Legal Rights: The Guide for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (review)

Abstract

Legal Rights: The Guide for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People [5h Edition] By The National Association of the Deaf Gallaudet University Press Washington, D.C. 6/2000 ISBN: 1-56368-091-2 Legal Rights: The Guide for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People f5th Edition] is must reading for deaf and hard of hearing adults, parents of deaf and hard of hearing children, deaf community leaders, teachers of deaf and hard of hearing children, health practitioners, employers, and legal advocates. It is a user-friendly document that clearly charts the sometimes complicated course of legal rights and remedies deaf and hard of hearing people must exercise in education, work, communication access, health care, and public services. This book is important because the rights and remedies described in the book are meaningless unless they are understood and used. Legal Rights shows us what the law is doing for deaf and hard of hearing people. But the book also points us in the direction of what is still to be done to assure full citizenship and opportunity to deaf and hard of hearing people. Legal Rights was written by a remarkable group of deaf and hearing attorneys who have devoted their careers to the service of deaf and hard of hearing people. Kelby Brick, Marc Charmatz, Sarah Geer, Karen Peltz Strauss, and Mary Vargas are seasoned, front line legal samurai who have the uncommon ability to communicate clearly with nonlawyers. The quality of the writing is superb. As an evolving document, these authors appropriately acknowledge the gifted coauthors of earlier editions of the book: Sy DuBow, Larry Goldberg, Elaine Gardner, Andrew Penn, and Sheila Conlon Mentkowski. Taken together, you could not have a better civil rights law team. The book is organized very logically. Chapter One begins with a thorough overview of the communication access options currently available to deaf and hard of hearing people. Chapter Two takes the reader through each title [private employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, and of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This chapter includes information about relevant, up-to-date U.S. Supreme Court ADA rulings. For example, the reader gets a preview of what may be the implications of recent U.S. Supreme Court cases on ADA coverage for people with cochlear implants. The chapter links the reader to agencies where deaf and hard of hearing people can file ADA complaints. Chapter Three is a tour of Sections 504 and 508 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, still the keys to opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing people in federal agencies and in organizations [e.g., hospitals, colleges] receiving federal financial assistance. Chapter Four focuses on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It begins, appropriately, with the four major purposes of IDEA. After all, the IDEA rules and procedures described are just so much paperwork unless IDEA moves deaf and hard of hearing children to ADA rights, higher education opportunities, employment compatible with ability, and independent living. …