NAD Position Paper on Communications Access in Law
Enforcement Situations - Part 1
The publication of this article created quite a
discussion among our readers. Some of their comments are included
following the article, including thoughts by a police officer who
focuses on working with the hearing loss community.
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NAD Position Statement on Communication Access by Law Enforcement
Personnel with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals
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Editor: The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has recently
released a document that enumerates actions that law enforcement
agencies can take to ensure appropriate communications with people with
hearing loss. These guidelines were developed in conjunction with
federal and local officials, and are consistent with recent judicial
decisions. How do you think your local law enforcement officials would
fare on these conditions?
Our thanks to the NAD for permission to republish this document.
The article stimulated some lively discussion among our readers. At
the end of the NAD statement, I've included several reader responses,
including one from a police officer who has some great ideas about
communicating with people with hearing loss.
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The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) has developed model
policies, in conjunction with the United States Department of Justice,
and city and county police departments, to ensure that police and
sheriff departments take the necessary steps to interact with persons
who are deaf and hard of hearing.
Specifically, settlement agreements in two court cases provide
comprehensive practices and procedures for law enforcement personnel to
ensure effective communication with deaf and hard of hearing
individuals. Rashad Gordon v. Harris County; and The United States of
America, Rashad Gordon, Michael Edwards, and the City of Houston, Texas.
These model policies apply when police officers and sheriff¹s
deputies receive citizen complaints; interrogate witnesses; arrest,
book, and hold suspects; operate telephone 911 emergency centers;
provide emergency medical services; and enforce laws. The model policies
provide for important protections.
• First and foremost, these model policies recognize that law
enforcement personnel must take the appropriate steps to ensure that
persons who are deaf and/or hard of hearing can communicate effectively.
This includes the importance of providing auxiliary aids and services
and reasonable accommodations when necessary for "effective
communication" as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act,
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and state laws.
• Law enforcement personnel must provide auxiliary aids and
services without charge, including sign language interpreters, following
notice and request, when necessary to ensure effective communication
with deaf and/or hard of hearing individuals.
• Law enforcement personnel must post notices that auxiliary aids
and services are available in locations near public entrances and
processing areas in the city and county jails, in courthouse buildings,
and in pretrial and related offices.
• When law enforcement personnel learn that a person is deaf and/or
hard of hearing, they must ask that person whether auxiliary aids and
services are necessary to ensure effective communication and will inform
the person that these services are available without charge.
• Law enforcement personnel must use their best efforts to provide
auxiliary aids and services in a timely manner.
• Law enforcement personnel must conduct interviews, medical
screenings, and hearings through sign language with a qualified sign
language interpreter when the deaf and/or hard of hearing person¹s
primary means of communication is sign language.
• Persons who are deaf and who communicate in sign language cannot
communicate when they are handcuffed. The model policies provide that
law enforcement personnel will remove the handcuffs of booked and
classified detainees who are deaf to allow for effective communication
if the removal of the handcuffs does not result in a direct threat to
the health and safety of any person in a jail or cause an undue burden
or fundamental alteration of the custodial activity.
• Law enforcement personnel must have TTYs available so that
equivalent phone service is available at no cost to the deaf person.
• Law enforcement personnel must provide accessible inmate
handbooks, that is, with contents presented in sign language and on
videotape, to deaf persons who are imprisoned.
• Law enforcement personnel must establish procedures so that
interpreters can accompany attorneys on inmate visits.
• Deaf individuals must have equivalent access to all programs,
activities, and services in a jail, including work programs, treatment
programs, rehabilitation programs, and educational classes, at no cost
to the deaf person, unless fees for programs, services, and activities
are assessed against other inmates.
• Law enforcement personnel must record and transmit information to
courts that an inmate is deaf to facilitate the court¹s provision of
auxiliary aids and services.
• Law enforcement personnel must have a contract with a
professional sign language interpreter services agency to ensure the
qualifications of interpreters.
• Appropriate training must be provided for law enforcement
personnel on the obligation to accommodate and provide auxiliary aids
and services.
Here's part two
