Born, raised, and living in Skokie, Howard grew up overcoming adversity and doubts. At the age of two, Howard survived a severe bout of meningitis, which caused him to become totally deaf. Inspired by role models, Howard graduated from Evanston Township High School, earned a Computer Engineering degree from the University of Arizona, and a law degree from IIT/Chicago-Kent.
For the last 33 years, Howard has litigated and advocated for the civil rights of people with disabilities, including serving for 13 years as the CEO and Director of Legal Services for the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). During this time, he strategized and won precedential federal lawsuits advocating for accessibility — beyond the Trump administration, he’s fought Netflix, major educational institutions like Harvard University & MIT, hospitals, and public schools to ensure deaf and hard of hearing people could access services as basic as medical attention and universal as entertainment.
In addition to legal advocacy, Howard has created solutions with corporations and government agencies to advance full accessibility. Notably, his advocacy with the NFL elevated sign language access during the Super Bowl and his collaboration with Lyft improved the accessibility of their apps. He also has worked extensively on regulatory and policy reform with the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the Social Security Administration.
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