Engage for Change | Local | National Deaf Center

Let Deaf Communities Lead

Decisions are made every day about deaf people’s lives without involving deaf people. This needs to change.

The lived experience and knowledge of deaf community members must guide policy changes, strategic planning, and programs that are designed to reduce barriers and increase opportunities for deaf people in the United States. Listening to community members and letting them lead the way is important. This is a core value of the work we do at the National Deaf Center (NDC).

System Change from the Bottom Up

Engage for Change | local relies on an evidence-based model of system change that is led by communities. NDC supports community conversations across the nation, focused on increasing the success of deaf people in their area.

A team of researchers at NDC analyzed data from community conversations in six cities to identify eight strategies that were most important to local communities. A longer analysis was published in the American Annals of the Deaf.

Bring Deaf-led Change to Your Community

For each of the eight strategies summarized here, community members suggested specific activities. How could your community implement these strategies for changing the system to increase the success of deaf people? What kind of activities would be most relevant for your community?