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NAD President Chris Wagner asks the community to stop attacking each other and to work together.

Video description and transcript:
Video fades to a gradient background with dark blue to light blue, a grey National Association of the Deaf (NAD) logo is centered. Video fades to Chris Wagner in front of a beige wall, a piece of art is hung on the wall behind him. A small white NAD logo appears on the bottom right.

CHRIS: Greetings everyone. This is probably one of the most difficult messages that I have ever had to give. It is evident that the deaf and hard of hearing community is not unified, with all the different individuals and groups making strong comments against each other. There have been bullying incidents on social media as well. This breaks my heart. This kind of hostility is what gives hearing parents concerns about sending their children to a deaf school. We all know that these schools are the heart of the deaf and hard of hearing community. Though I didn’t go to a deaf school myself, I discovered my deaf identity and ASL through my journey as I became an adult. I know that deaf schools are important. It is true, I envy people who grew up attending a deaf school. And I am convinced that we must focus our energy on supporting these deaf schools!

Deaf schools are in danger, whether its state or private. These schools face many dangers that can lead to their being closed down. It is like building a house of cards where you can easily flick off one card and the whole house of cards crashes down. Anything could happen to these schools tomorrow, next month, or next year.

Is it worthwhile or does it make sense to attacking people and schools? This saddens me. All deaf schools provide language access, in fact they’re better than public schools! I got more language access when I went to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) than I did growing up in my schools. We need to remember it’s all about the students. We must work together. We must get involved. We must volunteer. We must become a teacher, an administrator, and so on. We must.

I encourage deaf schools and the deaf and hard of hearing community to have a healthy and open dialogue with each other. If you feel your school isn’t doing enough, then get involved — whether you’re a parent or not, you can volunteer or join their reading club and sign books for example. We must do whatever we can to improve our schools, and not by attacking them. Ask your school what you can do for them, not what they can do for you. It’s like what Rita Mowl said in her recent video, “it’s about helping and not oppressing.” Healthy dialogue within these schools that include different stakeholders is critical. I ask all of you to please come together and make it work. The only way we can achieve change is to work together and engage different stakeholders. Let’s end this mess. We need to start working together as one community. Thank you.

Video fades to a gradient background with dark blue to light blue, a grey National Association of the Deaf (NAD) logo is centered. White text below the logo appears, "A production of the National Association of the Deaf (copyright) 2015 All Rights Reserved" with four teal social media icons, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

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   deafaynrand Reply

   9 years ago

   ReplyTo:   NAD