Cheston Peterson. Photo by GHOF.

KNOXVILLE — Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero has presented the Knoxville, Tennessee, regional office of Helen Keller National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults (HKNC) with a proclamation of support for Deaf-Blind Awareness Week, being celebrated nationally June 25th through July 1st, 2017. A division of Helen Keller Services (HKS), HKNC will mark Deaf-Blind Awareness Week with an advocacy campaign emphasizing The Power of Touch.

“In the 50 years since HKNC was founded,” observed HKNC Executive Director Susan Ruzenski, “communication technology has evolved dramatically and rapidly, but the culture of touch remains a pivotal value and way of life among people in the deaf-blind community. In a world focused on the digital, this year’s campaign theme, The Power of Touch, reminds us all of the importance of the tactile and the tangible.”

HKS President and CEO Joseph F. Bruno stated, “HKNC’s 50th Anniversary is the perfect time to shine a light on the self- empowered deaf-blind community and its engagement with others through touch. Adding touch signals to traditional Tactile American Sign Language (TASL) greatly expands how a deaf-blind individual experiences the world.”

While TASL continues to serve as the predominant sign language of deaf-blind individuals in the United States, recent years have seen an overwhelming embrace of touch signals — visual, social and environmental feedback given in real-time through touch on the body.

Greyhealth Group (ghg) has generously created the Deaf-Blind Awareness Week posters, pro bono, for almost 30 years. The agency’s 2017 poster depicts three HKNC staff members socializing at HKNC headquarters in Sands Point, N.Y. They are communicating through the use of touch signals and tactile sign language. The poster’s copy reminds us that with all the new devices and adaptive equipment available, members of the deaf-blind community still recognize that there is a time and place for technology and a time and place to put it down and connect through The Power of Touch.

“It’s an empowering message,” concludes Ruzenski. “All of us can learn from people in the deaf-blind community and build relationships that are grounded in reality — because the best connection will always be a human connection.”

To help advance the rights of deaf-blind individuals, President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation in 1984 designating the last week of June as Helen Keller Deaf-Blind Awareness Week. For more information on Deaf-Blind Awareness Week, including an educational tool kit that includes downloadable versions of this year’s posters, please visit www.helenkeller.org/hknc/dbaw.

HKNC provides comprehensive vocational and independent living training on a national level to youths and adults who are deaf-blind. It offers support and learning opportunities to professionals and family members, and maintains a National Registry of Persons who are Deaf-Blind. The Center partners with other agencies across the United States to build their capacity to work with individuals who are deaf-blind.

For more information, go to www.helenkeller.org/hknc.