In light of the recent presentation (and article) I provided for Street Leverage, I’ve been thinking a lot about economic disempowerment and what we need to do first. I’ve been deluged with responses from people who are thrilled that I discussed deaf disempowerment and the challenges facing us. Yet many of them are searching for solutions, as am I.

To have a solution, we have to find the root of the problem, of course (gee, I sound like my high school teacher). So, back to economic disempowerment: one of the obstacles is that there are simply not enough qualified deaf people for all the jobs out there that have to do with the deaf community. There are certainly plenty of qualified deaf people; there are just not enough of them. So, do we first focus on producing qualified deaf people? Or do we first focus on making job opportunities more accessible and more centered on qualified deaf people? Chicken or egg first?

I have my opinions—and will share it in a later blog entry—but I invite your input. What do you think should happen first?  How do we ensure that deaf people are given equal opportunities to earn the necessary education, credentials and experience? How do we carry this over into the deaf education system, which we all know is horribly fragmented?