Regarding the Gallaudet University’s Board of Trustees Nominations

As you know, I have been anticipating the opportunity to serve the hearing impaired communities as a member of the Gallaudet University’s Board of Trustees.

I have been looking forward to working with the current board members to establish a new vision that enables the Gallaudet University to move forward. That optimistic view was based on a presumption that several societal controversies and leadership challenges facing the hearing impaired communities can be resolved. I had believed that Gallaudet University was positioned to launch a new and exciting chapter in its history.

However, there are very strong indications that these problems will persist for well into the future. I hoped that divisive elements in our community were prepared to focus on the future and forget the past. I hoped that this period of instability and uncertainty could be put behind us and that we all could start the process of rebuilding confidence in our community.

Given the recent events that aggravates the uncertainty and instability of the university, any efforts on my part to launch new initiatives and improvement strategies for Gallaudet University could be overshadowed by ingrained, protracted, high profile divisiveness in the hearing impaired communities. For these reasons, I am asking that the Gallaudet University to withdraw my nominations to be a member of the board of trustees.

This is a disappointment for me personally and professionally because I believe that Gallaudet University has a rich tradition of excellence that can form the basis for even greater achievement in the years ahead. This would have been the capstone of my life journey to make the lives of the hearing impaired communities better.

I remain very confident in my abilities as the Chief Executive Officer of the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center to make the lives of the hearing impaired communities better.

I wish Gallaudet University the best in their endeavors to make life better for the future hearing impaired generations.

Richard Roehm

Are there Megan's Law sex offenders in your deaf club or organization?

Are there Megan's Law sex offenders in your deaf club or organization?

That's the question we all face every day.

Megan's Law is named after seven-year-old Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a known child molester.

Last week, at the OC Fair meeting, more than half of the time was devoted to announcing new and extensive procedures at preventing Megans Law types of sex offenders from entering the fairgrounds during the fair next month.

Last year I found that a Los Angeles based deaf club had multiple photos of a deaf Megan's Law offender on their website. Upon open notification through YouTube, they quickly removed them from the website.

It will be a very good idea for all deaf clubs and organizations screen out their membership, staffing, volunteers for Megans Law offenders because if the offender makes the news again by re-offending, the host organization will suffer the most either by loss of donations or declining membership or even worse legal actions for harboring the offender.

Richard

Gallynet Insanity Worsens

It's time for Gallynet mailing list to be operated by stakeholders who dont have direct connections such as holding employment positions or any of the leadership positions at Gallaudet University.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Gallynet/

Let's all use this discussion list to attack the ingrained and protracted issues that are responsible for the high profile divisiveness in the hearing impaired communities thats causing the turbulence at Gallaudet University.

Ler's all work together to end the divisiveness and work on getting along with each other for the positive future of Gallaudet University.

Richard

The US Department Of Justice Will Propose New Rules Relating To The Americans With Disabilities Act

Proposed new rules to the Americans With Disabilities Act due this summer should probably be focused on clarifying who counts as disabled under the law and getting businesses and government entities to comply, rather than adding new requirements.

The U.S. Department of Justice will propose new rules related to the act sometime in the next few months.

Proposed requirements being considered include:

* Visible workplace alarms, which would allow deaf and hard-of-hearing employees to be made aware of an emergency situation.

* Additional wheelchair-accessible seating at stadiums, theaters and other entertainment venues, spread out at varying distances from the stage or screen.

* One in every six accessible parking spaces to be van accessible, up from one of eight.

* TTY, or text telephone, equipment in all buildings with four or more public telephones.

* Wider doorways and entrances to galley kitchens, public restrooms, hotel rooms and public housing.

There was no mention of VRS, Closed Captioning, and Interpreters.

True Costs Of Keeping VRS Alive

Doing what I did in this video is very proper by a true a deaf advocate and makes me a true patriot of the deaf communities that rely on interpreters.

Lots of deaf people fail to realize the VRS industry enjoyed their success at the expense of the deaf communities.

The VRS industry exacerbated interpreter shortages and the deaf communities paid a big price for it through loss of employment, loss of independence, loss of life, loss of safety, loss of freedom, and loss of justice.

I can go into the details of all these losses.

And I will do it and get loud and go straight to FCC and tell them the true costs borne by the deaf communities of keeping the VRS industry alive.

Richard

Cyberbullying And Rumor Attacks On Deaf Leaders

There has been numerous occurrences of cyberbullying and attacks on deaf leaders all over the United States either via email, newsgroups, blogs, postings, websites, restraining orders, and through vandalism.

The recent video submission on Joey Baer's Blog shows David Eberwein calling for increased attacks on deaf leaders representing the future of deaf society. "Instead of talking about how GOOD we are, talk about how BAD they are" is Eberwein's calling and with no clear indication of who is "they", it opens the door to a massive witchhunt. Therefore attacks on deaf leaders will increase soon.

These people who attack deaf leaders are just the very reasons that justify our society's need for agencies like ours as we have the means to connect deaf people with personal challenges to the right kind of help they need to be able to lead a safe, healthy, and productive living as everyone else.

Richard