Monday, July 13, 2009

Is Sotomayor a "Deaf-Friendly" Judge?

Meant to write this blog posting for more than few months questioning whether the Federal Appellate Judge, Sonia Sotomayor being the deaf-friendly judge or not. Finally doing the blog posting on the questions of Sotomayor's intentions toward deaf people in general. The well-known fact about Sotomayor living in New York City most of her life.

Many of us, deaf people are much aware about New York City populace being pretty much leaned toward the oralist philosophy for years and years. More and more deaf people hardly get hired for gainful employment in NYC for more than a decade. Why???

Judge Sonia Sotomayor apparently have a mixed judicial records on disability issues and workplace accessibility and accommodation issues for disabled individuals brought up to
Sotomayor's judge bench.

Here are numerous reliable sources refer to Sotomayor's judicial decisions affecting deaf people in general. Look at several judicial cases -

Norville v. Staten Island University - the judicial case involved the workplace accessibility and accommodation which led to the unjustifiable firing of longtime employee on the issue of
accessibility and accommodation request(s) under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) law.

Gant v. Wallington Board of Education

Willaim V. R.H. Donnelly Co.

Cruz v. Coach Strauss

EEOC v. J.B. Transportation, Inc.


What is the real Sonia Sotomayor's stance on the perspective of deaf people?

If the Audism Free America (AFA) or Deaf Bilingual Coalition (DBC) or National
Association of the Deaf bring the case to the U.S. Supreme Court like challenging the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s approval of cochlear implant surgery and device
or U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and other state regulatory agencies involved the trucking industry's illogical refusal of hiring deaf drivers.

Or the Deaf Bilingual Coalition (DBC) challenge the U.S. Department of Education for its failure of providing the federal-level leadership on inclusive educational methods on the issue of Auditory-Visual Therapy which often seen as very harmful incentives for educators and parents to undermine the deaf child's language acquisition and intellectual development potentials.

Did you know that the U.S. Supreme Court still refuse to provide the request for American Sign Language interpreter for the court building tour? It consider hirself to be above the American laws.

ASlize yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLMDEAF blog
rlmdeaf@hotmail.com