Child Bill of Rights, 4) Conversion of Hearing Impaired Terminology to Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind, 5) License Plates/Driver’s License including registration for notification of Deaf individual to emergency personnel and law enforcement. And lastly, Open Captioning in Movie Theatres.