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Our Community

  • Maryland is one of the 36 states that has a Commission serving the deaf and hard of hearing population and is supported by the state government, but does not function as a Deaf Center.

  • Many states have Deaf Centers: California has nine and other states such as Illinois, Kansas and Utah have one where there is a large cluster of deaf population.

  • Maryland has over 1.2 million Deaf and hard of hearing residents.

  • Frederick has thousands of deaf and hard of hearing residents.

  • Frederick would house the first Deaf Center in Maryland.

Rationale

  We need:

  • Accessibility to activities in our American Sign Language (ASL).

  • Accessibility to a variety of services in ASL such as social, references and information sharing.

  • A place where we can present educational workshops, career internship and placement.

  • A place where the hearing community can learn sign language with Deaf people and join us for workshops, educational and social events.

  • A place where individuals wanting to learn to become interpreters can do their internships.

  • A place where community theaters, recreation activities and social events can take place.

  • A place where referrals can be made to a variety of resources.

  • A place where all Maryland counties can utilize.

Members of the Deaf Community are:

  • Deaf adults

  • Deaf teenagers

  • Deaf children and adolescents

  • Hearing parents of deaf children

  • Hearing children of deaf adults (CODA)

  • Late deafened adults

  • Deaf Seniors

  • Deaf/blind

  • Deaf citizens with intellectual challenges

  • Hearing friends/families

  • Interpreters

  • Work study students

  • Sign language students

  • Sponsors

  • Donors

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