December 13, 1997

Greetings,

       First of all I am Richard Roehm, a 35 year old Deaf person 
living in California. Secondly I am a victim of discrimination and 
I had a legal case already in the system and I have settled my case
this summer after 3 years of negotiations.  I know what its like 
to be disabled.  I know how it feels to have been discriminated 
against and be treated as a second class citizen.   I also feel other 
Deaf people are going through the same thing I did. 

       I have spent the last 3 yrs recovering from the emotional trauma 
resulting from repeated acts of discrimination and non-ADA compliance from 
my former employer of 13.5 yrs.  The last 5 years was very hard on me.  I 
unable to seek employment elsewhere as I am haunted by the experiences.  
I have turned down several job offers because I can no longer trust 
other people.  

       It was brought to my attention that Representative Jim Bunning of
Kentucky wants to shift the burden proof for continuing Social Security
Income and Social Security Disability Insurance to the recipients.  Mr.
Bunning plans to introduce legislation to create this effect in the near
future.  I urge you to oppose this legislation.

       I understand that the number of people who are on disability has
risen.  The best way to deal with this is to cut off foreign aid to almost
self sufficient countries such as Israel.  We have to start helping our own
people.  Changing the rules to the way Rep. Jim Bunning wants could wreak
havoc and chaos among the disability community as the majority are unable
to do simple things as gathering information for the review committees.
If Rep. Bunning has it his way, then many group homes for the disabled will
close and their clients will be on the streets or warehoused away and they
will fall into the hands of 19th century mindset caretakers who would
neglect their needs.  This will send the disability community back in time
and will create chaos within the disability community.  If money is a
concern, then we should stop feeding self sufficient countries and start
helping us help ourselves by creating better tax incentives to employers
so they can hire and fully accommodate us.  Once the disabled are put
back to work then SSDI wont be a problem anymore as the number of
people on SSDI would be lower.  Getting them back to work is a challenge
because the disabled are not encouraged to go back to work due to poor
enforcement of Americans with Disabilities Act and a number of other
factors.

      We all know that America needs more disabled workers. America can 
acquire more disabled workers by being more vigilant in their enforcement 
of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which was signed in 1990. Once 
the disability community sees that ADA is being vigorously enforced, they 
will feel more secure and confident and become workers.

      The past sixteen months, the entire disability community has seen 
their employers find ways to get around ADA. We're also seeing federal 
judges become increasingly restrictive in dealing with ADA lawsuits. We're 
even seeing one of our supposedly trusty guardians, the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC), behave amnesic when we try to explain
our cases to them. The same thing goes on for employers who hire vicious
lawyers to defend themselves against ADA lawsuits by twisting the facts
around and manipulating the law itself beyond recognizance. Finally
there is no safety net for disability plaintiffs who lose their ADA 
cases.  All these discourage the disabled from seeking employment.

                     And there's more...............

       The low rate of employment among people with severe disabilities
is the result of the systemic barriers to work facing us. Evidence
from recent studies and General Accounting Office (GAO) reports cite the 
fear of losing health care, and its long term services, prescription 
medications, and assistive technology benefits, as the primary barrier 
to employment. In addition, financial disincentives to work, lack of choice 
of service providers, the complexity of work incentives, and the lack of 
employment opportunities all conspire to prevent us from working.

       These things also conspire together to prevent us from getting off 
disability. If you can't trim down what you're sending to other countries, 
and if you can't create better tax incentives to help employers hire and 
fully accommodate the disabled, then don't bother with their only means of 
getting food and a roof above their heads.  Making it difficult for many
of the disabled to keep their disability checks is not the answer to
rising number of people that remain on disability.   Better enforcement
of the Americans with Disabilities Act and less foreign aid to other
countries is the REAL answer to this problem.

        Please do not support Rep. Jim Bunning's solution to this problem, 
it only creates more problems for the United States to deal with.

        Thank you very much for your time to read this.

Richard Roehm
(Address)