DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY PROJECT -- DEAF WORKERS WEEKLY BULLETIN -- October 24, 1998 Greetings, Last night, I went to the Unique People's Permanent Absentee Ballot party at VSA Gallery West in Beverly Hills. It was a strong display of power for people with disabilities. Finally the 105th congress has drawn to a close. Your advocates celebrate victory. The Livingston Amendment to IDEA was not in the budget. The Assistive Technology Act was included, with reduced funding. We built a strong foundation for the Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999. The conservative controlled 105th congress received poor grades for their conduct. Their efforts to kill HMO reform has left more than 160 million Americans who have private health insurance unprotected against HMO abuses. Their tax cuts threatened the Social Security benefits of the 156 million American seniors and baby-boomers. Their neglect on education, based almost entirely of the use of private school vouchers, undermines the education of 48 million students in America's public schools. Conservatives love big tobacco! They stopped comprehensive tobacco reform cold, ending hopes that thoughtful legislation might save the lives of more than five million children under 18 who are expected to die from tobacco-related disease. They also made it difficult for us obtain access to justice. We still have large number of vacancies in the Federal judiciary which jeopardizes our access to justice and ADA enforcement and is particularly evident in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin as Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals benches were left unfilled. Richard Roehm ---- LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA STATE SENATOR ROB HURTT SAYS 'NO' TO DEAFS IN MILITARY September 4, 1998 Dear Mr. Roehm Thank you for your interesting letter on Georgia's National Guard Youth Challenge Academy. This summer marks the first inaugural year for California's participation in the Challenge Youth Academy. The program places a focus on at-risk youth between the ages of 16-18 who have no felonies, or a history of drug use. The program strives to chart a new path to success for these young teenagers by learning life skills within the influence of our country's military. Because this is the inaugural year for Challenge Academy, the California program is not the same level as Georgia. At this time California's program is not able to expand into working with the hearing disabled. They are working to make the Challenge Program a success and will wait to hear of the results from Georgia and Virginia experiments. Thank you for writing and please feel free to contact me again on any state state related issues of concern to you. Sincerely, Rob Hurtt State Senator (Too bad this guy doesn't trust deafs. Pentagon already likes the idea of replicating the Ft. Stewart experiment on the west coast. Hurtt is up for relection this year. Let's vote him out of office for not trusting Deafs.) ---- 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 ---- BIKE COP SHOW 'PACIFIC BLUE' TO HAVE DEAFIE EPISODE! "Pacific Blue" episode "Broken Dreams" It will be on Sunday, December 6th, at 8 p.m. cable USA channel. a good group of deaf actors and deaf extras will be in this episode as ABC card peddlers being approached by the bike cops at Venice Beach. Some of the ASL dialogue will be shown with subtitles. Kudos to "Pacific Blue" productions and to all the other productions for creating and accepting more deaf roles on television! Be sure all the television sets are turned on to prove that deaf roles help pull excellent viewing ratings! SPREAD THE WORD! ---- HOUSE REPUBLICANS EXCELLED AT IRRESPONSIBILITY, WASTE PUBLIC'S TIME! Despite the last minute efforts of House Republican to accomplish SOMETHING in the few remaining days of the 105th Congress, the Republican legacy for this Congress will be one of partisanship, politics, and inactivity. The government is currently operating by virtue of an extended emergency funding extension. While the Fiscal Year 1999 began on October 1st, the Republicans in Congress are not set to approve a budget until October 20th! The reason for this stalemate was the extremist nature of the House Republican budget resolution, which called for paying for $101 billion in tax cuts by making $101 billion in spending cuts beyond those already required by the Balanced Budget Agreement of 1997. Sen. Pete Domenici, Republican Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, labeled the House budget resolution a mockery. Indeed, four moderate Republican Senators explained, in a letter to Sen. Domenici, how extremist and unacceptable the House GOP resolution was: "[The House-passed budget resolution]...contains large cuts in both discretionary and mandatory programs and violates key components of the balanced budget agreement reached just last year...We are troubled that the House plan calls for approximately $40 billion in mandatory reductions... The overwhelming majority of these cuts...is apparently assumed to come from programs for low-income children, families, poor workers and low-income elderly and disabled people. In addition, the House budget would reduce funding for discretionary programs by $45 billion over the next five years and, when inflation is taken into account, would leave nondefense discretionary spending 19 percent lower in 2003 than in 1998." - [Letter from 4 GOP Senators (Chafee, Collins, Jeffords, Snowe) to Sen. Domenici, 7/13/98] SCORECARD FOR THE REPUBLICAN 105th CONGRESS * Bills to improve public schools = 0 * Managed care reform = 0 * Campaign finance reform = 0 * Bills to reduce teenage smoking = 0 * Bills to improve the environment = 0 * Minimum wage increase = 0 ---- NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY COULD SAVE DEAF LIVES With the up-and-coming 21st century, we are always looking for new ways to protect our communities save lives, and prevent the loss of life. As a Paramedic and a person that tries to save lives on a daily basis, I'm always looking for products that may save lives before it's too late. I found a company that can do exactly that. I got myself involved with a company called DetectEar. This company is not your everyday company; this company specializes in alerting devices for the deaf and hearing impaired. The goal of DetectEar is to help assist in alerting people to many perils of Life Threatening events, such as Fire, Smoke, Carbon Monoxide, severe weather and Tornado warnings. It seems to me that with their products that currently have not only have they accomplish this, but also gone above and beyond. With the help in use of DetectEar's alpha vibrate receiving device and transmitters in their products, alerts will clearly identify exactly what the emergency or environmental sounds may be, in a timely resourceful manner as needed. Effective, reliable communications are vital to the reduction of injury and loss of life due to the perils of fire, natural disasters, and other threats. Loss of life and property can be largely mitigated or reduced with the help and assistance of early warning systems. Emerging communicating technology, not only for the people with disabilities, but for all represented individuals in society, to include the poor, the isolated, and the vulnerable, is a must. DetectEar wants to be a part of this reliable communications, especially to those with hearing impairments. A preliminary study conducted by the National Council on Disability, of 136 individuals with disabilities, wanted is seen and evaluate costs and benefits as related to use of different kinds of technology related assistance. It was noted that a significant impact of assistive technology hit many aspects of the respondent's winds. Eighty percent of the elderly were able to reduce dependence on others; sixty-five percent of the working ages were able to reduce dependence on family, and so on. >From 1976 to 1996, there been a total of 657 disasters in the U.S., which averaged thirty-four disasters each year. There were 1,150 tornadoes and 1996 resulting in twenty-six plus deaths. In 1998, already, there been ninety plus deaths from tornadoes alone. One major goal of DetectEar's Emergency Alerting System is to automatically assist in alerting people in upcoming severe weather events, especially those with hearing impairments or when asleep. Many new technological developments have raised the expectation that people with disabilities have come to expect, so they can function more independently in their homes and communities. With DetectEar's products, people can act on this expectation and gain more independence. One reason why DetectEar came up with developing the products such as the Smoke Detector and it's product line; is summed up in a statement made by Seattle Mayor Paul Schell. He commented about emergency preparedness; " We know that taking steps now to reduce the risks associated with emergencies and disasters can pay big dividends in long run; We not only protect lives we save time and money by a court reducing or even preventing damage." One of those risks should be reduced is warning or alerting individuals in a timely manner to possible emergencies and or disaster situations Riche Varner 185 Glen ST. APT. 2A Grayslake, IL 60030 (847)543-4325 http://www.detectear.com ---- 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/ ---- DRAFT OF MEDIATION STANDARDS FOR THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT AND OTHER DISABILITY ISSUES Mediation holds great promise for resolving disputes arising under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In comparison to litigation, mediation is much less time-consuming, less financially draining, less stressful, and - perhaps most important - in mediation the parties are active participants in the process and in the design of their own resolution. Through mediation, the parties can come to understand each other's interests and they can find common ground, and the parties can practice new, positive ways to interact. Where there are ongoing relationships - such as at the workplace - ADA mediation has particular potential for enabling persons with disabilities to be integrated into the mainstream of workplace life. Mediation is being used increasingly to resolve ADA disputes. In order to conform to the public policy objectives of the ADA, mediation services need to meet some basic criteria of ADA quality. However -- up to this point -- there has been no guidance for ADA mediation providers and no measures of ADA quality that the public can look to. The ADA Mediation Work Group was formed in January 1998 to address this need. The Work Group is comprised of 14 practicing mediators, trainers, and program administrators -- a number of whom have disabilities themselves. The major mediation providers and professional organizations are represented on the Work Group. The Work Group members worked together to identify issues unique to ADA mediation that were not addressed in other mediation standards and that mediation providers were generally not aware of. The Group developed a DRAFT of suggested standards of mediation practice based on these unique issues. The Standards are designed to provide guidance not only for mediators and mediation programs, but also for consumers of ADA mediation services in selecting providers. One area that had not previously been formally addressed is the basic qualifications of an ADA mediator. The DRAFT Standards recommend that only experienced mediators be trained in ADA mediation, as an advanced area of practice. The DRAFT Standards also recommend Mediators receive advanced, ADA-specific training before conducting ADA mediation. The Draft outlines recommended contents of ADA mediation training, including such areas as: substantive disability law, disability awareness, setting up and running an accessible session, and unique ADA mediation process issues. The ADA Mediation Work Group will be distributing the DRAFT version of the ADA Mediation Standards for review and comment by the mediation community, persons with disabilities, and the public in mid-September. The DRAFT will be available on the web site of MIRC (Mediation Information and Resource Center) at www.mediate.com/articles/ada.cfm, and the Work Group welcomes the posting of the DRAFT on other web sites. Copies of the DRAFT are available from the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) at 202-467-6226, ask for Thameenah Muhammad. The Work Group would like to have maximum input from the public, and will consider all comments that it receives. Mail comments to: Judith Cohen, ADA Work Group Chair, 351 West 24th Street, Suite 9F, New York, NY 10011-1517. Or send by e-mail accessrs@ix.netcom.com to Cohen. To be considered by the Work Group, all comments should be sent no later than December 1, 1998. The Work Group will discuss the comments submitted and issue a final document in early 1999. Please share this with as many people and organizations as you can. If you prefer for the entire draft of the standards to be emailed to you rather than accessing through the internet system, please let me know. We appreciate your help and input. Thanks....WINNIE Winnie M. Hargis email: whargis@ocsonline.com Member, ADA Mediation Standards Work Group Private Mediator & ADA Consultant SHHH in Georgia State Coordinator 2130 Crow Valley Road, Dalton GA 30720-6916 (706) 226-4290 (TTY & Fax available if voice/relay first) ---- COMPLAINT CITES THAT MIAMI SCHOOL ALLEGEDLY TREATS DEAF STUDENTS UNFAIRLY By JOHN BARRY Herald Staff Writer The protest began with one deaf student's refusal to attend the first nine days of his senior year at Southwest High School because he had no chance of making the basketball team. Now three complaints alleging that the high school prevents its 42 deaf students from competing equally with hearing students in both sports and scholastics have been filed with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights in Atlanta. Southwest, one of five Miami-Dade high schools that offers special classes for deaf students, acknowledges problems, but says most are beyond the school's control. Among the allegations contained in the complaints: Deaf students at Southwest High are segregated from others in portable classrooms and denied access to computers. They are usually steered to a special-education track, rather than an academic one. Not all their teachers are proficient in sign language and sign-language interpreters are rarely available for after-school clubs and sports. In addition, the complaints charge, deaf students cannot attend their neighborhood schools because of a lack of interpreters. The first complaint was filed by the parents of Roberto Jacomino Jr., a deaf senior desperate to make the basketball team in his final year. He has played in community leagues since he was 10, but has been cut by Southwest's basketball coach Tom Moore as a freshman, sophomore and junior. This year, Moore told Roberto not to bother coming to tryouts because he didn't have the ability. Roberto and his parents say Roberto's deafness is the main reason the coach doesn't want him on the team, and for nine days he boycotted classes. They point out that Moore has never put a deaf student on his teams, even though Southwest's junior varsity squad went winless last year. Moore denies Roberto's disability was a factor. "His deafness has nothing to do with it," the coach says. "I cut Roberto only because he lacks basketball skills -- left-handed dribbling, layups, defense, all of it. I hate cutting kids -- it's the hardest part of the job. But I have 115 kids try out. I have to be fair to the best players." The other two complaints against Southwest were filed by Lilliam Rangel-Diaz, an advocate for the disabled who sits on the National Council on Disabilities; and by the parents of Cheylla Silva, another senior who is deaf. Southwest principal George Montada says his school works hard to accommodate deaf students, noting that Southwest has the nation's only deaf-ROTC program, and last year, one of its star football players was deaf. But the parents of the football player, Larry Aguero, who this year is a freshman at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., say the complaints are legitimate. They say the academic help Larry got was minimal and that he focused on football because he also was cut from the basketball team. "You have to learn how to fight in Dade schools. If you're quiet, you're a statistic," said Larry's father, Jorge Aguero. Montada and Ana Pazas, who heads the deaf education program at Southwest, acknowledge that deaf students take most of their classes in separate portables, but say that teachers believe it lends cohesiveness to the program. A chronic shortage of sign-language interpreters and teachers proficient in sign, they say, isn't the school's fault. The school is budgeted for six interpreters, but they are one short. Countywide, five of 37 positions are unfilled. But the shortage of sign-language interpreters is nationwide. "We graduate only six to 10 a year," says Jeffery Davis, linguistics professor in the sign-language training program at Miami-Dade Community College, "They are immediately consumed by the national market." Southwest parents also complain that one of the three full-time teachers of deaf students knows little sign language and must write lessons on the blackboard. But under state law, teachers of the deaf are required to study American Sign Language only for one year, even though, as in any foreign language, at least three years of study are needed for proficiency. "We have to abide by what the state tells us," Montada says. Regarding lack of access to computers, Montada says the machines have been locked up pending completion of a security plan to prevent theft. Enrique Silva, who filed one of the complaints in behalf of his daughter Cheylla, says the school has now allowed her to take all hearing classes, accompanied by an interpreter, and also invited her to play on the girls basketball team. But Silva has not withdrawn his complaint, saying services to other deaf students are deficient. Roberto Jacomino Jr. only wants out. His parents had a meeting with top Miami-Dade school officials, seeking a transfer for Roberto to G. Holmes Braddock High School, his neighborhood school. The school district said no: "Program modifications and delivery of services require sign-language interpreter and speech language pathologist and other supports not available at Braddock." Rangel-Diaz believes the district has violated the U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997. But such complaints take months to investigate, and Roberto may graduate before his complaint is decided. No civil rights complaints have been brought against the other four schools that serve deaf students: Miami Central, William H. Turner, Robert Morgan and Barbara Goleman High Schools. ---- JUDGE SAYS ADA MUST BE ENFORCED ON STATE PARKS Judge Applies Disabilities Act to Wild Forest Access for Handicapped Ordered for State Park New York Law Journal October 14, 1998 BY GARY SPENCER ALBANY -- In a pioneering decision interpreting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a federal judge has ruled New York State must allow the handicapped to drive motor vehicles on Adirondack Park roads that the state itself uses for motor transport. The decision, issued Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn, is the first in the nation to apply the ADA to a wild forest area. Judge Kahn said the statute overrides the State Constitution's "forever wild" clause and requires the state to make "reasonable accommodations" for access to the park as it must to public buildings. But while the judge granted a preliminary injunction, he was careful to exclude sensitive wilderness areas and to limit motorized access for the disabled to roads the state already uses for its own vehicles. Although the public has long been barred from driving on state parklands, Judge Kahn said granting special permits to the disabled would have a "negligible" impact on traffic in the park. "Given the state's extensive and often unnecessary current use of motorized vehicles on Forest Preserve roads, extending necessary motorized access to a limited number of persons with disabilities on those very same roads can hardly be said to 'fundamentally' alter the park program," he wrote in Galusha v. NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (98-CV-1117). Groups Relieved The limits the judge placed on his order came as a relief to environmental groups, who had feared that a broad grant of motorized access under the ADA would undermine efforts to preserve the wilderness character of Adirondack Park's six million acres. Lawyers for two groups that intervened on behalf of the state, Neil Woodworth of the Adirondack Mountain Club and Bernard Melewski of the Adirondack Council, said the judge sought to balance the right of access for the disabled with the needs of environmental protection. "We are charting new ground," Mr. Woodworth said. "This is going to be a case of national importance before we are through with this litigation." Plaintiffs' attorneys were also pleased with the outcome. "With some limited exceptions, we never were seeking access to anything other than roads over which there is already some motorized use," said Professor Joseph T. Baum of the Albany Law School Litigation Clinic. The action was brought by three disabled individuals: Theodore Galusha, who has severe multiple sclerosis, and Teena Willard and William Searles, who are paraplegic. Disparate Impact The state argued that its policy barring motor vehicles on Forest Preserve roads had no disparate impact on the disabled because it applies equally to people with and without disabilities. But Judge Kahn said, "[s]urely defendants would not suggest that the provision of other methods of extending physical access to the disabled, such as through constructing widened doorways or ramps, is somehow not required because such accomodations are equally unavailable to both persons with and without disabilities." He also rejected the argument that granting motorized access would violate the state constitutional mandate that the forest preserve "be forever kept as wild forest lands." Judge Kahn said the congressional intent to supersede state laws "is apparent from, among other areas of the statute, the ADA's abrogation of Eleventh Amendment immunity." Under Supreme Court precedent, the ADA would still not require motorized access for the disabled if that would "fundamentally" or "substantially" alter the park program. But Judge Kahn said the state's use of roads in the "pristine wild lands" of the Camp Santanoni area demonstrates that granting access to the disabled would not substantially alter preservation efforts. The state allows the use of vehicles in the area by independent contractors, state researchers, maintenance workers, security patrols and even work crews of prison inmates who maintain hiking trails in the area. Daily Driving "Current policy, whereby a variety of DEC and non-DEC personnel stream into protected lands in motorized vehicles daily and without necessity, while persons with disabilities are prohibited from utilizing less obtrusive motorized vehicles necessary for their access to those same lands is irrational and unfair," he wrote. He said the state's use of roadways distinguished the current case from Baker v. Dept. of Environmental Conservation (634 F.Supp 1460), a 1986 Northern District ruling which held the ADA did not require the state to allow the disabled to use motorboats or float planes on lakes in the Adirondack Park. In Baker there was no finding that the state itself was using motorboats and "an extension of motorized vessel access may have fundamentally altered the park program," he said. "Here, an extension of motorized vehicle access via currently used roadways does not." His preliminary injunction gave the disabled access to eight roads now used by state vehicles, and he said his decision may prompt the state to reduce its own "unnecessary use of motorized vehicles in what is to be largely protected and preserved areas of the Adirondacks ...." The plaintiffs were represented by Mr. Baum and by Alvin O. Sabo of Donohue Sabo Varley & Armstrong in Albany. Assistant Attorney General Lisa M. Burianek defended the state and Albany attorney Dean S. Sommer, of Ward Sommer & Moore, represented environmental groups and individuals who intervened as defendants. ============================================================== DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY Orange County, California Richard Roehm President Internet : Deaf@activist.com Deaf_Workers_OC@usa.net Website Nesmuth@worldnet.att.net Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/dwoc.htm =============================================================== Circulation Information Direct Email subscribers : 47 Indirect Email Subscribers : 39 Feel free to redistribute this newsletter in it's entirety and if you are planning to add a mailing list as a subscriber then let me know for my records. Thank you. =============================================================== Deaf Workers of Orange County will continue to aggressively pursue justice, fairness, and equality for the Deaf Community. =============================================================== Education is the best gift that lasts a lifetime! 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