DEAF WATCH----NOVEMBER 1998----PART ONE HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAF WATCH! This months starts the third year of our service to the disability community. Questions pondering in your heads could be "Who is behind that Deaf Watch Project?". Three great people with disabilities now man this project. Richard Roehm, Dorothy Balesh, and William Cross. Part two will highlight each of these people and their contributions to our community. The Newsletter and website has influenced people with disabilities to become enforcers of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is reflected by a sharp increase in accommodations and effective communications lawsuits. This is something that hasnt been seen before Deaf Watch came to life. There is still lots of work needed to be done. We presently have a number of recreational Deaf organizations still cuddling business and industry interests and making it difficult for us to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act in some areas. Cultural genocide is brewing as people continue to develop, market, and force remedies to hearing loss such as the fabled Cochlear Implant which has been a very hot political issue in the past few months. The newsletter's position is clear, we do not support any attempts to remedy or 'cure' deafness. As I stated last September, the real beneficiaries of the 'bionic ear' concept are not the people that wear them, but are the surgeons, doctors, and people involved in the business of trying to cure deafness with their electronic gadgets. Also the choice for this remedy should rest with the person that will wear them. We dont need parents, school administrators, and judges forcing people to wear the implants. The Editor ************************************************************* CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION FAULTS FEDERAL ENFORCEMENT OF ADA Civil Rights Commission Finds Federal Enforcement of the ADA Falls Short WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- In twin reports released today, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights gives mixed grades to the Federal agencies responsible for enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), and blames misleading and sometimes inaccurate news coverage for the public's negative perception of the Act. The two reports, "Helping Employers Comply with the ADA," and "Helping State and Local Governments Comply with the ADA," examine how well the two agencies are implementing and enforcing the ADA. Title I of the Act, which is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, while Title II, enforced by the Department of Justice, prohibits discrimination in State and local government services. The EEOC earned praise for processing an increasing number of discrimination complaints despite a stagnating budget. The agency was also commended for its training programs, organizational structure, and litigation activities. The report pointed out, however, that the EEOC had not developed policy documents on some of the most heavily disputed disability issues, such as reasonable accommodation and undue hardship. Because the ADA is a complex law, the report urges further efforts to inform employers and disabled people about their rights and responsibilities. The Department of Justice also received mixed grades for its efforts under Title II. Its technical assistance, outreach, and education programs have been extremely effective in reaching the disabled community, the report says. But its success in dealing with the ADA complaint workload has been partial, and it has failed to monitor ADA compliance of the seven other Federal agencies for which it has oversight responsibilities. Both reports urge Congress to appropriate more funds to enable the agencies to more effectively carry out their responsibilities. The reports also criticizes the influence of inaccurate media coverage of the ADA. They cite evidence that news reports of the ADA and related disability issues often leads to a "gross misunderstanding of the ADA," and "increased hostility to individuals with disabilities." As a result, the ADA is being viewed as a source of frivolous lawsuits and not as an important means of guaranteeing the rights of the disabled. The reports recommend that the EEOC and other Federal agencies charged with protecting the interests of individuals with disabilities mount a national public relations campaign and make a concerted effort to educate journalists and other media professionals about the ADA. The reports discuss the sensitive issue of how much it costs employers to comply with the ADA, which has been one of the most persistent criticisms of the Act. Costs should of course be kept to what is required, the Commission notes, but the benefits to the disabled and the public taxpayers to having the disabled at work and independent rather than dependent are enormous. A concrete study to measure costs and benefits could be undertaken by the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The Commission makes clear, however, that the cost of compliance is not an appropriate argument for refusing to enforce the laws Congress has passed, including laws concerning the denial of civil rights and the remedying of discrimination. Single copies of the two reports may be obtained free from the Publications Office, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 624 Ninth Street, NW, Room 600, Washington, DC 20425. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan fact- finding agency. Its members are Chairperson Mary Frances Berry, Vice Chairperson Cruz Reynoso, and Commissioners Carl A. Anderson, Robert P. George, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Constance Horner, Yvonne Y. Lee, and Russell G. Redenbaugh. Ruby G. Moy is Staff Director. SOURCE U.S. Commission on Civil Rights ************************************************************* SUIT ACCUSES 7-11 STORES OF VIOLATING ADA MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - A group representing the disabled sued 7-Eleven, claiming many stores lack access for individuals who use wheelchairs because of improper parking and access into the convenience stores, restrooms, and to lottery and ATM machines. The Association for Disabled Americans and several individually named plaintiffs, want the lawsuit, which accuses the convenience store chain of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, declared their THIRD federal class action,after Publix and Amoco. The lawsuit names twelve locations in four different counties, and requests the right to inspect the rest of the chain's stores. The group asks the community of disabled for identification of additional problem locations. Common violations include lack of hearing-aid compatible public telephones, inaccessible door handles, vacuums mounted out of reach, missing grab bars and raised commodes, mirrors mounted too high, drink dispensers above reach, no lowered section at check-out counters, ATM and restroom signs without Braille, doors at restrooms with excessive resistance, inadequate width and closing delay for individuals who use walkers or wheelchairs, and inadequate clearance beneath lavatories. Association for DisAbled Americans Inc. 6538 Collins Avenue #196 Miami Beach, FL 33141 Phone(305)864-7070 Fax(305)864-4140 Email ada2000@poboxes.com www.ada2000.org ************************************************************* FCC CHAIRMAN KENNARD'S STATEMENT ON DISABILITY AWARENESS MONTH "When I became FCC Chairman last fall, I pledged to support the three Cs - competition, common sense and community. In honor of National Disability Awareness Month, I would like to focus on the disability community. I made a commitment to the disability community to give their issues -- access to telecommunications -- a priority. After all, shouldn't ALL Americans, including Americans with disabilities, have access to the telecommunications revolution? I recently read a survey concerning the troubling fact that people with disabilities are not benefitting from the opportunities that people without disabilities enjoy. The survey, conducted by the National Organization on Disability (NOD) in cooperation with Louis Harris and Associates, indicates that we as a society are not doing our best to include people with disabilities in almost every facet of American life. The NOD/Harris survey revealed significant differences in employment. Only 29% of working-aged people with disabilities have jobs, compared to 79% of people without disabilities. These employment numbers have not improved over the last ten years, even with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Of those working-aged people with disabilities who aren't working, 72% want to work. Why would we have that huge gap in a booming economy? This statistic should be particularly significant to those of us involved in the communications field, because there is simply no industry in America with the opportunity for well-paying jobs like telecommunications. The U.S. needs 1.3 million new workers in information technology by 2006. The hi-tech industry was the single largest industry in the United States in 1996. People with disabilities can and should fill many of those jobs. Also, is there any doubt -- any at all -- that people with disabilities can compete, and are even pace-setters, in the world of science and technology? That myth has long since been disproved. Consider Stephen Hawking, one of the world's most famous scientists, who has Lou Gehrig's disease. Consider Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the Internet, who has a hearing disability, or thousands of less-known examples. The fact is, that if we do things right, the burgeoning world of telecommunications should make it easier for those with disabilities to have meaningful, well-paid jobs and make valuable contributions to our economy and society. More and more, people will not have to hop in a car and drive twenty miles to the office. They'll be able to work at home. Recent business studies show that the average accommodation for a person with a disability is less than $300. Telecommuting, something that can benefit us all, allows for persons with disabilities to work from their home if necessary. Technology can sometimes be a barrier, but more often can be a liberator to persons with disabilities. We call these technologies assistive technologies, because they maintain, increase or improve the abilities of persons with disabilities. With technology, people who are blind can read E-mail, people with quadriplegia can dictate letters, people who are deaf can video-conference -- the potential is unlimited. Thanks to the Tech Act, a law that provides Federal assistance to the development and deployment of assistive technologies, there are 147 statewide regional centers to provide information and assistance in acquiring assistive technologies to individuals and employers. And with the recent passage of Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act, we will see more computers and software that are accessible to persons with disabilities. More and more, the employees with disabilities, and their employers, will find access in technology in the 21st Century. The NOD/Harris survey also found that there are stark differences in educational opportunities for people with disabilities. One in five adults with disabilities have not completed high school, as compared to 9% of people without disabilities. What more compelling evidence do we need to connect the schools of our nation to the Internet? Again, technology potentially levels the playing field for people with disabilities and increases opportunities. Since I became Chairman, I have heard story after story of how a child with a disability has benefitted from technology in the classroom. Let me tell you about Susan, a high school student with quadriplegia who has become adept at surfing the Internet through an eye gaze laser that acts as a mouse. Susan can't pick up a book physically. But she can select any book she wants. She can turn the pages herself. She can skip to the back of the book to see how it ends. And the Internet can take her to places that she could not otherwise visit. I need to tell you about Scott, who is blind, and attends a high school in Georgia for gifted students. Scott used to spend hours every day studying Spanish. But then, his school connected to the Internet. Now he uses assistive technologies to access on-line Spanish-English dictionaries. As a result, he can finish his Spanish lessons in less than half an hour and use that extra two and a half hours to conquer Shakespeare, physics, and international affairs. Both Susan and Scott did not want special treatment, they wanted a chance to compete with their classmates, an opportunity to learn. We cannot, as a society, afford to have people like Susan and Scott marginalized simply because they have disabilities. One third of people with disabilities live in households with a total income of $15,000 or less, compared to 12% of the non-disabled population. Common sense tells me this is because people with disabilities are not getting the education they deserve and have a right to, nor are they getting the jobs they can perform. Common sense also tells me that we can make this change. As the NOD/Harris survey shows, the potential of millions of Americans is being wasted because they are denied access --access to technology; to opportunity; to education. This is a personal loss for each individual that has been held back, and a societal loss for all of us. I reaffirm my commitment to use all of the resources possible to remedy these wrongs. But let us never forget that it takes more than a regulation to compel people to see past differences and disabilities --to see the inherent value in every person. We are at a crossroads in terms of access to telecommunications for people with disabilities. If we do the right thing and take the right steps towards accessible telecommunications today, we are establishing a groundwork that will ensure that all future technologies are also accessible. If we do not take the necessary steps towards making accessibility an integral part of telecommunications engineering, then disability access will remain an afterthought in the future, and will never become a standard phase of all telecommunications product development. So my job is not only to change regulation, it is to change minds; to change attitudes; to change perceptions. It is to work toward a world in which all of our fellow citizens embrace diversity and recognize the potential and ability and value of every human being. On National Disability Awareness Month, I ask you to join me in our goal of inclusion and equal opportunity." For more info: Pam Gregory PGREGORY@fcc.gov ************************************************************* NEZ'S CYBER MALL SUPPORTS THE DEAF COMMUNITY Nez's Cyber Mall is a fundraiser project that will help support the newly created Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center. This mall has been designed with accessibility in mind. All commissions generated by sales activity within this mall will be used to support the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center. Nez's Cyber Mall can be found at: Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/deafmall.htm ************************************************************* THE STRAWMAN'S CORNER DEBUTS AT DEAFWATCH Project Orange Neptune's director's article will become a regular part of this newsletter. "The Strawman's Corner" is one of the means by which to draw attention to the many aspects by which we d/Deaf encounter straw-man arguments on a daily basis in forms both subtle and complex. Now, whether it be at home, at school, the workplace, or wherever it is we happen to find ourselves, there will always be people whom will assume that because we are d/Deaf, we cannot speak for ourselves and therefore they must take it upon themselves to speak on or in our behalf. The hope is that by providing such discourse, readers will find the column enlightening enough to provide the essential feedback we will need in order to function at a high level of competency where issues of advocacy and referral is concerned. In this issue, The Strawman will present 15 seperate and distinct styles of Distorted Thinking. 1) FILTERING: You take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a given situation. 2) POLARIZED THINKING: Things are black or white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you're a failure. There is no middle ground. 3) OVERGENERALIZATION: You come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If something bad happens once you expect it to happen over and over again. 4) MIND READING: Without their saying so, you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, you are able to divine how people are feeling toward(s) you. 5) CATASTROPHIZING: You expect disaster. You notice or hear about a problem and start "what if's:" What if tragedy strikes? What if it happens to you?" 6) PERSONALIZATION: Thinking that everything that people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. You also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who's smarter, better looking, etc. 7) CONTROL FALLACIES: If you feel externally controlled, you see yourself as helpless, a victim of fate. The fallacy of internal control has you responsible for the pain and happiness of everyone around you. 8) FALLACY OF FAIRNESS: You feel resentful because you think you know what's fair but other people won't agree with you. 9) BLAMING: You hold other people responsible for your pain, or take the other tack and blame yourself for every problem or reversal. 10) SHOULDS: You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. People who break the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you yourself break the rules. 11) EMOTIONAL REASONING: You believe that what you must feel must be true-- automatically. If you feel stupid and boring, then you must be stupid and boring. 12) FALLACY OF CHANGE: You expect that other people will change to suit you if you just pressure or cajole them enough. You need to change people because your hopes for happiness (or instant gratification) seem to depend entirely on them. 13) GLOBAL LABELING: You generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgement. 14) BEING RIGHT: You are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to any length to demonstrate your rightness. 15) HEAVENS REWARD FALLACY: You expect all your sacrifice and self-denial to pay off, as if there were someone keeping score. You feel bitter when the reward doesn't come. These are but 15 of the most COMMON styles of Distorted Thinking. If we can avoid these problems by thinking things out in a more rational, tangible, and systematic manner, we can make our lives much more managable and better able to cope with the everyday problems that we encounter as d/Deaf people. For more information and Strawman's musings, please visit the Strawman's Corner at Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/tsc.htm ************************************************************* HEY DEAF RV'ERS. THIS SMALL NEW MEXICO RV SITE CATERS TO DEAF RV'ERS Enjoy the great outdoors and support the Deaf Community! A special rate of $18.50 per night is a great deal! For each night, $6.00 will be donated to the new Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center in Santa Ana, California. Visit and bookmark the website at http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/8449/ ************************************************************* RESOURCE OF THE MONTH: Fort Stewart ArmyDeaf Purviews is a newsletter and a resource for young people with hearing disabilities who want to learn life skills and learn it inside a military environment. My applauds go to Deaf Sgt. Steven Schrader for making this possible! Fort Stewart ArmyDeaf Purviews http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/9809/index.html ************************************************************* Disability Lawsuit List. Employee has burden of showing existence of a reasonable accommodation. Failure to engage in "interactive process" is not ADA violation. Barnett v. U.S. Air (9th Cir 10/06/98) http://www.vcilp.org/Fed-Ct/Circuit/9th/opinions/9616669.htm Barnett's disability prohibited him from lifting 25 pounds or more and from excessive bending, twisting, and standing. Formerly assigned to cargo, he transferred to the mailroom. When all cargo and mailroom jobs opened for bidding, Barnett knew that his seniority would entitle him to a position in cargo but not in the mailroom. Barnett asked U.S. Air for an exception to allow him to keep his mailroom job, and U.S. Air let him stay in the mailroom for almost five months until removing him because he lacked the seniority to stay there. Medical restrictions prevented him from performing the cargo job, so U.S. Air put him on leave and eventually stopped his pay. Barnett sued claiming U.S. Air failed to reasonably accommodate his disability, the District Court granted summary judgment to U.S. Air, and the 9th Circuit affirmed (2-1). The court held that the employee has the burden of showing the existence of a reasonable accommodation, meaning that following pretrial discovery a plaintiff must "be able to point to at least one specific reasonable accommodation that was available." The court rejected the idea that an employer has an obligation to engage in an "interactive process" independent of its duty to reasonably accommodate. The court also rejected three proposed accommodations, finding each of them unreasonable: (1) Creating an exception to the seniority system to allow him to remain in the mailroom. The court saw no reason to distinguish between seniority systems which are collectively bargained and those which are not. The court said it was not adopting either a "per se" rule or a "case-by-case" standard for seniority systems. It noted that the seniority system has no exception for disabled employees, but it was not designed or used to discriminate against disabled employees. (2) Buying a "robotics" machine so he could do the lifting required in the cargo position. Barnett failed to show that this machine would accommodate him any more than the existing forklifts. (3) Modifying the cargo position so he would be required to do only desk work. Because lifting was an essential function of the cargo job, the employer was not required to eliminate or re-assign it. The DISSENT made three main points. (1) U.S. Air discriminated against Barnett by not engaging in an "interactive process" to determine if a reasonable accommodation was possible. (2) The majority, as a practical matter, has adopted a "per se" rule that an employer need not make an exception to a seniority system. (3) The majority puts the whole burden on the employee to find an accommodation and prove that it will work. ************************************************************* Letters from readers. Dear Richard: I have read your hateful messages to the Deaf Community covering the period of when you started targeting Frances Ripplinger as your "example" of dishonest business person, commencing this year. It appears that since you are associated with politicians, you are trying to make "brownie points" in your favor. Also, you know nothing about FutureNet or several other companies that you have mentioned in your messages. And obviously have not taken the time to really find out about them. If you don't want to participate in MLM companies, that is your business, but to continue to poison other people's minds with information that for the most part is untrue, is really not acceptable behaviour from someone that claims to be so knowledgable. If you do truly care about the Deaf Community, then you should be more careful in the propaganda that you spread. Your message can be very confusing to people who want to make extra money for their families and who have not been involved in that many business adventures. People such as yourself should be ashamed of yourselves. As you appear to dislike Frances Ripplinger so much, why don't you just leave her alone? What she does to earn extra money is really none of your business as she is not trying to deal with you. Ruining her reputation shows you are a very small person to be so threatened by one person - REALLY! Please remove my email address from your garbarge list and don't send me any more of your hateful notices. Laura Fletcher (Editor's Response) Laura, In my August Newsletter, I never targeted specific individuals that are involved in the illegal marketing ploys. Yes, there are Deaf people out there that feel threatened by the information on this particular newsletter. I am saddened to see that people like you do not have the means to thoroughly investigate FurureNet. Let alone attack me without doing your homework. That's what the August newsletter was all about, passing resources and information to people so they can have the the means to thoroughly investigate companies like FutureNet. My search for the information you needed on FutureNet was quick and easy like the 2 URLS below. FTC COMPLAINT FOR INJUNCTION AND OTHER EQUITABLE RELIEF http://www.ftc.gov/os/1998/9803/futureco.htm FTC HALTS BOGUS BUSINESSES http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1998/9803/netopp.htm I'm not mad at you, I have no grudges on you or on Frances. I understand that many Deaf people do not have the means to investigate business opportunities and they are targeted by scam operators to participate or promote the schemes. You just happened to be one of them. Richard Roehm --------------------------- Dear Mr. Richard Roehm III, I'm a librarian from the School of the Future (Sao Paulo University) presently working in a research project in a public school for the deaf in order to help improve reading and writing abilities. We think that sign language is the best way to start with and that the children should learn Portuguese as their second language. The biggest issue is to find materials in Portuguese (Brazilian) signed language. We've just been at the Educational TV in S.Paulo are there is just one educational program (an only tape about art!) using signed language. There is none with closed-caption. We've just found an increadible librarian who is deaf (there are just 4 of them in S.Paulo)and fluent in signed language. She is now working with us in the research project and also engaged on the deaf culture preservation. I decided to write you because you are a deaf activist and thought you could give us some tips and contacts on library materials for the deaf in Portuguese (Brazilian or Portuguese)signed language. I hope that in the States deaf minorities will have some materials to share. I'm also looking for evaluations of Internet educational use from deaf students point of view. Even if you could just forward us to someone you think would help us, it would be just great. I've asked some local forums lists but I guess this is all quite new in Brazil and we had no answers yet. Hope you can help us someway. Thanks a lot, Ana ------------- Hello, my name is Craig Brokaw and I am doing a report for my communications class on nearing impairment and ways hearing impaired people communicate. While I am not hearing impaired, I do know hearing impaired people and have had an interest in taking a sign language class. I came across this web-site while browsing through the computers at my school and so far this seems to be the most developed site with the most news available. I was wondering if you could send me information on how I could attain any information about ways hearing impaired people communicate, such as the type of telephone they use, and any other useful information or other possible references, books, or web sites I could look to for more information on the subject. I thank you for any help you could provide. Thank you, Craig Brokaw PiggyPark@aol.com ------------------------------------------------------------- - DEAF WATCH - Federal ID Number : 33-0765412 - Circulation by direct EMAIL : 354 Subscribers - Circulation by indirect EMAIL : 9555 Subscribers - Chief Editor/Editor : Richard Roehm - Orange County, California - Internet : Deaf@activist.com - Nesmuth@worldnet.att.net - ICQ #: 7389913 | Handle: SilentKnight - DEAF WATCH Http://www.deafwatch.com - Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/deaf.htm - Visit Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/nez.htm ---------------------------------------------------------- - Education is the best gift that lasts a lifetime! - Help someone subscribe to The Deaf Watch Newsletter ---------------------------------------------------------- - SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION - To be added to the mailing list, send "SUBSCRIBE" - To be deleted from the mailing list send "DELETE" - to this address DEAF@ACTIVIST.COM - - Mailing lists are not sold/given to anyone. ------------------------------------------------------------- - Need to stay on the net? 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