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What happens at the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) Conference? #AskHoward


VIDEO DESC & TRANSCRIPT: The NAD logo appears on bottom right corner as a watermark. Howard A. Rosenblum, NAD CEO, is standing inside a large conference hall with many people seated behind him facing the stage with a large screen.

HOWARD: Hi, I'm Howard and I'm in Paris (ASL sign). However, in France, people sign "Paris" this way (LSF). I'll sign using International Sign (IS), and it's not International Sign Language (ISL) because IS isn't a language but a mode of communication. I have been using American Sign Language (ASL) for the Ask Howard Anything (AHA) videos, so for this month -- I'd like to do an AHA showing some of the differences between IS and ASL. I'm using IS now because I'm in Paris, which is hosting a conference this month July (IS), with representatives from many other countries. IS signs "countries" this way because there are many countries in the world. We are all here because the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) is having a conference at which all the country representatives have an opportunity to discuss strategies, and vote for new board members, new issues, and where the next WFD will take place -- which by the way was voted to be held in South Korea in four years. I'm inside the main conference hall with many other people here -- this is the Opening Ceremonies. For three days before today’s start of the conference, delegates from many countries gathered to vote on various things. It's a great experience taking all this in and meeting people from other countries. Even though we all use different sign languages, we are able to get together and communicate, using IS, to talk about our rights (IS), vote yes or no (IS) on issues, vote on the next President (IS), and more. Thank you for watching -- at least you can get an idea of how deaf people from all over the world can still come together to collaborate and advance our rights as one community. Thank you!

Video cuts to grey background with the NAD logo quickly changing in different bright colors from teal to white to black to hot pink to green to orange to teal to yellow to purple to finally the official NAD logo with copyright text underneath “The National Association of the Deaf (c) 2019 All Rights Reserved”.