You have AGBell, NAD and other organizations who are part of the Hearing Alliance (DHHA) group, a Coalition of Consumer and Professional Organizations, who support the ratification of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) which was made on July 17, 2012. Also, if you hadn't noticed when you clicked on that link it goes through the Listening and Spoken Language Knowledge Center website. That internet address will soon be AGBell's new website for the AG Bell Association. The old AGBell website address will soon redirect to the new Knowledge Center.
Anyways, AGBell explains in depth about the CRPD along with AGBell's position paper regarding the CRPD with some suggestions on changing/adding a few things to CRPD and compare that to
NAD's position paper which was updated in May of 2012.
Interesting to see the differences between the two organizations regarding their support for CRPD.
You can see the continuing CRPD changes on the amendments in the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations webpage.
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yea, it was a bit strange, based on what AGB's position statement said, I believe AGB is supporting the treaty with the hopes that more amendments will be done.
In fact, I got an email from AGB with the announcement of DHHA's support letter. Found it interesting.
What is funny (not really funny but..funny) is that Theresa Bulger send out emails to certain people, asking them to write to Senators and ask Senators to consider changes to the treaty to include "full gamut of communication options including sign language and auditory oral", among other things. And deafhood foundation has her letter on their site saying Bulger opposes the CRPD when in fact she is proposing folks to ask Senators to consider changes.
I don't think folks read much anymore and I know how easy it is to do that, I find myself not reading thoroughly sometimes and missed the real context. I believe it does make a difference when we actually take the time to read in spite of our busy schedule in this ever so hectic life. ;)
Nothing strange about this. The advocacy organizations regularly join forces on issues of common interest, and it has paid off countless times in the implementation of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.
Krischi,
It is a strange bedfellows moment considering the CRPD issue and that both NAD and AGBell supports it but have their own ideas or other suggestions on what CRPD should cover. Not about captioning support, etc...which has nothing to do with sign language or deaf culture but clearly NAD is making this to be an exclusively a deaf culture thing rather than a more broad-based support for all kinds of deaf and hard of hearing people with mild to hard of hearing loss for those who are late deafened or born with hearing loss.
Exactly, Candy. This is an example of a dichotomy between the two when it comes to their version of what CRPD should look like. CRPD should consider all of the options because hearing loss varies and people's ability to speak and listen also vary. In fact the majority of deaf and hard of hearing people's own "linguistic identity" is in fact the spoken language (speaking and listening) and nothing to do with sign language. And AGBell has it right that hearing technology is an important consideration to include in the CRPD amendment.
No, Mike. You don't have any guarantees that the proposed amendments will make it in. What it boils down to is that the CRPD has a lot of good things in it that are in the organizations' best interest. Otherwise it would be foolish for AGBell and HLAA (where Lise has has been campaigning actively on its behalf) to come out in support of it. You don't always get everything, but if you play your cards well, you get most of it. That's what it is all about and what the advocacy groups have taken to heart.
Krischi, I understand however it is a strange bedfellows moment in this case because ideological differences are apparent here whereas captioning support is more broad based and politically neutral where everyone supports it quite easily.Politics isn't in the picture here. Here with NAD's position paper differs widely with that of agbell's. This is where they would disagree. Captioning? Not even one bit.
AG Bell (the association) put out this statement in light of some members of AG Bell's opposition to the CRPD. An, interesting read. I think other deaf organization can learn from this. Organizations should not be dictating to their members what to support. And, AG Bell did just that. We all have a right to support issues or not. The link is here:
http://www.listeningandspokenlanguage.org/Document.aspx?id=1242
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