Bill Text: CA ACR159 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Assembly Concurrent Resolution 159 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Deaf History Month.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 53-19-1)

Status: (Passed) 2022-05-10 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 50, Statutes of 2022. [ACR159 Detail]

Download: California-2021-ACR159-Chaptered.html

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 159

CHAPTER 50

Relative to Deaf History Month.

[ Filed with Secretary of State May 10, 2022. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

ACR 159, Chen. Deaf History Month.

This measure would declare March 13, 2022, to April 15, 2022, as Deaf History Month.

Fiscal Committee: NO

WHEREAS, The purpose of Deaf History Month is to increase awareness of and express appreciation for the many contributions that deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals have made to our society; and

WHEREAS, The State Department of Social Services’ Office of Deaf Access estimates around 3,000,000 people who are deaf or hard of hearing reside in California; and

WHEREAS, The American School for the Deaf opened in the City of Hartford, Connecticut, on April 15, 1817, as the first public school for the deaf in the United States; and

WHEREAS, Gallaudet University was founded on April 8, 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the charter establishing it as the first institution of higher education for the deaf and hard of hearing in the world; and

WHEREAS, In March 1988, students at Gallaudet University protested the Board of Trustees’ selection of a hearing person to be the university’s eighth president and demanded, among other things, that the university replace the president with a deaf person. The weeklong protest culminated on March 13, 1988, when Dr. I. King Jordan was named the first deaf president of Gallaudet University; and

WHEREAS, The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) first introduced National Deaf History Month in 1997 and, in 2006, the American Library Association partnered with NAD in supporting and spreading awareness of this celebration; and

WHEREAS, National Deaf History Month is the perfect time to learn and discover more about our deaf and hard-of-hearing friends and neighbors and to bring awareness to their lived experiences; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature declares March 13, 2022, to April 15, 2022, as Deaf History Month; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.