Finally, DPN is credited as the catalyst for many acts of legislation between the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The most prominent policy is the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, which was passed in 1990 in order to prevent discrimination on the basis of ability. Mr. Hlibok currently works in the Disability Rights office of the FCC and says “really everything I do has a connection to DPN because DPN brought lots of knowledge to the greater community about the Deaf. It brought Congress’ attention and when we had Congress’ attention we worked with them to write legislation: the ADA, captioning on television, relay service, communication technology” (Sibarium _ _ _). Hlibok certainly agrees with the common analysis of DPN’s legacy …show more content…
By Conducting the interview exclusively in ASL , I discovered a deeper value than ever expected in the language and its influence on the interview. While I read transcripts in American English as well as texts, I now realize that oral history is instrumental to written history. Having to interpret the conversation from ASL to English forced me to pay careful attention to facial expressions, body language, and grammatical cues in the face in order to collect and interpret the most accurate, authentic responses. All these nuances, which are exaggerated in the language of my particular interview, cannot be found in history textbooks. Moreover, DPN cannot be found in history textbooks, perhaps because of its civil, diplomatic, and brief nature. That is interesting as it goes against the general rule that, “the winners write history.’ From that mere fact, I earned a greater understanding of the biased educational system in America, which often focuses on violence, war, and propaganda, but apparently, even with modern culture, certain groups maintain their status as outsiders. Overall, however, technology increased the means of communication for the deaf and the increase in publicity