Dear [Senator/Representative Last Name],

As your constituent, I am writing to express my deep concern over the recent termination of a federally funded, peer-reviewed research project with critical national public health implications. This project was a smart investment toward the goal: reducing the huge unemployment gap and expanding opportunities for deaf people in America.

This project, the first of its kind, was amongst those slated for cuts under NIH, a mere $3.4 million, with three universities involved, and led by a PI who is Deaf, with and several researchers who are also deaf.  Project was titled “*Family Language planning and language acquisition amongst deaf and hard of hearing children,”*  R01DC021839**.**

This study was an effort to understand and prevent language deprivation in deaf and hard of hearing children for whom over 90% are vulnerable to experiencing because many are born to parents who can hear and have absolutely no knowledge deafness. Hence, many such children end up language deprived, a nationwide crisis. This project aimed to provide population-wide estimates of language deprivation, identifying environments that support health language development, validating a tool for early diagnosis, and building infrastructure to track long-term outcomes.

The rationale for the grant’s abrupt termination cited that it promoted “amorphous equity objectives”. Deaf and hard of hearing children’s right to language and communication should never have been targeted as an “DEI” issue. For deaf and hard of hearing children, it is a basic human right to be taught a language so they can communicate with their families, peers, and educators, to be able to learn to read and write.

Bottom line, Deaf people are taxpayers like everyone else, but they face significant barriers to employment, because many are unable to read and write. To fix this we must go back to the beginning when they were born, to provide parents with tools to set them up for success. This work has long held bipartisan support.

I respectfully request your help to advocate on our behalf, to be our voice of reason and call for an investigation into the process by which this project was terminated. I am hoping you will ask for reinstatement of funding for this essential public health research, and perhaps secure alternative funding to allow this critical work to continue.

I am available to meet with you at any time soon to provide more information should you require it.

Otherwise, close with: Sincerely yours, __________Name __________Home address