Perseverance in Profile
HOWARD ROSENBLUM: ADVOCATE FOR THE DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING BY TOM CALARCO
14
Howard A. Rosenblum’s whole body communicates when he uses sign language. His expressive face speaks volumes. He seeks to be an inspiration for millions. As CEO of the National Association of the Deaf, he is the nation’s leading advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing, and is on a mission to improve accessibility and equality for the 28 million Americans with hearing challenges.
R
ties in Illinois. At this school, he was mainstreamed and interacted with both deaf and hearing students. His journey to become a lawyer began during the 1970s
when his mother took him to a presentation by Lowell Myers, one of the few deaf attorneys in the U.S. at that time. “I was 12 years old,” he says. “My mother had for a long
osenblum became deaf at the age of two after contracting meningitis. His mother, a teacher, gave him the confidence to believe that he could do whatever he wanted with his life. She stressed the importance of language skills, he says,
and enrolled him in the best available schools to equip him with the tools he would need to become successful. Raised in Skokie, Ill., Rosenblum
attended Wilmot Elementary School in nearby Deerfield, Ill., which had a cooperative program that served deaf children in Cook and Lake coun-
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2012
time emphasized to me that I could be anything I wanted to be, particularly a lawyer or a doctor. Until then, I had shrugged off my mother’s nagging. When I saw Mr. Myers explain his work and his cases, I realized that deaf people could indeed be lawyers. Tis was an eye-opener to me. For the first time, I realized that deaf people could indeed be independent and hold positions of power. “[My mother] felt that Myers would be an important role
model for me. Most deaf children don’t see deaf adults and don’t know what to expect. I was fortunate in this respect. I went and watched and it was a huge impact on my life.” Tereafter Rosenblum aspired to become an attorney, but
at the University of Arizona, Rosenblum majored in computer engineering. He says this was because he felt uncertain about his ability to surmount the hurdles of being accepted into law school and passing the bar exam. “I found out through a vocational testing system that my
strengths were in the engineering field,” he says. He decided then that if he was not able to make it through
law school, he would have another profession to fall back on, but if he did, it would provide him with insight into the field of intellectual property law, which was interesting to him. Rosenblum says computer-assisted technologies play a major
MCCA.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52