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King Jordan Research Paper

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The Magnificent First

Dr. I. King Jordan was on June 16, 1943 in Glenn Riddle, Pennsylvania. Glenn Riddle is a small town near Philidelphia. Dr. Jordan’s parents were hearing parents and he didn’t have anybody in his family at all that was deaf. Dr. Jordan and his wife, Linda, currently live in West River, Maryland. He used spoken language until he joined the Navy after high school and became deaf. He then learned sign language and used ASL. While he was in the Navy, he was in a very serious motorcycle accident. He was not wearing a helmet at the time and almost died. When he was in the hospital, the doctors told him that he had temporary hearing loss. He had to face the fact that he had become deaf. Dr. I. King Jordan said, “I …show more content…

King Jordan first became President of Gallaudet, a lot of people had second opinions about him. They were not sure about how good he could do his job. All of this was simply because he was deaf. A lot of people thought that because he had to have an interpreter, it would interfere with his job and he wouldn’t be able to do as good. Dr. I. King Jordan ended doing such a good job as the President of Gallaudet University that he saw a major increase in funding. He provided raised platforms to the classrooms at Gallaudet so that the student in the classroom could see their professor better when he was lecturing. He also used a lot of technology to help the student communicate better with each other and with being able to learn.
On April 30, 2006, Dr. Jordan resigned his position as the President of Gallaudet. On April 6, 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Dr. I. King Jordan to serve on the Commission on Presidential Scholars. He was the first deaf person to ever serve on that Commission. The Commission on Presidential Scholars is group of people who are hand-picked to award other people who are Scholars. One of the most famous quotes by Dr. Jordan was, “Deaf people can do anything that hearing people can do…except hear.” Dr. Jordan was a co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities

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