Alice Lougee Hagemeyer | |
---|---|
Born | 1934 (age 89–90) |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Librarian |
Alice Lougee Hagemeyer (born 1934) is a deaf American librarian who worked to make libraries more accessible for deaf people. [1] [2]
Hagemeyer graduated from Gallaudet University in 1957. [3] From 1957 to 1991 she worked for the District of Columbia Public Library. [2] In 1974 she created Deaf Awareness Week, later called Deaf Heritage Week, in which programs about deaf culture are held in libraries. [4] She became the District of Columbia Public Library's first full-time "Librarian for the Deaf Community" in 1976. [2] Also in 1976, she earned a master's degree in Library Science from the University of Maryland. [5] In 1979 she began The Red Notebook, which was a binder of information by and about deaf people for the Martin Luther King Memorial Library. [2] In 2001 the information went online, on a website called "The Red Notebook." [2] In 1980 she founded the unit now known as the Library Service to People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing Forum, which is a unit within the American Library Association. [4] In 1986 she co-founded Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action, which became an official section of the National Association of the Deaf in 1992. [2] She was also the chair of the National Association of the Deaf Ad Hoc Committee on National Deaf History Month and began the push to have March 13 to April 15 recognized as National Deaf History Month in the United States. [1] In 2006 the American Library Association and the National Association of the Deaf declared that they would recognize that time as National Deaf History Month. [4]
She received the National Association for the Deaf's President's Award in 1980, was recognized as one of the University of Maryland's College of Information Studies' Distinguished Alumni in 1987, and was granted Honorary Membership in the American Library Association in 2007. [5] Also in 2007 she was named Deaf Person of the Month for August by DeafPeople.com. [6]
She is the author of Deaf Awareness Handbook for Public Librarians, and The Public Library Talks To You (a handbook for deaf people who use public libraries.) [3] In 1992 in her article "We Have Come a Long Way", published in Library Trends, she describes characteristics of deaf people and ways libraries can develop policies and services that provide accessibility to the deaf community. [7]
Gallaudet University is a private federally chartered university in Washington, D.C., for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first school for the advanced education of the deaf and hard of hearing in the world and remains the only higher education institution in which all programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students. Hearing students are admitted to the graduate school and a small number are also admitted as undergraduates each year. The university was named after Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a notable figure in the advancement of deaf education.
A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users.
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 was among the first to discuss analogies between Deaf and hearing cultures in his appendices C and D of the 1965 Dictionary of American Sign Language.
Louis Laurent Marie Clerc was a French teacher called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" and was regarded as the most renowned deaf person in American Deaf History. He was taught by Abbé Sicard and deaf educator Jean Massieu, at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets in Paris. With Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, he co-founded the first school for the deaf in North America, the Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, on April 15, 1817, in the old Bennet's City Hotel, Hartford, Connecticut. The school was subsequently renamed the American School for the Deaf and in 1821 moved to 139 Main Street, West Hartford. The school remains the oldest existing school for the deaf in North America.
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. While deafness is often included within the umbrella of disability, many view the Deaf community 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.
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.
Jane Fernandes is an American educator and social justice advocate. As of August 2021, Fernandes is the President of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She previously served as president of Guilford College from 2014 to 2021.
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George William Veditz was an American educator, filmmaker, and activist who served as the seventh President of the National Association of the Deaf from 1904 to 1910. He is remembered as one of the most ardent and visible advocates of American Sign Language (ASL) and was one of the first people to film ASL. His 1913 film "Preservation of the Sign Language" was added to the National Film Registry in 2010.
Alice Cogswell was the inspiration to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet for the creation of the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.
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Beth S. Benedict is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Gallaudet University, advocate for the deaf, and a mentor for families with deaf children. Her research focuses on early intervention, early language acquisition, and family involvement. Benedict is also an advocate for the use of bilingualism in education of the deaf - incorporating the value of American Sign Language in deaf children. Benedict advocates for deaf-hearing partnerships, avoiding audism, the importance of bilingual education, deaf culture and the use of sign language while also working as a family mentor for families with deaf children. Recently, she was a keynote speaker for an International Deaf Studies conference and the featured speaker for the deaf education summit. Benedict takes what she researches about deafness and education and shares it broadly by way of talks and application - for example, she has helped the Georgia School for the Deaf work on developing bilingual education in their programs. In 2015 Benedict was the featured speaker at the Deaf education summit in Louisiana - a conference that brought together practitioners, educators, and parents to discuss local issues surrounding education of deaf children.
Opeoluwa Sotonwa is a Deaf Nigerian American attorney, disability rights advocate and literary writer. In February 2021, Governor Charles Baker appointed Sotonwa as the Commissioner and agency head for the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, he was the executive director of Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. and served previously as Vice President of the National Black Deaf Advocates, the official advocacy organization for thousands of Black Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans between 2013 and 2015. He is listed among the most influential Deaf People in the United States Opeoluwa Sotonwa attended University of Ilorin Nigeria, where he read law and graduated with LLB degree in 2005. He later proceeded to Nigerian Law School for advanced legal training. He was called to the Nigerian Bar as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 2007. Opeoluwa worked as staff attorney with Nigerian Legal Aid Council. He later moved to United States to further his legal career and attended Howard University School of Law, where he graduated cum laude with a Master of Laws degree in 2009. Sotonwa earned his doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies in 2018.
Bruce Michael Mackintosh Hlibok was an American deaf actor.
Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES) is a private day school serving deaf and hard of hearing students from birth through grade 8 on the campus of Gallaudet University in the Trinidad neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Alongside Model Secondary School for the Deaf, it is a federally funded, tuition-free demonstration school administered by the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University.
Mervin "Merv" Donald Garretson was an American educator, leader, and deaf community rights advocate. His works were primarily directed towards changing mainstream opinion about deaf culture and about the deaf community.
Steve Hamerdinger is an American deaf professional and advocate for deaf and hard of hearing people. He served as the Director of Deaf Services for the Alabama Department of Mental Health until March 2024. His work revolves around contexts related to deaf and hard of hearing persons and their mental well-being from childhood to end of life. He is an advocate for Deaf rights and has been a prominent influence in this field since the early 1980s.
Edith Mabel Nelson was a librarian known for being the first Deaf woman in the Gallaudet Hall of Fame, and the last Deaf library director at Gallaudet University.
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