DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY PROJECT -- DEAF WORKERS WEEKLY BULLETIN -- JANUARY 29, 2000 Greetings, There is a movement going on right now to have much of the Americans with Disabilities Act declared unconstitutional. In my view, we now have a reactionary activist Supreme Court. This is time to go RED ALERT! DONT TREAD ON THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT! Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center plans to file an amicus brief shortly in support of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Richard Roehm ---- OUR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK - TITLE II of ADA THREATENED - A CALL TO ACTION Justice for All Washington, DC USA Colleagues Our crowning achievement of the 20th century the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA is under massive attack and our civil rights are threatened. The Supreme Court has taken two cases challenging the constitutionality of Title II of the ADA. Simply stated, the nine Supreme Court Justices will decide this summer if Congress had the authority to pass this part of the ADA or should our civil rights be a State's prerogative. This is unconscionable and we should all be outraged at this frontal attack on our civil and human rights. We must do more than be outraged - WE MUST ACT! We must Renew the Pledge to the ADA! I implore you to advocate with others in your State to send the message: Don't Tread On the ADA! Please meet with your Congressional delegation, your Governor and your Attorney General and have them Renew the Pledge to the ADA. Challenge them to show their support for the ADA. This is not a time for complacency. This is a time for action. If we don't show our power and our commitment to the ADA it will be continuously attacked and weakened. It would be the irony of ironies if during the tenth anniversary of the ADA our rights were ripped away by the Supreme Court. This is a battle we must win. Together we will win. There will be Justice for All. America for All. Thank you! Justin Dart, Jr. Justice for All , Washington, DC USA ---- OCDAC HELPS DEAF ENTERPRENEURS Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center is a proactive organization which caries many levels of proactive advocacy and support activities. Our 3 main strategic goals are to help people with disabilities attain a safe, healthy, and productive living. Today we will show you one FREE tool you can use to become and remain productive. TWO things we intend to accomplish in this letter. Introduce you to a new free payment service that will help people such as those with hearing disabilities expand their business and maintain their self sufficiency. And help you get $10.00 and earn up to $1,000.00 by introducing PayPal.com to your friends, associates, contacts, and relatives! 1) PayPal.com is a FREE new reliable electronic payment service. 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Click on the URL below to begin the process of earning up to $1,000.00! https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=ocdac%40deafadvocacy.com We are pleased to maintain our leadership in helping people with disabilities attain and maintain their self sufficiency. This introduction helps people with disabilities expand their business scope. Excellent FREE tool for organizations to use in raising money!!!!! We believe this referral bonus program ends soon so it's best you sign yourself into PayPal.com as quickly as possible and start referring PayPal.com to your friends, associates, contacts, and relatives. OCDAC Staff ---- SCHOOLS STILL NOT MEETING DISABILITY NEEDS 25 YEARS AFTER I.D.E.A. By KAREN GULLO .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Many children with disabilities are getting substandard schooling because states are not complying with federal rules on special education, an independent agency reports. U.S. officials are not forcing compliance, and as a result, parents often must sue to enforce the law, according to a review of more than two decades of enforcement of the federal special education law. In too many cases, children with disabilities are taught in separate classrooms and schools are not following other regulations meant to protect these students from discrimination, the National Council on Disability said in a reported to be released Tuesday. The Associated Press obtained an advance copy. The problems have persisted for years in many locations, said the council, which makes recommendation to the president and Congress. ``Federal efforts to enforce the law over several administrations have been inconsistent, ineffective and lacking any real teeth,'' the report said. Officials at the Department of Education, the federal agency responsible for overseeing compliance with the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, said it has increased monitoring under the Clinton administration. ``We concur that the responsibility of enforcement of this law should not be borne on the backs of parents,'' said Judith Heumann, assistant secretary of the office of special education and rehabilitative service. ``Some states are not where we want them to be and are not implementing the laws as they need to,'' Heumann said. ``We've been spending significant time increasing our monitoring, technical assistance and enforcement.'' Nearly 6 million American children receive special education instruction and services at a cost of almost $40 billion, about $5.7 billion of which is federal money. The special education law was meant to end discrimination against children with disabilities. Many of these children had been excluded from public schools, institutionalized or placed in programs that provided little or no learning. The law was strengthened in 1997. Under the law, local education authorities that receive federal money answer to state agencies, which in turn answer to the federal Education Department. The department's monitoring division has 35 employees and budget of about $2.7 million. In its report, the disabilities council said Education Secretary Richard Riley has been more aggressive in seeking to improve monitoring and enforcement than the combined efforts of all his predecessors. But the group said serious problems persist. According to compliance reports covering 1994 through 1998: 36 states failed to ensure that children with disabilities are not segregated from regular classrooms. 44 states failed to follow rules requiring schools to help students find jobs or continue their education. 45 states failed to ensure that local school authorities adhered to nondiscrimination laws. States long have fought with local schools and the Education Department over costs, saying they need more federal money for special education. Lilliam Rangel-Diaz, a council board member and parent of children with disabilities, contended that children are not getting the schooling they deserve because the government is not doing its job. ``We have created a segregated system of education, where kids are segregated with other children with disabilities and don't acquire the skills they need to function in society,'' she said. The Education Department can withhold money from states that do not follow the rules but has punished only one state, Virginia. Federal courts reversed that decision. Heumann said the Education Department has begun cracking down on states by requiring that shortcomings be corrected as a condition for continued federal payments. If they fail to fix a problem within a year, the department can refer the case to the Justice Department or withhold funding. ``The problems that exist in states concern us very dearly,'' said Heumann, who uses a wheelchair. ``Many have been taking their responsibilities much more seriously.'' The council made dozens of recommendations to strengthen federal enforcement. They include giving the Justice Department independent authority to investigate cases and take states to court; providing more money for enforcement and handling of complaints; and creating a process for handling complaints at the federal level. The special education report is part of the council's multiyear study for the president and Congress on the implementation and enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws. The report said the most recent Department of Education monitoring surveys for 50 states showed: Only Arkansas, Hawaii, Nevada and Oklahoma were ensuring that local school authorities adhered to nondiscrimination laws, compared to 45 who were not. No information for Mississippi was given in this category. Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Vermont were ensuring that disabled kids are not segregated from regular classrooms. The rest of states were not. Georgia, Nebraska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wyoming were the only states following rules requiring schools to help students find jobs or continue their educations. AP-NY-01-23-00 1829EST Copyright 2000 The Associated Press ---- (SUPREME) COURT TO MULL ADA FOR STATE WORKERS By The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court said Friday it will decide by July whether state employees are protected by a key federal anti-discrimination law, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Just 11 days ago, the justices barred all state employees across the nation from going into federal court to sue over age bias. Now, Florida officials are urging them to rule that Congress likewise exceeded its power by giving all state employees the right to sue in federal court over the ADA. The court will hear arguments in the Florida case in April. Its Jan. 11 decision whittled away more of the federal government's power over states, perpetuating a series of decisions legal scholars say comprise a states' rights revolution. That 5-4 ruling said Congress had exceeded its authority when allowing state employees to sue their bosses under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act because the law cannot trump states' 11th Amendment immunity against being sued in federal courts. On Monday, the justices ordered federal appeals courts in Illinois and New York to restudy rulings that said states and their agencies must abide by a 1963 federal law that requires employers to give men and women equal pay for equal work. In those orders, the court said the courts should reconsider their decisions in light of the Jan. 11 decision barring age-bias lawsuits in federal courts by state employees. Florida prison guard Wellington Dickson sued in federal court after failing to get a promotion, saying he was discriminated against because of his age and his heart condition. His lawsuit invoked the two laws aimed at discrimination based on age and disabilities. An Atlanta-based federal appeals court said his claims under both laws could proceed to trial, but the Supreme Court reversed that part of the decision dealing with the age-bias law. Florida authorities want the justices to also reverse the ADA portion of the appeals court's ruling. ``In the complete absence of historical or widespread state violations of the constitutional rights of the disabled, the broad scope of the ADA, with its creation of greater rights for disabled persons than the Constitution provides, clearly is an invalid exercise of Congress' ... power to enforce the 14th Amendment against the states,'' the state's appeal contended. The amendment guarantees equal protection of the laws. The Clinton administration told the court that the disabilities law is ``distinctly more detailed and nuanced'' than the age-bias law. Congressional findings and evidence compiled ``provides a solid foundation for Congress' conclusion that state and local governments, like private employers, engage in unconstitutional discrimination against persons with disabilities and that the problem is sufficiently entrenched and widespread to require a national response,'' Justice Department lawyers said. In ruling that state employees cannot sue in federal court over age bias, the court said Congress does not enjoy the same power to enforce the 14th Amendment when seeking to protect older people as it does when the bias is based on race or gender. Laws and governmental policies that treat older people differently are upheld as constitutional if courts find they are ``rationally related'' to some legitimate objective, not a difficult standard to meet. But laws and policies that treat someone differently because of race or gender are subjected to more stringent review by courts. The justices have never said that discrimination based on someone's disabilities should be subjected to judicial scrutiny more stringent than the rationality standard. ---- MAN WRITES ANTI-HANDICAPPED E-MAIL .c The Associated Press MONTEREY, Calif. (AP) - A California State University employee is in trouble with the university for posting a computer message urging opponents of handicapped parking to do ``something nasty'' to people who use wheelchairs. ``If anybody wants to start up an anti-handicapped parking coalition let me know,'' Jody Dunkel wrote in a message posted on a university bulletin board Jan. 6. ``You vow to yourself that the next cripple in a wheelchair you see you're going to do something nasty and annoying to them.'' Dunkel, 22, said Friday that the message wasn't meant to be taken seriously. ``I wrote it to be controversial and stir things up,'' he said. ``It was extreme humor.'' He said a disabled person who was offended by the message sent it to university officials. Dunkel has worked as a Web page designer at the school's Monterey Bay campus since he graduated last spring. University President Peter Smith would not say how Dunkel was being disciplined, citing employee confidentiality. Dunkel also wouldn't say what his punishment was, but he said he still works at the university. The message frightened some of the university's 100 disabled students. ``It may be a joke, but subtle things like that hurt just as much as overt statements,'' said Greg Lukas, 52, who uses a wheelchair. AP-NY-01-21-00 1959EST ---- HOUSING DISCRIMINATION AGAINST DEAF DISCOVERED IN NEW YORK CITY Cuomo said HUD filed housing discrimination charges accusing John McDermott, President of Space Hunters, Inc. -- a room locator service in New York City -- of violating the Fair Housing Act in two ways. First, HUD charged McDermott with refusing to help deaf people find housing. Second, HUD charged McDermott with steering people posing as renters to different neighborhoods based on their race. Space Hunters provides prospective renters with a list of rooms for rent by owners, usually in single-family homes. The charges were filed on behalf of Keith Toto, a deaf man from of Nanuet, NY, and on behalf of the Fair Housing Council of Northern New Jersey. The housing discrimination charges filed against McDermott and Space Hunters carry civil penalties of at least $22,000 plus monetary compensation for damages, humiliation, mental distress, and loss of housing rights if an Administrative Law Judge rules against McDermott. If either side chooses to take the case to federal court, punitive damages may be awarded. In early 1999, Toto called Space Hunters using the services of a relay operator. Relay operators are typically used by hearing impaired people to communicate by phone with parties who do not have a Telephone Device for the Deaf (TDD). Toto said that the person who answered at Space Hunters said the company did not serve people with disabilities, used an obscenity when questioned, and hung up. McDermott told HUD investigators that he did not have time to deal with relay operators serving people with hearing impairments and it was his policy not to talk to them. ``Many people don't realize the Fair Housing Act protects people with disabilities from housing discrimination,'' Cuomo said. ``This protection isn't something people with disabilities have to request as a favor -- its their right under the law, and HUD will enforce the law.'' Toto contacted HUD last March. HUD then asked the Fair Housing Council of Northern New Jersey in Hackensack, which receives HUD funding to enforce the Fair Housing Act, to assist in the investigation. The Council had testers posing as prospective deaf customers call Space Hunters using a relay operator. The tester said the person who answered for Space Hunters refused to assist him and used obscenities against the tester. A HUD investigator called Space Hunters a few days later and spoke to a man who identified himself as the manager. When told about the fair housing complaint from a person with a disability, the manager used obscenities and said his company did not have to deal with disabled people because it is time- consuming. The manager also used a racial epithet against the HUD employee, who was African American. In response to a racial epithet used by a Space Hunters employee, HUD then requested the Fair Housing Council in April to also test Space Hunters for possible racial discrimination. A white male tester met with McDermott and inquired about renting a room in a predominately Latino area of the Bronx known as Hunt's Point. The tester told HUD that McDermott tried to discourage him from living there, and that during their conversation McDermott referred to African Americans he has dealt with as ``niggers,'' ``lowlifes'' and ``dumb.'' Black testers who advised McDermott that they were interested in the same neighborhood told HUD he did not discourage them from living there. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ---- FCC CHAIRMAN KENNARD APPLAUDS INDUSTRY DECISION TO PROVIDE TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACCESS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES The deadline for mounting a legal challenge to our Section 255 rules which provide access for people with disabilities to telecommunications in the information age passed, with no challenges being filed. I am pleased that the industry is focusing its considerable talents on implementing the rules rather than on challenging them. The industry's willingness to focus on increasing access to people with disabilities, rather than on litigation, is a testament to the enormous amount of work industry representatives put into developing these rules. It proves that collaborative problem solving yields the best result. SOURCE : FCC ---- OHIO PRISON INMATES ARE USING OHIO RELAY SYSTEM TO COMMIT MORE CRIMES Ohio: Dayton -- Inmates at Ohio prisons are using a phone service for the deaf to make harassing calls, commit credit card fraud and arrange drug and weapon smuggling, John Brown, a communications assistant for Ohio Relay Services, claims. He also says that inmates are making thousands of dollars in unauthorized long-distance calls. The state will look into the allegations, a corrections department official said. © Copyright 2000 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. ---- SHHH CONVENTION TO BE BROADCASTED WITH CAPTIONS BY KARE-11 People attending the 2000 SHHH convention in Minneapolis will be able to get full captioning on the news if you turn your TV to KARE-11 (channel 11). I have not seen an official announcement of this feature, but just last weekend, I noticed that the weather report was live captioned, and there seemed to be a lot more captioning all through the program, including on-the-scene. Checking with the station this week, I was told the entire program is being captioned: live on-the-scene reports as well as the scripted stories. You will get captioning on weather, sports, ad libs and anything else that shows up while you are visiting our city for the convention. I started watching KARE-11 years ago because they were the first to offer any news captioning, and remain the station with the most complete and reliable captions in my opinion. They are now the first M/SP station to work with captioning technology on the entire broadcast, scripted and live. It is early times for this development in Minneapolis local TV, and the captioners are still building up their thesaurus, learning about the rhythm of the program, working on speed adjustment and so on, but I've seen a decided improvement since just last week end. By the time all you people get to Minneapolis, this program ought to be as good as it can get, given today's technology. (Last night I caught evidence that they are attempting total word transcription rather than ellipsis, and I really appreciated it.) SO, when you get to Minneapolis this summer, get to a television and catch KARE-11 5pm, 6pm, 10pm, 6am and Saturday morning news. I hope it's a clear view of he future. Emilie Quast ---- 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/webstore.htm ---------------------- WE GET LETTERS! To Whom it may concern My name is Mike Pitcher and I am writing to you to ask an unusual favor. I am wondering if you can help me find a hearing impaired girl I met on a bus ride. She Accidently left her book on the bus and I'd like to return it to her as well to find out if she made it home ok. 4 days ago I was riding a grey hound bus home from Atlanta Georgia after attending a racquetball tournement, and I sat next to this girl, Julia. I tried to start a conversation with her and she replied that she couldn't hear. We smiled and were silent for a few moments. She was reading a fashion book, She then handed me the book with a message on it explaining she waa deaf and headed to Savannah Georgia and if I would let her know when they called out savannah. I said sure and away we started talking. This was my first encounter with a deaf person, and I must say it was a fabulous conversation. Even though we were just writing back and forth because she could not read lips very well, it had no impact on the fun conversation we had. We talked for about 6 hours! We had dinner together. It was wonderfull, until we realized that she had missed her stop long ago. By no fault of her own or mine. What happened was the bus from Atlanta to Miami was so full they had to make 2 buses. They also decided to make a connecting stop from one of the stops on our bus to savannah, where she wanted to go. Which had now made this bus not to go to savannah. When we arrived at the connecting stop the driver failed to list the connecting stop to Savannah. So Julia's bags got off there but she did not. On her ticket it said Atlanta to Savannah no connections so she was lost. So as I realized we were entering Florida I asked the driver what happened to savannah. He then told me that julia had to get off at lake city and then connect to Jaxonville which would then connect to savannah. We are talking she was going to now be 8 hours late. What made the matter worse was her ride in savannah was a friend of hers she was going to see. This friend was going to drive her home to Deerfield Beach Florida. Her friend was also hearing impaired and did not have a phone. So here she was going to be 8 hours late and no way to reach her friend waiting for her. So as you can imagine more than likely her friend would not be there to get her and she had no money for cab fair. She decided that she wanted to skip Savannah and travel on this bus to Miami. I explained to the driver the situation and he said he didn't care she wasn't going any further on this bus. So at the lake city station I tried to buy her a ticket to miami, but my card would not work. While this was going on the driver said he was leaving and was not going to wait so I could explain to her what she needed to do. She did not understand that her bags were not on the bus that she was riding and she did not know why she couldn't go on to Miami. I told the driver to give me a couple of minutes to write down what she needed to do but he began to back the bus up! So now she was crying and scared and there was nothing I could do. If I could do it over again I would have stayed there with her and made sure she was ok but I was afraid since my card would not work that I too would be stuck. So I got on the bus and left her alone scared confused and crying. In all the confusion she left her book on the seat we shared for 7 hours!. I am outraged with the greyhound bus company and that driver for their neglect. When she got on the bus she made sure at the information desk that she was on the right bus. But you would think they would have let her know that her bus was now going to connect instead of going staight through. The drivers incompetence of not making sure that at each stop the correct number of people were left on the bus. That is part of their job as I have come to find out. And after finding out she was impaired his unwillingness to help by simply giving me a few minutes to ger her squared away. I would rest easier if I could get this book back to her. And to find out how the story ended. I know alot about her but not her last name. I know she is 19 years old. She is from jamaica. She has lived in the U.S. for 7 years. And she lives and has a job in Deerfield Beach Florida helping or teaching impaired children. She is 5'3 100-125lbs light complected for being jamaican because her father was white. Dark shoulder length hair and dark eyes. She also has braces. I would imagine that you would have the resourses to locate her. I do not. I tried grey hound and they don't keep records. I would't think that there are too many Julia's that are hearing impaired, jamaican and teach disabled children in DeerField Beach. I would hope that you would know all of those programs or schools or could find out. I have lived in the Orlando area my whole life. I now live in Kissimmee and work for Publix Superamrkets (9 years) My phone # there is 407 397 1171 I can be reached there most days. You have my email address on this letter. I pray that you can help me get over this terrible feeling I have by enabling her to contact me or vice versa. Please feel free to give her my # or Address if she wants them. Please help me let this story have a happier ending. Sincerly, Mike Pitcher P.S. If you could please respond to this letter regardless of your ability to help so I know whether to pursue another avenue. and if you'd like to write a nasty letter to grey hound that would be ok too!! :) ---------------------------------------------- (CC SENT WITH PERMISSION) Dear President Clinton, I really respect you as much as you did do many good jobs for us deaf Americans but you may have overlooked or ignored one missing thing for us (Deaf Americans) is the A.D.A. In 1993, Ex-president Bush signed the new A.D.A. then in later years, we learned that this A.D.A. is good for blind people, handicapped wheelers, etc..... but A.D.A. is does not help the deaf people because it have too many loopholes. I heard horrible stories from other deaf people that they tried A.D.A. and it didnt protect them from like discrimination against them in being not hired for jobs, deal with law enforcement, etc.... some of reports mentioned that some deaf victims tried to sue private companies for discrimination that involves not being promoted in their jobs or the company ignored deaf employee's required interpreter for meetings then at the end, the deaf victims were counter-sued and lost their houses, money from bank accounts, etc by greedy and insensitive private companies who hired the top lawyers in the field. Many deaf people cannot afford top A.D.A. lawyers. President, now you see that's why many deaf people are leery of using A.D.A. to file complaint against private companies, states and cities etc... This will cause more and more deaf people to become depressed and lose pride in themselves and more will become poorer and turn to crime and more deaf people go to prisons. Trust and believe me because my own eyes have seen some of my deaf friends became drug addicts, homeless, sell A B C cards at malls, drug pushers etc... because they did try so hard to get good jobs but they got burned sooner or later after they tried A.D.A. and lot of private companies treated them like 2nd class citizens. Many deaf people rely on SSI to survive because they cannot get jobs even they got college degrees and /or training in certain fields--why? Many company chose to ignore deaf qualified applicants because it cost too much (equipment and interpreters to help deaf communicate with the hearing) and they don't want to take the time to communicate and train new deaf employees. If you want to see many deaf people become big successful like have good jobs and good families and reduce dependence on S.S.I. If the SSI payments to deaf were cut off then how we can survive if no one wants to hire us?? Imagine if you were deaf and you cannot get a job..what would you do to survive?? Become starved with no food and you have to steal so that you can live for another day. Then make the A.D.A. strong with teeth to bite those who abuse the deaf rights. We will be very appericate if you help us by tell congress to cork loopholes in damn A.D.A now! or.... you better to pray that million deaf Americans don't become criminals to survive or more impovished and end up in more new federal and states prisons someday. This means mad taxpayers will pay mult-million dollars to fed deaf mates!!! James Queen and Trish Mckenzie for Freedom Fighters for Anti-Phony A.D.A. zurfcat@hotmail.com ============================================================== 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. 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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