NYPD using sign to connect with the community

A New York Police officer is building relationships with the Deaf community by using his first language on the job--American Sign Language. Officer Angel Familia of the 9th precinct gives a greeting in sign language in a video tweeted by the police department.

Officer Familia from the @NYPD19Pct uses his first language, American Sign Language, to communicate with the deaf community.

One city, one partnership, #ONENY pic.twitter.com/ojL2lV1ktx

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) November 30, 2020

A First: Terp included in the White House Briefing

After dozens of briefings without interpreters, an ASL interpreter signed for a White House COVID briefing on Nov. 13. The National Association of the Deaf had won a federal lawsuit this summer requiring the White House to incorporate ASL into the briefings. Below is the video from that first briefing including an interpreter.

Calif County to Pay $150K settlement

California’s Kern County will pay a deaf woman $150,000 to settle a lawsuit. We first told you abot the lawsuit in October. Jennifer Mello was arrested in 2017 but deputies refused to provide her with a sign language interpreter as required by ADA law. The deputies kept trying to speak to her verbally, she reported. Then Mello was left in jail for five days withot access to an interpreter and appeared in court--again, without an interpreter. Kern County has not agreed to make any policy changes as part of the settlement.

Group home provider settles allegation from deaf resident

The largest group home operator in Virginia for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has settled a complaint that it violated ADA law by failing to provide sign language interpreters. Good Neighbor Homes will pay $225,000 to the women who did not get an interpreter on numerous occastions and her sister, who interpretered for her, will get $50,000 civil penalty. Read the full story here.

Tech firm settles lawsuit over refusing to interview Deaf worker

A New Jersey company will pay $77,500 to settle a lawsuit over its treatment of a prospective deaf employee. Conduent Business Services refused to even interview the qualified deaf applicant once it discovered a sign language interpreter would be needed. The company has now agreed to change its reasonable accommodation policy and offer ADA training to its employees. Read more about the settlement here.

Judge: White House Must include Sign Language interpreters at Covid Briefings

The White House must provide sign language interpreters at briefings related to COVID-19, a federal judge has ruled. The Trump administration has the choice of either putting an interpreter physically near the speaker or by putting an interpreter, located elsewhere, within the frame. DC District Court Judge James Boasberg wrote: The National Association of the Deaf had sued on behalf of five deaf people. NAD CEO Howard Rosenblum said:

Sign language and accurate captioning are both essential and crucial to ensuring all deaf and hard of hearing people are well informed and are able to make better decisions on how to stay safe from the pandemic. The judge’s order sets a great precedent to achieve this goal of full accessibility.

The NAD has put out a news release with more info here.  

Railroad failed to accommodate deaf conductor

A federal appeals court is unanimously overturning a lower court ruling and reinstating the claim of a deaf train conductor. The lawsuit of Mark Mlsna said Union Pacific Railroad Company did not reasonably accommodate him. Union Pacific had given Mlsna a hearing test which he did not pass without his hearing aids and the company rejected his custom-made hearing protection device. As a result, Mlsna was fired and he filed an ADA-based lawsuit. The suit was dismissed by a district court judge, despite the fact his experience and knowledge as a train conductor was not in dispute. This was overturned with the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which wrote:

Because genuine issues of fact exist as to whether Union Pacific reasonably accommodated Mlsna’s hearing disability, Union Pacific should not have received summary judgment.

You can read the full final opinion here.

Deaf Woman files complaint against political group over terp

Mary Harman says she signed up for to attend a "She Should Run" event but denied her request for a sign language interpreter. "She Should Run" is a women's political organization that encorages women to run for political office. Harman has filed a complaint with the Office of Human Rights in Washington, DC. Read the details of the controversy from BuzzFeedNews.

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Businesses and organizations, STOP violating the ADA and understand your legal obligations. Stop forcing people with disabilities to explain the law to you and fight for their basic human rights to be enforced. ****PLEASE SHARE **** TRANSCRIPT: @sheshouldrun, which claims to work to get more women from ALL backgrounds to run for office, refused to provide an ASL interpreter for a public live webinar despite repeated requests. I explained to them several times that it was unlawful discrimination to refuse to provide a reasonable accommodation, but they continued denying my request. They said that they were “unable to provide an ASL interpreter,” but would try to provide live captioning. I emphasized that I needed an ASL interpreter for the webinar, as this is how I normally access conferences and webinars. When I told them I would have to file a complaint against them on the basis of discrimination with the Office for Civil Rights in D.C., they ignored me. To add insult to injury, the captioning was inaccurate and severely lagged to the point I had to leave the webinar. How can an organization claim to be for all women if they exclude women with disabilities, which make up a significant percentage of the population? Guess I’ll have to file a complaint so that other deaf/hard of hearing women won’t be subjected to such blatant discrimination by @sheshouldrun in the future. It’s 2020. Stop violating the ADA and understand your legal obligations. Stop having to make people with disabilities explain the law to you and fight for their basic rights to be enforced. [Video Description]: Mary is signing as she sits on a gray chair in front of wooden soft white blinds. She is wearing a black short-sleeved shirt with her hair tied back in a low bun, a few pieces of hair framing her face. Captioning by @angelamariaotg UPDATE - 8/15/20 - after private and public efforts to resolve the discriminatory issue failed, I filed a formal complaint against She Should Run for discrimination on the basis of disability with the D.C. Office of Human Rights.

A post shared by Mary Harman Whited (@maryharman) on Aug 14, 2020 at 11:34am PDT

Judge: White House may have to include interpreters at coronavirus briefings

The White House may have to provide ASL interpretation at its televised news briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, a federal judge has ruled. The National Association of the Deaf filed a lawsuit over the issue on behalf of five deaf people. A hearing next Thursday will deal with the issue of how to implement the order. 

The US government had argued that ASL interpretation isn't needed because there is closed captioning on livestreams of the updates and videos of past briefings with transcripts of the briefings. In his ruling Judge James Boasberg wrote: 

Closed captioning and transcripts may constitute a reasonable accommodation under some circumstances, but not here. As another court explained in rejecting a state government’s similar arguments, these “accommodations — however well-intentioned — simply do not provide ‘meaningful access in the circumstances [presented] here.’ 

You can read the judges ruling here.

White House responds to lawsuit calling for terps at briefings

The White House is rejecting calls for it to provide on-screen ASL interpretation of its COVID-19 briefings. The National Association of the Deaf filed a lawsuit over interpreters and Justice Department lawyers responded with claims that basically say, it is just too inconvenient to includes interpreters—the briefing room is small, it is hard to move the podium, maybe the television networks wouldn't include the interpreters in the screenshot, etc. Read more on the legal wranglings from DC radio WTOP here. 

Deaf Groups Sue Florida Gov

Disability Rights Florida and the National Association of the Deaf have filed a lawsuit against Florida's governor for failing to make his COVID-19 briefings accessible in sign language. Ron DeSantis 

Howard A. Rosenblum, who leads the NAD, says:

Health threats such as coronavirus impact everyone including deaf and hard-of-hearing people, and it is imperative that all governmental announcements be accessible to all of us including in ASL. Given the extraordinary surge of coronavirus cases in Florida, full and equal access to information is critical.

Read the full complaint here. 

FedEx will pay $3.3 million dollars to settle an ADA complaint

FedEx will pay $3.3 million dollars to settle a complaint filed with the EEOC. "Seventeen deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals filed Charges of Discrimination against FedEx, which the EEOC then consolidated as part of a nationwide investigation of potential ADA violations."FedEx has agreed to provide deaf and hard-of-hearing package handlers with access to live and video remote interpreters captioned videos, scanning equipment with non-audible cues such as vibrations and provide training for managers on ADA compliance. Read more here.

Judge: Cuomo briefings must be more accessible to deaf

Disability Rights New York has gotten a preliminary injunction against the governor of New York over his failure to broadcast a sign language interpreter during his daily Covid press briefings. Last night, a Manhattan federal judge, Valerie Caproni, ordered New York Governor Cuomo to include an interpreter in the state-provided TV signal of his briefings. The governor's lawyers had argued there was no need of having an interpreter share the screen because of captioning and a separate a dedicated internet stream. But Disability Rights New York has pointed out that the captioning often contain errors while the separate feed is available only in broadband service. Read more from Buffalo News here.

Deaf New Yorkers sue Cuomo

Disability Rights New York is suing Gov. Andrew Cuomo for not providing sign language interpreters during his daily televised coronavirus briefings. Executive Director Timothy Clune writes in a statement:

It is inexplicable that during this pandemic, the Governor would choose not to have ASL interpreters at his daily live televised briefings. As a result, deaf New Yorkers are unable to obtain vital life and death information at the time they need it most.

In response, Cuomo advisor Rich Azzopardi tells CNN there is a "dedicated (ASL) stream" on the state website and "all conferences have been close-captioned. Read the full statement here.

Deaf Man Sues Plasma Co.

An Illinois deaf man is suing CSL Plasma over ADA issues. Mark Gomez says the blood plasma company not only wouldn't accept his plasma, it refused to provide him with an interpreter. Read the full story here.

Hospital Sued: Lawsuit claims no Terp provided

A lawsuit filed against McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital claims a deaf patient was not provided an interpreter last year as required by ADA law. Instead, the staff of the Lansing, Michigan facility used written notes to communicate with Christine Ketola, according to the complaint. Read more about the lawsuit in the Lansing State Journalhere.

Missouri lawmakers are considering a new law to punish people using fake service animals. It's Senate Bill 644 and it's being debated in committee this week. If it passes, violators could face misdemeanor charges, punishable by up to 15 days in jail. Read more about it the from St. Louis Post-Dispatchhere.

Deaf & HoH attorneys sworn in

Chief Justice John Roberts used American Sign Language when he swore-in a group of 10 deaf and hard-of-hearing attorneys sworn into the U.S. Supreme Court Bar Association. That means they can argue cases before the nation's highest court. One of them is Azeema Akram, an administrative law judge at the Illinois Commerce Commission, who was diagnosed as hard of hearing at the age of three. WLS-TV in Chicago has her story in the video below.

Deaf school gets fined over hazardous waste

image from Google Maps

The Oregon School for the Deaf is getting slapped with a $11,500 fine. State environmental regulators say the school has mismanaged hazardous waste. Read more from the Statesman Journal here.

A Plan to give D.C. its first Office Dedicated To The Deaf

There's proposed legislation that would create the first government office for people with hearing loss in DC. It's called the “Office on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Establishment Amendment Act of 2019” is designed to ensure members of the deaf community have access to all District services. You can see the proposal here and read about why some in the Deaf community are against the plan here.