VIDEO: Protecting Rights of People With Hearing Loss--What Does the Law Say?
By Jennifer Millman
October 06, 2008
Does your deafness or hearing loss make it harder to find and keep a
job? How can you find out which companies are best at including people with all
disabilities, and what are your legal options if you feel you're a victim of
discrimination?
The
New Jersey Division on Civil Rights' 2008 Disability Law Conference, "Protecting the Rights of People
With Hearing Loss," was jam-packed, featuring legal training, presentations from
state and federal civil-rights employees, and an emotional Q&A session to
close the annual conference in New Brunswick, N.J., last
week.
Click play
below to watch the video.
(Get all DiversityInc
video)
How
many people have hearing loss? More than 31.5 million people have a
self-described "hearing difficulty," according to the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC). But that number is expected to increase as the
baby-boomer generation approaches age 65. Adults 65 and older have the highest
percentage of hearing loss compared with other age groups.
But
there is substantial diversity among those who are deaf or hard of hearing. They
come from all ages, races/ethnicities, genders and orientations and have varying
degrees of disability. "Protecting civil rights of people who deaf and hard of
hearing requires that this diversity in relation to hearing loss be
acknowledged," said David Alexander, director of the Division of the Deaf and
Hard of Hearing.
The
conference outlined some of the main concerns and problems facing people with
deafness and hearing loss in employment, public accommodations, government
service, entertainment, schools, housing and other areas, as well as how to
prevent discrimination.
It
happens frequently. Read 'Second-Class
Citizen': Deaf Mother of 3 Denied Service at Restaurant for one deaf woman's
story about being denied service at an Illinois fast-food restaurant. Karen Putz
tried to explain to a drive-through attendant that she needed to communicate her
order through the window rather than the speaker because she couldn't hear
through the speaker, but the attendant ended up threatening to call the police
because she was "holding up the line," slamming the window in her face.
In
the employment realm, the reality is that there's no law to guarantee hiring and
promotion of people with disabilities on par with their representation in the
talent pool, and corporate lawyers can be creative when it comes to finding
loopholes in existing civil-rights laws. While the law prohibits discrimination
against all people with disabilities, the panelists said infrastructure change
is needed to make real progress.
Good companies do a good job of recruiting and retaining a diverse
work force--diversity as it relates to age, race/ethnicity, gender, disability
and orientation--and their workplace cultures reflect that inclusiveness, said
J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.
"These companies do it right from the beginning," Vespa-Papaleo explained.
Check out
DiversityInc's Top 10 Companies for People With Disabilities to learn how these employers make inroads and tap into
this talented, often under-utilized work force.
What Does the
Law Say?
The
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a federal law that prohibits
discrimination against individuals with disabilities, including deafness and
hearing loss. Title I of the ADA addresses employment, covering private
employers with 15 or more employees and similarly sized state and local
government employers. Most states also have their own discrimination laws that
include disability, and these statutes may provide even more protections than
those afforded by federal law.
The
conference kicked off with introductions and legal training on the state and
federal level as it relates to disability law and reasonable accommodations,
which is one of the blurriest areas of all civil-rights laws. At what point does
accommodating someone's disability, such as requesting a sign-language
interpreter for a person with hearing loss, become an "undue burden" on the
employer? It depends on the size of the employer, access to and cost of
equipment, the type of accommodation requested and how it relates to an
individual's ability to perform the essential functions of a job, for example.
Each case
must be evaluated on an individual basis because an individual employee's view
of what is "reasonable" often differs from that held by the employer. Find out
why disability is the most complex of EEO laws from a former EEOC chair and DiversityInc's legal expert. These are tough
questions. Get EEOC guidelines.
Download
the division's guide to disability discrimination
to learn more. Also check out the fact sheet on rights for people with hearing loss under
state law.
Discrimination charges on
the basis of disability accounted for 21.4 percent of all those filed with the
EEOC in 2007, down from 22.4 percent in 1997, according to agency charge
statistics. The EEOC recovered $54.4 million in monetary benefits, which exclude
litigation fees, for disability-related discrimination cases that year, up from
$41.3 million in 1997. Charges based on hearing impairments comprised 4 percent
of total disability-related charges in 2007. You can get more facts and
statistics on disability-related EEOC
charges
here.
In
the federal work force, employees with targeted (or severe) disabilities account
for a mere 0.97 percent of the total permanent work force. That number has
declined every year since 1993. "Overall, the federal government is losing more
people with targeted disabilities than it is hiring each year," reports the
EEOC.
In
2006, deaf people made up 18.3 percent of all federal employees with targeted
disabilities, but their representation has declined every year since 1997 for a
total loss of 7.22 percent. Representation of deaf employees in federal
government among those with targeted disabilities is second only to employees
suffering from mental illness, who make up 24 percent of all federally employed
individuals with targeted disabilities. Still, the number of those with mental
illness has gone up over the last decade.
Download the EEOC's report to
improve opportunities for individuals with targeted disabilities in the federal
work force for key statistics and recommendations.
What to Do if
You Think You're a Victim
A
Q&A session at the conclusion of the conference became emotional when deaf
and hard-of-hearing people painfully expressed their experiences facing
rejection when trying to get jobs, enjoy public accommodations or contribute to
society.
State and federal legal experts had advice for those who feel they
are victims of discrimination:
- Keep notes.
Document times, dates and the names of individuals who you feel
discriminated against you.
- Reach out.
After you contact the organization you feel is not accommodating your
disability or discriminating against you in some way to make them aware of the
situation, contact your local civil-rights division or EEOC office. You can find
out more about how to file a complaint at www.eeoc.gov.
- Educate.
Engage the assistance of hearing-loss advocacy organizations to help educate
your employer because sometimes they don't intend to exclude certain groups;
they just don't think about it.
- Advocate.
Involvement in state and national associations for deaf people and
collaborating with individuals, employers and government representatives is key
for large-scale change.
Make
the business case.
At the end of the day, it's all about numbers. Making a compelling business case
to your employer, for example, about how providing access to certain equipment
will help you be more productive in your job and to the bottom line is likely to
gain buy-in.
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