DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY PROJECT -- DEAF WORKERS WEEKLY BULLETIN -- --- PREMIERE ISSUE MAY 1998 --- Welcome! Deaf Workers Weekly Bulletin is a new mailing list that will empahsize in Deaf worker issues and workers issues. As a member of this mailing list, you will also get immediate updates on issues and legislative activities as I receive them. Since this is geared to the working Deaf community of Orange County, California. We are more than happy to have other subscribers as far as Washington D.C. and Brazil. Richard Roehm ---- Greetings, Do you believe you, your family and your future are being protected by one of the most powerful local Deaf advocacy system possible? I do not. I am sick of complaints from the Deaf community reporting abuse of power, mismanagement, waste, incompetence and excuses! My local Deaf advocacy system is not doing it's job. Our families, our neighbors and our workers deserve better. I work very hard every day to provide for our future as disabled citizens. So why does my local Deaf advocacy system continually take more and more from us and give less and less back? Like you, I have worked very hard and taken responsibility for providing for the future of the Deaf Community. Like you, I want to provide my children, and your children with the best educational programs, employment opportunities, and civil rights protection system possible. It has been my privilege to found and facilitate several projects to protect and improve our community and especially the lives of our young Deaf people: o Deaf Watch Newsletter - Educates and provides the Deaf community with vast resources and information and to help defend the rights of the disability community. o Deaf Workers of Orange County - Educates the local Deaf community of our rights to accommodations at the workplace and access to Orange County business. Also connects Deaf workers to local legal and advocacy resources. o Deaf Neighborhoods - Educates American businesses, medical facilities, police departments of our rights to equal access and treatment. Provides interpreter and tax incentive information to the community so they will be given the opportunity to do business and work toward positive relations with the Deaf communities in the United States. If we have to take businesses to court, we will do it in the spirit of educating them. Like you, I hold true to my principles and convictions. I have seen damage caused by bad law, bad bylaws, and bad policies. For example, are you aware that for all our efforts, 70% of the disability community remains unemployed. Our present abilities to enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act isn't working. Cant we talk about it? In September 1997, I called public attention to our failed system to protect rights of the disabled at the workplace. Major changes need to be made of my local Deaf advocacy system and their policies or bylaws. As the founder of the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center (OCDAC), my priorities will be to: o Treat every Deaf client as customers. o To keep confidential information in the strictest confidence. o To make OCDAC a role model for other disability organizations to follow. o To be very active in the enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act. o To provide the Deaf community support in their quest for success. o To represent the interests of the Deaf community. o To support Deaf clients fully in their quest for justice. o To encourage the local business to be more accessible to Deaf consumers. o To help remedy this so called blacklist system that existed since the 1950's. o To help remedy the crab theory system and support the Deaf advancing in society. o To help the Deaf community become contributors to society. "Pure Advocacy. No games, no excuses, no bull!" No more "bureaucracy as usual". We have chosen our Deaf leaders needed in Orange County. If chosen to serve the Orange County Deaf Community, I will do what you will do if you were chosen. Unlike many Deaf advocacy systems, I will not be manipulated by companies that discriminate members of the Deaf conmmunity. Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center will NEVER NEVER double as billboards for companies that discriminate against the Deaf community. I ask that you support me to help the Deaf community in Orange County. Help me create one of the finest Deaf advocacy systems in the world. Let us return pride, our culture, honor and fairness to Orange County. Equality, integrity, respect, and new ideas.... I am Richard Roehm, and this is my promise to you. Sincerely, Richard Roehm ---- MESSAGE TO DEAF WORKERS You all set a very fine example for other Deaf people to follow. You are role models in the Deaf community. America needs more Deaf workers. America can acquire more Deaf workers by being more vigilant in their enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which was signed in 1990. Once the Deaf community sees that ADA is being vigorously enforced, they will feel more secure and confident and become workers. The past eighteen months, the entire disability community has seen their employers find ways to get around ADA. We're also seeing federal judges become increasingly restrictive in dealing with ADA lawsuits. We're even seeing one of our supposedly trusty guardians, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), behave amnesic when we try to explain our cases to them. The same thing goes on for employers who hire vicious lawyers to defend themselves against ADA lawsuits by twisting the facts around and manipulating the law itself beyond recognizance. Finally there is no safety net for disability plaintiffs who lose their ADA cases. When they lose, they lose a lot more than just their cases. Theyre losing cars, homes, credit rating...EVERYTHING... for just trying to enforce ADA. Scary, isnt it? Basically, the long road to fairness at the workplace remains unpaved and peppered with hazards. Each victory on our behalf amounts to a tiny slice of this road being paved. Then there's the possibility of our victories being nullified or overturned in furture cases. We will step back a little however getting this strip back will be easier in the future because it has paved. Deaf workers all share a common victory which is being role models for the Deaf community. They are also our pioneers. We must support our Deaf workers and Deaf pioneers REGARDLESS of their economic status. They all reinforce the statement "Deaf People Can Do Anything Except Hear" made by I. King Jordan, Deaf President of Gallaudet University. Deaf workers and pioneers all set examples for us to follow. To the Deaf workers of America, this is your month and THANK YOU! ---- DISABLED & MISTREATED BY YOUR EMPLOYER? FIGHT BACK! This site is one of the great sites that has inspired me to create Deaf Watch. This site is also inspiring others to create great disability related websites. Packed with information and resources. One can find information on myths on employing the disabled, laws, paralegals, lawyers, organizations, court cases, disability software, and many others. This site is a must see! URL :http://www.comsource.net/~awiggins/ ---- Current job list on the Jobs for Deaf page. Santa Ana, California (2-15-98) Carson City, Nevada (2-23-98) Framingham, Massachusetts (3-2-98) Nationwide USA (3-22-98) Santa Fe, New Mexico (4-9-98) ---- Letters Come on... Send us something. Perhaps your good or bad experience at work. ============================================================== DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY Orange County, California Richard Roehm, Editor Internet : Deaf@activist.com Deaf_Workers_OC@usa.net Website Nesmuth@hwsys.com Http://home.hwsys.com/users/roehm/dwoc.htm =============================================================== 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! Help someone subscribe to Deaf Workers Weekly Bulletin =============================================================== SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION To be added to the mailing list, send "ADD WORKERS BULLETIN" To be deleted from the mailing list send "DELETE WORKERS BULLETIN" to this address Deaf_Workers_OC@usa.net. 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