CSD's Press Release Misleading

by Terry Portis

Editor: Some of you may be getting tired of seeing these reports on the 'misleading' releases by various Deaf organizations. But I think this is a hugely important issue and will continue to highlight these kinds of willful oppression. There's been plenty of "pushback" on this kind of stuff, and the only reason I can see that Deaf organizations continue these efforts that impede functionally equivalent communications for hard of hearing people is that - - - well, I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Terry Portis is the Executive Director of the Hearing Loss Association of America (formerly SHHH). Here's his take on the most recent propaganda from CSD.

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We have mentioned Communications Services for the Deaf (CSD) before as an organization that has released misleading information. Unfortunately, we have another example from last month. In a July 25 press release touting a new video relay service contract with Chicago airport system, they make this statement: "VRS is the functionally equivalent way for deaf and hard of hearing people to make phone calls." This is stretching it. On the contrary, VRS is the relay service that the Deaf who use sign language use to communicate. But for hard of hearing people? No, it does not provide them with a functionally equivalent way to make a phone call. Most hard of hearing people want to use their residual hearing, supplemented by relay services such as captioned telephone or VCO IP relay. They prefer to speak for themselves and listen as much as possible. They do not typically use sign language as people do who prefer VRS.

Our own Brenda Battat, Associate Director of the Hearing Loss Association, and national advocate for functionally equivalent telecommunications wrote this recently: "This misinformation settles in the minds of policy makers, telecommunications innovators, ADA covered facilities, and the general public and makes it so much harder for us to advocate for the most appropriate access for people who prefer to use spoken language and do not use sign language. Yes a few, very few people who are hard of hearing use VRS. They know sign language and therefore can benefit from this wonderful relay service. But let's not forget that less than 5% of people who are hard of hearing use sign language as their preferred way of communicating and therefore VCO and captioned telephone today are their most functionally equivalent relay services for them, assuming they cannot rely on HAC/volume control phones. Typically speech reading is too hard to use VRS successfully and so until VRS includes captioning it will not be the relay of choice for this population."

Such broad generalizations as made by CSD - that all deaf and hard of hearing people can benefit from VRS and by inference that American Sign language is the native language of all deaf and hard of hearing people hinders our ability to raise awareness among the public about the varying communications needs among people with hearing loss. It also leads to ADA covered entities feeling they have met their obligation to all people with hearing loss by providing a sign language interpreter. This could not be further from the truth and is the ongoing frustration of people who are hard of hearing who really need assistive listening devices and/or CART.

Press release contact information: Christine Seymour, Client and Communication Advocate, Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center (HSDC) Tacoma Office, cseymour@hsdc.org .