Braam Jordaan

Last updated

Braam Jordaan
Author Braam Jordaan with his children books.jpg
Born1981 (age 42–43)!
Benoni, Johannesburg, South Africa
NationalitySouth African
EducationUniversal Computer Arts Academy
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, author, filmmaker, animator, advocate, executive
Employer(s)Convo Global, Ltd. in Vancouver, Canada, Chief Executive Officer
Organization(s) World Federation of the Deaf, World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section, United Nations, UNICEF Youth Council Member Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities
Known forThe Rubbish Monster, director, producer, writer, animation (2006)
Spouse Drisana Levitzke-Gray (m. 2016)
Awards Order of the Baobab (2019), Business in Vancouver Forty under 40 (2020), Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards (2020)
Website http://www.braamjordaan.com/

Braam Jordaan (born 1981) is a South African entrepreneur, filmmaker, animator, and activist. He is an advocate for Sign Language and human rights of Deaf people, and a board member of the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section. [1] [2] [3] In 2009, Jordaan collaborated with the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf and Marblemedia on the first children's animated dictionary of American Sign Language, which allows deaf children to look up words in their own primary language of ASL along with the English counterpart. [1] The dictionary allows both deaf children and their hearing parents to learn sign language together. [4]

Contents

Jordaan was interviewed by international news organizations including The Washington Times , BBC , and People magazine about the sign language interpreter scandal during the funeral services of President Nelson Mandela. [4] [5] [6]

In 2014, Jordaan collaborated with the Camp Mark Seven's first summer of Deaf Film Camp in making the hit song Happy by Pharrell Williams into an American Sign Language music video. The music video made by all 24 camp students was selected as one of NBC News 25 Most Inspirational Stories of the Year and listed as one of People magazine's 2014 Internet Trends. [6] [7]

In 2019, Jordaan was awarded the Order of the Baobab (Grand Counsellor of the Baobab) in recognition of his efforts in raising awareness of the importance of sign language and the human rights of people from the deaf community around the world through his colourful films and books. The National Orders are the highest awards that South Africans can receive. The president bestows a national order upon a South African citizen or member of the international community who has contributed towards making South Africa a democratic and successful country. [8]

Jordaan was a recipient of Business in Vancouver Forty Under 40 for 2020. The awards recognize the achievements of British Columbia's young entrepreneurs, executives and professionals with demonstrated excellence in business, judgment, leadership and community contribution. [9]

In 2020, Jordaan was awarded Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards for championing better education in the deaf community, on achieving global recognition for his contribution to improving the lives of persons with disabilities. [10]

Early life and education

Jordaan was born in Benoni, South Africa during the era of apartheid to a predominantly deaf family that later moved to Cape Town, South Africa. [11] He attended high school at De La Bat School for the Deaf in Worcester. [12] During high school, Jordaan participated in the Law Commission Workshop at The Bastion in Newlands, Cape Town. At the age of 16, he attended the first-ever Deaf Youth Leadership Camp in Durban, led by Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, which led to Jordaan being elected to attend the National Youth Policy Commission in Midrand in 1998. [13] In 1998, he became a Member of the Council of Learners, and the chairperson of the council in 2000. [14]

Career

Jordaan's career began at Wicked Pixels, post-production company, creating visual effects and animation for TV commercials, with a client list that included BMW, Rabea Tea, Mitsubishi, Musica, World Wildlife Fund, American Eagle and Yardley. [11]

In 2002, Jordaan won best newcomer and best creative at the Vuka awards by creating a three-dimensional animation advertisement about HIV/AIDS awareness. [12] He also created Sipho the Lion, the official mascot of the XVI World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf. [11] In 2010, Jordaan created visual effects and animation for an award-winning short film with Gallaudet University called Gallaudet, which had over 140,000 views. [14] Jordaan created a video montage that stretched 1,500 feet at the DeafNation World Expo in 2012. [15] He also won the DeafNation Inspiration Award for Visual Arts that year. [16]

Honorable Member of Disability Rights Parliament Honorable Member of Disability Rights Parliament.jpg
Honorable Member of Disability Rights Parliament

Deaf education and awareness advocacy

Jordaan became a representative of the World Federation of the Deaf, an international organization that represents 70 million deaf people worldwide, and the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section, a youth section under the World Federation of the Deaf. [17] In 2012, during the Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival, Jordaan appealed to the Hong Kong government for the development of a proper sign language curriculum and for the accessibility of sign language interpreters in their nation. [18] In 2014, Jordaan delivered a statement about the right to an education in sign language for deaf youth and children to the Youth with Disabilities of the Seventh Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. [19] He also works with the United Nations and is a Youth Council Member of the UNICEF Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities. [20]

#WHccNow campaign

Jordaan launched a social media campaign around the hashtag #WHccNow to advocate for the White House to improve accessibility for Deaf and hard of hearing people from the government. [21] Without closed captions on videos from the White House, Deaf and hard of hearing people are excluded. The hashtag stands for 'White House closed caption now,' and it trended on Twitter's accessibility advocate communities. [22] The White House responded with a State of the Union preview video with open captions posted on social media and the State Department Special Advisor for International Disability Rights, Judith Heumann announced that the White House opened Accessibility Officer position to lead inclusion efforts.

Launch of South Africa's First National Relay Service

After seven years of advocacy, Braam Jordaan, co-founder of Convo Global, spearheaded the establishment of South Africa's first National Relay Service through Convo South Africa and MTN Group in 2022. [23] This pioneering service, part of a broader commitment to ensure equal access to telecommunications for everyone in South Africa, including those with hearing and/or speech disabilities, reflects a nation-wide effort, endorsed by Independent Communications Authority of South Africa and supported by President Cyril Ramaphosa, towards a more inclusive society. [24] [25]

The concept for this service was conceived seven years prior by Jordaan, who began advocating for it after experiencing similar services abroad and discussing telecommunication access with President Cyril Ramaphosa upon receiving the Order of the Baobab Award in 2019. Subsequently, in 2021, ICASA amended the Code on People with Disabilities, mandating that electronic communication service licensees provide a National Relay Service (NRS). [26]


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deaf culture</span> Culture of deaf persons

Deaf culture is the set of social beliefs, behaviors, art, literary traditions, history, values, and shared institutions of communities that are influenced by deafness and which use sign languages as the main means of communication. When used as a cultural label especially within the culture, the word deaf is often written with a capital D and referred to as "big D Deaf" in speech and sign. When used as a label for the audiological condition, it is written with a lower case d. Carl G. Croneberg coined the term "Deaf Culture" and he was the first to discuss analogies between Deaf and hearing cultures in his appendices C/D of the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language.

Gary Malkowski is a former Canadian provincial politician. He represented the riding of York East in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1995, as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP). He was Canada's first deaf parliamentarian, and the first deaf parliamentarian in the world to address a legislature in a sign language, specifically American Sign Language. He was formerly a table tennis player who went onto represent Canada at the Deaflympics in 1977 and 1985.

The history of deaf people and deaf culture make up deaf history. The Deaf culture is a culture that is centered on sign language and relationships among one another. Unlike other cultures the Deaf culture is not associated with any native land as it is a global culture. By some, deafness may be viewed as a disability, but the Deaf world sees itself as a language minority. Throughout the years many accomplishments have been achieved by deaf people. To name the most famous, Ludwig van Beethoven and Thomas Alva Edison were both deaf and contributed great works to culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Sign Language</span> South African sign language

South African Sign Language is the primary sign language used by deaf people in South Africa. The South African government added a National Language Unit for South African Sign Language in 2001. SASL is not the only manual language used in South Africa, but it is the language that is being promoted as the language to be used by the Deaf in South Africa, although Deaf peoples in South Africa historically do not form a single group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Federation of the Deaf</span> International non-governmental organization

The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) is an international non-governmental organization that acts as a peak body for national associations of Deaf people, with a focus on deaf people who use sign language and their family and friends. WFD aims to promote the human rights of deaf people worldwide, by working closely with the United Nations and various UN agencies such as the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization. WFD is also a member of the International Disability Alliance (IDA).

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is an organization for the promotion of the rights of deaf people in the United States. NAD was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1880 as a non-profit organization run by Deaf people to advocate for deaf rights, its first president being Robert P. McGregor of Ohio. It includes associations from all 50 states and Washington, DC, and is the US member of the World Federation of the Deaf, which has over 120 national associations of Deaf people as members. It has its headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.


Dr "Ed" Bosson is best known for his invention of the Video Relay Service which has provided the ability to connect between hearing and deaf communities through the means of video and sign language interpreters. Bosson then went on a long career as an administrator for the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

Emirati Sign Language is a unified sign language for the deaf community in the UAE.

Reliable information about disability in North Korea, like other information about social conditions in the country, is difficult to find. As of 2016, North Korea is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Liisa Kauppinen is a Finnish human rights activist who lost her hearing as a child. After serving as executive director of the Finnish Association of the Deaf, in 1995 she became the first woman to be appointed President of the World Federation of the Deaf. She has contributed internationally to opportunities for women with disabilities while promoting the use of sign languages in connection with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In 2013, she was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Prize, the first Finn to receive the award. In 2015 the WFD established the Dr. Liisa Kauppinen Fund to honour her contributions and to fund activities focused on the empowerment of deaf girls and women. In 2019 she was the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Light of the World Group.

In Ireland, 8% of adults are affected by deafness or severe hearing loss. In other words, 300,000 Irish require supports due to their hearing loss.

Japanese Sign Language (JSL), also known as Nihon Shuwa, is the unofficial but most predominantly used sign language used by nearly 57,000 native signers as their primary language. It is a convergent, Deaf community sign language developed in the late 19th century.

Though official statistics are not available, the Danish Deaf Association estimates that there are currently about 5,000 deaf users of Danish Sign Language, which is equivalent to nearly 0.1% of the country's population. As many as 20,000 people are thought to use the language daily in their professional or personal life.


Deafness in Poland refers to the Deaf communities in Poland and education around their culture and language. Poland has a recorded history of DHH people, dating back to 1817. About 15.1% of Polish people in Poland say they have hearing loss. Polski Język Migowy is the main signed language in Poland.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has a population of about 1.4 million deaf people out of a total population of about 86.7 million. The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are one of the more greatly affected regions by hard-of-hearing complications, compared to the rest of the world. Deaf people in the DRC are subject to neglect and discrimination by their families and the government, but they are also met with small, various ways of support and charity through international, European, Australian, and American religious, non-religious, and governmental organizations.

The Canadian Association of the Deaf estimates that there are over 350,000 Deaf Canadians, but there is not an exact number since there has never been a formal census on Deaf Canadians. There are approximately 1.2 million Indigenous people and over 750 reserves in Canada. There are various intersections of deaf and Indigenous culture, including valuing community, rooting their identity in their culture and its associated group instead of their individuality, having their identities oversimplified, being underrepresented in research and data collection, and experiencing health inequities due to their identities. There is limited research on Deaf Indigenous people, but the Saskatchewan Human Rights Association argues that issues faced by Deaf people are exacerbated when that person is also Indigenous.

South Korea's Deaf population began to come to prominence in recorded history in the late 19th century with the implementation of special education. Since then, they have gained government recognition and legal rights.

Deafness in Thailand refers to the population and culture of Deaf Hard of Hearing people in Thailand. Deafness in Thailand includes language emergence, organizations, healthcare, employment, schooling, and civil rights.

Out of nearly 59 million people in Italy, about 3.5 million Italians have some form of hearing loss. Among them, around 70,000 people are severely deaf. The European Union for the Deaf reports that the majority of the deaf people in Italy use Italian Sign Language (LIS). LIS has been an official sign language in Italy since 2021. Italy, among other countries, ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and is slowly improving conditions for deaf humans in Italy. Many major organizations in Italy fight for deaf rights and spread awareness to the Italian National Agency for the protection and assistance of the Deaf and Associated Italian Families for the Defense of the Rights of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals (FIADDA). Newborns in Italy also receive universal hearing screenings. Education in Italy is directed towards oralism, although sign language is also used. LIS is a stable language and is used by approximately 40,000 users in Italy.

The Filipino Sign Language (FSL) is the official language of education for deaf Filipinos, which number around 121,000 as of 2000.

References

  1. 1 2 McLean, Tom (8 December 2009). "Animated dictionary for deaf children unveiled". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  2. ↑ "Speaking out: Young voices on NCDs". UNICEF. 23 September 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  3. ↑ Simon, Natalie (11 December 2013). "Outrage over sign language interpreter at Madiba Memorial". Yahoo News. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Transcript of Braam Jordaan Interview". BBC World News. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  5. ↑ Cheryl K. Chumley (11 December 2013). "Mandela service sign language interpreter: 'He made up his own signs'". The Washington Times. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  6. 1 2 Billups, Andrea (11 December 2013). "Mandela Memorial Deaf interpreter was a fake". People. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Serico, Chris (25 December 2014). "The 25 most inspirational stories of the year". NBC News. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Maphanga, Canny (25 April 2019). "Recipient of National order, Braam Jordaan hopes to launch a video interpreting service for the deaf community". News 24. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  9. ↑ LaPointe, Kirk (30 October 2020). "BIV's 2020 Forty under 40 winners announced". Business in Vancouver. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  10. ↑ Ramaphosa, Cyril (3 December 2020). "Closing remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa for the Presidential Working Group on Disability and on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities". The Presidency, Republic of South Africa. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 "Star profile". This Ability. 21 October 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  12. 1 2 "Capetonian wins TV ad award". News 24 Archives. 25 November 2002. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  13. ↑ Lawrence, Sarah (4 June 2015). "Leading and pushing for change, Braam Jordaan's representation promises great things". SL First Magazine. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  14. 1 2 Lawrence, Sarah (8 April 2015). "Braam Jordaan, instrumental Deaf film producer and human rights ambassador". SL First Magazine. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  15. ↑ "Stunning Exhibition of 2012 DeafNation World Expo". DeafNation. 2010. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  16. ↑ "DeafNation 2012 Inspirational Awards". DeafNation. 2012. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  17. ↑ "UNICEF Activate Talk - Speaking out: Young voices on non communicable diseases". World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section (WFDYS). 23 September 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  18. ↑ Meigs, Doug (27 February 2012). "Beyond silent films". China Daily Asia. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  19. ↑ "WFD and WFDYS statement delivered by Braam Jordaan at the panel of Youth with Disabilities of the 7th Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 12 June 2014". World Federation of the Deaf. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  20. ↑ "Let's "Beard Up Braam" campaign". News 24. 10 March 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
  21. ↑ Jabulile S. Ngwenya (2 December 2015). "People with disabilities have rights". African News Agency. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  22. ↑ Griffin, Emily (31 December 2015). "#WHCCNOW campaign succeeds in getting closed captions on White House video". 3PlayMedia. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  23. ↑ Robin-Lee Francke (17 January 2023). "Convo South Africa and MTN partner to bring phone call service to the hearing impaired". IOL. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  24. ↑ Disability Connect (18 January 2023). "Convo SA and MTN make phone calls for the hearing impaired accessible". Disability Connect. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  25. ↑ ITWeb (5 December 2022). "ICT sector must ensure equal telecoms rights for disabled". ITWeb. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  26. ↑ Robin-Lee Francke (17 January 2023). "Convo South Africa and MTN partner to bring phone call service to the hearing impaired". IOL. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.