ALDA-Sonora / Arizona - Founded 2009

The Association of Late-Deafened Adults

Arizona’s 1st Group

Helen Keller, who knew a thing or two about sensory disabilities, once said that her deafness was worse than her blindness.

“Blindness separates us from things,” she observed, “but deafness separates us from people.”

I think we all experience the truth of that statement. When we begin losing our hearing, our world begins to shrink. If we go

out, we are surrounded by noise but can’t make any sense out of it, so we stay home. We cope by separating ourselves from

people.

It shouldn’t be this way. Both state and federal laws demand that public places, both publicly and privately owned, provide aids

and services such as assistive listening devices and systems, various forms of captioning, and sign language interpreters to

enable us to understand what is said.

In reality, though, this often isn’t happening. The laws aren’t being enforced. Someone isn’t doing their job. Let’s find out who

that is, and tell them to get with it.

Here’s the surprising reality. The people who aren’t doing their jobs are ...us!

The state and federal legislators knew that government enforcement agencies would have limited budgets and competing

priorities. And they also believed that people affected by disabilities like hearing loss would have both superior knowledge and

greater incentives to ensure implementation of the protections guaranteed by those laws. So to encourage and promote

enforcement by the people most directly affected, both federal and state laws allow citizens to go to court to enforce their

rights, and require the entity out of compliance to pay the complaining side’s lawyer.

This is where our organization, the Washington State Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP), comes in. Wash-CAP is a

non-profit corporation that invites anyone affected by hearing loss – including spouses, parents, and friends of the individual

with the loss – to become a member. Membership is free. Under the overall direction of an eight-member board, Wash-CAP

then acts in a strategic and systematic fashion on behalf of its members to advocate for the aids and services we need to

participate fully in our world.

Although the law is on our side, going to court is a last resort. We begin by contacting businesses, explaining our needs and

pointing out how those businesses can become accessible. We work through education and persuasion, offering whatever

knowledge we have available.

If there is either a flat refusal or if communication ceases, we will then go to court. We’ve had to take that step only twice, and

both times, we reached a very quick and amicable settlement well short of an actual trial.

ALDAcon 2009 eNews Featured Presenter

John Waldo Wash-CAP Founder