After its first virtual conference in 2020, the National Association of the Deaf is back with another milestone: hosting its biennial #NAD2022 conference in Orlando, FL for the very first time. 

Do you know the faces behind deaffriendly’s reviews? Quarterly, we pick the brains of our active reviewers - the words behind our mission, the stars of our ratings, and the soul of this website.

Washington State is the first state to mandate closed captions be turned on for screens in all public places and places of public accommodations, at all times. This is a major victory for deaf and hard of hearing consumers in Washington State, making it one of the most deaf-friendly states in the country.

The pandemic has been a catalyst for so many of us and has pushed businesses to embrace change in radically new ways. As deaf consumers, we are experiencing these changes in real-time and deaffriendly.com is changing with it.

Over four months later, fighting the coronavirus is still a Catch-22 for the 40+ million in the U.S. who live with hearing loss. With face masks and social distancing now the norm, deaf and hard of hearing individuals continue to be bewildered by new communication barriers. More than ever, businesses are in a unique position to improve the deaf customer experience.

You’re having a day… you overslept, spilled your coffee, misplaced your keys, and got a parking ticket.  Lovely. Then, the clouds start to part; you go into a business and receive amazing customer service. The staff is dreamy, makes eye contact, smiles at you, knows some signs and you leave feeling a million times better. All of a sudden the day is looking better and the world is a more deaf-friendly place.

We’ve all been there. It’s the eyeroll. Or the exasperated sigh. Or the way they walk away and laugh while pointing at you with another co-worker. Maybe it’s even the outright refusal to serve you or provide you with accommodations. However you experience your deaf-challenged moment, it never feels good. Your stomach churns. Your break out into cold sweat. You can feel that rage start to simmer.