About

Hello and welcome!  I decided to start this blog to share the work I do in the area of deaf advocacy.  I have never been one to suffer in silence in the face of a perceived slight.  It is my custom to stand up for myself and for other deaf people when I see something that just isn’t right.  This blog is an attempt to share these efforts with others in the deaf community.  Perhaps something I say or do will inspire others to advocate for themselves.

A brief biography:  I was born and raised in suburban New Jersey.  When I was 8, I started to lose my hearing to unknown causes.  It was a long process and I did not consider myself deaf until I was 22 and no longer able to hear on the phone even with a strong amplifier to boost the sounds.

I attended Syracuse and Rutgers Universities in the days before support services and did not get very far with my studies.  In 1980 I enrolled in the Rochester Institute of Technology, where I received support from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.  I graduated in 1985 with a B.S. in professional photography.

Shortly after graduating, I founded Deaf Artists of America, Inc., a national nonprofit arts service organization, and ran it for 10 years.  A highlight was establishing an art gallery for deaf artists, which hosted more than 20 exhibits over a four-year span (1988-92).

I was editor of Silent News from 1991 to 1996 and publisher/editor of Newswaves from 1997 to 2002.  I moved to California in 2000 and worked for GLAD (Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness) for two years, then moved back to Rochester in 2003.  The following year I started Deafweekly (www.deafweekly.com), a free news service for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

In addition to working as a journalist, I am a part-time photographer (www.tomwillard.com) and recently started a new business (www.canalstreetpress.com) to publish deaf-related and photography books.

So that’s my story and you are invited back any time to keep up with what I’m doing in the area of deaf advocacy.  I welcome your comments, but I have to insist that you give your real name when you comment.  As a writer, I have stood behind my own comments and opinions all my life, and frankly I don’t have a lot of respect for people who cannot do the same thing.  I definitely will not allow people to use this blog to attack other people while hiding behind fake names.  I see too much of that on other blogs.