Communications Access and Law Enforcement
We often hear stories about law enforcement agencies
violating citizens' legal rights; it seems to happen far too often. For
people with hearing loss, however, it is often much worse. Their
fundamental right to communication in a law enforcement situation is
often violated. It seems that many law enforcement agencies are becoming
more aware of these issues. However, there are still too many who are
oblivious to these injustices.
October 2000 - The National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
recently published their position paper on
communications access for people with hearing loss in law enforcement
situations. This paper caused quite a stir among our readers, and we've
included several reader responses with the article.
October 2000 - In response to the police
handling of Eric Plunkett's murder at Gallaudet, Diane Edge wrote a
timely rebuke of the DC police department and
their deaf awareness. Shortly after the publication of Diane's essay,
the DC police announced a settlement of a Federal lawsuit that addressed
many of these issues. A short article on that event and other
related articles follow Diane's
essay.
December 2001 - Deaf Inmates Struggle for Basic Rights
April
2007 - ADA Guide for Law Enforcement Officers
May
2007 - Making Courthouses Accessible to People with
Hearing Loss
May 2008 - Deaf Irish
Woman Sues for Right to Sit on Jury
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2001
Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be in prison?
It's not an appealing prospect for anyone. Now imagine that you're in
prison and you can't hear. You get disciplined for missing roll call,
for failing to turn your light off when instructed, and for a variety of
other bewildering reasons. It's not that you're trying to be
troublesome; you just can't hear the announcements that tell you what to
do!
You can't make a phone call, because the prison has no TTY. You are
concerned for your safety, because there are no visual fire alarms. You
don't have access to basic medical care, because you can't communicate
with the doctor. Your isolation is nearly complete, because you can't
communicate with anyone.
I've seen a couple of recent articles that address the difficulties
of inmates with hearing loss. Hopefully the situations discussed in
these articles were the exception rather than the rule, but I doubt it.
My guess is that almost none of the progress that has been made in the
hearing loss world has filtered into our nation's prisons.
The Richmond, Virginia Times Dispatch recently reported on a man
named Freddie Lee Cephas. He's bitten an officer, committed a long list
of infractions, and attempted suicide. His family maintains that he is
not a troublemaker, but is only expressing his frustration at his
isolation. He has limited access to a TTY, no captioned television, and
no interpreter.
Cephas has obtained representation from the NAD Law Center and is
striving to obtain basic rights. His lawyers argue that he is being
discriminated against under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
But officials at the Virginia Corrections Department and the Attorney
General's Office point out that a federal judge in Roanoke has found the
ADA unconstitutional in application to the states. A spokesman for the
Corrections Department states that their attorneys report that they are
in compliance with the law.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2008
A DEAF mother of two barred from jury service
because she cannot hear is to launch a landmark legal action aimed at
quashing the ban. Joan Clarke, a former factory worker from Galway who has
been deaf since birth, will claim she is entitled to serve on a jury by
means of a sign-language interpreter. Ms Clarke, who wants to perform
"this important civic duty", is seeking to have a decision to exclude her
from jury service set aside, claiming that the blanket ban on deaf people
carrying out jury duty is a breach of her rights under the Constitution
and the European Convention of Human Rights. The High Court judicial
review action, the first of its kind, gets under way next week amid
mounting criticism of Ireland's outdated Juries Act and less than a week
after Justice Minister Dermot Ahern approved a proposal to abolish the
upper age limit for jury service.
Full Story
