Tuesday, June 9, 2009

More information on why we are having a march.

That's understandable that those who are not informed on the true agenda of having a march is against the idea of having a march. We had facts that had been addressed at our last Deaf community meeting last month.

We are having another meeting tonight, and the facts or the information on true agenda will be presented for those who previously were not informed.

Also, many deaf service providers in Houston who serves our target population has been aware of how the city treats deaf and hard of hearing citizens.

Back in 1998, two deaf individuals filed a lawsuit against City of Houston as well as Harris County with Department of Justice, Advocacy, Inc., and National Association of the Deaf, and they won. The settlement had been made. NAD's website has an article about this case so you all might want to check it out (http://www.nad.org/gordonsettlement).

Anyway, even the settlements had been made with DOJ, our deaf citizens have ongoing complaints. Apparently, Houston Police frequently ignored their communication policy based on these citizens' ongoing complaints, and that also applies to municipal courts.

For an example, in fact, this year, there were instances that HPD or Harris County Sheriff failed to provide a communication access to these deaf citizens even they requested for an interpreter when they dialed 911. They got arrested instead because HPD listened to hearing citizens, and didn't even bother to try to communicate with the deaf ones.

Dial 311 and Dial 211 both are not accessible to both of groups of deaf and hard of hearing who use VP or Captel. For TTY users, they claimed that it took them forever.

Currently, some of these deaf victims already filed a complaint against HPD with a legal organization.

Again, thank you for sharing your experiences and providing a suggested guideline of having a productive march, etc.Yes,

I have learned through my recent participation in other disabled activities that our effort to ensure the City's compliance with ADA and other disabled laws related to deaf/hard of hearing has to be ongoing.

Will keep you all posted.

1 comment:

  1. "That’s understandable that those who are not informed on the true agenda of having a march is against the idea of having a march."

    Brian, just because we were not "informed" of the true agenda of having a march does NOT mean we are against it. I did hear about it before any of this was posted online.

    I just believe that if a protest takes place, organizers should go to great lengths to post more information and educate the community about what is going on. Only a room full of people at the last Deafness Resource Meeting only knew what was going on, but no one outside that room knew enough information to be aware of the situation (other than providers who serve Deaf and HOH in Houston).

    I believe that Houston Deaf Rights leaders DO have a GOOD cause to lead this protest... I am just strongly urging further education towards the Deaf Community and to make sure the Deaf members fully comprehend what is going on and what they are protesting against.

    Brian, I truly hope all goes smoothly and peacefully and that your voices are heard and that light is shed on what is going on with HPD and City of Houston. :)

    Warm Regards,

    Julie Reese

    P.S. Hope the meeting went well tonite!

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