January 3, 1999 Greetings, Today, over 23 million Americans -- one in 12 -- live with hearing loss. The Deaf Watch Newsletter now provides support to the people who are now confronting hearing disabilities, or will confront hearing disabilities in the future. Allow me to briefly explain to you what I have personally experienced. Two years ago, after a long, horrendous five year episode in which I suffered multiple discriminatory actions by my last employer because I cant hear, I am Deaf, my ears dont work, I had an idea, to start a Deaf newsletter, Deaf Watch, in hopes of helping other people with hearing disabilities to survive. Today this newsletter now has over 10,100 subscribers globally and a website with 5 mirrors. This newsletter is the true unbiased voice of the majority of people with hearing disabilities. The Deaf Watch Newsletter is staffed by four people with disabilities, three of whom have hearing disabilities. This idea I had two years ago is now a major force inside the United States for positive and beneficial changes in the lives of people with hearing disabilities. Let's begin our position on the L.C. v. Olmstead case with this quote: "There is no evidence to suggest that there is any greater occurrence of mental illness in the Deaf population. But, poor diagnosis, miscommunication and misguided treatment programmes have resulted in the gross over-representation of Deaf people in mental hospitals" This is the result of a study by Timmermans in 1989 in which identified that whereas hearing patients had remained in psychiatric hospitals for an average of 148 days, Deaf patients' average stay was 19.5 years. With this finding, Deaf Watch Newsletter has announced in May 1998 that we were taking an active position on this situation. That is when Project Orange Neptune was unveiled. Project Orange Neptune is a new project set to activate on May 1999 carries our mission of liberating our community from the grips of the psychological industry. Through Project Orange Neptune the Deaf Watch Newsletter will serve as a liberating mechanism for people with hearing disabilities that are languishing in the mental institutions. This project will use the proper tools as well as experiment with new tools to assist people with hearing disabilities to explore alternatives to living in mental institutions. We have rounded up a considerable number of volunteers from the disability community, legal community, and the psychological community. We will coordinate our efforts on liberating members of our community from the 19th century grips that has kept them imprisoned in the mental institutions. Let's move on to the stories of people from our community who have experienced these 19th century grips: ALBERTO VALZEZ In 1959 a boy, Alberto Valdez, was misdiagnosed as either retarded or schizophrenic after taking a childhood test. He had been abandoned in state mental institutions for almost 30 yrs. His medical records showing that he had been born with a normal or even superior intelligence HAD BEEN IGNORED!!! In that time he has suffered mental and physical abuse from other psychotic patients and hospital staff and has never learned language. With no means to communicate, he'd often fight back and was severely punished for defending himself. He was kept in 3 different mental institutions even though he was neither mentally retarded or psychotic, the courts and tests have found. His sister's lawsuit against California (Alberto was a ward of the state) contended that Alberto had been improperly institutionalized. Upon finding about Alberto's case, Deaf advocates and legislators reacted strongly to it. With a Northern California Deaf Association leader calling it "a total breakdown of the system" and then State Senator John Seymore calling this an outrage and asked the Senate Budget Committee to look into Alberto's case. The Little Hoover Commission has begun to investigate treatment of the Deaf in state institutions. For a long time, Deaf and mental health advocates have been critical of hospital administrators for refusing to create oversight committees to prevent other patients from being misdiagnosed, mistreated, and abandoned. A court approved settlement provided Alberto with an annuity in which he is presently receiving $30,000 per year. Since starting in his rehabilitation, his progress was phenomenal. Alberto has worked at Goodwill Industries and according to Nancy A. Quarles, Director of Rehabilitation, Alberto has left Goodwill Industries and is now living in Northern California. KATHY BUCKLEY On May 7, 1997 at the NBC's Today Show, Actress and Deaf Comedienne Kathy Buckley talks about being put in a school for mental retardation and thinking she was mentally retarded for many years because no one ever explained her hearing loss until she was in her 30's and bought some hearing aids. The experts took an unreasonably long time to discover that she merely had a hearing disability. The teachers took 2 years to realize their mistake. She says in her standup "Dont Buck With me" show "There are no limits as to what we can possibly do with our lives" and she also said "You spend your whole life being rejected from society...from something you have no control over" She said that by making jokes about her life experiences that society has started to accept her. ARTIE MARTINEZ Martinez wasn’t charged with a crime, never has been. Nonetheless, the State of Arizona kept him imprisoned at the State Hospital for four decades. He spent years in the hospital’s infamous Cholla ward, among depraved and deranged murderers, rapists and other violent men. A doctor who evaluated him in 1993 wrote that Martinez fell through the cracks "because he didn’t have an opportunity . . . to make his case, to be understood, and to talk his way out of it." Martinez endured his nearly 40 years in custody alone and in silence. No one at the State Hospital was able to communicate with him in American Sign Language on more than a basic level. For years, Artie Martinez had no advocates--no legal guardian, no watchdog group, no friends. And after his parents died and his siblings scattered more than a quarter-century ago, he had no family to go to bat for him. On April 5, 1994, Artie Martinez left the State Hospital, probably for the last time. Twelve years before Martinez was released, a hospital psychologist wrote, "It is this examiner’s strong opinion that this patient has not been psychotic over the past few years, and probably never was so." A legislative committee approved an out-of-court settlement in the Martinez case in 1997. The sum remains a secret, though the fact that the committee had to okay it means it was for more than $150,000. JUNIUS WILSON Junius Wilson, a victim of social politics, was arrested and detained for false rape charges spent 71 yrs in a mental institution. It all began in 1925 when New Hanover county sheriffs deputies dragged him away from Castle Hayne at the age of 16. He was arrested for rape. Because he was Deaf and mute, a jury found him incompetent to stand trail. They declared him to be mentally ill and retarded. They castrated him and locked him away in a squalid institution. 50 years later the charges were dropped. He had not done the crime. As bad as that seems it gets worse. For the next 18 years no one freed him even though he was innocent. He is now too old to be turned loose. He has nothing, no one and no where to go. He is now being cared for by the state in a neat little home. He has received a large settlement from the state and now is living in an apartment and cared for by a live in caretaker. Mr. Wilson is also receiving sign language instruction among a number of other things in amends for the injustices done to him. In light of all these stories, the psychological diagnosing methods always has been and will always continue to be opinion based. Since there has never been any scientific backing of any diagnosis by members of the psychological community, it is safe to say that social politics has always played major roles in many cases involving people with hearing disabilities. Now onward to the case of L.C. v. Olmstead, 1998 WL 163707 Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in the provision of public services by state and local governments. Section 12132 provides that "no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of his disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity." On April 8, 1998, The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a ruling in a case of first impression, in which patients challenged their continued confinement in psychiatric facilities in Georgia. The Court held that: 1) The ADA and the Department of Justice's integration regulation prohibit the state from confining people with disabilities in a state run institution when that individual could be more appropriately treated in a more integrated community setting. 2) The continued confinement of patients in state psychiatric hospitals, in segregated environments, violated the ADA, despite the state's claim that it did not have funds available to fund alternatives. Now the appeal which is set to be heard this year presents a disturbing attitude by state operated mental health programs that they fear that this will be a heavy cost burden on them. The disability community has heard this millions of times that ADA compliance efforts will always be cost burdensome. Fighting this appeal is one of the mechanisms we are using to pass the message to our society we are getting tired of these lame 'cost burden' excuses by entities to avoid their legal responsibilities. Remember the Civil Rights Commission's report on October 2, 1998? The Civil Rights Commission has made it clear on that report the cost of compliance is not an appropriate argument for refusing to enforce the laws Congress has passed. This case is about the rights of 2 individuals. We dont have a problem seeing that the rights of these two individuals cherished. Also, we dont have a problem with the effects spreading out to other states. But we do have a problem watching mental hospitals and state administrators try to compromise the true spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act so they can save a few bucks. This also represents a direction society is heading toward people with disabilities. Here are a few more reports that demonstrate this attitude our society has toward people with disabilities: 1) National Organization on Disability in their Landmark Harris Survey released on July 23, 1998, shows that Americans with disabilities still face gaps in securing jobs, education, accessible public transportation and in many areas of daily life. 2) National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, in their 1998 Chartbook on Work and Disability in the United States, finds that people with a disability are less likely to have a job or business than people with no disability. 3) American Bar Association has announced on June 16, 1998, that their Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law has found that people with a mental or physical disability who claim discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act have a difficult time in court. 4) The Civil Rights Commission, in a report released on October 2, 1998, finds that public enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act has been problematic. Funding, staffing, and logistical problems have made it difficult for both Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Justice to actively become enforcers of the Americans with Disabilities Act. 5) The journal of the American Medical Association announced on December 24, 1997 that workers with disabilities are more likely to have occupational injuries. This report alone has further compromised our employability. 6) There are people who try to conceal their disability and people with disabilities who dont think of themselves as disabled. Wait until they try to find work. As reported by the U.S News & World Report on July 6, 1998, Jeffery Ola never thought of himself as a person with a disability until his hearing disability prevented him from working as a paramedic. It is sad that state operated mental health programs in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming all want to put another disappointment.. another obstacle.. another barrier to our journey to the promised land of fairness, equality, and justice. We the staff of Deaf Watch Newsletter and the volunteers of Project Orange Neptune, ask for your leadership to continue this revolution that will empower all people with disabilities to live their fullest potential in manners of their own choosing. This includes full unconditional support of these two individuals who are seeking community based alternatives to imprisionment inside mental institutuions. The rights of these two individuals are to be cherished as it says on the Americans with Disabilities Act. NOTHING LESS! Thank You. Richard Roehm Chief Editor, Deaf Watch Newsletter ||================================================================= || DEAF WATCH Orange County, California | || Richard Roehm | || Chief Editor Internet : Deaf@activist.com | || Nesmuth@worldnet.att.net | || Deaf_Workers_OC@usa.net | || DEAF WATCH ICQ : SilentKnight | || Http://www.deafwatch.com AIM : Nesmuth827 | || DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY | || Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/dwoc.htm | || ORANGE COUNTY DEAF ADVOCACY CENTER | || Http://www.deafadvocacy.com | ||================================================================= || || Deaf Watch will continue to aggressively pursue justice, fairness, || and equality for the Deaf Community as it has been doing since November || 1996. We have chosen that EDUCATION is the best way accomplish this || objective.