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Tag: Hearing loss and deafness

  • This cafe takes orders in sign language. It’s cherished by the Deaf community

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    PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon cafe that takes orders in sign language has become a cherished space for the Deaf community, providing a unique gathering place as well as employment for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

    American Sign Language, or ASL, is the primary language at Woodstock Cafe in Portland, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Non-ASL speakers can use a microphone that transcribes their order onto a screen.

    People have moved from across the country to work at the cafe because it can be hard for people who are deaf or hard of hearing to find jobs, Andre Gray, who helped open the cafe, told the news outlet in sign language.

    “So the cafe becomes their stable place. It’s their rock,” he said.

    The cafe — owned by CymaSpace, a nonprofit that makes art accessible to the Deaf community — also hosts weekly ASL meetups and game nights. Sign Squad on Tuesdays is a popular event, drawing people like Zach Salisbury, who was born with a rare genetic disorder that causes gradual loss of hearing and sight and uses a cochlear implant, and Amy Wachspress, who started learning sign language nine years ago as she lost her hearing.

    The hearing spectrum among attendees is diverse, with deaf people signing with students taking introductory sign language classes and hard of hearing people reading lips and communicating with spoken word and hand signals.

    “What I just love about it is that there’s so many different people that come,” said Wachspress, who classifies herself as hard of hearing and primarily reads lips to communicate. “It’s so eclectic … just many different kinds of people from all different backgrounds. And the one thing we have in common is that we sign.”

    Wachspress loves to tell the story about a deaf toddler born to hearing parents who wanted him to be immersed in Deaf culture. When they brought him to the cafe, he was thrilled to see other people sign.

    “He was just so beside himself excited when he realized that you could communicate with people using sign,” she said. “We were all so touched. … That’s the kind of thing that happens here at the cafe.”

    Gray, who helped open the cafe, said there were plans to acquire adjacent vacant buildings for a Deaf Equity Center but that much of the funding was cut following the change of presidential administration. However, CymaSpace hopes to find funding from private organizations and a future crowdsourcing campaign.

    “It gives power to the community as opposed to a fear of signing. We, as a community, are so proud of who we are,” he said.

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  • Kentucky sign language interpreter honored in program to give special weather radios to the deaf

    Kentucky sign language interpreter honored in program to give special weather radios to the deaf

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    Putting grant money into action is routine for Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, but an effort to provide weather alerts to people who are deaf or hard of hearing is tugging at his heart.

    The grant-backed campaign to distribute 700 specially adapted weather alert radios to the deaf and hard of hearing is named in honor of his friend Virginia Moore, who died last year. She was the governor’s sidekick as the sign language interpreter for his briefings during the height of COVID-19. The updates became a staple for Kentuckians, and Moore gained celebrity status. She even got her own bobblehead of her likeness.

    Beshear tapped the bobblehead displayed on his podium as he announced the “Moore Safe Nights” program, which will distribute the radios at no cost to eligible Kentuckians who apply. It is an effort to ensure all Kentuckians have equal access to information that can keep them safe, he said Thursday.

    “I think Virginia would have loved this program,” Beshear said, his voice shaking with emotion. “Virginia has a legacy for service that is living on with new programs.”

    The weather radios were purchased with funding from an emergency preparedness grant and other funds, Beshear said. The state will seek additional funds with a goal of eventually providing the radios to every Kentuckian who needs one, he said.

    The radios are equipped with pillow-shaker and strobe-light attachments to alert people who are deaf and hard of hearing of severe weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service. The radios also have text displays that light up, so they know the type of weather warning issued.

    “As Kentuckians know all too well, severe weather can strike at any hour,” Beshear said. “And the most dangerous time is when people are sleeping.”

    No matter how vigilant deaf and hard-of-hearing people are in monitoring weather alerts, their vulnerability increases once they fall asleep because they are unable to hear alarms and sirens, said Anita Dowd, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

    “This equipment will allow users to rest easier knowing that they now have access to this important and often life-saving information,” Dowd said.

    Kentucky has more than 700,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing residents, the governor said.

    Moore, who died at age 61, was known as a tireless champion for the deaf and hard of hearing and served as executive director of the state commission that advocates for them.

    On Thursday, Beshear spoke about their bond. At the end of each long day of work during the height of the pandemic, he said, he would see her on his way home to his family at the governor’s mansion.

    “She’d look at me and say, ‘I hope you’re OK and take care of yourself,’ ” he recalled. “That’s pretty special. That’s who she was, looking out for everybody else, including me.”

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    Eligible Kentuckians can go to https://www.kcdhh.ky.gov/msn/ or call 800-372-2907 or 502-416-0607 to apply for a radio, Radios will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.

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  • Maine’s close-knit deaf community is grieving in the wake of shootings that killed 4 beloved members

    Maine’s close-knit deaf community is grieving in the wake of shootings that killed 4 beloved members

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    FALMOUTH, Maine — Maine’s close-knit community of deaf and hard of hearing people is grieving in the wake of the Lewiston shootings that killed beloved members, many of whom were ardent advocates.

    The shootings, at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, killed at least four people in the deaf community, the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf said Friday. The shootings killed 18 people in total and injured 13 others.

    Joshua Seal, 36, was a sign language interpreter among those killed while he was playing in a cornhole tournament at Schemengees Bar with friends. In the past couple years, he became known as an interpreter during Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s pandemic briefings.

    His wife Elizabeth Seal said in a Facebook post that he was “a wonderful husband, my best friend, and my soulmate. He was also a wonderful boss, an incredible interpreter, a great friend, a loving son, brother, uncle, and grandson.”

    “It is with a heavy heart that I share with you all that Joshua Seal has passed away … no, he was murdered, in the 10/25 shooting in Lewiston. It still feels surreal,” she wrote.

    Billy Brackett, 48; Steve Vozzella, 45; and Bryan MacFarlane, 41, were also stalwart members of Maine’s community of deaf people who died in the shootings, the educational center said. The Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf are located on Mackworth Island in Falmouth, near Portland.

    The school and center were closed on Friday due to the shooting, but the island became a gathering place for people to share stories and grieve, said Karen Hopkins, the executive director.

    “We have had some people come today to this island to be present and think about the loss in our community,” Hopkins said. “How is this affecting our community? It’s horrific. It’s unimaginable.”

    Police were still investigating the shootings and searching for suspect Robert Card on Friday afternoon. They have not speculated on a motivate for the shootings.

    The four slain members of the deaf community all have connections to the Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Governor Baxter School for the Deaf. Seal had four deaf children who were all connected to the institutions’ educational programs, Hopkins said.

    Brackett attended the school and had a daughter who was in early intervention, Hopkins said. MacFarlane also attended the school as a student and Vozzella’s wife Megan was an alumnus of the school, Hopkins said.

    “Our staff is struggling because they are our friends,” Hopkins said.

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    Associated Press writer Lisa Rathke in Marshfield, Vermont, contributed to this story.

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  • A test case of another kind for the Supreme Court: Who can sue hotels over disability access

    A test case of another kind for the Supreme Court: Who can sue hotels over disability access

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    WASHINGTON — A few years back, Joseph Stramondo was a last-minute replacement as a conference speaker in Salt Lake City. He went online and made a reservation for a room accessible for people with disabilities.

    “I figured, ‘OK, I should be set,’” Stramondo said.

    But when he checked in, the room he was given looked like a standard room, without bars in the bathroom or a door wide enough to accommodate his wheelchair.

    Returning to the front desk, Stramondo learned the room was accessible — for people with hearing loss.

    The Supreme Court is taking up a case Wednesday that Stramondo, his wife, Leah Smith, and other people with disabilities worry could make it harder to learn in advance what accommodations are available that meet their needs.

    The justices are being asked to limit the ability of so-called testers to file lawsuits against hotels that fail to disclose accessibility information on their websites and through other reservation services.

    The information is required by a 2010 Justice Department rule. People who suffer discrimination can sue under the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law in 1990.

    The issue in the Supreme Court case is whether Deborah Laufer, a woman with disabilities, has the right to sue a hotel in Maine that lacked the accessibility information on its website, despite having no plans to visit it. Laufer, who would not agree to an interview for this story, has filed some 600 similar lawsuits.

    A district court dismissed her complaint, but the federal appeals court in Boston revived it. Appeals courts around the country have issued conflicting rulings over whether ADA testers have standing to sue if they don’t intend to go to the hotels.

    Acheson Hotels and the business interests supporting it argue that Laufer’s admission that she wasn’t planning to visit the hotel should end the case. Acheson owned the hotel, the Coast Village Inn and Cottages in Wells, Maine, when Laufer filed her lawsuit, but has since sold it.

    “What we’ve seen for the last 20 years is that people just sit at their house and troll through websites. Small businesses in particular have been targeted,” said Karen Harned, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Responsibility.

    On the other side of the case, civil rights groups fear a broad ruling for the hotel could limit the use of testers who have been crucial in identifying racial discrimination in housing and other areas.

    It’s possible the Supreme Court could dismiss the case as moot without even reaching the main issue, though the hotel is urging the justices to reach a decision.

    In the context of disabilities, testers can’t sue for money, just to get facilities to change their practices. That’s a critical role, Stramondo and Smith said.

    Stramondo, a philosophy professor at San Diego State University, and Smith are each under 4 feet, and even a hotel room deemed accessible “doesn’t mean that it’s accessible for us,” Smith said, adding that they often turn over a room’s trashcan to use as a stepstool. Smith is the director of the National Center for Disability Equity and Intersectionality.

    There’s no federal agency dedicated to enforcing the ADA. “And so we need to have some kind of enforcement mechanism. And the best one that I’ve seen is testers,” Stramondo said.

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