Buffalo, NY – Mayor Bryon W. Brown, joined by Pamela Rohring, St. Mary’s School for the Deaf Teacher, St. Mary’s School for the Deaf students, Bradford Watts, Community Relations Manager for People Inc., David Wantuck, Deaf Access Services Community Engagement Specialist, and others, today proclaimed the week of September 18th – September 25th as “Deaf Awareness Week” in the City of Buffalo. At a special flag-raising ceremony in recognition of Deaf Awareness Week, Mayor Brown also announced new initiatives to make Buffalo a more deaf-friendly and deaf-inclusive community. “Every Buffalo resident deserves full access to all aspects of life in the city, and that includes the Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Hard of Hearing and Hearing Loss community. I’m pleased to announce today that in an effort to build a more inclusive and more just community, we are enhancing the City’s American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter program to include sign language interpreting at upcoming Mayoral or City Department press events.” Currently, sign language interpreting services are utilized by The Buffalo Police Department. As part of the newly enhanced program, ASL interpretation will now be provided at government events. Mayor Brown also highlighted a number of events taking place during Deaf Awareness Week in Buffalo. In addition to the flag-raising ceremony at Niagara Square, Mayor Brown directed the top of Buffalo City Hall and BuffaloLIT to be lit in Blue and Yellow on Monday, September 20th. Light blue represents how the Deaf community cherishes Sign Language. Gold symbolizes light, hope, knowledge, and enlightenment. Mayor Brown also encouraged people to check out the display case in the Lobby of Buffalo City Hall which showcases the local Deaf community, along with some artifacts. Mayor Brown also announced that he will push out a number of interesting statistics throughout the week on Mayor Brown’s Facebook page. Residents can follow Mayor Brown on Facebook by visiting facebook/com/MayorByronBrown. Some of the facts include:
- 1 in 20 Americans are currently Deaf or Hard of Hearing. In round numbers, nearly 10,000,000 persons are hard of hearing and close to 1,000,000 are functionally Deaf.
- Approximately 40,000 adults are Deaf-Blind in the United States.
- One in eight people in the United States (13 percent, or 30 million) aged 12 years or older has hearing loss in both ears.
- About 2 percent of adults aged 45 to 54 have disabling hearing loss. The rate increases to 8.5 percent for adults aged 55 to 64. He also highlighted a number of events planned for this week. September 20th
- Flag-Raising Ceremony/65 Niagara Square/Noon September 21st
- Dachy’s Deaf By Jack Hughes/10 am/Signed by Julia Bronnenberg/Posted on St. Mary’s School for the Deaf and Deaf Access Services Facebook, Youtube and Website pages. September 22nd
- Soccer/Volleyball Game at St. Mary’s School for the Deaf/Grade School Soccer/2pm
- Soccer/Volleyball at St. Mary’s School for the Deaf/5pm
- Freddie and the Fairy by Julia Donaldson and Karen George/10 am/Signed by Julia Bronnenberg/ Posted on St. Mary’s School for the Deaf and Deaf Access Services Facebook, Youtube and Website pages. September 23rd
- The Deaf Musicians by Peter Seeger and Paul Dubois Jacobs/10 am/Signed by Julia Bronnenberg/ Posted on St. Mary’s School for the Deaf and Deaf Access Services Facebook, Youtube and Website pages. September 24th
- El Deafo by Cece Bell/10 am/Signed by Julia Bronnenberg/Posted on St. Mary’s School for the Deaf and Deaf Access Services Facebook, Youtube and Website pages
- Jacob Leffler will be wrapping up with a Keynote speech to the community. Posted @ 3 pm/Posted on St. Mary’s School for the Deaf and Deaf Access Services Facebook, Youtube and Website pages.