By Ali Sprott-Roen
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

SAN FRANCISCO, California – California state employees who are deaf and hard-of-hearing are regularly denied sign language interpreters for meetings, job training, performance reviews, and other work-related events such as meeting with the public and clients. In addition, deaf employees have been left behind during evacuation drills as well as during real emergencies due to a  failure to provide accommodations.

Employee requested professional interpreters are often substituted by insufficient or ineffective forms of communication such as lip reading, utilizing untrained co-workers as interpreters  and  email or videophone. The state of California claims budget limitations as an attempt to justify its failure to provide reasonable accommodations.

These practices have resulted in workplace “isolation, exclusion, prejudice and overall pervasive discrimination,” according to a suit filed in the San Francisco Superior Court against the State of California.

The suit was filed by Deaf and Hard of Hearing State Workers United and has seven named plaintiffs, including one woman who works for the Office of Deaf Access at the Department of Social Services. It alleges violations of California fair employment law, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation act of 1973.  It seeks improvements in state policy, while asking for no money damages. The plaintiffs hope to turn it into a class action suit on behalf of the approximately 1,500 CA state workers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

For more information, please see:

 

SFGate.com – – Deaf State Workers Sue Over Lack of Services – 22 May 2010

KTVU – – Deaf Workers Suing State Over No Accommodations – 21 May 2010

SF Weekly – – Deaf Left Behind During Emergencies, Lawsuit Says – 21 May 2010