Statement of Rationale for Name Change/Re-branding of NAD.
NAD was founded in 1963 and since then, especially in the last 10-15 years, has developed a national network of Resource Centres from which a range of services are provided.
Over the past 10 years, while the number of profoundly deaf people using NAD services has continued to grow steadily, the number of hard of hearing people using NAD services has increased hugely, to the point where about 85% of the 30,000+ service-users are hard of hearing.
During this time, more and more people have mentioned that the name ‘National Association for Deaf People’ does not describe what we do:
- Hard of Hearing people felt unrepresented by this name.
- Parents often remarked that they didn’t realise we had so many services – the name NAD told them nothing.
- Profoundly Deaf people were often surprised at the range of services.
- Other professionals and service-providers often stated that they couldn’t tell what we did from our name.
- NAD staff began to say that the name meant nothing – it didn’t describe us.
In 2006, as part of a Strategic Review, NAD refined its Vision, Mission and Values and it also began the process of ‘Re-branding’. This was not just to get a new name, but to define;
- what NAD is and what is stands for.
- what NAD does and how professionally we do it.
- what makes NAD different from all other organisations and service-providers.
The NAD Board, staff and a selection of deaf and hard of hearing service-users participated in the Re-branding Project (which was managed by Anton Mazer, who many will remember as the Designer of the 1st ISL Dictionary in 1977).
In NAD, we wanted to keep the word DEAF in our name, involve the Hard of Hearing and also to keep the name;
- unique
- short
- easily signed
- easily spoken
- descriptive of who we are and what we do
- reflective of our Irish identity
- and give equality to Deaf and Hard of Hearing people.
The name ‘DeafHear.ie’ was chosen because it fulfilled these criteria and was overwhelmingly accepted by all the project participants. The tagline ‘Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People’ was chosen to describe exactly what we do (before this I was asked on a number of occasions were we a social club or a trade union for Deaf people - hopefully never again).
The last stage of the Re-branding was in May 2007 when the NAD AGM unanimously voted to accept this as NAD’s new Brand and Identity, and we chose to wait until 2008 to introduce it.
We believe it is a modern, descriptive and unique identity and it brings our name into line with our Vision, Mission and Values.
A unique aspect of the new name/brand is the Access Symbol as part of our logo. Everyone wanted to keep Irish Sign Language as part of the image of NAD, as previously, and we have designed a symbol which shows that we are;
- ISL friendly
- Deaf friendly
- Communication accessible
We have decided not to copyright this modern new symbol (contrast it to the symbol of the ear with the seat belt through it) and we hope that other organisations, both in Ireland and internationally, will adopt it as a symbol of Deaf Friendly, Communication Aware and Sign Language Friendly environments.
DeafHear.ie looks forward to continuing to provide high quality, easily identifiable services to Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals and their families and to advocating for a more Deaf aware and communication friendly environment in Ireland and elsewhere.
Niall Keane
Chief Executive
|
Home
News / Information
