What is the Deaf Academic Bowl all about? Why, it’s how schools from all over the nation show off their best and brightest. Deaf students from deaf schools, mainstream programs, public schools, and regional centers come together to compete against each other in categories like these listed below:
Current Events
Deaf Studies
The Arts
Geography
History and Government
Language and Literature
Mathematics
Popular Culture, Leisure, Sports
Science and Technology
DAB teams work together to answer as many questions as they can to earn points, and the team who gets the most points at the end wins and gets to advance based on their win-loss record or the number of points overall. Winning teams go all the way from the regional tournament to the prestigious national tournament at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., each year. There are 16 teams playing in each of the five regional tournaments, and only two from each region gets to go on to the national tournament. And of course, out of the 10 remaining teams, there can only be one champion at the national tournament.
To win is a big honor, so teams do their best to study and work hard in acquiring knowledge so that they can answer whatever questions are thrown at them during the competitions. A DAB competition is like a sports competition in the fact that teams play against each other to earn points. But the similarities end there. DAB is all about brain power and the motivation to answer in the fastest amount of time possible with the most accurate replies. Talk about a challenge! In a nutshell, that’s what the Deaf Academic Bowl competition is all about.
