The organizers of the M-Enabling Summit announce that its first “Lifetime Advocacy Award” was presented to Claude Stout, Executive Director of Telecommunication for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc. (TDI).
The Award is designed to recognize a community leader that has the most impact on accessibly in Information and Communications Technology.
Claude has been at the helm of TDI for over twenty years, a consumer advocate tirelessly fighting for equal access in telecommunications, information technologies, and media for all deaf and hard of hearing Americans.
“His [Claude’s] ability to build a consensus, his tenacity to meet his advocacy objectives and passion for innovation, have had tremendous impact over the past few years on how ICT accessibly has evolved.” stated Axel Leblois, founder and Executive Director of G3ict. “He has dedicated efforts to advise, push, network, build consensus, and we are super happy to present Claude with the award for lifetime advocacy achievement.”
In receiving the award, Claude said “I am truly honored to receive the recognition. In my 40 years of public service, it has been incredible when I looked back on how we worked together to make a profound difference in disability access.”
During Stout’s acceptance speech, he left the audience with three parting thoughts for us to act on: be a resource to parents of children with disabilities; get involved in your local education system, from kindergarten to universities; and do a fair cost-benefit analysis when hiring those
with disabilities, as well as providing accessible products and
services.