DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY PROJECT -- DEAF WORKERS WEEKLY BULLETIN -- JANUARY 15, 2000 Greetings, ALAS!!! a new development for Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center as the vice president of the advisory council, Mohammed Ibrahim, has volunteerd the use of his home in Long Beach as a temporary outreach office for the Long Beach area. This tops the successful fundraiser weekend at his home. We are pleased and happy to actually see our deaf center replicate itself in other places. During the fundraiser sale last weekend, we were approached by numerous people of different levels of hearing disabilities and they gave us support and encouragement to do the good work and get OCDAC into Long Beach. The new outreach office is located in the Broadway and Cerritos area. Bravo to the folks who held their demonstration in Riverside to suggest the appointment of a deaf superintendent at CSDR. This shows there is power in numbers. This year we will soon see more and more demonstrations as people with hearing disabilities realize that doing so will generate positive and beneficial results for our community. If you want a message sent out, do it in big numbers! This is an election year and I have been contacted by a number of political candidates for help in their campaign efforts. This year, the only campaign I will be involved is the campaign to advance advocacy reform and people with hearing disabilities. In doing this campaign, I will be considering important political campaign posts and use these positions to advance the disability community toward the promised land of fairness, equality, and justice. Richard Roehm ---- CITING SILENCE FROM GLAD AGENCY BOARD, PAST GLAD PRESIDENTS PLAN FORUM II AT CSUN "GLAD Agency Board's No Response to Our Questions: What Are They Hiding?" WHEN:    February 5, 2000 TIME:    10:00 - 12:00 noon WHERE:   California State University of Northridge (CSUN) ROOM:    Satellite Student Union, Shoshone Room You will hear several critical incidents of board actions and a list of demands.  You can voice any demands by emailing or in person. For latest info, maps, directions to forum please check out www.deafy.com ---- DISABLED CALIFORNIA MAN DENIED BEER PURCHASE, SUES, JURY SIDES WITH CONVENIENCE STORE. John Kirby and one of his buddies went on a beer run before a Sunday night football game over two years ago. Kirby, who walks with a limp and has slurred speech due to his disability, pulled out his wallet to make the purchase at a Modesto, California 7-11 store, and was told by clerk Robert Ieshah that the sale would not be made. "He told me he was unable to sell to me because I am handicapped," said Kirby. "He even went on to say that this was company policy to do so, and having a beer was not good for me 'because you're handicapped.' " "The jury admitted that the clerk was wrong," says Kirby's attorney Dan Mitchell. "But there's a $2,000 fine for selling alcohol to someone who is intoxicated and they felt he had to make a business decision," says Kirby's attorney, Dan Mitchell. " Kirby took the 7-11 to court and last week, a jury ruled in favor of the 7-11 store. "It was an innocent mistake," says Davod Sidran, attorney for 7-11. "The clerk didn't know what cerebral palsy was. He thought Mr. Kirby was intoxicated." On A Roll's guest for the first hour this week are John Kirby and his attorney Dan Mitchell. We've also invited the attorney for 7-11, David Sidran. Tune in to On A Roll this week, (SUN 9PM Eastern) hear both sides of the story and then call in and tell us what you think about this interesting case. Was John Kirby discriminated against? Or does 7-11 have the right to deny people with disabilities the purchase of alcohol? What can be done to protect businesses as well as the civil rights of beer drinkers with cerebral palsy?!! Have you ever had a similar experience? CALL IN DURING THE SHOW AT 1-800-960-4734. Email greg@onarollradio.com if you want to participate in the discussion. ---- CSDR GETS DEAF SUPERINTENDANT State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin this week released her selection for the Superintendent at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside (CSDR) one of the California Department of Education's State Special Schools. Following three extensive national searches and a series of interviews, Dr. Rachel E. Stone has been selected and will begin in her role as CSDR Superintendent on March 14, 2000. "I am extremely pleased to announce Dr. Stone's appointment to the role of Superintendent at CSDR. I am confident that her passion for educational excellence, along with her expertise and extensive work in deaf education, will provide CSDR with a level of visionary leadership that will be of great value and benefit to its students, faculty, and staff." Delaine Eastin ---- CONGRESS BILL 602P IS AN EMAIL HOAX E-MAIL HOAX: A bogus e-mail message about a non-existent piece of legislation is causing headaches on Capitol Hill. The message tells users that Congress is considering bill 602P, which would allow the U.S. Postal Service to collect a nickel each time someone sends an e-mail message, and it urges users to complain to their representatives. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., recently wrote constituents about the hoax after receiving thousands of inquiries, mostly via e-mail. ''It's spinning out of control because the rumor keeps getting circulated over and over by people who keep forwarding the e-mail message to others,'' said Jim Philipps, a Boehlert spokesman. ''We're getting complaints about a bill that doesn't even exist,'' said Wendy Darwell, spokeswoman for Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y. ''It really speaks to the power of e-mail,'' she said. ''It's amazing how someone can make up this inaccurate rumor and then, like a chain letter, spread it all over our district and around the country.'' -- Sergio Bustos, Gannett News Service ---- JUSTICE FOR ALL HIGHLIGHTS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES ON DISABILITY ISSUES Justice For All jfa@jfanow.org Presidential Candidates on Disability Issues Presidential candidates will not address disability issues if no one asks them to. Your voice, as an independent advocate or as an inside supporter, can help force the candidates to raise their voice on the issues you care about. Every voice helps! ALSO............ John Williams of BusinessWeek.Com conducted the following interview with the Vice President. John notes, "I am waiting to hear from George W. Bush, John McCain and Bill Bradley's campaign so we can air their views on disability issues." ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY by John Williams January 5, 2000 Q&A with Al Gore: Using Technology to Connect the Disabled As President, he would expand rights and opportunities for people with disabilities and strengthen the ADA. By now, most people have their own views and impressions of Vice-President Al Gore. He's locked in a spirited campaign with former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley for the 2000 Democratic Presidential nomination to succeed Bill Clinton in the White House come November. Few people realize that Gore -- first as a U.S. representative and senator from Tennessee, and later as Veep -- has been an outspoken advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. He and his wife Tipper have been part of a national effort to improve care and treatment for mental illnesses. And he has an intimate knowledge of many assistive technologies and their benefits for people with disabilities. While he took a lot of ribbing for claiming to be one of the creators of the Internet, Gore has been a leading supporter of government funding for the Internet and making it more accessible to the disabled. It doesn't end there. His campaign manager, former House Democratic Whip and Wall Street exec Tony Coelho, is an epileptic -- and a passionate champion for the rights of the disabled. Gore displayed his considerable knowledge on the afternoon of New Year's Eve, when he spoke by telephone with me and Douglas Harbrecht, news director for Business Week Online. During the interview, he paused briefly to check on Tipper, who had an operation to remove a benign growth from her thyroid two days prior to the interview. They were home by themselves. Gore seemed to be relaxed during the interview, and he was exception- ally well-versed on these issues. And he pulls no punches. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation: Q: What role do you see assistive technology playing in the new millennium for people with disabilities? A: Assistive technology promises breakthroughs for millions of Americans with disabilities by making it possible for them to make a connection between their minds and the minds of other people, and to the workplace. Our [White House] budget initiative this year included $35 million that would have doubled the investment in the development and use of assistive technology to help people with disabilities work. That funding unfortunately was cut by the Republican majority in Congress, but I will fight to support such investments. I believe I can make a case to the Congress in a way that will convince them to support the investment. My view is the federal government should provide accessible technology and information. We recommended and Congress enacted changes to section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act that strengthens the obligations of federal agencies to provide assistive technology. [The Administration] is [now] working on the regulations. With these changes, the federal government can use its purchasing power to influence private companies toward developing universally designed technology that is accessible to almost everyone. Telecommunications services and equipment represent a special case. That is why I am pleased that the Federal Communications Commission under the leadership of Bill Kennard announced it will make tele- communications equipment and services available to people with disabilities. And the FCC has also required closed-captioning for video for the 27 million Americans with hearing disabilities. I think the key [for business] is to be flexible in the employment area. [They should not ask] "What's wrong," or "What is your disability?", but "What's going to work for you?" And then, provide the assistive technology that will make the connection. Q: Recently the Supreme Court narrowed the definition of a workplace disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Are you familiar with the decisions? While business cheered, many in the disability community were outraged. A: There were several cases. One of them is Sutton v. United Airlines and another is Murphy v. United Parcel Service (see BW Online, 6/23/99, "A Grand Slam for the Disabled"). I believe the court inappropriately narrowed the scope of the ADA by excluding persons simply because they are able to mitigate their disability through medication or the use of a medical appliance. The problem is employers may conclude that a person is too disabled to work, even though under the law they are not covered by the ADA, according to the decisions. The result is a Catch-22 for persons with disabilities. These decisions could seriously undermine the goals of the ADA by excluding from the Act's coverage many people who are discriminated against by employers because of a physical or mental impairment. I believe that Sutton and Murphy shouldn't be applied to reach unfair results that are inconsistent with the original intent [of Congress]. If courts interpret these cases to exclude many people with disabilities who deserve protection under the ADA, I am committed to working with the next Congress, which I hope will be a Democratic Congress, to amend the ADA. But we can not risk opening up the ADA in a Congress that is hostile to the ADA, such as the current [GOP] Congress. That would open it up to destructive amendments that can eliminate the important progress that we have made. Also, I think we ought to strengthen the Hate Crimes Law to include people with disabilities. Q: Will the enforcement of federal laws guaranteeing the rights of people with disabilities be a major priority for a Gore Administration? And if so, how? A: Yes. I feel very strongly about the enforcement of the ADA, the civil-rights laws, and all laws that are designed to remove barriers and allow full participation of Americans with disabilities in our society. That is true with regard to special education. It's true with the Fair Housing Act. It's true across the board. I will appoint Supreme Court justices who will uphold the ADA. I will enforce the Transportation Dept.'s regulations to make [all public] buses accessible. I do not agree with the recent decision by the 8th Circuit on the ADA [which narrows the rights of individuals to sue state governments for job discrimination under the ADA]. The Justice Dept. has filed a petition with the Supreme Court disagreeing with that decision. One of our priorities must be increased funding for enforcement of our civil-rights laws and a reduction of the backlog of private-sector discrimination complaints at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This means giving [federal regulators] the resources they need to investigate complaints under the ADA. Q: How should America's public schools implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which extends and guarantees to children with disabilities the same educational resources as other students? And do you see a stronger federal role? A: I am committed to strong enforcement of IDEA. I have proposed a tripling of the funding under the new law. We have made some progress, and this Administration has successfully opposed two amendments to IDEA that could have led to the unfair expulsions of students with disabilities. I think the IDEA has to be much more actively enforced. We enacted a stronger IDEA in 1997. In the year 2000, it will serve 6.2 million children with disabilities. We need to meet the needs of children with special needs in a way that works for all of our children, that does not cause school boards to pit the needs of some students against the needs of other students, and parents against parents in a battle of limited resources. That means starting with a substantial down payment, the largest-ever increase in special education. I have proposed a special pool for funding for [those] few children who require particularly costly services. We can reduce the cost of special education by reducing the numbers of children unnecessarily referred to special-education services in the first place. That means we ought to identify learning disabilities earlier and intervene more quickly to help all children get a strong educational start. Finally, I think we need to offer both special-education teachers and regular classroom teachers more training on how to deal effectively with students with disabilities. Q: How do you respond to parents of able-bodied children who say "If you put children with disabilities into class with my kids, you will slow down the learning process for my children"? A: I would say the federal government should provide the teachers with the training to educate children with disabilities. If we implement this law correctly, there is simply no justification for fearing a negative impact on the other children. There are, of course, significant advantages for other children, because it prepares them for life in a society where Americans with disabilities have equal access to all jobs and institutions, and I think that's good for all of us. Q: Will a Gore Administration employ people with disabilities in areas other than special education and rehabilitation? A: I am completely supportive of the principal of inclusion and diversity. I have worked hard in this Administration to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities and to encourage the appointment of Americans with disabilities. I intend to make that policy a goal of a Gore Administration if I am entrusted with the Presidency. Q: Besides providing telecommunications devices for the deaf and hard-of-hearing so they can contact your campaign staff, what else has the Gore campaign done to make itself communications- accessible to disabled people? A: Our headquarters is accessible to people using wheelchairs [and with] other mobility disabilities. We have paid particular attention to the use of sign-language interpreters and other accessibility requirements at all of our campaign events. We have made certain that our communications are accessible to everyone. We are developing campaign materials in Braille. Tony Coelho, my campaign manager, can tell you about others. He and I have talked about making our campaign accessible to people with disabilities, and we both share an all-out commitment to making this campaign a model of accessibility. Q: How would you get states to buy into the Work Improvement Incentives Act so more people with disabilities can go to work? A: I'm glad that we just got the legislation passed. I'm a strong supporter of it. I want to go a lot farther. The day after it was enacted, I unveiled a campaign proposal based on the highly successful Welfare to Work Program that I call the Disabilities to Work Program. This program is designed to use assistive technology aggressively to connect people to the workplace. It's designed to encourage private-sector employers to hire Americans with disabilities and to make the federal government much more of a role model in expanding employment opportunities for Americans with disabilities. Q: Mr. Vice-President, thank you for your time, and Happy New Year. A: It's been my pleasure. Thank you very much. Happy New Year. As assistive technology columnist for Business Week Online, I have also approached the campaigns of George W. Bush, Bill Bradley, and John McCain for interviews on disability issues. Stay tuned. Williams writes a weekly column for Business Week Online on assistive technology. For information on assistive technology, write to him at JMMAW@aol.com. You can also discuss these issues on BW Online's Assistive Tech Forum John Williams JMMAW@aol.com Fred Fay Chair, Justice For All jfa@jfanow.org http://www.jfanow.org Register to Vote Online at http://www.fec.gov/votregis/vr.htm ---- DEAF CUBAN PIONEERS JUMP INTO THE ELIAN GONZALEZ CRISIS HAVANA, CUBA - Deaf Cuban schoolchildren gestures with their hands as they demand the immediate return of shipwrecked boy Elian Gonzalez January 11 during a performance at Palacio de las Convenciones in Havana City. Legal confusion surrounded the future of Elian Gonzalez after a Florida judge said the young Cuban shipwreck survivor should stay in Miami for now, a ruling that legal scholars said she had no authority to make. Castro's government has staged protests around the country since early December. Photo by Heriberto Rodriguez (Reuters) Photo: http://news.excite.com/photo/img/r/cuba/boy/usa/20000111/hav03d ---- NEW CORNELL UNIVERSITY STUDY SHOWS U.S. AND U.K. ARE NOW MORE RECEPTIVE TO WORKERS WITH DISABILITIES U.S., U.K. now more receptive to working people with disabilities, new survey shows FOR RELEASE: Dec. 15, 1999 ITHACA, N.Y. --People with disabilities -- one in six of us -- must surmount workplace obstacles that those without disabilities never even notice, everything from inaccessible work spaces to indifferent, or even intolerant, colleagues. The picture is beginning to improve, however, spurred by the recent passage of such legislation as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States in 1990 and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in the United Kingdom -- Great Britain and Northern Ireland -- in 1995. The Program on Employment and Disability at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations undertook a study of 2,000 U.S. and U.K. human resource professionals -- the people who hire at most companies. The purpose? To determine their response to the new laws and identify ways to eliminate workplace discrimination against people with disabilities. Its results were published this fall. Susanne Bruyhre, the Cornell program's director, discussed the study's findings this December as the keynote speaker of an international videoconference that was part of the "Celebrating Change" Disability Millennium Festival in Belfast. She also presented the results at an international meeting in Harrogate, England, this October. "People with disabilities still represent a largely untapped employment resource," said Bruyhre. "They are often greatly underemployed or unemployed altogether." Bruyhre sees this as an unfortunate trend, with employers and the economy as the real losers. "With a shrinking labor force in some countries and an increasing need for skilled labor in certain industries, now is the right time to explore how to recruit and integrate skilled people with disabilities into the workplace. The best news: The survey showed that organizations in the United States and the United Kingdom already have done a lot of training of their HR professionals in the new laws. Many U.S. and U.K. companies have become more flexible in their policies toward hiring employees with disabilities and have made their facilities more accessible to them since the ADA and DDA were enacted. And most of the HR professionals surveyed on both sides of the Atlantic saw the cost of training, supervising and accommodating employees with disabilities as less of a problem than combating negative attitudes toward them among co-workers and supervisors. An exception was Northern Ireland, where accommodation costs ranked high as a barrier. While those surveyed agreed that improving people's attitudes remains a big challenge, they already know how to go about it. More than two-thirds of the respondents worked for organizations with return-to-work, retention or disability management programs and saw those as an effective way to change attitudes as well as comply with the new legislation. There were differences too. The survey showed U.S. employees to be better record keepers than their U.K. counterparts. In Northern Ireland 56 percent of those surveyed worked for firms that kept no records at all on accommodations made for employees with disabilities. In the rest of the United Kingdom, 35 percent kept no records, while in the United States only 13 percent kept none. The survey also revealed a different chain of responsibility for accommodation among companies in the different countries. In the United States, it was the human resources staff that made the final decisions on how to accommodate employees with disabilities, whereas in the United Kingdom, the managers and directors of the employees made the decisions. U.S. employers were more familiar than their U.K. counterparts with how to frame nondiscriminatory questions to job applicants, such as inquiring about their ability to perform specific job tasks, not their disability. They also were better informed about what could "not" be asked or required under the new laws, such as information on their medical health. On the other hand British respondents were better prepared to handle job applicants with vision problems than their U.S. counterparts were and knew more about adapting printed materials used in the interview process to large print, diskette or Braille. Both the U.S. and U.K. groups appeared least informed about how to accommodate employees with hearing problems and mental health disabilities and wanted more information. An area still seen as a barrier to the hiring of more people with disabilities was their relative lack of training and work experience, which Bruyhre hopes future government-sponsored training programs may remedy. And finally, while the U.K. companies of those surveyed were much more likely to be unionized than the U.S. companies, U.S. unions were involved more often in getting workplace accommodations for employees with disabilities. In addition to Cornell's Program on Employment and Disability, survey collaborators included the Society for Human Resource Management, the Washington Business Group on Health and the Employers' Forums on Disability in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. For a report, contact Susanne Bruyhre at (607) 255-9536, or view this web site: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ped/projects/IDI/IDI_Projects/CS.html. The web version of this release may be found at http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Dec99/wkplce.study.html Cornell University News Service Surge 3 Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 607-255-4206 cunews@cornell.edu http://www.news.cornell.edu ---- OCDAC WEBSTORE SUPPORTS THE DEAF COMMUNITY OCDAC WebStore is packed with items for use by people with hearing disabilities and a few extras. OCDAC WebStore can be found at: Http://www.deafadvocacy.com/product.htm ---- SCHOLARSHIP MASTER SEARCH DATABASE There are many deaf and hard of hearing students out there who are not getting information about scholarships that may be available to them. This is a SERIOUS situation, because the deaf and hard of hearing students often need extra financial assistance to complete their education, without needing to be burdened with heavy repayment of student loans after they graduate. Here is the scholarship master search database, noted below. Please spread this message to all of your friends, relatives and acquaintances who are in college or university studies, and to those who are thinking about entering or re-entering higher education. Thank you for your assistance! http://www.sciencewise.com/newscholarship/scholarships3.htm (Paulette Caswell) ---- H.U.M.A.N. PLANS CHEMICAL FREE DAY AND NATIONAL MONUMENT FOR SLAIN AND ABUSED PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES H.U.M.A.N. announces that they are starting an exploratory committee to find if it feasible and desired to have a national Chemical Free Day in the work place. The Chemical Free Day would mean that for one day a year, in the work place, people would not wear perfumes. We would this to call attention to this problem. We to select a day and a title for the day. ALSO H.U.M.A.N. announces that they are starting an exploratory committee to find if it feasible and desired to have a national monument for slain and abused persons with a disability. The monument would hopefully teach society that abusing people with disabilities is wrong. Everyone will say this statement is obvious but why does it still happen with society's stamp of approval. The committee will meet on Disablenet mailing list. We would like a representative of the all the major disability organizations, especially a representative of NCIL, ILC, and ADAPT. We would to invite anyone with a disability or without a disability to lend his or her voices to the committee. To join Disablenet mailing list go to: disablenet-subscribe@onelist.com And click on: "join the community". (The editor serves as a senator in Disablenet's congress) ---- DISABLED GROUP SUES FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY FOR LACK OF ACCOMMODATIONS FOR DEAF STUDENTS Miami, Florida December, 1999 -- The Association for Disabled Americans and several individuals, sued Florida International University for failing to provide adequate sign language interpreters and other accommodations for note takers. ---- DISABLED GROUP SUES PUBLIX STORES FOR LACK OF ACCOMMODATIONS The Association and nine individuals had filed its FIRST CLASS ACTION suit against PUBLIX supermarket and its nearly 600 stores. Primary barriers include: - Ticket dispensers at counters and produce scales beyond reach parameters for persons of short stature or who use a wheelchair - A lack of hearing aid compatible, volume control, or TDD capable phones for the Deaf and hearing impaired - Excessive resistance and inadequate door delay for persons who use walkers and wheelchairs - Doors in a series or too narrow for persons who use wheelchairs to maneuver - Missing grab bars for individuals with mobility impairments - Sinks without clearance beneath to roll under - Inaccessible faucet controls for persons with joint and manual difficulties - Mirrors above the sight of a person of short stature or who uses a wheelchair - A lack of Braille and pictograms on restroom signs - Handicapped parking without access aisles and signage They are approving the Class status and a Consent Decree is being formulated. ============================================================== 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 =============================================================== 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. 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