The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) each year celebrates August 13th as George Veditz’ birthday. He is well known for his preservation and promotion of sign language. One of his famous quotes reminds us of our mission, “As long as we have deaf people on earth, we will have signs.”
Born in 1861, George Veditz was the seventh President of the NAD, serving from 1904 to 1910. More importantly, he was one of the most ardent and visible advocates of American Sign Language. It was Veditz who realized in the early 1900s that the newly developed technology of motion pictures were an ideal way to convey the beauty of sign language to the world. One of his motion pictures showing his passion for sign language was recently accepted into the Library of Congress.
The NAD continues to advocate for the preservation, protection, and promotion of American Sign Language.
Happy birthday, Veditz!
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The NAD is the nation’s premier civil rights organization of, by and for deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the United States of America. The advocacy scope of the NAD is broad, covering a lifetime and impacting future generations in the areas of early intervention, education, employment, health care, technology, telecommunications, youth leadership, and more – improving the lives of millions of deaf and hard of hearing Americans. The NAD also carries out its federal advocacy work through coalition efforts with specialized national deaf and hard of hearing organizations, as well as coalitions representing national cross-disability organizations.