4.
“I see everyone bringing up the Americans with Disabilities Act and talking about how accessible our buildings are here in the United States. The ADA goes beyond that by so much more. I’m a relay operator for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Basically, my job enables folks who can’t hear or hear well to use the phone. For a simplified overview: Using special equipment or a special mode on a cellphone, someone can connect to the relay service, give me a phone number, have me dial the number, and then read everything the other end says as I type it, verbatim. Then they type a response, and I read it out loud to the other end. The ADA also means that the burden is on the provider to provide a sign language interpreter at doctor’s or hospital visits, not the patient.”
“I also have experience with the blind and visually impaired community, because the ADA requires educational institutions to provide textbooks in alternative formats for students with disabilities. In college, I worked for my university’s office of disability services to convert textbooks to Braille and audio. As a sighted person, I can read grade 1 Braille (with my eyes, not my fingers). That’s a pretty cool skill that not many sighted people have. All the ramps and things are cool too, but the ADA is so much more than wheelchairs in buildings.”
