DEAF WATCH NEWSLETTER!

DEAF WATCH NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2000

THE "BABEL FISH" SECTION FISH CHANGING FLAG COLORS

LIMITED LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS FOR MAXIMUM USE OF THE LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR, PLEASE ADD BROWSER APPLET. INSTRUCTIONS ARE ON TRANSLATOR PAGES.

SUPPORT ORANGE COUNTY DEAF ADVOCACY CENTER

PLEASE VISIT THE OCDAC WEBSTORE

ACCESSORIES FOR PEOPLE WITH HEARING DISABILITIES, BATTERIES FOR HEARING AIDS, AND MANY OTHER ITEMS

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Greetings and Deaf Watch Newsletter debuts its presence in the new millennium with this issue. We hope you had a safe and pleasant holidays in the past 2 months while we were up to our eyes in activities.

Demand for support services at our deaf center continues to rise and rise and we are working on new projects and establishing specialized businesses to help us handle the increasing demand for advocacy, support, and services. This rising demand has taken up much of our time to assemble and distribute all of our free email newsletters.

This issue is perhaps the largest issue of all. We hope you enjoy this issue.

Always yours! RICHARD ROEHM Chief Editor, Deaf Watch Newsletter

NEWS

IMMIGRATION OFFICE TURNING ITS BACK ON HEARING IMPAIRED, GROUP ALLEGES

By Teresa Puente
Tribune Staff Writer

The Chicago office of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which has endured recent criticism for providing poor customer service, is facing allegations of mistreatment from another group, one representing deaf and hard of hearing immigrants.

On Thursday, a local disability rights group plans to file an administrative complaint against the local office of the INS alleging the agency discriminates against deaf and hard of hearing immigrants.

The group, Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago, is alleging that the local INS office fails to provide sign language interpreters, telecommunications devices for the deaf (TDD) and other services and as a result immigrants fail citizenship exams and fail to get timely information from the agency. They also said that the local offices are not safe because there is no visual alarm system for the deaf in the event of an emergency.

"We have advocated on behalf of deaf immigrants for the past three years that the INS provide accessibility, but they have failed," said Rene David Luna from Access Living and also a coordinator of the Immigrants with Disabilities Rights Project, a coalition of advocacy groups.

They plan to mail in a discrimination complaint to the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, Luna said.

Luna said that most government agencies comply with the federal standards and the INS is the exception. He said they have had several meetings with INS officials and were able to resolve some individual cases, but the larger problems still exist.

The complaint charges that the INS has given out a phone number designated for TDD users, but that the number does not work. The complaint also charges that there is no way for a deaf immigrant to understand announcements when their name is called and this often results in missed appointments.

But local INS officials said they have addressed the concerns raised by the advocacy groups.

About 35 staff members took sign-language training last year, but INS officials said it may be difficult to find an interpreter on the spot. They suggested that those who need sign-language interpreters let the INS know in advance.

"The INS is definitely sensitive to the needs of the hearing-impaired and the disabled," said Marilu Cabrera, an INS spokeswoman.

Cabrera said this year the local office purchased new TDD machines, but it is aware that the TDD line is regularly busy.

"We're trying to correct that. But it's not just the lines for the hearing-impaired that are busy. It's every single line," Cabrera said.

The agency does not have a visual alarm system, but it does have a plan in place to help customers in case of an emergency.

But the advocacy groups have heard from at least 10 deaf immigrants who have encountered an array of problems at the INS offices, Luna said.

Part of the problem is that many deaf immigrants may not be aware that they can request a sign-language interpreter, said Maureen Philbin, executive director of Deaf Adults Education Access Program, which holds citizenship classes for the deaf.

Fred Tsao, with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said: "It is often difficult for immigrants to receive services because of language barriers and other issues. But it is especially difficult if there are communication barriers."

Copyright: Chicago Tribune

WEATHER CHANNEL TO HAVE CAPTIONING

Starting January 1, The Weather Channel will caption five hours of programming: the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. time period and the 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. prime viewing time. In June, the amount of closed captioning on TWC will double with expanded hours of captioning from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Next January, The Weather Channel will establish a regular schedule of closed captioning for 20 hours of its programming day.

DEAF WOMAN SUES TO LIVE ON HER OWN

By STEVEN CHURCH
Staff reporter

A deaf woman institutionalized at the Delaware Psychiatric Center has sued state health officials, claiming they have not done enough to help her leave, even though doctors there say the 21-year-old is ready to live on her own.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington this week by the Community Legal Aid Society on behalf of a woman identified in court papers as Jane Doe. The woman asked her attorneys not to use her name in the complaint.

She was committed to the center in August 1998 because she has a personality disorder, said Marybeth Putnick, who helped put the lawsuit together for the Legal Aid Society.

According to the lawsuit, the woman and hospital officials agree that she is ready to move to the Horizon House, a state-contracted, community living center for the mentally ill.

The woman has been waiting to make the move since May, Putnick said. A move to the house would give her greater freedom in her daily life.

Horizon House has a room reserved for her, the lawsuit says, but the woman cannot move in because hospital officials have not installed equipment a deaf person needs, such as a special telephone and a smoke detector and doorbell that flash lights instead of making sounds.

The lawsuit also accuses the hospital of cutting back the amount of time it provides a sign-language interpreter for the woman. When the woman visits her psychologist for therapy sessions, she has problems trying to communicate, the lawsuit says.

"That's one of the more outrageous facts of her case," said Jennifer Mathis with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington D.C., which is also working on the lawsuit.

The suit claims the Delaware Psychiatric Center is violating the Americans With Disabilities Act by not providing enough translator time and by not preparing the Horizon House apartment.

The woman is not demanding money; she wants a court order to force statehealth officials to help her move out on her own.

The suit names Gregg Sylvester, secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Human Services; Renata Henry, director of the Division of Alcoholism, Drug Abuse and Mental Health; and Jiro Shimono, director of the Delaware Psychiatric Center.

State officials had not yet received the lawsuit and would not comment for that reason, said Cindy Collier, Health and Human Services spokeswoman.

Last month, mental health advocates told state budget officials the hospital is seriously overcrowded and could face legal and accreditation problems unless it gets more staff and space.

State health officials acknowledge the troubles and have asked lawmakers for more money.

Copyright ï¿½ 1999, The News Journal

MAINE COMMISSIONERS SIDE WITH DEAF MAN

Commissioners Side With Deaf Man - (AUGUSTA) -- The state's Human Rights Commission has come down on the side of a deaf man arrested in Lewiston last January. George Crocker complained that he was NOT offered an interpreter to assist him during his booking and later release from the Androscoggin County Jail. The director of civil rights for the Maine Center on Deafness is now helping Crocker work out a settlement with the Lewiston Police Department, guards at the jail, and the bail commissioner.

NEW MTBA POLICE OFFICERS HAVE SIGN LANGUAGE TRAINING

By Erica Noonan, Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) The child of two deaf parents, Matthew Haney has been able to use sign language since he was a little boy. He has also known since childhood that he wanted to be a police officer.

On Wednesday, Haney was inducted into the MBTA police force one of the first on the ''T'' to be fluent in sign language.

''I want to be out there for all deaf people,'' Haney, a 23-year-old Haverhill resident, said after the ceremony at Faneuil Hall. ''I've known sign language my whole life and I think it's great to provide this kind of access for deaf people.''

Haney, who can hear, is one of seven new Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officers with sign language abilities. The seven officers were recruited as part of an effort by the transit agency to better service disabled riders, said MBTA General Manager Robert Prince.

''Diversity is for everyone,'' said Prince, who said the signing officers will be patrolling the subway stations and trains by New Year's Eve.

''We're coming up on First Night, a time when we want to be giving directions to the public and communicating change,'' he said.

Prince estimated that several thousand of the 1 million people who use the MBTA every day have a hearing impairment.

While the sign-language literate officers won't be wearing special tags on their uniforms, Prince said the agency would draw on them to better communicate directions and emergency instructions to deaf riders, as well as translate at public meetings between ''T'' officials and community groups.

Currently, the agency has to hire sign-language interpreters for public forums, Prince said.

One deaf MBTA patron said she was delighted sign-language literate officers would be available.

''I don't want to have to rely on other people (to help understand what the conductor is saying),'' said Karen Glickman, a sign language teacher from Beverly who attended the ceremony.

''I pay taxes ... This way I get good services like everyone else,'' she said through a translator.

MBTA Deputy Chief Bill Fleming said officers with sign language knowledge will better assist hearing-impaired passengers who need to report a crime or injury.

Sign language is also necessary to properly read a deaf suspect his rights after arrest, he said.

Haney said it didn't matter to him where along the MBTA's 78-community-wide route he was posted.

''I'd just like to be where my services are needed the most,'' he said.

ï¿½ Copyright 1999 Boston Globe

DEAF NIGERIAN ASSOCIATION APPEALS TO NIGERIAN PRESIDENT

Deaf Association Appeals To Obasanjo Lagos (P.M. News, December 31, 1999) - Newly registered Association of Deaf Businessman and Woman In Nigeria has in a letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo sought assistance for its members in the forthcoming year.

The letter signed by its President, Mr. Afolabi Dahunsi, in seeking recognition and financial aid for members noted that the past year had been very difficult "due to lack of jobs and opportunities to earn a decent living."

The association therefore expressed the hope that the "sordid" experiences of its members in the out-going millennium would be a thing of the past as it urged "our leaders in governments all over the states and federal level to please remember the deaf in their budgets for the coming year."

Said the letter: "We hope and pray that the next millennium would be better for the upliftment and welfare of the deaf, while we wish our leaders and all Nigerians a happy and prosperous new year."

Copyright ï¿½ 2000 P.M. News. Distributed via Africa News

DISABILITY FRONTLINES

DAYS INN TO BE MORE ACCESSIBLE

Days Inn of America, the world's largest hotel chain, and its parent company, Cendant Corp. (CD.N), have agreed to make their new hotels more accessible to people with disabilities, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. The agreement, filed in federal court in Kentucky, resolved five lawsuits brought almost four years ago alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). "Days Inn and Cendant have agreed to institute an ADA initiative that sends a message to its hotel franchises across the country that ADA compliance is a high priority,'" Attorney General Janet Reno said at her weekly news briefing. An 18-month investigation, before the lawsuits were filed, found that newly constructed Days Inn hotels across the country did not meet accessibility requirements, department officials said. Problems included insufficient accessible parking, inaccessible entrances and walkways, bathroom and guest room doors too narrow to allow wheelchairs to pass inside and insufficient visual alarm systems for people who were deaf, they said. Under the agreement, Days Inn will create a $4.75 million revolving fund to provide interest-free loans to franchisees of newly constructed hotels to finance repairs and renovations required under the law, the officials said. It also will require new hotels to certify they are in compliance with the law before the open for business, they said. Reno said the Justice Department hoped the initiative would serve as a model for hotel operators nationwide. John Wodatch, of the department's civil rights division, said, "We think it's an industry-wide problem. We intend to follow up with other hotels and hotel chains in the United States to ensure that this problem doesn't exist." For more information, http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/daysinn.htm

LSAT EXAM CALLED UNFAIR FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

The Justice Department charged on December 6, 1999 that the Law School Admission Test, required by 196 law schools, is unfair to the physically disabled because they are denied extra time to take it. The Justice Department charged Monday that the Law School Admission Test, required by 196 law schools, is unfair to the physically disabled because they are denied extra time to take it. "Individuals with disabilities must be given a fair chance to demonstrate their skills and abilities," said Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the civil rights division. "The failure to make reasonable modifications in testing practices and procedures penalizes disabled persons. It closes the gateways to professional opportunities." The Justice Department said it filed suit after extensive efforts to negotiate a voluntary settlement failed. The suit alleged that the council required some applicants to obtain a psychoeducational assessment as a basis for determining whether it would grant a request for more time. The government said this violated the disabilities law. The government also alleged that the council failed to engage in a give-and-take process with disabled people seeking accommodations. The department asked the court to require the council to provide the requested accommodations and to prohibit it from discriminating against disabled people who request accommodation. It also sought civil penalties as well as compensatory damages for the four named applicants. The press release can be found at www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/1999/December/586cr.htm.

COURT WON'T OVERTURN ATHLETE RULING

The Supreme Court let stand a ruling that said Indiana's eligibility rules for high school athletes ran afoul of a federal law banning discrimination against the disabled. The justices, without comment, rejected an appeal that asked them to use the case of a high school basketball star to determine whether athletic eligibility rules must bend to accommodate learning-disabled students. Eric Washington, who now attends and plays basketball for a junior college in Texas, dropped out of Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Ind., in 1996. He had begun the 9th grade in the second semester of the 1994-95 school year but consistently failed academically. Washington spent the 1996-97 academic year working at a grocery store and for a lawn service, but then enrolled at Lafayette's Central Catholic High School at the urging of its basketball coach. A gifted player, the 6-foot-7 Washington led Central Catholic to the 1998 Class A state basketball championship. Dunwoody, who that year became Washington's academic mentor, persuaded the player's family to have him tested for learning disabilities. A test administered in January 1998 indicated that he was learning disabled. The Indiana High School Athletic Association has an eight-semester rule that limits any student's athletic eligibility to the first eight semesters, or four years, following the beginning of 9th grade. A separate rule bars students 19 and older from interscholastic athletics. Because the eight-semester rule would have meant Washington could not play the second semester of the 1998-99 school year, he and Central Catholic sought a waiver of the rule and was denied. Washington and his high school then went to federal court, seeking to block enforcement of the rule. They argued that denying a waiver amounted to illegal discrimination based on Washington's learning disability - a violation of the ADA. A federal judge granted an injunction and allowed Washington to play basketball an extra semester. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge's ruling last June. The appeals court said the case had not become moot, or legally irrelevant, when Washington graduated from high school. That's because Central Catholic could be stripped of its state title if the state association imposed retroactive penalties. Lawyers for the state athletic association told the Supreme Court that the validity of eligibility rules affecting 6.5 million student athletes nationwide could be jeopardized by the appeals court's rationale.

SUIT WON AGAINST DISABILITY INSURANCE COMPANY

SEATTLE, Nov. 30, 1999ï¿½Seattle attorney Steven Krafchick announced victory on behalf of a disabled woman whose disability insurance company wrongly cut off her benefits. The 52 year old woman was an executive secretary for Noevir Corporation in California, when she was diagnosed with fibromylagia and chronic fatigue syndrome in 1988. In May of 1992, she was no longer able to work, and began collecting disability benefits from Paul Revere Insurance Corporation. 39 months later, Paul Revere required her to see an "independent" examiner, not a MD but rather a neuro-psychologist, hired by them. That psychologist did not consult with longtime doctors who had been treating the woman, nor did Paul Revere provide the examiner with the woman's complete medical file. He made no psychological diagnosis, and was unable to determine what physical condition prevented Linda from working, as that determination was outside the scope of his expertise. Paul Revere referred her medical records to other internal doctors (physicians working for the insurance company), who concluded without further examination -- and without consulting MD's who had been treating her for years -- that the woman suffered from a mental disorder. The woman's policy required Paul Revere to pay for physical disabilities and illnesses until the insured is 65 years old. However, those who are diagnosed with "psychiatric disorders" are only eligible to receive benefits for up to two years. Based on their altered diagnosis, Paul Revere cut off her benefits. The judgment orders Paul Revere to pay all back benefits and re-instate her contract benefits. According to attorney Krafchick, "Paul Revere never should have done this to her. My client and her employer paid their premiums. Paul Revere should have honored that contract." For more information, contact Krafchick Law Firm, Steve Krafchick, 206/374-7370; www.krafchick.com

VICTORY FOR DISABLED CHILDREN IN EAST PALO ALTO

Victory for Disabled Children in East Palo Alto: Federal Judge Approves Settlement in Class Action Special Education Suit

After a three-year legal battle on behalf of hundreds of children with disabilities in the Ravenswood Elementary School District in East Palo Alto, California, Federal Court Judge Thelton E. Henderson gave final approval yesterday to an unprecedented settlement agreement in Emma C. v. Delaine Eastin, et al., Case No. C-96-4179, and commented that the agreement is "very well done".

Recognized as one of the state's poorest districts, Ravenswood's almost entirely minority population has spent years struggling with education rights abuses, misallocated funding and ineffective monitoring by the California Department of Education.

In a first of its kind case in California, led by attorneys Bill Koski of the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, Diane Lipton of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), and Rony Sagy of Sagy Law Associates, Plaintiffs demanded that the Ravenswood School District and the California Department of Education comply with federal laws ensuring a "free appropriate public education" to all children with disabilities in the Ravenswood District.

In March 1999, Judge Henderson concluded that the facts of the case reported in a Needs Assessment study "paint an appalling and indeed a disturbing picture of the deficiencies in the services provided to children in the Ravenswood District with disabilities and special education needs." In September, Judge Henderson was no more impressed with the efforts of the California Department of Education (CDE) to improve conditions in Ravenswood. Judge Henderson concluded that the CDE had done "too little, too late" in addressing the serious educational deficiencies.

"Approval of this agreement is a historic day for the community," said Bill Koski of the East Palo Alto Community Law Project. "Finally, children with disabilities in East Palo Alto will receive the education and services that they deserve."

The unprecedented settlement should result in a complete revamping of the District's special education system. According to Diane Lipton of DREDF, "This settlement offers the District an unequalled opportunity to create a state of the art service delivery system that can be a model for other districts and state departments throughout California and the country. There are hundreds, if not thousands of East Palo Altos around the country. Hopefully, they are taking notice of this case. Monitoring compliance is extremely lax throughout this state and elsewhere."

The settlement calls for a court-appointed monitor for a period of at least two years, implementation of a detailed corrective action plan, the building of a coordinated special and regular education system, substantial funds for consultation with national experts in literacy, bilingual assessments, instructional strategies, the integration of children with disabilities into regular classes, school administration and unlimited funds for compensatory education services to children previously denied services.

The settlement with the CDE has significant ramifications nationally, because in response to this case and pressure from the U.S. Department of Education, the CDE is revamping its monitoring and enforcement system. The CDE has also committed significant resources to fixing the local district and compensating students with educational and vocational services who are no longer attending Ravenswood.

"We are cautiously optimistic," notes attorney Rony Sagy. "We hope that this case will raise the standard for statewide monitoring of school districts as legally required. Hopefully, the settlement will encourage cooperation between the District, parents and the entire educational community, a crucial step in developing an effective educational system for all children in East Palo Alto."

Susan Henderson
Director of Administration
DREDF
2212 Sixth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
E: [email protected]
T: 510/644-2555
F: 510/841-8645
http://www.dredf.org

2 DEAF MEN WIN WAL-MART BIAS SUIT, WILL GET $132,500

Job offer, training changes included
By RuthAnn Hogue
The Arizona Daily Star

Two job applicants who say Wal-Mart discriminated against them at an eastside store because they are deaf have won a $132,500 settlement against the national retail giant.

In a settlement filed in federal court yesterday in Tucson, Wal-Mart also agreed to offer jobs to William Darnell of Tucson and Jeremy Fass of Phoenix. It will pay them at least $66,250 each under the settlement.

"We realize that in this instance, we did something wrong at the local level," said Mike Maher, a corporate spokesman for Wal-Mart, which is based in Bentonville, Ark. "We didn't follow our own hiring policies at the local level, and we needed to take legal action to fix it."

Rose Daly-Rooney, an attorney with the Arizona Center for Disability Law, said she believes both men intend to accept $8-an-hour loading and stocking jobs at stores near their homes.

Daly-Rooney served as co-counsel with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission attorney David Lopez, who brought the case under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The act prohibits discrimination against the handicapped in areas including jobs and public accommodations.

The EEOC and the Arizona Center for Disability Law filed suit in U.S. District Court in June 1997 after Darnell and Fass were turned down for night jobs at Wal-Mart's store at 7150 E. Speedway.

Both men said they were refused jobs in the stocking and unloading area because they are deaf.

The settlement calls for them to be offered jobs with corporate service dates of Sept. 1, 1995. In addition, each will be paid his share of profit-sharing and be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses that would have been covered by health insurance benefits had they been hired when they applied in 1995. Those amounts haven't been determined yet.

Wal-Mart will also pay $57,500 in legal fees to the Arizona Center for Disability Law.

The settlement does not address what penalties, if any, Wal-Mart might have extended to the decision-makers who failed to hire Darnell and Fass.

Stores in Tucson, Green Valley and a Mesa store where Fass will likely work will be required to offer specialized training in disability labor law and to temporarily post an overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Lopez said this case is unusual because it is the first one he is aware of that Wal-Mart has settled with the EEOC before reaching the appeals level.

"Wal-Mart is a big employer and we have litigated against them frequently," he said.

Even so, Maher, the Wal-Mart spokesman, said settling isn't out of character for the discount chain.

"Our legal philosophy is, if we've done something wrong and we realize we've done something wrong, we will take measures to settle the suit in terms we think is appropriate, and what is appropriate for all parties," he said.

"If we think we haven't done something wrong, we will do everything necessary to protect ourselves."

In this case, Wal-Mart has agreed to provide reasonable accommodations, including a sign language interpreter for Darnell and Fass during their training and orientation, as well as during meetings - from business meetings to progress evaluations.

Darnell and Fass will receive vibrating pagers for in-store communication. And store safety and security measures will be adapted for the hearing-impaired.

"Some of the changes they make will affect their entire chain of stores," Daly-Rooney said.

The most sweeping changes apply to new hires.

"The biggest thing is the closed-captions being added to the training videos," Maher said. "That is the major part of anything that is going to be done systemwide."

Such changes are aimed at making it easier for managers to hire hearing-impaired employees by making them aware of what accommodations can and, by law, must be made.

"We go to a lot of rural communities to do training," Daly-Rooney said. "Almost every rural community has a Wal-mart. That is why we are excited. It is effecting an employer who is everywhere."

Lopez, in a prepared statement, said, "Fass and Darnell deserve special recognition for their courage and determination. Their efforts demonstrate the indispensable role of individual action in shattering stereotypes in the workplace."
Darnell, 25, and Fass, 24, who long ago accepted other jobs, were not available for comment yesterday.

In a prepared statement, Fass said he feels good because he "took a stand about what happened to me, and by doing that I also helped other people who are deaf."

Today, at the same time the EEOC and the Arizona Center for Disability Law announce the settlement at a press conference, across town Wal-Mart and EEOC attorneys will be discussing motions related to two local pending pregnancy-discrimination cases.

"It is extremely unusual for the EEOC to be suing the same employer," said Sandy Padegimas, a senior trial attorney with the EEOC who is handling the pregnancy cases.

"I can't ever recall when we've had three active cases. I can't recall when we've had two active cases with the same employer. And here, we have three cases involving four individuals."

In May 1994, the commission sued Wal-Mart for refusing to rehire Jamey Stern at its Green Valley store after learning she was pregnant.

In January 1997, the EEOC sued on behalf of Susan Stewart, who said she was denied employment at the same store at 18705 S. Frontage Road.

Maher said he wasn't familiar enough with the pregnancy-discrimination cases to comment.

However, the large number of stores and employees helps put things into perspective, he said.

Wal-Mart has 35 stores in Arizona, with two in Tucson and one in Green Valley. It employs about 850,000 associates at its U.S. stores, and an additional 220,000 abroad with a total work force of more than a millionpeople.

"If you look at the number of people in the work force," Maher said, "we are obviously doing something right."

Copyrighted, The Arizona Daily Star

RESOURCE OF THE MONTH

AWARDS

SIGN LANGUAGE PAGE

LETTERS

Dear fellows,
let me share with you some findings of legal researches of this country and try to figure out if we together can find way delivery federal and state funds to those were intended for. They seem me quite compatible with one found in RussianGate so far. FBI found there $50B illegally transferred that is about a quarter of Gross Domestic Income of the Russia. Certainly, it doesn't match amount $50B stolen in Russia but it gives impression that it fetches out misused percent appropriations allocated for legal help to needy and disabled.

NAPAS[National Association of Protection & Advocacy systems, Inc.] Annual Report for 98/99 years and mission statement can be inquired by: 202-408-9514[9521 TTY], [9520 fax], [email protected]

I called to NAPAS on 12/20/99 to find fate the letter attached bellow and was informed that NAPAS isn't going to send any response, since the only their business is information about phone N of local state branch and only by phone. However, practically all topics of the letter were submitted before to NJ Protection & Advocacy, Inc. with the same result, in spite word for word compliance with their list priority topics in the most topics of the letter. The most frequent basis for their denial to render any service is lack resources. In spite at least its five members staffed by lawyers, and the only their detectable business is sending flyers to known them disabled persons with info about availability voting in NJ shortly before election date! Attempts to communicate with staff members revealed that their office weekly attendance on average seems don't excess a single digit, and most likely doesn't excess even an hour!

More over, observation NAPAS's flyer reveals that it was established in 1975 and consists in total several hundreds lawyers in 57 states and territories, however their complete description relevant to its mission activities occupies only about one typed page in the 21 pages booklet that contain considerable number diagrams.

The booklet shows that NAPAS got $65M annually with total $260.295M during last four years that extrapolates to about $1,5B for 24 years existence.

They were able to show only 15 cases their work, including one instance attempted individual litigation and one instance initiation of class action suit with resulting cost every case around $100M!

My numerous contacts with NJP&A, Inc. resulted to refusal even to investigate any problem and in some instances referral to agencies "that can be useful for a specified matter." However all those "referrals" had no source of any help either. In some cases they claimed lack even authority in referred matters! However, in should be noted that in the most cases those sources of potential help are exercising the same technology, to wit, "say me what you need and I'll say you why I can't do it." Anyway, such way of referrals without asking referring agency if they are willing to accept the case, is a strong evidence that their attitude is to send a petitioner to any place for deterring him/her from any further efforts to get any legal help from allocated for them by federal appropriations resources!

Considering my experience, claim NAPAS that 735,355 number people were served in 1998 year alone seems nothing but baloney! Although this number can be accurate in terms annual occurrence violation rights disabled people in this country, only 5-10% victims ever seek legal help anywhere! And it's hard to image that NAPAS exercises discrimination me based on disability, therefore such practice have to be attributed to their general practice.

Another finding of the research is that the most federally funded legal service entities are supposed to identify their priority areas of service in annual community based meetings. That seems is something out of reality. I never seen info about incoming such meeting in NJ "Monthly Communicator" - a magazine for disabled, to wit, deaf and hard of hearing people of NJ! More over, in spite my several times written requests to Director of Newark office of Essex County Legal Services, I never get a letter from him with info about date such incoming community meeting. It may reflect, of course, that such community meetings were never happen, who knows? Observation reveals that the Newark office is loaded mostly by mishandling social services, that seems attributed to lack accountability in social offices for case mishandling. Why on the Earth to keep on payroll an employee that can't proper handle cases and requires intervention a higher paid lawyer? It seems NJ adopted policy implementation scattering numerous small entities of public legal services, accompanied a head of it of course, that doesn't render services and sometimes has no any other lawyer in a staff for a long time. I saw several years advertised such office at Orange named Elder Legal Services. The woman there responded to phone calls by clarification, that the office really takes only family law, like custody, cases!

It should be noted, that, say NJ requires nonprofit entities to be registered and provide annual reports, but they are free to put there anything they like, there is no a single piece of mandatory information, more over this provision isn't strictly enforced and elusion the registration saves the entities up to $250.00 in fees. That's why the most nonprofit entities in NJ provide only amount money received and spent without any note about quantity and quality service provided.

Sincerely Lev Pribytkov

Designed and Maintained by Deaf Watch Newsletter

Animated picture of a waving USA shaped US flag

Return to Deaf Watch Maingate Page