MISSION STATEMENT:
Audism Free America (AFA) is a grassroots Deaf activist organization in the US which advocates for Deaf American rights, cultural resurgence, and seeks primarily to challenge the ideological foundations of audism in America.
Audism is attitudes and practices based on the assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak and hear is desired and best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting in stigma, bias, discrimination, and prejudice—in overt or covert ways—against Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life.
AFA is committed to:
1. human and linguistic rights of Deaf people
2. unmasking audism and media misrepresentation
3. advocating for future generations
AFA …recognizes that those who have worked within the American political system have been ineffective in protecting the human and linguistic rights of Deaf children and have outright neglected the views and experiences of Deaf Americans—thus marginalizing us, and promoting behaviors and attitudes in American mainstream culture which manifest themselves in paternalism, bias and discrimination toward Deaf people.
AFA…is committed to unmasking these patterns of discrimination, as well as institutional and social prejudice which have infringed upon our rights as citizens.
AFA…is committed to challenging the control that audist organizations, individuals, and governmental organizations have over mainstream media which has resulted in suppression and misinformation concerning Deaf Americans, Deaf culture, and American Sign Language.
AFA...is dedicated to the proposition that Deaf people and their allies as human beings must now arise and claim these rights for future generations of Deaf children.
