Faith Trevino

American Sign Language I

15 October 2014
National Association of the Deaf
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is the nations most prominent civil rights
organization of, by and for dead and hard of hearing individuals in the United States of America.
NAD was founded on August 25, 1880 in Cincinnati, Ohio as a non-profit organization. The
organization is run by deaf people, and their aims and objectives are to promote, protect, and
preserve the civil, human and linguistic rights of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the
United States of America. NAD also works to promote and aware the hearing people of the
United States of America about the rights, culture, and language of deaf people. The NAD was
shaped by deaf leaders who truly believed in the right of the American deaf community and
wanted to have its interests represented at the national level. NAD embraces core, legal, and
community values. Their core values involve language and culture, their legal values involve
civil rights, human rights, and linguistic rights, and their community values involve diversity and
people. NAD was faced with inequality for the deaf and began to tackle many of its issues head
on since the organization was established. It was not an easy path, and NAD found itself at the
forefront of the struggle for total equality for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. There is a
rich history of achievements that dates back to 1850.
In 1850, the New England Gallaudet Association of the Deaf was founded, and this
organization served as a predecessor for the National Association of the Deaf. There were three
very important men that lead to the development of NAD: Edmund Booth, Robert P. McGregor,
and Edwin A. Hodgson. Edmund Booth is the one credited for mainly establishing NAD. On
August 25, 1880, the first national convention of the NAD was held in Cincinnati, Ohio. The
convention was run by Edmund Booth who announced the purpose of the convention which was
to deliberate on the needs of the deaf as a structured group. It was decided at this convention that
Robert P. McGregor would become the President of the NAD. They chose Robert because he
was known to be a big supporter for the causes of the deaf community, and he was principal of
the School for the Deaf at the time. In 1883, the second national convention of the NAD was
held in New York City. At this convention, Edwin Hodgson was elected President, and the
development of creating a statue in honor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was discussed. The
third national convention was held in Washington DC in 1889. At this convention, the statue of
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell was unveiled at Gallaudets Kendall Green
campus. Another important event was that at this convention, NAD was officially adopted as the
organizations formal name. In 1896, Julia Foley was elected as the first woman on the NAD
Board. In 1904, George Veditz was elected President of NAD, and he focused on preserving
American Sign Language as the main form of communication among the deaf. During his
presidency, Veditz used new film technology to capture individuals signing to ensure that their
language would never be lost. In1949, the NAD undertook a movement to have two deaf
professional baseball players, William Dummy Hoy and Luther Taylor, placed in the National
Baseball Hall of Fame in New York. Another milestone occurred in 1960, with the
establishment of the Junior NAD program. The program was for deaf and hard of hearing
students in grades 7 to 12. It was established to provide deaf students the opportunity to learn
leadership skills. In 1964, women members of the NAD were first allowed to vote. In 1965,
deaf African Americans were first granted membership into NAD. In 1967, the NAD was
instrumental in the establishment of the International Association of Parents of the Deaf, which
is now known as the American Society for Deaf Children. In 1972, the first Miss Deaf America
was held at the 31
st
national convention held in Miami Beach, Florida. Ann Billington was the
winner of the pageant and crowned as ambassador of goodwill. In 1980, Gertrude Galloway was
elected as the first female President of the NAD. This was also the year that the first television
programs were captioned. In 1990, the NADs leadership resulted in the passage of American
with Disabilities Act to include the rights of deaf individuals.
The historical contribution of NAD began in 1880, and still continues today. In over 130
years, the NAD has heavily contributed to the rights of deaf individuals. The NAD has
supported many causes over the years and it has done its job in creating awareness about the deaf
community and their rights. Today, the NAD continues to contribute and impact the deaf
society. One current event that NAD is working hard on is to encourage 911 centers to accept
text-to-911 texts. In January, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a policy
statement that outlined goals for text-to-911. The FCC worked with the four largest wireless
carriers to voluntarily commit to supporting text-to-911 on their networks by May 15, 2014.
Now the only issue is that many 911 centers have yet to update their systems to process these
texts. This is where the NAD steps in to push for these 911 centers to start changing their
systems. In addition to this, the NAD stays up to date with anything involving the deaf
community.
Overall, the National Association for the Deaf has been a great organization for the deaf
community. In over 130 years, the NAD has acquired so many rights for deaf and hard of
hearing individuals. The NAD has been largely successful in its mission, and I am sure it will
continue to improve on any issues that surround the deaf community.
Works Cited
http://nad.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_the_Deaf_(United_States)
http://www.handspeak.com/study/library/index.php?byte=v&ID=27