Editorial

EDITORIAL Rights of Deaf Hospital Patients Hospitalization for a serious illness is a frightening, lifethreatening situation for every human being. For the deaf person, both the fear and the risk are many fold greater unless interpreter and other support services are available around-the-clock. Under Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act, any hospital receiving federal funds is obligated by law to provide equal access to all people. For the overwhelming majority of those who are deaf, this includes sign language interpreting. Because most hospitals receive federal tax monies through Medicare, various grants and a multitude of other sources, they should provide comprehensive interpreting services, TDDs, and other related means to provide equal access for deaf patients. Few do. My own wife, Edith, who was deaf, recently died of cancer . She was hospitalized at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for three weeks. They provided no interpreting service whatsoever, despite the millions of dollars the hospital receives in federal tax monies. They brought her a TDD with no light. Thus, she was unable to know when outside callers were trying to contact her. She was told that the only outgoing calls she could make were local; hearing patients could call long distance. During the three weeks at Hopkins, she was subjected to several major surgical procedures, nerve blocks and diagnostic tests ad infinitum, most of which were life or death procedures or had life-threatening implications. Other than her own family who volunteered, she had absolutely no interpreting services and/or functional assistive devices. Her medical care and patient rights suffered as a consequence. Even more importantly, Edith felt discrimination and indifference to her needs at a time when she was in pain, understandably depressed, and severely weakened physically. This same situation is repeated thousands of times a year with deaf people. At a time in their lives when they desperately need help, the hospitals legally obligated by Section 504 to provide it are ignoring the law by discriminating against deaf patients and denying them appropriate access during periods of serious illness and desperate need. Importance of Writing Harold W. Gumble in a recent issue of The Kentucky Standard makes the point that writing is a relatively neglected subject in classrooms for deaf students. Unfortunately, this is true. Teaching writing to prelingually deaf or hard-of-hearing students is a difficult process for the teacher and the student. From the teacher's perspective, it is the most timeconsuming , complex, demanding task faced in the classroom . For the student, it is the essence of frustration. Thus, "fill in the blank" type drills tend to be substituted for actual writing. The writing instructor is being asked to teach a "foreign" or second language to a deaf student. To do this requires a full understanding of English grammar, its derivations, and a sequential system of presenting the material. While most teachers are able to use English effectively themselves, they lack the in-depth syntactical knowledge and related information to teach writing in the most effective way. For average or better deaf students it is imperative that at least one class period a day be spent in a direct form of composition which will be corrected and explained to the student. This need is one of the major rationales for the small classes most teachers of deaf and hard-of-hearing students have. Too often it is a responsibility avoided by students and teachers. The price deaf students pay for this is lifelong and severe. McCay Vernon, Ph.D. Editor A.A.D. I October 1988 253 ...