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De La Bat School for the Deaf
in Worcester. During high school, Jordaan participated in the Law Commission Workshop at The Bastion in
Braam Jordaan is a South African entrepreneur, filmmaker, animator, and activist. He is an advocate for
'', and ''Sign Language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
and human rights
Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
of Deaf people, and board member of the World Federation of the Deaf
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) is an international non-governmental organization that acts as a peak body for national associations of Deaf people, with a focus on Deaf people who use sign language and their family and friends. WFD aims ...
Youth Section. In 2009, Jordaan collaborated with the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf and Marblemedia on the first children's animated dictionary of American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...
, which allows deaf children to look up words in their own primary language of ASL along with the English counterpart. The dictionary allows both deaf children and their hearing parents to learn sign language together.
Jordaan was interviewed by international news organizations including ''The Washington Times
''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...
'', ''BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...People
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
'' magazine about the sign language interpreter scandal during the funeral services of President Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
.
In 2014, Jordaan collaborated with the Camp Mark Seven's first summer of Deaf Film Camp in the making the hit song ''Happy'' by Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...
into an American Sign Language
American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...
music video. The music video made by all 24 camp students was selected as one of NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
''25 Most Inspirational Stories of the Year'' and listed as one of ''People
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
'' magazine's ''2014 Internet Trends''.
In 2019, Jordaan was awarded the Order of the Baobab
The Order of the Baobab is a South African civilian national honour, awarded to those for service in business and the economy; science, medicine, and for technological innovation; and community service. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and i ...
(Grand Counsellor of the Baobab) in recognition of his efforts in raising awareness on the importance of sign language and the human rights of people from the deaf community around the world through his colourful films and books. The National Orders are the highest awards that South Africans can receive. The president bestows a national order upon a South African citizen or member of the international community who has contributed towards making South Africa a democratic and successful country.
Jordaan was a recipient of Business in Vancouver
''Business in Vancouver'' (''BIV'') is a weekly business news journal co-founded in 1989 by Peter Ladner in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Published on Tuesdays it receives about 62,000 readers per week.
Its operations include the biv.com ...
Forty Under 40 for 2020. The awards recognize the achievements of British Columbia's young entrepreneurs, executives and professionals with demonstrated excellence in business, judgment, leadership and community contribution.
In 2020, Jordaan was awarded Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards
The Henry Viscardi Achievement Awards were established to honor the legacy of the founder of the Viscardi Center, Dr. Henry Viscardi, Jr., a leading disability rights advocate who wore prosthetic limbs. These international Awards, first conferr ...
for championing for better education in the deaf community, on achieving global recognition for his contribution to improving the lives of persons with disabilities.
Early life and education
Jordaan was born in Benoni,Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
during the era of apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
to a predominantly deaf family that later moved to Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
. He attended high school aDe La Bat School for the Deaf
in Worcester. During high school, Jordaan participated in the Law Commission Workshop at The Bastion in
Newlands, Cape Town
Newlands (Nuweland) is an upmarket suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.
It is located at the foot of Table Mountain in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, and is the wettest suburb in South Africa due to its high winter rainfall. The neighborhood ...
. At the age of 16, he attended the first-ever Deaf Youth Leadership Camp in Durban
Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...
, led by Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen
Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen is a South African politician, and the country's first Deaf female Member of Parliament. She attended Gallaudet University and was elected the vice-president of the World Federation of the Deaf in 2011.
References
{{ ...
, which led to Jordaan being elected to attend the National Youth Policy Commission in Midrand
Midrand is a former municipality in central Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated in-between Centurion and Sandton and now forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.
History
Midrand was established as a municipality in 198 ...
in 1998. In 1998, he became a Member of the Council of Learners, and the chairperson of the council in 2000.
Career
Jordaan's career began at Wicked Pixels, post-production company, creating visual effects and animation for TV commercials, with a client list that included BMW, Rabea Tea,Mitsubishi
The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries.
Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
, Musica, World Wildlife Fund
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...
, American Eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...
and Yardley.
In 2002, Jordaan won best newcomer and best creative at the Vuka awards by creating a three-dimensional animation advertisement about HIV/AIDS awareness. He also created Sipho the Lion, the official mascot of the XVI World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) is an international non-governmental organization that acts as a peak body for national associations of Deaf people, with a focus on Deaf people who use sign language and their family and friends. WFD aims ...
. In 2010, Jordaan created visual effects and animation for an award-winning short film with Gallaudet University
Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first sc ...
called ''Gallaudet'', which had over 140,000 views. Jordaan created a video montage that stretched 1,500 feet at the DeafNation World Expo in 2012. He also won the DeafNation Inspiration Award for Visual Arts that year.
Deaf education and awareness advocacy
Jordaan became a representative ofWorld Federation of the Deaf
The World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) is an international non-governmental organization that acts as a peak body for national associations of Deaf people, with a focus on Deaf people who use sign language and their family and friends. WFD aims ...
, an international organization that represents 70 million deaf people worldwide, and World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section, a youth section under the World Federation of the Deaf. In 2012, during the Hong Kong International Deaf Film Festival, Jordaan appealed to the Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
government for the development of proper sign language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
curriculum and for the accessibility of sign language interpreters in their nation. In 2014, Jordaan delivered a statement about the right to an education in sign language for deaf youth and children to the Youth with Disabilities of the Seventh Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights treaty of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the convention are required to promote, ...
. He also works with the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
and is a Youth Council Member of the UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
Global Partnership on Children with Disabilities.
#WHccNow campaign
Jordaan launched a social media campaign around the hashtag #WHccNow to advocate for theWhite House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...
to improve accessibility for Deaf
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...
and hard of hearing
Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken l ...
people from the government. Without closed captions
Closed captioning (CC) and subtitling are both processes of displaying text on a television, video screen, or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information. Both are typically used as a transcription of the audio por ...
on videos from the White House, Deaf and hard of hearing people are excluded. The hashtag stands for 'White House closed caption now,' and it trended on Twitter's accessibility advocate communities. The White House responded with a State of the Union
The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditio ...
preview video with open captions posted on social media and the State Department Special Advisor for International Disability Rights, Judith Heumann
Judith Ellen "Judy" Heumann (born December 18, 1947) is an American disability rights activist. She is recognized internationally as a leader in the disability community. Heumann is a lifelong civil rights advocate for people with disabilities. ...
announced that the White House opened Accessibility Officer position to lead inclusion efforts.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordaan, Braam Living people Deaf film directors South African animators Deaf activists South African film directors South African animated film directors 1981 births South African deaf people 21st-century South African artists