All,

In the past several days, I have witnessed our Deaf community becoming more politically active in the United States of America, especially nationalwide, statewide and local areas!

Nationalwide: National Association of the Deaf (NAD), Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) and Caption Action 2 (the grassroots-based information clearinghouse) are lobbying furiously to push the HR3101 bill at the next level. After the ‘Virtual’ Legislative Day on April 15, 2010, two Republican representatives co-sponsored the bill! Check the vlog to see how NAD board members did on that day!

Statewide: Deaf Californians are working very hard to oppose the AB2072 bill which focuses on communication options instead of optimizing language acquisition in Deaf babies. There is a tremendous support especially from several national-level and state-level organizations sending the opposition statements to Assemblymember Tony Mendoza about this bill, and click here to see the statements.

Local: Michigan Deaf Community are working hard to keep the only Deaf Education program to train new teachers about bilingual education (American Sign Language and English) open at Michigan State University in East Lansing.   A group of citizens from Michigan gave a presentation before the MSU’s Board of Trustees today. Click the vlog here. That closure will affect the entire state of Michigan, especially deaf children in Michigan.

That is activism I’ve been witnessing and we all are fighting so hard to preserve our core values.

The three core values of American Deaf Community, and they are not necessarily in the order. All are equally important!

I. Accessibility,
II. Optimal Language Acquisition (ASL and English), and
III. Bilingual Education for Deaf children (ASL and English).

I am keeping a close eye on three significant developments and their outcomes.   We all need to do the same because these three issues will cause a huge impact on all of us. It will hit in your own backyard too.

My thoughts are with you and keep on fighting!

Best,

Amy Cohen Efron