We enjoy a proud history in the commonwealth of Massachusetts of
accurately identifying and swiftly addressing areas in which our
legal services can better serve our citizens. In the aftermath of
the Boston Marathon bombings, the leadership of the Massachusetts
and Boston Bar Associations coordinated efforts to provide the
highest level of legal services on a volunteer basis to victims of
the attacks who suffered personal injury, property damage, and
business disruption. Beyond the initial damage assessment,
MBA President Douglas K. Sheff founded the Traumatic Brain Injury
(TBI) Task Force "to educate the public, and to overcome bias which
often accompanies an ailment that you can't see, that people aren't
familiar with." In focusing attention on the struggles faced by
individuals suffering from TBI, hearing loss and tympanic injury
following the bombings, Sheff also shed light on a larger issue in
the administration of justice: The unique challenges faced by deaf
individuals in our court system.
Equal access to services and institutions is a civil and human
right. Deaf citizens are denied that right on a daily basis simply
because too few people in this country can communicate in American
Sign Language (ASL). That barrier to adequate communication creates
circumstances that we would not otherwise tolerate. For instance,
all hospitals in the Boston area prominently post lists of language
interpreters available upon request to assist patients. While ASL
interpreters are featured on those lists, it can take days to
locate one for hospital work. Consequently, hospital personnel
routinely fall back on asking an accompanying friend or family
member to act as an interpreter. In a time when HIPAA regulations
are meticulously enforced, often to the frustration of litigants
and medical providers, those same regulations are cast aside in
favor of expediency when hospital staff encounter a deaf
patient.
Similarly, deaf individuals know that even to consult with an
attorney is a complicated process, often involving negotiation from
the outset with respect to the use of interpreters. With only six
interpreters currently certified in the commonwealth to perform
legal interpretation - and a six-month wait to schedule them - it
is a given that an interpreter retained for an initial office
consultation with an attorney will not be certified as a legal
interpreter. Much like the hospital setting, the temptation for
both deaf client and hopeful lawyer, for the sake of efficiency, is
to rely on the assistance of a family member or friend to
facilitate communication. In so doing, both client and counsel cast
aside the protections of attorney-client privilege that otherwise
they hold so dear.
In a glaring, but not unusual, example of the frustrations endured
by litigants and the courts themselves, in September, Judge Robert
Fournier of Ottowa stopped just short of staying all charges
against a deaf man being held in Ottowa after what he called
"outrageous" delays in locating a sign language interpreter to
facilitate the court proceedings.
In striving for equal access to our justice system for the deaf
community, the challenges posed are real, but not insurmountable.
We are fortunate to live in close proximity to Northeastern
University, which boasts one of the best ASL interpreter programs
in the world. Its faculty and students contribute immeasurably to
the deaf community as allies and advocates. Beyond their efforts,
however, we recognize a need for fundamental communication skills
and, through an aggressive American Sign Language expansion
campaign launched by the Allston-based nonprofit DEAF Inc., we
intend to increase exponentially the number of people who can
communicate through basic ASL by offering classes to public safety
personnel, teachers, lawmakers, medical, legal and financial
professionals, and others who work with deaf community members.
This effort will improve access to judicial services and will
enhance dramatically the ability of lawyers, judges, court
personnel and others connected with the courts to communicate with
deaf individuals.
DEAF Inc. looks forward to an exciting and mutually-beneficial
collaboration with the legal community as we all work together to
build a bridge between deaf consumers and our system of
justice.