 In the mid-1980s, he chaired the U.S. Congress Commission on Education of the Deaf (COED), which made 52 recommendations for improving education and rehabilitation.COED issued a public draft of its final report in January, 1988.The example he and COED set was not lost on the students at Gallaudet University across town when, in March, 1988, they launched the Deaf President Now protest.