Open Communication Movement

JCCD Open Communication Movement Committee

 JCCD Open Communication Movement Committee (OCM) started out as an AD HOC committee in September, 2018 after the Deaf Community’s frustration with non-captions on a feature film, “Suicide” that was shown at a local movie theatre in July, 2018 sponsored by The Source of Jacksonville.

 The mission of OCM is simple and clear: To value open, informative communications within all communities in Jacksonville. 

  One huge milestone of OCM took place when they worked with the City of Jacksonville to pass a resolution to support permanent TV Closed Captions in public areas/facilities in October, 2019. JCCD mailed to over 500 businesses, courtesy of Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce Business Listing, reminding them of Illinois School for the Deaf’s 2019 Homecoming and to expect Deaf visitors to Jacksonville to celebrate ISD Homecoming with full communication access/adaptability by activating closed captioning features on their televisions at all times. The passing of the Resolution was also supported by the Illinois Association of the Deaf (IAD) Jacksonville Chapter with Raymond Higuet spearheading the campaign. 

 OCM had met with the City of Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Illinois School for the Deaf separately at first a couple of times to set up five top priorities for each of them for the Deaf Community in Jacksonville and its surroundings for the year of 2019 after which they hosted a summit with them in June, 2019 to update their progresses and in December, 2019 to discuss the new three top priorities for each for the year of 2020.