The challenge

America’s Deaf community has its own rich culture, language, and history (thus the now-preferred capitalization of “Deaf”). Some in the community struggle against the assumption that they have a medical pathology that needs fixing. Other challenges grow from prejudice, exclusion, and isolation that marginalize the Deaf, placing some at risk for sexual abuse, homophobia, and violence. Yet while vulnerability to these crimes is hardly unique to the hearing world, support services for the Deaf are often limited or nonexistent. Emergency (911) Medical Systems for example, are often ill-equipped to communicate with the Deaf, especially outside big cities; and a communication and safety device that many Americans now take for granted—the mobile phone—remains inaccessible to the Deaf.


Seeds of commitment

Smith, who is herself Deaf and a survivor of rape, was moved to act by the murder of another Deaf woman in Seattle in the early 1980’s. The city’s Deaf community had known that the woman was being abused-, but lacked any organized way to intercede or support her and others like her. “To watch these brave women survive against great odds, to witness their courage and healing process is an honor. And to know that my work provides an environment that helps abused women change their lives keeps me continually focused,” says Smith. “To be raped or beaten is horrible; but then to not have any place to go for help is an injustice that is too great to ignore.” She says she is also motivated by the challenges faced by groups on the fringe of the Deaf community—the victims who most often are unheard: refugees, people with developmental disabilities, and those with partial hearing.



Accomplishments

As a leader, Smith has shined a powerful spotlight on the social problems of her city’s Deaf and Deaf-blind community, which, besides women abused by men, also includes children, gays and lesbians. She began organizing Seattle’s Deaf community in 1983 by bringing together a group of Deaf women to discuss the issue of abuse, planning a conference on abuse in the Deaf community, and founding ADWAS in 1986. From 1986 to 1998, ADWAS was the nation’s only Deaf-managed and fully accessible domestic violence/sexual assault organization providing services to the Deaf and Deaf-Blind. Smith has spoken about domestic violence and sexual assault to both adults and children in Deaf communities around the country since 1993, and in 1998 she created the Justice for Deaf Victims National Training Project, leading to the founding of 15 domestic violence/sexual assault Deaf organizations nationwide. Using the ADWAS model, Smith today works with these 15 agencies nationwide on organizational development, fund-raising, leadership training, and non-profit management. Smith’s organization also works for legislative and policy change at the state and local levels, confronting systemic biases against Deaf and Deaf-Blind victims of violence.

The result has been a growing national awareness of the issues that the Deaf and Deaf-Blind face, and an increase in accessibility, evidenced by a greater availability of text telephones, a wider use of American Sign Language interpreters, and improved relationships with public protection agencies and hospitals. Smith has formed a national coalition to ensure that the issue of violence against the Deaf and the Deaf-Blind will be seen and heard.


Her Leadership style

Smith leads by example, showing the Deaf that they can make a difference. Employing a democratic
style of leadership, she brings together the community’s many sub-groups, which do not always agree
on problems or solutions. She works to achieve unity without conformity, and demonstrates a strong belief in people, including her staff. She says she pays her ADWAS employees more than what is the norm among nonprofits. Smith has hired several inexperienced Deaf people to work at ADWAS, believing that one of the organization’s roles is to serve as a training ground for Deaf people to develop skills and experience.
She is known for her sense of humor, especially her ability to laugh at herself. Robert Roth, CEO of the California-based Deaf Counseling, Advocacy, and Referral Agency, points out another characteristic, one that often escapes notice in discussions about the nature of leadership: “She is a voracious reader. She reads something like 20 magazines and three novels a week and a lot of other nonfiction. That is in addition to doing her full-time job, and other volunteer work. She keeps learning and learning. She just eats up new knowledge.”

While Smith works collaboratively with her staff and organizations, she holds strong personal views and speaks her mind. When she was recruited to run for Vice President of the National Association of the Deaf (the oldest and largest organization for Deaf people in the United States), some fellow activists suggested that she not be so direct and honest about her principles and ideas. She held steadfast to her belief that people had a right to know who she was and what she believed. She won the election.


The future

Smith hopes to expand her roles as mentor and trainer and to prepare others to assume the future leadership of ADWAS. Among the goals she shares with her fellow leaders: to develop the nation’s first transitional housing facility for survivors of domestic violence who are Deaf, Deaf-Blind or hard of hearing. She will continue to offer grant development training and to consult with organizations that work with the Deaf. She also hopes to write a book about Deaf women and how their lives have helped shape the nation, and to create a leadership think tank for the Deaf.


More about Marilyn J. Smith and ADWAS

“Marilyn has developed an organization that rises out of the Deaf culture, not an adaptation of a mainstream agency.”
— Gayle Stringer, Prevention Services Director, Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs

“Despite years of discussions, numerous task forces and studies, and promises to improve the system, the Deaf community continues to experience serious problems with 911 emergency services everywhere…It is very scary and very frustrating when the 911 operator does not respond to your TTY emergency call. If you are being abused, if your house is burning, or if you are having a heart attack, you want 911 to answer your call and to send the right kind of assistance.”
— Marilyn J. Smith, quoted by Business Wire, Inc., Jan. 17, 1997. At the time, Smith was filing civil rights claims against the cities of Seattle and Snohomish and against Pierce and Snohomish counties, on behalf of several Deaf women.