Several of the deaf Tea Party members had been informally assured by the IM chats with the Tea Party organizers that the presence of ASL interpreters will be there last week ago. One of them asked for confirmation of ASL interpreters' given name and got immediately disconnected by the AOL IM chat. Repeated attempts to get in touch with the Tea Party organizers left some deaf Tea Party supporters such a negative experience with the Tea Party.
26 deaf individuals showed up to see the close-ups of Sarah Palin, but had been turned away for the security reason.
No video footage showed how the Tea Party organizers treated deaf Tea Party supporters that way at the Boston Tea Party rally via Boston Commons Plaza. *sigh*
Dunno know about tommorow's major Tea Party rally in Washington, DC for the annual Tax Day protest whether the ASL interpreter(s) will be provided for the deaf Tea Party supporters.
The Guardian, UK newspaper still miscategorize the mispellings of words on the Tea Party poster signs as some kind of sign language - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/apr/01/teabonics-tea-party-protest-signs
The recent controvesty surrounded Sarah Palin's secretive speaking fee contract with the California state university which some university students accidently discovered the shredded documents in the university adminstration trash bin. Palin's eccentric demands for "bendable straws" and other things - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/13/sarah-palin-speaking-cont_n_536165.html
The state attorney general of California will take a look into this Palin controvesty and the state university adminstration whether they violate the state laws.
ASLize yours,
RLM
Boo hoo! Tea Party is bunch of losers who whine endlessly.
ReplyDeletethe Tea Party doesn't support deaf panels
ReplyDeleteTea party doesn't belive in increasing tax. Therefore, they don't want to honor the deaf consumers for requesting the ASL interprting service. The supporters of Tea Party do not like to pay the interprting service fee out of their Tea Party fund. I truly believe that they have intellient disablity when they forgot to read smeared ink comments on their hands.
ReplyDeleteYes, the Tea Party people are real cheap skates themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the Deaf Republicans?
RLM
To the two anonymous posters and Mookie, all of your statements are false and misleading.
ReplyDeleteI have recently attended a Tea Party rally in downtown Columbus last Thursday and there were two ASL interpreters presented at the rally. In fact, I requested the Ohio Liberty Council for the interpreters few weeks ago, gave them a number to call the interpreter referral service. The organizers thought it was a very good idea and agreed to secure the funds for the terps for the 2 hours rally. I have met the president of Tea Party of Columbus and his OLC staff, a very nice and friendly bunch of people. Only few deaf people did showed up at the rally and the terps did a marvelous job. The Tea Party of Columbus would agree to do it again, if I or a fellow deaf Tea Party supporter request it. The most important thing is to ask nicely and be cooperative with the organizers, not demanding with minute details in a rude fashion.
That being said, the Tea Party movement is not affiliated with the Republican Party nor support the general GOP platform nor on Sarah Palin's side. Even Tea Party supporters booed Palin's name when mentioned.
The Tea Party believe in fiscal responsibility and responsible spending of money by the government, not increasing taxes or pushing for new taxes to pay for something that only benefit the few. The main problem is that government spending is out of control and no one is being accountable with how money is being distributed and spent to support certain government purposes and programs.
The second issue is the amount of fees suggested by the interpreter referral services. The fees vary from state to state, some may be higher, some may be affordable and reasonable. In my state, the local ITRS (InTerpreter Referral Services) offer reasonable fees for businesses or private organizations, so as long as they have sufficient money to pay for the fees for the hours to be rendered. It's important to keep in mind that all Tea Party organizations in the states have to raise and maintain money for future events, but to each on its own. A deaf Tea Party supporter would have to make a formal request and provide alternative choices in local ITRS with the Tea Party organizers. Some Tea Party organizers are not familiar about deaf people or the need to provide interpreters for such events, education is an important key here; once the Tea Party organizers get to know deaf Tea Party supporters, it would lessen future problems.
RLM, you offered an account about the problems with the Tea Party organization in Boston not providing requested interpreters. I see no evidence of your account. Do you have the emails or the IM chats supporting your story? Is there anyone in Boston who can verify your story by posting here?
Rob,
ReplyDeleteI already mentioned the no video footage which shown the security people at the Tea Party rally in Boston turned deaf people away from the front row to view the interpreter(s).
I tried to get the side of the Tea Party Nation, but not able to get their response in time-compressed mode. Couldn't able to access to the Tea Party website which only available to members.
I just reported what happened out there as someone sent me email message.
I could not possibly reveal the original source due to the journalistic reason. I was not the one, who done the email correspondences and IM chats with the Tea Party rally organizers.
In general, deaf people really do not have to make such requests.
All political rally organizers know better by providing terp all the time without asking any questions.
I am just a messenger, not the inflitarator. :)
RLM
I just reported what happened out there as someone sent me email message.
ReplyDeleteI could not possibly reveal the original source due to the journalistic reason.
You do not have to show the original source, just the body of the email message, with the xxx on the email address if the sender wanted it confidential. If you cannot produce these to verify such claims, then your blog doesn't have any leg of credibility to stand on.
All political rally organizers doesn't know if there would be deaf, blind, or other people with a certain disability showing up at rallies or not. Some rallies are organized on the fly and in advance; if some people get the wind of it, they simply let the organizers know that certain accommodations would have to be made by request. In order to make any accommodation in a rally, organizers have to make a conference internally to approve such requests and see if funds can be secured to arrange them in advance or not. You cannot show up at a political rally and demand an interpreter on the spot when the organizers has no idea or no way of knowing you're showing up or not. How can a ASL terp work at a rally when there's no deaf or HOH attendee among the rally? Waste of time and money.