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ABOUT OUR ORGANIZATION'S NAME -- WRAD, INC.

Many people in the deaf and hard of hearing community are MISUNDERSTANDING the name of our organization, WRAD, Inc.

In the past, the name of our organization meant "World Recreation Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing," which was abbrevicated "WRAD." The WRAD organization was incorporated in 1985 under all four of the IRS categories for IRC Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit organizations. WRAD has always had four sections:Educational, Charitable, Scientific Research, and Literary Media and Publications.

WHAT DOES THE WORD "RECREATION" ACTUALLY MEAN?

The word "Recreation" comes from the Middle French "recreation," which comes from the Latin words "re" (again) and "creare" (to create). The word "Recreation" MEANS "to create anew, to restore, to refresh." In plain English, the word "Recreation" means -- to have a "Life Makeover," to improve your life and to become the person you were truly meant to be!

For information on the REAL meaning of the word "Recreation," go to the website at www.merriam-webster.com and type the word "recreation" into the dictionary search box and press your "enter" or "return" key on your computer keyboard.

[WRAD highly recommends this website -- it is great for looking up any word, and it also gives the pronounciations of words both in sound and in text].

Until very recently, the deaf community, and particularly the prelingually deaf community (people deafened in both ears before age 5, and unable to understand speech even with the best hearing aids), had no ability or opportunity to "create anew or restore" their hearing ability.

But TODAY, and NOW, the word "Recreation" can be applied to deaf people, and deaf people can NOW choose to have their hearing ability restored technologically through the use of a cochlear implant -- just like hard of hearing people have had the ability for many years to have their hearing ability restored technologically through the use of hearing aids.

WRAD has been waiting, and researching through our Scientific Research Division, for this wonderful NEW opportunity and NEW choice for deaf people. And now that time has arrived. People in the deaf community can now RECREATE their lives and we can now have much more opportunity to become the people that we were meant to be.

We are living in a very exciting time in history. We are witnessing the FIRST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY that deaf people have an opportunity to be more equal, to be more independent, and to escape from segregation to enjoy much more of the benefits that the world of sound has to offer.

THE WRAD PHILOSOPHY

The WRAD philosophy has always been: "We honor the past. We live in the present.We embrace the future."

Until very recently, we had no way to change the past. People who were deaf had no hope of ever having any improvement in their ability to hear, or to listen, or to access the world of sounds.

Under those PAST circumstances, we made a lot of accommodations for ourselves, because of the barriers of our hearing loss. We formed a way of life that was mimetic (gestural) and visual, in the same way that our nonspeaking distant human ancestors did about 30,000 years ago, before nondisabled human beings developed the ability to speak.

That former way of life was necessary for the deaf community, because we couldn't hear all sounds, and those of us who were deafened at very early ages couldn't hear our own voices, or other people's voices and thus couldn't speak very clearly or understandably.

We did the best we could with the barriers that we had in our lives. Some of us achieved great things (although most of them were deafened late in their lives, and had very clear speech). We focused on learning the English language as much as possible, and on full inclusion into general society as much as possible. We strongly advocated for the ADA and other laws to give us more access and contact with general society.

We broke many barriers along the way, but the ONE MOST IMPORTANT barrier -- the invisible glass wall between us and the world of all sounds -- was the one barrier that we couldn't break, and that no one could break.

We all hoped, prayed and dreamed of the day that that glass wall would be shattered forever, and most of us have been waiting a very long time.

As of the year 2002, only two years ago, the glass wall HAS BEEN BROKEN FOREVER, and now we all can choose whether to remain behind that glass wall barrier, or whether to break it, and to go "through the looking glass," like Alice in Wonderland, to actually EXPERIENCE (as much as possible) what is on the other side, in the world of sound.

A REMINDER: WRAD DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE against anyone on the basis of any level, type, cause or age of hearing loss; assistive or durable medical device; age; race; religious or political beliefs; gender; sexual orientation; marital status; or any other form of discrimination prohibited by law. Any person violating these restrictions or engaging in discrimination or force, coercion or undue influence of any kind will be permanently banned from our organization's activities.