WAMC New York News
(2008-07-22)
ROCHESTER, NY
(WXXI) -
The Center for Disability Rights kicked off its anniversary celebration of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Tuesday with a "Deaf Day." The event brought presentations from vendors demonstrating technology and resources for the deaf, and discussions about deaf health. Chris Hildebrandt is the director of advocacy for the Center for Disability Rights. He says Deaf Day, with its showcase of communications technologies for the deaf like video relay and interpretive typing commemorates the legislation that banned discrimination against people with disabilities.
"[We're] recognizing what the ADA has done to help increase the integration and communications of people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing."
Included in that goal of integrating the deaf into the larger world is the National Center for Deaf Health Research (NCDHR), at the University of Rochester Medical Center. They attended Deaf Day to conduct surveys in their groundbreaking study of deaf health.
Deirdre Schlehofer is with the NCDHR. She says the Centers for Disease Control funded survey is important because, up until now, there haven't been any tools to collect health information about the Deaf community.
"The reason that we need to collect data on deaf people is because we have nothing. We don't know anything about [the health of] deaf people on a national level or even on a city level. So this is where we're starting; we're starting with Rochester. We'll collect information on the local community here and then our next move will be to do a national survey."
Deaf and hard-of-hearing folks who want to participate in the health survey can contact the National Center for Deaf Health Research by emailing ncdhr@urmc.rochester.edu.
The Center for Disability Rights will continue to celebrate the ADA with a fund raising dinner Friday night, and a press event with the mayor and county executive on Saturday.
Saturday, July 26 marks the 18th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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