This past September, the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) hosted a 75th Anniversary Conference in Rome, Italy. 450 people from 63 countries gathered to celebrate 75 years of advocacy and progress for deaf people around the world.
The attendees in Rome included the Global Gallaudet team of Senda Benaissa, E-’05, and Amanda Mueller, as well as Gallaudet President Roberta Cordano. During her term, Cordano has been an ardent supporter of WFD. That connection strengthened in 2019 when Gallaudet professor Dr. Joseph J. Murray, E-’94, was elected as WFD President.
As a university, Gallaudet has a long history with WFD. Each institution has distinct roles, but their missions complement one another through a common focus on deaf education, leadership, and sign language rights. Over the years, many individuals have contributed to this shared commitment to the global deaf community.
Convocating at Gallaudet in 1975
WFD was founded in 1951 following a World Congress event. In Rome, representatives from 25 international countries gathered to discuss how they could collectively advocate for deaf rights. WFD continued to host the flagship event every four years, inviting deaf people from across the globe.
In 1975, the World Congress came to the United States for the first time. The unifying theme was “Full Citizenship for All Deaf People”. Over 3,000 attendees from 70 countries congregated in Washington, D.C. for the five-day event, which was coordinated by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD).
Gallaudet stayed busy during the Congress. The D.C. Chapter of Gallaudet’s Alumni Association hosted an opening reception of over 500 international delegates and visitors. The campus Visitor’s Center provided two tours a day, with 150 people in each group.
On the third day of the World Congress, Gallaudet hosted a special convocation event. The keynote speaker was United States Vice President Norman Rockefeller. Rockefeller commended the Gallaudet students that he had seen wearing “Deaf Power” shirts, remarking, “You want your views heard — and I say more power to you.”
Only two weeks after the World Congress in D.C., the International Congress on Education of the Deaf (ICED) was held in Tokyo, Japan. Gallaudet President Dr. Edward C. Merrill attended both events and published his thoughts. “We found the alumni of Gallaudet College among the leaders in both Congresses,” Merrill wrote. “They are, therefore, truly international leaders.”
“The most well-known deaf person in the world”
During the 1975 World Congress, the WFD elected a new Vice President to its board. Yerker Andersson, ’60 & H-’98, was a member of NAD’s International Relations Council, which had coordinated the event. He was also a Gallaudet alum and worked at the college as a Sociology professor.
The overlapping duties were nothing new for Andersson, who served in countless volunteer roles over the course of his life. In 1983, he was elected as the new WFD President during the World Congress in Palermo, Italy. He served until 1995, while still holding his job as a Gallaudet celebrated professor and administrator.
Andersson’s early years were spent in his home country of Sweden. He attended school at Manillaskolan, a deaf institute in the city of Stockholm. Upon graduating, he became a board member for the Stockholm Club of the Deaf and wrote for various organizations, including WFD.
Andersson enrolled at Gallaudet College in 1955 and graduated with a bachelor’s in Sociology in 1960. During his time as student, he wrote for The Buff and Blue, including an article about WFD’s first World Deaf Day (now celebrated worldwide as International Week of Deaf People). In 1958, WFD General Secretary Cesare Magarotto visited Gallaudet College. Then-student Andersson helped lead him on a tour of the campus.
Andersson began teaching at Gallaudet in 1964. At the time of the 1975 World Congress, he was the Department Chair of Sociology and Social Work. In 1991, he was appointed to a task force on American Sign Language and Deaf Studies. The task force led to the establishment of Gallaudet’s pioneering and prolific Deaf Studies department. Andersson served as the department lead until retiring in 1996, one year after finishing his final term as WFD President.
Immediately after retiring, Andersson was named Professor Emeritus at Gallaudet. In 1998, the university awarded him an Honorary Doctorate degree. WFD annointed him the organization’s first-ever Honorary President in 2011. According to the WFD, during his terms as President the organization “expanded greatly in membership, reaching out to deaf associations on every continent …” As WFD President in 1992, he became the first deaf person to officially address the United Nations assembly.
Says current WFD President Murray, “During Yerker’s time as President, he was instrumental in expanding the WFD beyond its earlier, more European, focus. People from different countries have come up to me and shared stories of how he encouraged them to found national associations of deaf people, or gave them advice on how to successfully achieve recognition of deaf people in national legislation.”
Anderson passed away in July of 2016. In a remembrance by the Frederick News-Post, two of his Gallaudet colleagues called him “the most well-known deaf person in the world.”
Community connections
Countless leaders in the deaf and hard of hearing community have strengthened the connection between Gallaudet and WFD over the years. Gallaudet’s Student Body Government sent Jack Levesque, ’72, to the 1971 World Congress in Paris, France. In 1983, when Andersson was elected WFD President in Palermo, a contingent of around 25 Gallaudet community members were present. Gallaudet President Dr. I. King Jordan, ’70, was a speaker at the 1991 World Congress, along with Dr. Allen Sussman, ’X, a professor and pioneering figure in deaf mental health.
Gallaudet alumni have also held significant leadership roles within WFD. Dr. Roslyn “Roz” Rosen, ’62 & G-’64, former Gallaudet Vice President for Academic Affairs, served on the WFD Board from 1995 to 2003. She played an important role in developing WFD’s educational policies. The Honorable Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, ’92, G-’05, & H-’09, was the first deaf woman elected to South Africa’s Parliament in 1999. She served as WFD Vice President from 2011 to 2015, bringing her government and policymaking experience to the global stage.
Four former WFD Presidents have received Honorary Doctorates from Gallaudet. The first was Vittorio Ieralla, H-’77, the inaugural President of WFD. The most recent was Markku Jokinen, H-’12, a longtime community advocate in Europe. When Yerker Andersson received his Honorary Doctorate at Gallaudet’s 1998 Commencement ceremony, he was joined by his successor as WFD President, Dr. Liisa Kauppinen, H-’98.
Kauppinen received the recognition for her lifelong advocacy in support of deaf people in Finland, Europe, and around the world. She was also the first woman to serve as WFD President. Fittingly, when Gallaudet President Cordano was inaugurated as the university’s first female President in 2016, Kauppinen acted as the keynote speaker. The two leaders share a close relationship to this day.
Since becoming President, Cordano has emphasized a strong relationship between the leaders at Gallaudet and WFD. The 2019 World Congress included presentations and poster sessions by 10 Gallaudet staff and faculty members, including Cordano alongside now-Provost Dr. Khadijat Rashid, ’90. Both were also present at the 2023 World Congress, alongside many other Gallaudet community members.
Working in 24 different time zones
WFD President Joseph J. Murray since 2019 has been a part of the federation for over 30 years, and a Gallaudet faculty member for almost 20 years. He is a tenured professor in the same Deaf Studies department that Yerker Andersson helped found in the 1990s. He also oversees the growing Deaf Studies Online Degree Completion Program.
“The WFD Presidency is a volunteer position, but the workload can very quickly be the equivalent of a full-time job,” says Murray. “The world has 24 time zones and on any given day, I’m going to be videoing, emailing, texting, or chatting with people in most of them. I’ve had to become very efficient in how I use my time, to put it mildly!”
Murray was born to a deaf family in New England. Growing up, he watched his parents act as officers in a national deaf organization. He majored in Political Science and Government at Northeastern University. Before graduating from Northeastern, Murray spent a year as a visiting Gallaudet student in 1993 and 1994.
In 1995, WFD hosted their first-ever Youth Camp in Zell Am See, Austria. Murray, a fresh-faced college graduate, joined the cohort. He soon became Vice President, and later President, of the newly formed WFD Youth Section (WFDYS). During his terms, the Youth Section expanded and became an integral part of WFD’s advocacy work. In 2002, he gave a plenary speech at Gallaudet’s Deaf Way II on the importance of young adults in the deaf community.
Murray became a WFD board member in 2003, and has remained in a leadership role ever since. He was elected WFD Vice President in 2015, and then President in 2019. His first term got off to a rocky start with the COVID-19 pandemic, but there has been steady progress.
“When I became President, eight of 11 Board members were brand new and we had only one remaining long-term staff member. The COVID-19 pandemic provided us with challenges, but also an opportunity to open up to remote work and thus hire the best staff from anywhere in the world. We were able to grow to 10 staff, stationed around the world, with approximately 50% being from the Global South. I’m proud of this transformation and of the new generation of leaders on our Board and staff that have emerged since 2019.”
From the field to the classroom
Murray is a fitting ambassador for the value of deaf and hard of hearing people. Alongside fellow Gallaudet professor Dr. H-Dirksen Bauman, he developed and popularized the concept of Deaf Gain. What began as a presentation and book has become a global movement. During his work with WFD, Murray has seen lobbyists around the world use Deaf Gain to advocate for policies that benefit their local deaf and hard of hearing communities.
Murray often uses his experience as a professor and researcher in his WFD duties. “Working in Deaf Studies, I have many opportunities to bring academic research into my arguments for the recognition of deaf people’s human rights in different areas of life.”
He also brings his international experience to Gallaudet students. “Teaching in the Deaf Studies Master’s Concentration in Language and Human Rights, I’m quick to bring the larger world into the classroom,” Murray says. “My students do country-level analyses of deaf people’s human rights, and we share our work with the WFD. There’s so much applied learning that takes place, to the benefit of both our students and global deaf communities.”
Wherever the WFD goes next, they’ll have an enthusiastic partner in Gallaudet’s faculty, staff, and students. In addition to Gallaudet’s continued presence at WFD events, the two organizations currently share an internship opportunity that allows Gallaudet students to gain firsthand experience working with a global deaf organization.
The future of the global deaf community
Gallaudet acted as a sponsor for WFD’s 75th Anniversary Conference, which brought together notable figures from the organization’s history. Liisa Kauppinen gave the keynote speech, reflecting on lessons learned in her long and storied career. Murray’s closing address, “The WFD at 100,” outlined his hopes for the future of the enduring organization.
During her time in Rome, Gallaudet President Cordano met with many international deaf leaders and participated in a leadership panel discussion. She also joined a deaf rights march in central Rome led by the Italian National Agency for the Deaf, alongside WFD board member Raffaele Cagnazzo, E-’04, Murray, and many others.
“We’re grateful for Gallaudet’s sponsorship of our 75th Anniversary Conference,” Murray says. “The WFD is the world’s oldest international organization of people with disabilities. We’re pleased to have Gallaudet, with its rich history of postsecondary education for deaf people, as a partner.”
As the deaf community faces new challenges from gene engineering and emerging communication technologies, organizations like WFD are more important than ever. “The WFD is the sole representative organization of deaf people at the international level,” says Murray. “The United Nations, the World Health Organisation, and other international entities look to us for all matters related to deaf people and sign languages.”
Says the Global Gallaudet team, “WFD holds a unique position in the global Deaf community. Gallaudet is proud to work alongside an organization with such an important role in advancing the rights of deaf people. This relationship creates opportunities for Gallaudet students, faculty, alumni, researchers, and professionals to engage with Deaf leaders and organizations around the world.”
Ready to make a global impact? Check out Gallaudet’s International Development M.A. program.
You can support the World Federation of the Deaf by donating or becoming a member. To learn more, visit their website.
