Language and the Law in Deaf Communities

Contributors

Contributors George Castelle is the Chief on legal policy issues, she represented deaf and hard of hearing Public Defender in Charleston, West Virginia, and is an adjunct individuals in cases under the ADA, Section 504 of the Rehalecturer at the West Virginia University College of Law in Mor- bilitation Act, and federal education law. She is a co-author of gantown. In 1997, he won the National Legal Aid and De- Legal Rights: The Guide for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Peofender Association’s Reginald Heber Smith award for his work ple (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 2002) in exposing fraud in the West Virginia State Police Crime Lab and other articles on disability law issues. She is a graduate of and freeing prisoners who had been wrongfully convicted by er- Oberlin College and the University of North Carolina School of roneous forensic science. In addition to an active practice repre- Law. Rob Hoopes holds a J.D. senting indigent defendants, he frequently speaks at continuing from the University of Cincinnati . He subsequently earned a legal education seminars on numerous topics, including forensic master’s degree in linguistics from Gallaudet University and is science, eyewitness testimony, legal ethics, trial techniques, ap- currently a doctoral fellow at Georgetown University. He also pellate advocacy, wrongful convictions , psychology and the holds a Certificate of Interpretation from the Registry of Interlaw , juvenile delinquency, habeas corpus, evidence, and crimi- preters for the Deaf. Robert Mather is a senior nal procedure. Sarah S. Geer is an attorney trial attorney in the Disability Rights Section of the Civil in northern Virginia. For over twenty years, she was a part of Rights Division of the Department of Justice. This section is the National Association of the Deaf Law Center and the Na- responsible for the enforcement of the Americans with Disabilitional Center for Law and Deafness at Gallaudet University. In ties Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of addition to advising the National Association of the Deaf disability. He received a J.D. 177 from DePaul University Law town University, where he created the sociolinguistics program School. He was born deaf and uses sign language to communi- and taught for thirty years. His specializations are sociolinguiscate . Susan Mather is a professor tics and forensic linguistics. His most recent books include Linat Gallaudet University, Graduate School and Professional Stud- guistic Battles in Trademark Disputes ; The Language of Confesies , Department of Linguistics. She received a master’s degree in sion, Interrogation and Deception; Bureaucratic Lanlinguistics at Gallaudet University and a Ph.D. in sociolinguis- guage in Government and Business ; and Language Crimes. He tics from Georgetown. Roger W. Shuy is Distin- now resides in the beautiful mountain area of Missoula, guished Research Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, at George- Montana. 178 : c o n t r i b u t o r s ...