Count Yourself Deaf and ASL for the Census Day, April 1st

The first of April 2010 is the official U.S. Census Day (Thursday, April 1st) across the United States.

Let's count ourselves as DEAF and our primary language usage, the American Sign Language (ASL) publicly on the U.S. Census Day (April 1st). That is NOT the April's Fool Day stunt!

We could simply wear the message on our shirt and front yard sign and white poster inside your car and apartment window - "Hey, PLEASE COUNT ME IN FOR THE U.S. CENSUS 2010 AS A PROUD DEAF PERSON AND AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE (ASL) USER!"

Karen Kingrey, a deaf activist and retiree living in the state of Texas. She had a good talk with her elected representative what Karen could do to identify herself as a proud deaf person and her language usage.

Here is her Facebook posted message with the permission granted -

Deaf FB members, I spoke with US Census rep. on phone. They will send us the short forms. They random to send the long forms. If you receive a short form from 2010 US Census, you can put DEAF on "other" on short form. We can push our Congress to write a new law about adding DEAF on the short form with the questions for... 2020 US Census. We do need Deaf to be counted for the future grants.

Please ask your Children of Deaf Adults (CODA) , Kids with Deaf Adults (KODA), hearing relatives and friends and neighbors and former hearing schoolmates and whoever use ASL partially and occasionally and frequently to identify themselves as the ASL users themselves on April 1st. THAT IS REAL IMPORTANT AND NECESSARY TO SHOW OUR SOLIDARITY as DEAF PERSON AND ASL USER!

Go to the local media and launch the impromptu protest in front of the television station and newspaper office and any media outlets to declare yourself as a deaf person and ASL user which our federal government never formally declare our own existence as a cultural and linguistic minority and protection of minority language from any kind of societal oppression.

Wear your "I'm Deaf and ASL User" shirt to your workplace, shopping and wherever you go!

ASLize yours,

Robert L. Mason (RLM)

RLMDEAF blog