From Tees To Texts - Deaf Businessman Becomes Top Publisher

By Greg Montgomery

Deaf publisher Joe Dannis holding one of his company's many products

Ambitious and determined, Joe Dannis started his first business in his dorm room at Gallaudet University while he was still a student. He sold t-shirts using the designs of deaf artists and called his company Sign-A-Tee.

Looking back on his college days at Gallaudet, Joe remembers working long hours and eating lots of cheap food. "I worked hard...and ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches...to make the business succeed," said Dannis. "There were no TTYs, computers or pagers back then and I had to talk with people face-to-face."

Many new businesses fail, but Dannis's business was a success. "I was stubborn, persistent, and pressed on, overcoming days when I was tempted to give up," he said. He also had plenty of support from his family and friends.

Even when his business slowly started to become successful, Joe took the profits and put them back into his company. As time went on, Dannis joined up with a partner named Ben Bahan. Ben is now a Deaf Studies professor at Gallaudet, but back then, Joe and Ben saw an opportunity.

In the late 1970's, the team changed their Sign-A-Tee company into a bookstore in Berkeley, California called Sign-Up. The store sold products like light signalers, TTYs, and ASL coloring books.

Then, the two partners re-invented their company again into a publishing company called DawnSignPress. The reason why they decided to call it DawnSignPress was because it reflected the dawn of a new era in American Sign Language. Joe and Ben's new company went on to print many different kinds of educational books.

Even though Joe has become successful in the publishing business, he is thankful of one person in his life who inspired him to succeed - his father, Herbert Dannis. "My father, a linotype operator who was deaf like me, was my inspiration," said Dannis. "He gave me $1000 when I graduated from college to invest in my business. This showed that he had faith in me. He believed that I would succeed. Thanks to him, I am a successful entrepreneur."

Today, Dannis's company, DawnSignPress, Inc., is one of the nation's top educational publishers specializing in American Sign Language and deaf culture.