Deaf Student Appeals Captioning Ruling

A Los Angeles area high school student is appealing a judges ruling against her request for speech-to-text captioning service at her Tustin high school. A judge has ruled that the school district is not obligated under ADA law to provide CART (communication access real-time translation). She's now asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to take a look at the case. The unnamed girl has a cochlear implant and although the case has dragged on so long she would no longer benefit from a winning decision, her hopes are that she can make a difference for other students who are younger than her and will face the same problems. In 2007, another California school was ordered to provide CART for two deaf students. Read more about that case here.

Appeals court reinstates students' lawsuits

An appeals court says two lawsuits against California school districts can move forward. We first told you about one of the cases last year in a post here, where administrators turned down requests for CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) transcription services for two hard-of-hearing students in each districts. A lower court threw out the students' lawsuits, saying the decisions by the school districts were not a violation of ADA law, but this decision reinstates the suits. The lower court had ruled that since the schools met the standards of IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), then they had also met the standards of ADA law. The appeals court rejected that reasoning.

One of the students is in the Poway school system close to San Diego and the other is in the Tustin school district, close to Los Angeles. Both want a stenographer to provide real-time captioning of conversations. Although the Tustin student would no longer benefit from a ruling in her favor, she is proceeding in hopes of helping those who come after her. In 2007, another California school system lost a bid to avoid providing CART captioning. You can read about that case here and find out more about the new decision here.

Automation in the College Classroom

Virginia's George Mason University hopes to one day make captioning in the classroom completely automated. A caption proposal has been approved at the school that would allow faculty members to upload their audio files to a server. From there, automated voice-recognition software called Docsoft:AV produces a fully captioned transcript of the classroom lecture. Student workers will review what the program produces until the automation is accurate enough to work on its own. It must overcome poor audio quality, the different accents of speakers, and other variables. George Mason has a number of veterans with hearing impairments who are are taking classes and using the CART system in the classroom (CART stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation). This real-time text translation is expensive and requires someone to transcribe lecture from another location.

Woman Arrested for Attacking Deaf Girl

from New York State Police

We reported Wednesday about a New York woman wanted by the police for intentionally ramming a Walmart shopping cart into a deaf 10-year-old. Police have arrested Erica Walker and charged her with assailt. Walker is out on bail but due back in a Cortlandt, New York courtroom on Monday.

Deaf Teacher has to fight to take part in Graduation Ceremonies

A New Jersey teacher had to fight for a year to get the technology he needs to experience graduation along with the other high school faculty. Richard Koenigsberg wanted a CART (Computer Assisted Real-Time Translation) reporter but district administrators refused until the public and local media got involved. NJ.com explains he won in an article here.

The Supreme Court makes an exception

image from zinke.house.gov

The U.S. Supreme Court has a no cell phone policy for lawyers. But the justices made an exemption when a group of deaf attorney's were admitted to the SCOTUS bar. They needed to access a CART service "which allows a third party to create a real-time transcript of the proceeding." Read the full story from Bloomberg here.

Deaf Student: I want to be a doctor

Michael Argenyi is suing Creighton University Medical School because the school refuses to accommodate his hearing loss. Argenyi says he wanted to become a doctor but the Nebraska school won't give him interpreters or CART (the captioning process provides real time text and is often used in classrooms). The school claims it has done enough- giving him a note taker and access to power point slides. Despite the limitations, Argenvi has determined to get through the program, passing all his classes. But he wants, what he says are full accommodations under ADA law. And the Justice Department agrees. It has filed a friend of the court brief on his behalf. Argenvi is from Seattle but the case is being heard in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Court Orders Real-Time Captioning

California’s Glendora High School has lost another round in the courts over its refusal to provide real-time captioning for deaf students. School officials had already been ordered to offer the service to Victor Solorzano. Now, they must do the same for his sister, Samantha. The decision means the Solorzano children will have aides to transcribe class discussions they can read on a laptop. The Communication Access Real-Time Translation, or CART costs about $60,000 a year. Both children were born deaf, have cochlea implants and do not use sign language.

Terping for the Library of Congressing

Gallaudet is now providing interpreting services to the Library of Congress. The GIS (Gallaudet Interpreting Service (GIS) one year contract includes on-site certified interpreters, computer aided real-time translation (CART), video remote interpreting (VRI). The Library of Congress has 17 deaf staff members.