Founders Corner: We're Turning Four!

Posted by: Staff Writer on April 12, 2016

This month, April 2016, marks 4 year anniversary since we launched deaffriendly.com. Wow! 4 years ago when I launched this business, going about my daily life as a Deaf consumer was frustrating, time consuming, annoying, and often I arrived home everyday, exhausted.

I looked around at my Deaf peers and they were going through the same.

That everyday life full of negative experiences is not ok. I had a vision of creating a deaf-friendly world where my everyday life was easy. I knew changing the world was not be possible with one person alone. I knew that I needed an army, an army of Deaf people that cared enough about their access to the world and a willingness to roll their sleeves up and get to work.

Sure enough, one by one, Deaf, DeafBlind and hard of hearing people showed up. They continue to show up and write reviews on our website everyday. Our website has grown from a small number of 25 reviews in Seattle to over 2,500 reviews nationwide. Those 2,500 reviews are in various industries such as hotels, dining, medical, education and more.

It would not be possible without the people who care enough to plug in reviews on our website. If you have written even one review, Thank you! 

Recently, I posted a question on our Facebook page “What is the most challenging issue facing the Deaf community?” Many people responded. One very common answer that came up is “IGNORANCE”.

It’s true. Many hearing people are ignorant about Deaf people their culture, language, communication needs and history. 

Many hearing people never met a Deaf or hard of hearing person before. They don’t know how to engage with Deaf/HH people in business and also in life.

That ignorance is often not intentional.

In order to eradicate ignorance, we must create awareness. Awareness happens through education.

I’m excited to announce that after 4 years, we are ready to invest on phase 2 of our business journey – “Creating Deaf Awareness, Through Education”. We plan to do this through our new service “Deaf-Friendly Customer Service” training that is customized by industry and available to businesses either on-line or in person.

To create a deaf-friendly world. It’s a big vision. I can’t do it alone. I need your help! 

Our website deaffriendly.com is much more than a review website, it’s a catalyst for change, a movement! I encourage you to use the review website to educate businesses how they can improve deaf-friendly customer service. 

Together, we can create a deaf-friendly world. 

(Prefer to watch the Vlog? Click the PLAY button)

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Comment Policy

We’re aware that issues facing the Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing Community can become quite passionate and divided. What can we say, we’re a group of passionate people! While we fully support a community full of passion, we also require that comments are respectful. We think negative attitudes and disrespect are a waste of everyone’s time and energy. This doesn’t mean you can’t disagree with people, you just need to do it respectfully. We reserve the right to delete or edit any comments we feel are judgmental, rude, or of attacking nature.

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