Through his tremendous success on the runway and participation in Dancing With the Stars, Nyle DiMarco follows in the footsteps of numerous Gallaudet University alumni who have shown that deaf people can achieve any dream. Admirably, he has seized this moment to advocate for full and equal early access to language for deaf and hard of hearing children through bilingual exposure to American Sign Language (ASL) and English. I wholly endorse his commitment to guaranteeing full access to language.

Nyle DiMarco is the latest in a long line of confident role models who demonstrate the power of being bilingual using American Sign Language (ASL) and English, and he unabashedly shares the powerful role his bilingual upbringing has had in his success. His success is unsurprising, as every child needs and deserves love and language. Families express their love to their children by communicating with them from the day they are born, as Nyle’s family did.

Language Equality & Acquisition for Deaf Kids (LEAD-K) is proud to endorse the Nyle DiMarco Foundation. Nyle is the LEAD-K celebrity spokesperson, helping to further the initiative promoting language equality and acquisition to ensure that Deaf Kids are Kindergarten-Ready. The Nyle DiMarco Foundation's mission is to empower positive Deaf Identities in all aspect of life, and we wholeheartedly support its goal for accurate resources to share with families, professionals and communities.  With the Nyle DiMarco foundation, we can continue onward to create new generations of Kindergarten-Ready Deaf Kids!

Whether on the runway or the dance floor, or paying it forward through his foundation for quality early access to language and communication, Nyle represents a vision of what the best future of our students in schools and programs for the deaf can look like.