IACD Mission, Vision & Beliefs

Mission

To increase the number of service providers across disciplines who have received specialized training for working with young deaf and hard of hearing children and their families and are prepared to engage in interprofessional practice that centers empathy, equity, and family engagement.  

Beliefs

• We believe deaf people and perspectives should be centered in all initiatives intended to serve deaf children. 
• We believe deaf and hard of hearing children are the primary stakeholders in decisions made about their development. 
• We believe all children have the right to accessible language from birth to support their linguistic, cognitive, and social-emotional development within loving relationships with caregivers.  
• We believe that multilingualism is an asset and that the development of any language will support the development of all other languages and literacies. 
• We believe that children are capable of navigating multiple ways of being and communicating.  
• We believe that all deaf and hard of hearing children will thrive within families that allow them agency and support the expansion of their capabilities.  
• We believe that deaf and hard of hearing children and their families are best served within interdisciplinary teams on which their insights and perspectives are valued alongside those of their service providers.  
• We believe that ableism, classism and systemic racism are entangled with the early intervention system and that service providers have an obligation to be anti-ableist, anti-classist and anti-racist and to advocate for deaf and hard of hearing children and their families. 
• We believe that service providers have a responsibility to be lifelong learners, remaining open to the cultural wealth and wisdom of children, families, the deaf community, and our larger communities of research and practice.