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The Deaf Action Center (DAC) is a Texas not-for-profit corporation organized to provide deaf and hard-of-hearing persons with a comprehensive range of services. Our mission is the elimination of barriers to persons who are deaf or hard-of hearing. Our program activities include the following:
Communications and Interpreting - We have a staff of certified sign language and oral interpreters who provide critical communication accessibility 24 hours a day to support persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing with employment, counseling, legal contracts, medical appointments, business meetings, job interviews, and theatrical performances. Additionally, Communication Access Realtime Translators (CART) reporters are also available. During 2007 we assisted 1,877 persons.
Senior Citizens Center - The Dallas Area Agency on Aging and the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services Office of Deaf and Hard-of Hearing Services (DARS) provide generous financial support so we can provide seniors with a daily program of hot meals, transportation, field trips, social activities, benefits counseling, casework assistance, health screenings, and other forms of communication support. We also serve as a distribution center for the North Texas Food Bank. During 2007 our programs reached 407 persons.
Community Outreach - Our staff provides training and general information about issues of deafness (including the Americans with Disabilities Act), and offers consultation regarding the use of assistive equipment in schools, civic organizations, businesses, and governmental and social service agencies. We conduct tours of our facilities.
Hard-of-Hearing Services - Qualified staff assist those persons who are hard-of-hearing or late-deafened to learn ways to better live with their hearing loss. Services include teaching coping strategies, case management, and demonstrating the use of assistive listening and alerting devices. We have an Assistive Technology Center where people with hearing loss can see and try various telephones, listening systems, and alerting devices in Dallas, Longview, Abilene, and Nacogdoches. Support groups are offered at various locations in East and North Texas. Presentations on living with hearing loss and assistive technology are given to may groups and agencies. During 2007, we assisted 6,443 persons.
Advocacy - We employ Regional and Hard of Hearing Specialists in North Texas and Abilene to coordinate projects through local service providers to assist, state, local, and federal agencies, public agencies and organizations, and private entities in making their services accessible and readily available to individuals with hearing loss. Our programs also address attitudinal and cultural barriers to the target population which may hinder successful service delivery, provide information and referral services, and may provide training geared toward the needs of both the service population and the service providers. These programs are co-funded by the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services Office for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Services (DARS). During 2007, our programs served 2,169 persons.
Information and Referral - Each year we respond to thousands of phone calls requesting information about services, available locally and nationwide, in such areas as deafness, sign language, hearing health care, hearing aids, employment, assistive technology and problem solving. We responded to 12,145 inquiries during 2007.
Apartments - We manage and rent a 40-unit complex of one and two-bedroom apartments to individuals and families with deaf or hard-of-hearing members. The apartments provide a safe, supportive and cost effective living environment. Most residents participate in our programs. The Dallas Housing Authority, with funds provided by the Housing and Urban Development (HUD), supports 30 of our apartment units.
Independent Living - Basic computer literacy, financial literacy, video-to-video communications, and foreign language sign language interpreting and casework involving those who use a foreign language (specifically Turkish, Pakastanian, Spanish, German, Russian, and Farsi) are services provided by the Independent Living program. During 2007, we assisted 278 persons.
Employment and Literacy - Our staff networks with area employers, businesses, and agencies to facilitate applicant screening, job placement, job coaching, and technical assistance. Our program offers a computer instruction lab, individualized tutoring, family literacy programs. We also conduct beginning level classes in American sign Language for any member of the community. Our efforts reached 143 persons during 2007.
Teenage Educational Support Services (TESS) - This program provides teenagers with hearing loss and teenagers of deaf adults the educational support needed for them to complete high school. Activities include homework help and tutoring, life skills training, drop-out prevention/intervention, character development, and parent/teacher involvement. During 2007, this program involved 352 youth.
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