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The, rneqfwC7(j: TOuchs-txJne 1888! I. KING JORDAN elcome to all of you assembled today for this extraordinary meeting of deaf people and others who want to share in our community. Welcome, also, to the satellite audience who will be sharing our discussions and our festival activities throughout the week. We are making history together. We are adding to the rich heritage of Deaf culture throughout the world. Last night we began our celebration of deaf talent, and today we will look at ourselves carefully to see how far we have come. We will set agendas for future research and inquiry, and we will present an Artistic Manifesto from deaf artists. We will be proudly displaying the talents, insights, and creativity of deaf performers and artists of all media and all ages. More than 300 performers will demonstrate how the alert eyes and experienced souls of deaf people create art. We are building signposts to help the world know us, to mark where we are today and the distance we have come. We are building signposts as points of reference for where we are going as a world community of deaf and hard of hearing people. We have a rich and complex history. Many times people interested in deafness have convened. Some of these conferences have become very important to us. One such conference took place in 1880 in Milan, Italy, an infamous conference in which deaf people's points of view were willfully excluded.Thank heavens, we are no longer at the Congress of Milan! This is 1989, and this is The Deaf Way! When the Milan Congress met, there were 164 members present, representing eight countries. This morning, we have more than 5,000 people, and we represent more than seventy-five countries. Highlights of this week will be seen daily in Europe and Scandinavia by satellite, and specials will be aired in South America and Central America to all of the Gallaudet Regional Centers, and in parts of Canada. It is interesting to compare our meeting here with meetings that happened before. Look, for example, at the congress that took place in Paris September 23-30, 1878. A total of twentyseven people attended. I believe that one of those twenty-seven, the representative from Sweden, would have marveled at the Swedish television crew here to take images back to show on programs designed for deaf viewers. I know that he would have been astonished at the satellite images of our meetings that will be shown back home in Sweden. Today, we are a community, a community of people who reach out to people of any age, with any degree of hearing loss: people who sign, people who speak, and people who both sign Note: Tlris address was tire opening presenlation at Tire Deaf Way COllferellce and Festival, presented 011 MOllday ,,,orl/i"8, July 10, 1989, to an immediate audience of more than 5,000 people and an evell larger satelliteaudience. xxxiv THE DEAF WAY ~ The Deaf Way: Touchstone 1989! and speak; people who were born deaf and people who became deaf later in life; and people who are not deaf but who still share in the lives of deaf people. As I was looking back over the proceedings of the famous Milan Congress, I noted that the meeting included questions to be deliberated that were divided into four major topics: Building and Furniture, Instruction, Methods, and SpeCial Questions. Some of the special questions were "What are the professions generally followed by the deaf and dumb? What do they follow most advantageously? May new careers be offered to them?" To those who wrote those questions, I answer more than 100 years later with a reverberating "Deaf people can do anything! Deaf people can do anything!" As I thumb through this week's extensive program-with more than 500 papers and performances-I know that this week will become a touchstone, a place that deaf people will look back on and use as a standard of comparison. All of the congresses are part of our history, part of the process we have shared as deaf people in the world community. Each international event has been a signpost. The Deaf Way is one more signpost. It is also a good touchstone because The Deaf Way is inclusive. We are using every possible technology and every known language strategy to make this week fully accessible to every person who comes. The logistics of this undertaking were extremely challenging. The...

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