Rikki Poynter

11/08/2025

It’s always a good time with Rikki Poynter!
It was so much fun celebrating you amongst so many other distinguished people

Rikki Poynter was awarded the Carrie Howard Sunshine award for her work as a Deaf content creator, writer, public speaker, accessibility consultant, and disability activist.
Since 2015, she has worked relentlessly to bring awareness to disability rights and to make the world accessible online and offline, from entertainment spaces to political spaces.
Her efforts have allowed her to be recognized by and work with the White House, Apple, Samsung, and Google.
She is currently working to bring accessible information to candidates’ and politicians’ spaces, asking them to make campaigns accessible with ASL interpreters, captions, and more.

11/07/2025

Lincoln is doing long-range transportation and mobility planning to identify and prioritize future improvements to the transportation network and wants to hear from you!

11/05/2025

11/05/2025

My involvement in my Deaf community has been much greater and more consistent since moving to Omaha. Previous years involved a lot of a community during travel, yes, but it was sporadic. Since summer 2023, it’s been consistent and nonstop.

It seems since my move to Nebraska, more of my online Deaf friends have been coming around or at least close by, and Such a Lovely Red is one of them. She came to Des Moines, Iowa to present a keynote for the Thrive Together 25th Anniversary Gala and I knew I had to go. So I got to meet another friend and learn about a new (to me) organization.

�Rachel and I got excited to see each other when she walked into the room, we chatted for a minute, and then chatted some more at the end.

�Thanks for coming close by and sitting down with me for a minute!

Image Description:
Two white women standing beside each other, smiling. The woman on the left has red hair and is wearing a green dress. The woman on the right has brown hair, and is wearing a black romper and gingham tan blazer.

11/05/2025

It meeeeeee

Our Carrie Howard Sunshine Award for 2025 will be awarded to Rikki Poynter. Our Sunshine Award is given to an individual for being a fierce advocate in a specific community and sharing her talent to build a better and more inclusive Nebraska. Rikki is the very definition of this award. In addition to being a tireless advocate of the deaf and other disabled individuals, she has funded instructional information and has accepted nothing less than equality for herself and her community in political spaces and beyond. She has shone a light on her peers who are many times overlooked. Congratulations!

Rikki and all other award winners will receive their awards on Friday evening at our gala. Read her bio and see the other award winners, visit: https://nebraskademocrats.org/2025-nelson-gala-award-winners

11/04/2025

In October, Rikki Poynter traveled to the DeafWay Film Festival in DC on behalf of the Props No More team and had the opportunity to interview festival participants about Deaf representation in the media. The DeafWay Film Festival convened Deaf filmmakers and film industry professionals to spotlight the creativity, power, and stories of Deaf people.

Actress and writer Shoshannah Stern shared her take on why Deaf representation is important and how it contributes to understanding each other and ourselves.

Visual Description: Shoshannah Stern, a white woman with long brown hair wearing a black blazer, black turtleneck, and black pants, stands in front of a gray wall and signs to the camera.

Transcript: Shoshannah: Why is Deaf representation important? I feel like there’s one world, and there’s many different ways of living in it. And the more we understand the different ways of the world, the more we understand our place in the world.

11/03/2025

Why Sign Language Was at one time Banned in America https://www.deafnewstoday.org/post/why-sign-language-was-at-one-time-banned-in-america

10/31/2025