Friday, September 24, 2004

deaf people voting


hmmm, deaf awareness week. is there a deaf program to get out the deaf vote?

what should deaf people vote for anyway? the problematic ADA is generally the starting point for deaf people. many of us depend on the ADA to force employers, shopkeepers, etc. to make sure their stores and businesses don't discriminate against us. (I am NOT going to use the term "access." The term is "anti-discrimination." if i want access, trust me, I'll get the access on my own.) bush's stand on the ADA is weird. on the one hand he keeps saying he supports it and he's signed this New Freedom Initiative (which basically tries to absolve the government from some responsibility in ADA enforcement from what I can understand of it.) on the other hand many remember the Jeffery Sutton debacle; Sutton was a judge nominated by Bush with strong anti-ADA views. Generally, I think Bush is okay with the ADA as long as it doesn't cost businesses or the government anything, which is kind of counterproductive.

on the other hand, kerry and edwards have a strong history of supporting the ADA; this group called Americans for Democratic Action did research on Kerry/Edward's voting record for the ADA. eddie's lowest score is 65%; kerry's is 85%. Can't apply this to bush/cheney: not on the senate or house of reps. KB might know more about this. KB? fess up darlin.

im curious if anyone wants to come up with shortlists of issues we as deaf people need to be aware of for our own security. for example, heres what i can think of:

    issues:
  • the FCC - they control our paging systems and a lot of other communication tools and often control how much we pay for them. are there any deaf people working with the FCC? no. their disability dept is led by an audiologist i believe. which goes to show the kind of perspective theyre gonna have on us. this is gonna be VERY important in the next couple years.
  • education - we have a serious education crisis in this country for deaf people and unfortunately those people who should be leaders are not leading. instead of using research to prove points about deaf education, we have been forced into a "reactive" role, letting scientists and politicians set the agenda.

I would really love for other people to post things they are concerned about politically related to deaf stuff. even if it's weird and small.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i remember coupla folks working at FCC - but that was in late 90s when i lived in DC.

i just found out Rep Jerrold Nadler (his district includes Lincoln Center area and parts of west side manhattan) is very supportive of the deaf community and hires interpreters for his meetings.

Katie Roberts said...

no child left behind worries me. by what standards are they measuring all kids? What if a deafie kid who is bad in English but good in everything else is held back or is not so sublty encouraged to go to the local deaf school with lower standards because the school is concerned about their ranking? I do not want some people sitting in an office telling me that this kid is not educated well enough or not. What the hell do they know?