Resources for Deaf Entrepreneurs
A historical list of organizations, events, and colleges that support deaf individuals in their entrepreneurial ventures toward becoming small business owners.
While this doesn’t apply to me, I love to see people succeed despite their struggles. The deaf community has a special place in my heart as I used to practice it while working at a daycare many years ago with a deaf student of ours.
All credit for this list goes to Jason Shaw of the Deaf Small Business Network. I’m just sharing cause I thought it was neat.
Historical List of Deaf Business Support (in the United States)
Brief summary of organizations, businesses, and universities oriented towards supporting the Deaf businesses community, open research with contributions from the Deaf community with a listing from earliest to latest with links where possible:
Organizations/Businesses for Networking/Support:
1) Deaf Entrepreneurs Council (Renamed in 1993 to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Entrepreneurs Council, DHHEC, inactive): Established in Maryland in 1990 as 501c6 with IRS (First known 501c6 organization for the Deaf business community). Forfeited in 2000. Last board members: Louis J. Schwarz
2) National Deaf Business Institute (NDBI, inactive): Formed in Maryland after the dissolution of DHHEC 2001 as 501c3 with the IRS. Forfeited in 2018. Last board members: Louis J.Schwarz (President), NDBI moved and renamed the Deaf Business Advocate Section with National Association of the Deaf (Section dissolved in 2019 with the balance left in funds): NDBI gave up its 501c3 to become a Section with NAD in 2016
Notes: https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/entrepreneur.htm
3) National Center for Entrepreneurs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (No non-profit status granted by IRS, inactive)
4) Communication Services for the Deaf (CSD, 501c3) formed a subsidiary venture organization in Texas in 2017: CSD Social Venture Fund, https://csdsvf.com/
5) Deaf Entrepreneurship Network (DEN, active): Established as 501c3 with IRS in Washington D.C. 2017 by Michael Catron, Relocated to Buda, Texas in 2019. www.goden.org
6) National Deaf Chamber of Commerce (NDCOC): Established in Wisconsin as a nonprofit with a home office based in Austin, Texas in 2018. Board members as of 2022: Evan Winegard, Gina D’More, Jared Allebest, and Michael Pinemtal.
7) Texas Deaf Chamber of Commerce (TXDCC, 501c6): Established in Texas as a nonprofit on Feb 26, 2019. Founding board members: Jason Shaw (Director, President/Chair), Alana Husband (Director/Secretary), Jamie Clark (Director), and Melinni Taylor (Director/Treasurer). www.txdeafchamber.org.
8 ) Deaf Chamber of Commerce was established by the National Deaf Chamber of Commerce (Jared Allebest) in Utah as 501c3 non-profit 2021 doing business as the National Deaf Chamber of Commerce with the same home address as NDCOC (Austin, Texas).
9) Yantern (For-profit): Established by Melissa and Russell Stein in California in 2017., www.yantern.com.
Expos for Deaf
1) DeafNation (Joel Barish and Jed Barish) www.deafnation.com
2) MataExpo https://mataexpo.com/
3) North Texas Deaf Celebration (DBA) (501c3 as Dallas): http://deafcelebration.org/wp/
4) Deafopia (501c3): www.deafopia.com
5) It’s a Deaf Thing (501c3): Established in Florida
www.itsadeafthing.com
6) Deaf Artist Market Day (DAMD) based in Austin, Texas, was founded by: Lisa Bromley (DAMD Founder & Operation Director), Deidra Pelletier (Director of Public Relations), and April Alonso (Public Relations Assistant)
www.deafartisanmarketday.com
Universities:
1) Gallaudet University: Gallaudet Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute, https://gallaudet.edu/innovation-entrepreneurship-institute/
2) Rochester Institute of Technology / National Technology Institute for the Deaf: https://www.rit.edu/ntid/businessstudies
I won’t be keeping this post current, but Jason mentioned on the Facebook post that he would be, so if you or anyone you know would benefit from this information, I suggest joining their Facebook group.
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