Austin Vaday
Austin Vaday (August 29, 1996) is an entrepreneur, software engineer, and advocate for the Deaf community. Vaday is a former NASA employee and currently works as a software engineer for Amazon. Vaday is also the co-founder of a social media network, Aquaint. Most recently, Vaday started Signs for Humanity, a social media initiative with the goal to "spread awareness of the beauty of ASL" with videos that have received over 4 million views.[1]
Early life
Vaday was born hearing into a hearing family. Vaday has one older sister named Michelle Vaday who is a current dental student. At the age of 3, Vaday started to lose his hearing due to a high fever. By the age of 5, he was profoundly deaf. Growing up, Vaday claims he struggled to communicate with his friends and family due to them and himself not knowing American Sign Language.[2] Not only did he not have access to communication, but he also rejected his Deaf identity. Vaday started to learn American Sign Language at the age of 12. After learning ASL, he started to embrace his identity and become involved with the Deaf community. He received a cochlear implant at the age of 15.[2][3]
Education
After high school, Vaday attended community college at the age of 16 before transferring to UCLA as a Regents Scholar, indicating that he was in the top 1.5% applicants.[4] While at UCLA he was involved with the Artificial Intelligence Club and the Baha'i Club. Vaday was also selected as one of the 31 William Sharpe Fellows from an applicant pool of over 500 UCLA students. He graduated from UCLA in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science.
Career
Engineering
At the age of 17, Vaday participated in his first internship with NASA as an Avionics and Software Assurance Analyst at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX.[5] The following summer in 2015, he returned to NASA to participate in a second internship as a Firing Room Remote Display and Remote Control Application Software Developer at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.[5]
In 2016, Vaday held his first internship with Amazon as a Software Development Engineer Intern. He continued to work at Amazon the following summer as well as after graduating from UCLA as a current full-time Software Development Engineer.
Entrepreneurship
While a UCLA student, in 2015 Vaday co-founded Aquaint, along with Navid Sarvian, a social network that allows users to link all their social media on one page for easy organization and sharing abilities. Aquaint went into beta testing; however, it is currently inactive.[6]
Signs for Humanity
In May 2017, Vaday started a social media initiative called Signs For Humanity with the goal "to learn, explore, and share the beauty of sign language with all of humanity."[7] Signs for Humanity videos are uploaded to Facebook and Instagram. Vaday has created over 100 educational and comedy videos in ASL that have reached over 4 million views. His videos include teaching ASL, sharing aspects about Deaf culture, and creating comedic skits.
Vaday has collaborated with other organizations and people for Sign for Humanity videos including We Are Mitu, a Latino digital media company, and Seek the World, which aims to encourage members of the deaf community to travel.[3]
Advocacy
Vaday participated in a TEDx Talk at UCLA in 2018 with a presentation called "Sign language is my superpower".[8] An ASL version of his TED talk was shared on Signs for Humanity facebook page that reached over 700 thousand views.[7]
Vaday continues to advocate for the Deaf community. He frequently presents about his journey at several events and conferences. Most recently, he was a guest speaker at the 2019 Deaf Entrepreneurship Network Convention and Expo in March 2019 in Los Angeles, CA.[9]
References
- ↑ Thodos, Clint (2018-08-14). "Influencer Insight: Austin Vaday". Day One Perspective. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Marcel Salapa (2018-05-31), Deaf Entrepreneur on Overcoming Insecurity | The Come Up: Austin Vaday, retrieved 2019-03-18
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Seek the World (2018-08-28), Our Differences Don't Divide us, They Unite Us, retrieved 2019-05-10
- ↑ "RSSLA". www.rssla.org. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Deaf Space Pioneers".
- ↑ "Aquaint". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Signs For Humanity". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
- ↑ TEDx Talks (2018-06-22), Sign language is my superpower | Austin Vaday | TEDxUCLA, retrieved 2019-03-18
- ↑ "2019 DEN Convention & Expo". Deaf Entrepreneurship Network Inc. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
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