ASL (American Sign Language) NEWS

Here’s the Schedule!

Hey all! We have four ASL News coming up. These have been really fun lately, and we hope you’ll come by and chat.

Budget Cuts and Bids At MCD
You may know that Maine’s government has a budget deficit (which means not enough money to pay all it owes) right now in the millions of dollars. To make up the budget shortfall (cut what Maine’s government owes), Maine’s Governor announced in mid-December that the government would “curtail” or stop payment on a bunch of contracts and programs it has.

This “curtailment” affects almost every part of Maine’s government, including a ton of programs run by Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”). One of the programs run by DHHS is a contract for advocacy services on behalf of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing people with mental health or developmental disabilities issues. MCD has the contract now to deliver this advocacy service, and the money we get each year under this contract will now end. The “curtailment” is effective for MCD – meaning MCD will no longer be funded by DHHS to provide advocacy to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing consumers – as June 30, 2008. The MCD Civil Rights Program, which does the advocacy work, will lose about one-quarter of our yearly Civil Rights Program budget. We are not sure yet if or how we will have to change our Civil Rights Program to deal with the budget cut, but will keep you posted as we figure it out.

In the meantime, we will keep doing our best to serve all the Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing and Late-Deafened people who come to us for help with requesting accommodations and access and addressing discrimination. Please feel free to write to your lawmakers to tell them how much Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing and Late-Deafened people with mental health or developmental disability issues need specially trained advocates like those at MCD. A link to the names and addresses of the lawmakers who control the state dollars – the Appropriations Committee –is at this website: http://janus.state.me.us/house/jt_com/afa.htm.

At the same time, the other contract MCD has for advocacy – a contract with the Maine Division of Deafness – is up for public bidding. This DoD contract provides the vast majority of our funding for the Civil Rights Program, and without this contract the MCD Civil Rights Program would probably cease to function as it does now – providing individual advocacy, system advocacy at the legislature, and outreach to the communities in which you all live and work. We will be submitting a bid this spring, and we need your support – please write to the DoD (Director John Shattuck, Maine Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Rehab Services, Division of Deafness, 150 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0150 or John.G.Shattuck@maine.gov) and tell them how MCD has helped you, your family, friends, neighbors and clients.

Thanks from the Civil Rights Program staff!

Legislation Update
Maine’s legislature – the bunch of state senators and representatives that we all elect to represent us – meets on a two-year cycle. One year there is a long session when the lawmakers meet, and the second year there is a shorter session in which only time-sensitive or “emergency” legislation is supposed to be heard.

Last year, we were in the long session, and MCD’s Civil Rights Program was extremely busy up at the State House in Augusta. MCD was the lead advocate on three bills, and helped to get two of them passed outright; one law, which required health insurers to provide hearing aids for kids, went into effect January 1, 2008, and the other law went into effect immediately last summer to make more money available for the Telephone Equipment Program. The third bill we were the lead advocate on, a push to get hearing aids for low-income seniors, was sent to be studied more. MCD’s Civil Rights Program testified on a total of 14 laws during the long session! Over the past six months, the time between sessions, MCD has been participating in five groups that are studying proposed laws affecting Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing and Late-Deafened folks. One was the group studying hearing aids for low-income seniors, one was a group to come up with a symbol that D/HH/LD drivers could have on their drivers’ licenses if they wanted to do so, one was a group to discuss defining “service dogs”, one was a group to study whether Maine’s laws should use language that is more respectful to Maine’s disabled persons, and one was a large group looking at whether Maine should adopt a Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Educational Bill of Rights.

The legislature is back in now, in the short session. The working groups that MCD’s Civil Rights Program was involved with, groups that studied so many issues – hearing aids for low-income seniors, Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Educational Bill of Rights, service dog, and respectful language – have all been working hard and have submitted or are submitting reports to the legislature. Then we will wait to see if the lawmakers will push these initiatives forward at all. MCD’s Civil Rights Program also has been involved with opposing changes that Maine’s Department of Education proposed to Maine’s special education laws.

We’d be glad to tell you more about any of these issues, or get your input or support on them too. Please call, TTY, or e-mail Amy Sneirson (asneirson@mcdmaine.org) or Beth Gallie (bgallie@mcdmaine.org) to talk more about these issues!