Deaf Task Force New York City (DTFNYC) Town Hall Meeting 06/29/07

Deaf Task Force New York City (DTFNYC)

Presents

Town Hall Meeting

 Agendas:

MTA Emergency Call Box: Does it works for you?

 What you did response when the police stops you?

What do you want for the city do something for your deafness?

 and much more…..

Come and Join us

Friday, June 29, 2007

 6 pm to 9 pm

St. Elizabeth’s Church

 211 East 83 Street

 (Between 2nd and 3rd Ave.)

 New York. NY 10028

 (Subway Station: 86 St

 Train # 4, 5, & 6)

Directions:

 Driving Direction: Mapquest.com

Subway and Bus Direction: Hopstop.com

To receiving the DTFNYC Newsletters and Announcements,

Please send blank email to dtfnyc-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

To learn more about our short and long term plan of actions, we have reports available for those request them.

 It will be also posted on our blog: deaftaskforce.wordpress.com

For more information,

 contact us at dtfnyc.publicaccess@gmail.com

Area Hospitals/Please respond

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Christina Curry <cexec@hilc.org>
> Date: March 12, 2007 3:57:00 PM PST
> Subject: Area Hospitals/Please respond
>
>
> Greetings to you all.
>
> Need your assistance as usual….
>
> As you might have heard by now, Harlem ILC is working with an  outside
> agency regarding hospitals that are not providing effective
> communication for the Deaf, HOH community (this is different from  what
> DHIS is spearheading).
>
> With that said, HILC is in the process of compiling a list of all  the
> hospitals in the five boroughs (or as many as possible) that do  not
> have any interpreters, the hospitals that have at least one and  so
> on…
>
> According to the hospitals we’ve called..as of now everyone is
> compliant and has an interpreter on call… that is why I am asking
> each of you to tell me what the hospitals are not…
>
> I thank all of you for whatever information you can provide…just
> need to know the name of the hospital and if they in fact have a  live
> person or at the very least have been known to call an outside
> agency…
>
> Christina Curry/Harlem ILC

DTFNYC Leader’s note: Please send the information to Christina Curry
at  cexec@hilc.org

Christina:

The ONLY HOSPITALS with staff interpreters of which I am aware are
Bellevue (Harry), NYU (Jodi) and St. Vincent (Gloria).

The other hospitals believe they are compliant and have an  interpreter
because they know of the telephone number of the  interpreting agency or
VRI agency to contact if an interpreter is  needed OR  because they have
identified a staff member who knows some  sign language or has a deaf
family member so knows some words thus  this person “interprets” for
them when necessary.

These recognized persons are NEVER screened by an interpreting agency
or organizaion to determine their level of skill. They accept to use
them solely based on their comments of their skills during they  polling
of staff to determine other languages spoken amongst staff.  Their
individuals primary role is not as an interpreter for the  hospital,
they are not skilled nor professionally training and  thereby violate
many of the interpreting Code of Conduct.

Sorry for the wordiness of these email, I merely wanted to issue you
understand my comments and thoughts.

Kathleen D. Taylor, MA, CI/CT, NAD
Cert. American Sign Language Interpreter
NAOBI-NYC President
718-789-3509
917-407-6771
www.KDTterpASL.com

Deaf also need storm warnings.

[ That's where the Deaf Task Force NYC comes in.]

DTFNYC HIGH ALERT! VACCINATIONS NEEDED IN THIS COMMUNITY

Time to jumpstart the passiveness in you and inject 1000mg doze of proactive adrenaline in you, and pass out FREE vaccinations to the infectious apathetic community. The city/state and government officials do not know what’s right for us, YOU DO!

Come to our meeting: Friday, February 2nd at 32 Washington Place (Silver Building-Room 403) 6:30-8:30.

There will be a CPR Demonstration/Hands-on Training. Come one, come all!

________________________________________________________________

From the newsroom of the Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, Sunday, January 28, 2007 …..

Letters

Deaf also need storm warnings

Thank you for the editorial on the necessity of weather-alert systems. It is good that the entire metro area is within range of National Weather Service broadcast range.

However, in all this commendable planning, the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing people are not being addressed. Ten percent of the population has some kind of hearing problem, so this is a significant number.

A few years ago weather alert radios were distributed by a Birmingham organization, free of charge, to deaf and hard-of-hearing citizens. The radios were supposed to be hooked up to a flashing light. These radios were impossible to set up if you didn’t possess an electrical engineering degree. Many went into the trash can.

Emergency officials need to take into consideration the deaf and hard-of-hearing population of the area, involving us in all planning and implementation stages.

Rev. Jay L. Croft
Montgomery

Copyright © 1997- 2007 The Advertiser Co.

Letter to President of Beth Israel Medical Center

Dr. David Shulkin
President
Beth Israel Medical Center
16th Street and 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10003

January 25, 2007

Dear President Shulkin:

My name is Joshua Finkle and I am the current president of the Empire State Association of the Deaf. Last week, nearly 200 members of the New York City deaf and sign language communities met to discuss their concerns about your recent decision to radically downsize Beth Israel Medical Center’s on-site Sign Language Interpreting Department and replace live interpreters with Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) equipment throughout your facility. We are taking this opportunity to express some of these concerns.

For over a decade, BIMC has been the “gold standard model” for accessible health care for the deaf because of its sign language interpreting department. Your hospital has been a regional leader in the health care industry by providing exemplary full-time, live, on-site and on-call interpreters. The deaf community is diverse, akin to the make-up of New York City. Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals come from a wide range of familial and educational backgrounds. Some come from different countries and utilize their native sign languages. Others use signs with regional dialects. BIMC’s sign language interpreting department has been very successful in adapting to this diversity and accommodating everyone’s needs. Consequently, the New York City deaf community relies on BIMC for the highest quality of care. That will change once VRI becomes the standard interpreting service offered to your patients.

We recognize that the decision to expand VRI services is undoubtedly the result of a cost-benefit analysis and an effort to relieve financial pressures. However, as much as we appreciate the economic challenges faced by a facility such as BIMC, we implore you to halt further action on your plan and reconsider your decision after meeting with representatives from the deaf, hard-of-hearing, and sign language communities.

VRI has serious limitations. We are aware that BIMC currently uses VRI in its emergency room to satisfy the requirements of the State of New York Department of Health Code (Section 405.7 – Patient’s Rights, 7, viii (a)). However, the Federal Communications Commission qualifies VRI as a way to provide interpreting services when an interpreter cannot be physically present (FCC Public Notice DA 05-2417).

47-43 Vernon Blvd, Long Island City, NY 11101
Tel. (718) 433-1092 Fax (718) 392-3576

Other considerations regarding the use of VRI are vast. Several examples were offered by members of the community, from their own experience. To cite just a few:

• VRI cannot be accessed by deaf persons with vision loss including those who are deaf-blind, have limited vision, or have Usher’s Syndrome;

• VRI cannot be accessed by deaf persons who have some form of mental incapacitation including mental retardation, autism, psychotic disorder, etc.;

• Live and physical contact with a deaf patient is often necessary, especially when a patient is experiencing pain or is compromised physically, e.g. lying in a prone position;

• VRI cannot accommodate the full progression of a patient’s experience at BIMC. Live interpreters move with deaf patients between clinics, surgical suites, testing suites, administrative offices, etc. Limited availability of VRI equipment cannot match this standard of care nor satisfy accessibility requirements;

• VRI technology is not always reliable. In addition to technical difficulties (will the medical staff know how to fix a connection problem?), problems can arise from regional differences in sign choices as well as vocal accents. Physical and aural positioning during an examination or a procedure, etc. often cannot be reliably captured or conveyed through a stationary screen.

We request that you, along with involved members of your staff and Board of Trustees, meet with us in an open forum to discuss the practical, ethical, and medical concerns of your plan. Certainly, the decision to switch to a VRI system should not be made without representation and input from the deaf community. We invite you to schedule this meeting for no later than the end of February, 2007.

We want to help BIMC avoid making a calamitous error that would potentially lead to litigation and adversely affect our community. Instead, we want to encourage BIMC to continue to be an outstanding leader in accessible health care as we continue to regard your institution with utmost respect.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Finkle, M.S.W., President, Empire State Association of the Deaf
Mary Kay Adams, CI, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Interpreting Services, Inc.
Charlotte Lewis, M.A., Assistant Residence Manager, F.E.G.S. / New York Society for the Deaf Services, Tanya Towers Apartment Treatment Program
Henry Sang, Deaf Task Force Moderator/Leader
Debbie Swamback, Deaf/Interpreter Relations Committee (DIRC)
Christopher Tester, Civil Rights Advocate
Lusanne Massaro, MA, President NYC Metro Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, RID Certified ASL Interpreter CI, CT

cc:
Morton P. Hyman, Chairman of the BIMC Board of Trustees
Laura Weil, Director of BIMC Patient Representative Department

From NAD concerning MTA Evacuation Instruction DVD

December 5, 2006

Dear Deaf Task Force NYC–

The DVD should be captioned. Please contact MTA and request that the DVD be reproduced with captions. Assuming MTA is a state or local government agency, it is required by Section 504 and Title II of the ADA to ensure that its programs and services (including emergency preparedness information) is accessible by people with disabilities.

Access to 911 services from all cell phones, pagers, PDAs, or other mobile telecommunications devices, as well as for VoIP, IP Relay, and VRS, is an issue of great concern to emergency preparedness advocacy groups. I heard that in California, possibly Sacramento, one emergency 911 call center established a text-based communication system. Part of the problem with 911 from a device other than a landline telephone system is routing the call to the appropriate 911 call center. Solutions are being investigated. For more information, go to www.fcc.gov and search for “E911.”

I hope this information is helpful.

Rosaline

Rosaline Crawford
NAD Law and Advocacy Center
8630 Fenton Street, Suite 820
Silver Spring, MD 20910
(301) 587-7730 (voice/TTY)
(301) 587-1791 (fax)

MTA Evacuation Instruction DVD Not Captioned!!!

December 6, 2006

A note from Ms. Claudia Gordon to John Benison of Department of Transportation and Cheryl King Department of Homeland Security.

Cheryl and John:

I received a constituent inquiry regarding the lack of captioning of an evacuation instruction DVD released by NYC MTA for its transit subway stations. The DVD was released in September as part of National preparedness Month. I have not viewed the instructional DVD in entirety to confirm that it indeed lack captioning. Click onto the below link to view a clip:

http://www.mta.info/nyct/evacuation/evacuation.htm

My understanding is that the new evacuation instruction posted in all NYC subway cars during the month of September and is available for those who request it on line or by phone. In addition to captioning of the DVD, we should also question the availability of such instructions in alternative format for individuals with vision disabilities and individuals who do not speak English.

We each know that Title II of the ADA governs accessibility of State and local government services, programs, and activities in regards to people with disabilities, as well as section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act if federal dollars are also involved. I would be happy to collaborate with you on appropriate follow-up action(s).

Best regards,

Claudia L. Gordon
Senior Policy Advisor
Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Department of Homeland Security
(202) 357-8327 (v)
(202) 357-8346 (tty)
(202) 357-8298 (f)
claudia.gordon@dhs.gov

E9-1-1 Summit

Dear Task Force NYC:

I have attached two documents in response to your 9-1-1 inquiry. In a nutshell, yes the issue is being addressed. There is an Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) Stakeholder Council comprising of individual and organizational consumer stakeholders (e.g. NAD, TDI, California Center for the Law & the Deaf, Gallaudet University, Hearing Loss of America, only to name a few) and industry stakeholders. To learn more about the work of this Council and to perhaps collaborate with them you may contact the Chair – Sheri Farinha Mutti. I do not have her email address readily available but you can locate her via NorCal Center on Deafness, Sacramento – CA where she serves as CEO. You may also secure information via NAD and/or TDI.

As you may have noted in our last several Interagency Coordinating Council Monthly Updates, the FCC was scheduled to host a day-long E9-1-1 Summit (agenda attached). The Summit took place on November 15th and was attended by FCC officials and Commissioners, in addition to representatives from the Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, DHS, and the White House Domestic Policy Council. Notably, in addition to the FCC, the Department of Transportation is also actively exploring technological solutions.

It is also worth noting that E9-1-1 technological feasibility issues span beyond the hearing disability community. See for example, http://www.nena.org/pages/Content.asp?CID=83&CTID=5 although the conference and input period has passed. The E9-1-1 Stakeholder Council is working to ensure that while the government and industry identify mainstream solutions, those solutions are also be workable for individuals with hearing and speech disabilities or that there be a workable alternative.

As appropriate, I will keep you abreast of relevant future developments or meetings either directly or via colleagues in FCC and DOT. In the meantime, you may wish to become affiliated with the E9-1-1 Stakeholder Council.

Best regards,

Claudia L. Gordon
Senior Policy Advisor
Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Department of Homeland Security
(202) 357-8327 (v)
(202) 357-8346 (tty)
(202) 357-8298 (f)
claudia.gordon@dhs.gov

The E9-1-1 Summit reports’ available for anyone who requests for it.

What You Don’t Know Could Kill You

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT CAN HAPPEN RESULTING IN LIFE-THREATENING SITUATIONS OR DEATHS IF WE DO NOT BECOME THE FIRST RESPONDERS. WE’LL BE THE FIRST ONE TO DIE!

DOES THIS EVER STRIKE YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL IN DENIAL OR UNINFORMED OF THESE INSTANCES?

From the newsroom of the Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, Saturday, January 20, 2007 …..

Deaf residents sue over ‘05 emergency

Four deaf Rosemount residents are suing Dakota County alleging authorities did not provide sign language interpreters during a mercury spill and resulting evacuation of their neighborhood.

Kevin Loye, Gina Gist, Vikki Marshall and David Stiles filed suit in U.S. District Court on Friday alleging violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Minnesota Human Rights Act and other laws.

On Sept. 6, 2004, authorities evacuated the Rosemount Woods neighborhood after a mercury contamination. Under orders from Dakota County’s Special Operations Team, the four plaintiffs were quarantined
for hours, subjected to decontamination showers and shuffled to temporary housing, according to the suit. The four allege the county failed to provide American Sign Language interpreters during that process.

After the spill, county employees answered questions and provided information to dislocated residents at a local motel. The suit alleges the county again failed to provide interpreters at that location.

The county hosted follow-up community meetings to discuss health effects as well as services and benefits available. The defendants allege interpreters weren’t at all of those meetings.

That caused “humiliation, embarrassment and anxiety,” the suit alleges.

The suit demands that the county modify its emergency plan to include procedures for identifying deaf residents and providing interpreters. The defendants also are seeking more than $50,000 in damages.

The spill occurred when two teen boys broke into a garage at a former Rosemount glass factory, stole jars of liquid mercury and spread it at a nearby mobile home park, exposing almost 50 people to the toxin and forcing a major cleanup.

— Shannon Prather

Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press
“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction.”
-James Baldwin

“A divisive community in denial also invite their very own ruination if we do
not become the first responders in emergency instances
-Jade

November 20 DTFNYC Meeting with MOPD

Meeting with Matthew Sapolin – Monday, November 20, 2006

This was a meeting that occurred on November 20 with the Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities.

Nothing is as of yet confirmed. The reports are conversational to see what can be done for our community.

Only YOU can make this happen.

Policy
Funding
Technical (better technology means more money, get expensive)
Statistics

(Lacking accurate or near accurate numbers of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing citizens living in NYC. We need those numbers in order to get the city to do the stuff we want them to follow through with our plan of actions. If our numbers are not recognized, then, we’re in deep trouble.

What does that mean? It means that they will prioritize our list for resolutions over other much deserving than ours. THIS IS VERY, VERY IMPORTANT. Everything reflects the size of our community. We gotta stand out and be counted as deaf/hoh, not in the bucket of disability people. Period)

Discussed concerns for visual accessibility inside the subway system.

There are two very different 911 emergency call boxes: The fire alarm box outside on the streets and the Tap Morse code call box inside the subway stations.

To learn and understand how it works, visit this link: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mopd/pdf/emergency.pdf

There’s a video clip featuring deaf actors, Frank Dattolo, Michelle Banks and Darby Leigh demonstrating how to use the call box. This is the only mean of distribution online and not many deaf/hoh people know about it. Even Frank himself! This video has got to be at least ten years old! Don’t mean to diss my sister but Michelle Banks was wearing weaves. LOL! She has dreads now.

See video clip link. Sorry guys, the video presentation is not that great because it’s so tiny to see or even read the captions.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/mopd/html/fdspot060101.asx

Idea suggestions to replace Call box (Tap Morse code to get police/fire dept attention)

Call box was a policy decision-making based on available technology at that time (1990) provided by the city.

Huberta said, “It was a proposal provided by the fire department for the streets of NYC.”

Can the deaf/hoh do a petition to veto this call box method for improved technology like Sorenson or other means of visual call box two-way?

Mr. Sapolin mentioned a technology called SNAP that none of us heard of. (I will follow up to get that information from him again.)

MOPD website will be updated with resources. We need to help him provide information from our community i.e. DHIS, Metro RID Interpreters, etc.

Mr. Sapolin will try to get in touch with MTA so we can have a meeting with a high-official person to address our many concerns/issues.

Mr. Sapolin was surprised that the DVD Evacuation Instruction (Emergency Preparedness) was not captioned. He wants to find out whether this was a policy-decision making, or were city/federal funding involved. (Jade is following-up with NAD/Department of Homeland Security and Department of Transportation to find out if this is a direct violation of ADA Law Section 504, which enforces the city to captioned. They are also investigating to make sure this DVD is also accessible for the deaf-blind and people with disabilities.)

Tele-communication issues for all cell phones, PDAs, pagers should be able to text 911 to emergency first responders. FCC should be involved.

Huberta placed great emphasis that the city should focus on sensitivity training and sign language courses for all the law enforcement, fire department, EMS/EMT, city emergency response officials on how to better communicate with deaf/hoh people.

Jade proposed that the city deducted $1 from every city public worker included the law enforcement and city official paycheck bi-weekly. Mr. Sapolin likes that idea BUT, he said, “Jade will never get the city commissioner or government to support that idea.” He doesn’t think that is realistic. (Jade advises that we should follow through it and propose that idea to the city – by doing a petition of some sort. We pay taxes!)

Mr. Sapolin wants to know how many hours/days does it require for one to learn basic sign language. He thinks that the emergency responders should learn 7 basic signs. (I disagree) They can learn more than that! We are not asking them to master the language.

Henry mentioned: There are two options to learn sign language (short term – basic sign language) crash course for emergency first responders and (long-term) learning the language itself and cultural and sensitivity training.

We are looking to teach the emergency first responders (from system to system) basic sign language within a reasonable time frame for their job in order to communicate with deaf/hoh. We as Task Force group need to figure out what each emergency first responder needs know or learn.

We also need to ask the policy academy what kind of training do they get and who is teaching or training them. And find out what kind of information resources do they have in their field book. (Every policeman and policewoman has a field book that they carry around with them on duty containing information/guidelines for assisting.) Mr. Sapolin do not know if they have interpreter referral agencies in their field book. We need to find out. We need to know what kind of resources to provide in case of emergency incidents involving deaf/hoh people.

We also need to set up our own guidelines for the police academy and all emergency first responders to NOT go look for someone who knows sign language on the streets. Their first obligation is to call for a professional interpreter. That’s a priority first hand common sense.

Mr. Sapolin also stated that the policy academy has a contract with an interpreter referral agency. We need to find out which interpreter agency. I think he mention Department of City Wide Administrative Service. We need to look into that. He said, “they buys most of the contract for the city and that they have a large requirement contract with MEJ.” Who is Melvin and Elizabeth Johnson Interpreter Referral Agency because they are the lower bid.

Mr. Sapolin will arrange film screening of my film for the law enforcement and city officials followed by a panel discussion and reception with the Task Force Team. (Jade will follow-up again with Mr. Sapolin)

Carmen suggested we produce a how to video blog sensitive training for these city officials on our website for them available for them to log on frequently.

Mr. Sapolin will provide a letter of support for the Task Force group if we need one when we apply for funding for our mission. MOPD do not have fund. They have 9 staff and not equipped to give us money.

What deaf/hoh need to know they pay taxes and our taxes are paying for the law enforcement and city officials. We also pay for FCC on our phone bill.

STAY FOCUS ON WHAT WE NEED TO DO STEP-BY-STEP.

TASK FORCE TEAM PRIORITY FOCUS:
-MTA AND FIRST EMERGENCY RESPONSE EVACUATION (OEM/RED CROSS)
- 911 EMERGENCY TEXT
- NEED A SUBSITUTE CALL BOX IN THE SUBWAY SYSTEM (two-way, not one way!)
- DESIGNED SAFE AREA PLACE OF MEET IN THE EVENT OF A DISASTER
- FOLLOW-UP ON LAW ENFORCEMENT FIELD BOOK. (What’s in the field book. We need to know that. It’s our rights.)
- IMPROVE THE WAIT PERIOD FOR AN INTERPRETER (most wait period for an interpreter is 2 hours or more)
- LAST, NOT LEAST, SURVIVAL SKILLS (ON YOUR OWN. WE MUST.)

SECONDARY FOCUS
- SENSITIVITY TRAINING AND ASL CRASH COURSE
- LAW ENFORCEMENT (NYPD)
- HOSPITALS
- EMT/EMS
- FIRE DEPARTMENT (NYFD)
- CITYWIDE SERVICE PUBLIC SERVICE WORKERS
- SHOW FILM – 9/11 FEAR IN SILENCE: THE FORGOTTEN UNDERDOGS

Beth Israel Medical Center to Replace Interpreters with VRI?

Is this forum to save the interpreters’ jobs or is this about our RIGHTS as deaf/hoh & deaf-blind individuals?

You as community decide which is more critical.

Are you now or have you ever been a patient at Beth Israel Medical Center? Did you know that Beth Israel is planning to fire their sign language interpreters and switch to Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) for all their Deaf patients?

How do you feel about using a VRI service during your medical appointments? Are you comfortable working with a TV screen when your doctor asks you how you’re feeling? Will you trust the VRI interpreter to understand your sign language and your medical history? Do you want to work with a TV screen when you’re getting serious information and instructions about your health?

These are VERY IMPORTANT issues! Come to the first DIRC (Deaf/Interpreter Relations Committee) meeting of 2007 to share your concerns. You can also learn how to contact a Deaf attorney who is willing to help the NYC Deaf community work together and be heard.

The meeting is open to everyone (DIRC meetings are conducted in American Sign Language with no voice interpretation provided). If you are a case manager, social worker, or other professional who wants to learn more about this issue and want to advocate for those consumers who rely on LIVE interpreters for effective communication, please attend.

The DIRC meeting will be held in Friday, January 19th at OMRDD: 75 Morton Street, Manhattan from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. FREE pizza, salad, and soda/water will be served at the meeting until 9 pm.

There will be another meeting next month. Keep checking for announcements.