President Melissa shares updates regarding the five current priorities (www.nad.org/about-us/priorities). In case you missed it, please make sure you fill out our survey about racism in the deaf community (www.nad.org/racism-in-deaf-community-survey).

Original PR: Link

[Video Desc. & Transcript: NAD President Melissa S. Draganac-Hawk is standing in the middle of the screen with a blue backdrop.

MELISSA: Hi, I’m Melissa. This is my monthly video and I’ll be sharing updates for our five current priorities. Before I get into that, if you’d like to learn more about our five priorities and with detailed information, you can go to Link and click on the “ABOUT” tab and find “Priorities” in the sub-menu. You’ll see all five priorities listed with further information on that page.

Now, I’ll share updates for each priority. First, I’ll start with “Achieving Equity in Deaf Education” — the committee has met several times. Members serving on the committee represent different organizations in the deaf community, including representatives from deaf programs, deaf schools, teachers, parents, administrators, universities, NAD Staff, and the NAD Board. The committee discussed deaf students’ experiences and look forward to sharing different ideas with you in the next coming months ahead.

The next priority is “Campaign to Spotlight the Adverse Impacts of Language Deprivation.” The committee has various members including researchers, parents, schools for the deaf staff members, and those who work at hospitals. The committee is tasked with three things. One is to develop a model bill. Second, the committee will review our position statement(s) and update our website to be more family friendly. And third, develop training modules for professional staff, parents, and Education Advocates.

The next priority is “Dismantling Racism in the Deaf Community.” The committee meets often and we discussed how to develop a curriculum. We created a survey and released it in the deaf community. Information gathered from that survey will help the committee develop a toolkit that will help train individuals as well as small or big groups. We’ve been making progress and are working hard. If you filled out the survey within the past few weeks, thank you! If you haven’t, please fill out the survey!

The next priority is “Eliminating Barriers to Quality Care for Deaf Seniors.” This priority is in its third year. During the last term, its first two years, we focused on gathering input from Deaf Seniors to understand more about what they’d like, what they’d like to learn more about housing, how to plan for retirement, and understanding more about caregivers. We developed several resources to address those gaps. Now, we’re looking at state and federal levels. We’re looking at different aging agencies in different states to understand how their system works. We work closely with Deaf Seniors in America (DSA) and the National Association of State Agencies of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (NASADHH). The three groups are working closely together to figure out how to address gaps at the state and federal level and how they can meet deaf and hard of hearing people’s needs.

The last priority is “Foster Care Bill of Rights.” The committee is tasked with two things. One is to develop a model bill for State Associations to implement in their state. The model bill is to support deaf families and deaf and hard of hearing in the foster care system — to help them know what their rights are. The other task is to develop a position statement for anyone to use.

That about sums up the five priorities we’re working on, so far. We will continue to work on these priorities before giving the final report in July 2022. Thank you!]