[If you use a screen reader and need to access the caption file transcript, go to "More..." and click on "Transcript"]

Howard explains the difference between Advocacy Letters and Position Statements. #AskHoward


VIDEO DESC & TRANSCRIPT: Howard A. Rosenblum is sitting at his desk. The NAD logo appears on bottom right corner as a watermark.

HOWARD: Hello. We have advocacy letters and position statements available on the NAD website for anyone to use. I will explain the difference between the two. Advocacy letters are for people to use to show businesses of their legal requirements including providing interpreters or equal communication access such as at the doctor's office or at conferences. People can use the advocacy letters to show to the responsible person responsible for these offices or conferences; these letters explain what the law requires for access. Position statements are different. These statements are used to go beyond what the laws say for specific situations. These statements explain what the best practices are, and can be used to advocate for change. Our position statements are useful when you meet with legislators or are at the hospital, and you ask them to implement our best practices. An example would be our position statement on VRI which you can share with your local hospital. The position statement shares specific guidelines to follow when using VRI for best practices which are not explained in the law. Our goal is that the hospital reads the position statement and follows it to improve their services for deaf and hard of hearing people. So, that's the difference between advocacy letters and position statements. You can use both as resources for advocacy. Thank you.

Video fades to a soft white background with several different font types showing “NAD” very quickly. Copyright video ends with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) logo centered. Blue text below the logo appears, "The National Association of the Deaf / (copyright) 2018 All Rights Reserved / Link ; a yellow highlight of the URL appears at the end.