Hello, everyone who serves on the Ways and Means committee, it is really nice to see so many familiar faces here today. I would like to introduce myself: I am Chad A. Ludwig and I am president of Oregon Association of the Deaf. We wanted to share our thanks for your support during the 2015 legislative session. During this legislative session, there was Senate Bill 449A. This bill died, but you all recognized the need and you gave us $200,000 to conduct the community needs assessment. The community needs assessment was completed by Western Oregon University in December 2016.

In the community needs assessment report, you will discover detailed information about the overwhelming needs of Oregonians who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Hard of Hearing and Deaf with additional disabilities. There are so many unmet needs within these communities; I am here to testify to that. For a long time, the community has been denied access to services, information and resources. Now is the time for you to open the community needs assessment report and take a look. It is our goal to set up a legislative information hearing, and we extend our invitation to you to come and learn more about the community needs assessment report.

After the information hearing, we want your support in upcoming legislative concepts they are currently in development. The legislative concepts are (1) Oregon State Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (2) Mental Health for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals Bill of Rights (3) Language Equality Acquisition for Deaf Kids and (4) Legislature to caption all sessions through television and web streaming. Thank you again for watching this video and I look forward to meeting with each one of you throughout this legislative session. Thank you.