Take Note: Joseph Valente Crusades for a More ASL-Friendly World

  Joe Valente is a self-identified superhero; he’s using the proverbial pen to fight the good fight by spreading a simple message: deaf people are not disabled. Valente is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Penn State and co-Director of Penn State’s Center for Disability Studies. Deaf since infancy, he was “mainstreamed” as a child and didn't have the opportunity to spend time with deaf peers, which is why he finds his research work with schools for the deaf so fulfilling. He chronicled his life experiences in the autobiographical novel, "d/Deaf and d/Dumb: A Portrait of a Deaf Kid as a Young Superhero.”