Buffalo Deaf Community
Emily Glenn-Smith
Video Relay: 866-757-5624
Email: emilyglennsmith@tmail.com
PRESS ADVISORY
Monday, August 3, 2009
Deaf Adult Services New Hire Proves Destructive
Deaf Adult Services should be utilized to facilitate access to the deaf community in the public arena.
How can this be possible if DAS is not accessible itself?
Deaf Community to DAS Board “Do the Right Thing!”
Mission of DAS--Deaf Adult Services is committed to creating a bridge between the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Hearing Communities through advocacy, education, case management, counseling and interpreting services that GOVERN EQUAL ACCESS, symbolizing the accords of CULTURALLY AFFIRMATIVE principles in championing the rights of the Deaf.
The Board of Directors of Deaf Adult Services will sponsor a Community Forum to address following demands made by the Deaf Community at their last Board Meeting:
1. An EXTENSIVE search opened for a QUALIFIED executive director to lead the only Deaf agency in Western New York.
2. Equal access to communication in the office for staff members and community members that walk through the agency doors.
3. In the event that no candidates meet your liking, we request at minimum to have someone with knowledge and experience with the Deaf Community and fluency in ASL hired to work as equal counterpart to Mr. Burns.
4. We also request that the current executive director and the Board of Directors go through extensive cultural training to understand the importance of a qualified leader in the Deaf Community.
WHAT: Community Forum regarding the decision of the DAS board’s decision to hire an Executive
Director that is not fluent in American Sign Language or Deaf Culture
WHO: Buffalo Deaf Adult Services and Board, the Buffalo Deaf Club, the Buffalo Deaf, Hard of
Hearing and Hearing Community
WHEN: Monday, August 3, 2009, 7:00PM
WHERE: 2275 Clinton St. Buffalo NY 14206, Buffalo Club of the Deaf
VISUALS: Over 100 members of the Deaf Community in an intense Forum demanding equal access!
Members of the Deaf Community will be available for interviews after the press conference
To promote and protect the civil liberties of Deaf people and their linguistic birthrights.
About Me
- AudismFreeAmerica
- Questions/Comments- Email to AudismFreeAmerica@gmail.com 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
