D. R. Nation:July 20 - August 2, 1998

Disability Rights Nation

July 20 - August 2

From Ragged Edge's
D. R. Nation department July/August, 1998

MCS Conference to be inaccessible
Hospital agrees to interpreter in record settlement
Canadian hospitals to have interpreters, says law

"Not possible to implement," says organizer
MCS conference to be inaccessible to people with MCS

A two-day symposium on "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS): Problems for Science and Society" to be held August 25 and 26 in Boston will not be accessible to people with MCS itself.
Dr. Amy Brown, co-organizer of the conference responding to an email query about access for presenters, wrote that "concerning 'accessibility' for MCS individuals... I do not believe it would be possible to try to implement [such] a policy..."
Brown, Associate Professor of Entomology at University of Maryland, is organizing the conference through the American Chemical Society as part of its annual meeting, with co-sponsorship by the Society's divisions of Agrochemicals and Chemical Health and Safety. Brown cited the number of people who would attend the conference, her lack of involvement in planning the details and ACS' inability to "dictate terms to the hotel(s)" as reasons for her inattention to MCS access.
When challenged by a potential presenter with examples of previous scientific conferences that have made MCS accommodations - and with the ethical implications of excluding the people who would be most affected by the conference's outcome - Brown responded, "Creating this kind of open forum for scientists to exchange research results, rather than opinions ... will benefit the MCS community at large."
Brown reiterated that the goal of the conference was "to investigate the current state of the science surrounding multiple chemical sensitivity and to examine related societal repercussions" (one of the four sessions will focus on "societal implications"). A person with MCS interested in presenting sociological research on the impact of industry-funded research on the lives of people with MCS was told that her topic was not relevant to the conference: "Our primary purpose in organizing this symposium is to provide ... a broad view of current research, serving as a forum for scientific discussion," Brown said, although in another part of her letter, Brown noted that ACS was "specifically encouraging participation" not only "by scientists currently conducting original research in this field," but also by "persons involved in making policy decisions for agencies, institutions, etc."
As Ragged Edge went to press, there had been no reported change in Brown's position.
That a conference organized by the industry that has worked to discredit people with MCS should exclude people with the most relevant research - life experience -comes as no surprise to MCS activists. Conference organizers' ignorance and hostility toward MCS access, combined with contradictory claims of being concerned only with "objective science" while inviting discussion on "societal implications" casts serious doubt on the usefulness of the conference to people with chemical injuries, they say.
The ACS is the world's largest scientific society, with over 150,000 members. The chemical industry has not been a friend to people with MCS nor to objective science on chemical injury, reportedly hiring public relations firms to propagate the idea that MCS is psychogenic and funding research to show that people with MCS are "hysterical."
- Reporting by Sharon Wachsler

Hospital agrees to interpreter in record court settlement in New Jersey
The Jersey City Medical Center has agreed to pay $700,000 to four deaf people who were denied sign language interpreters in a decade of visits 300 times, say court papers, and never once provided an interpreter, even for as serious a procedure as a Caesarean section.
The plaintiffs charged that the hospital had been violating Section 504 of the 1973 Rehab Act. The ADA also requires interpreter access.
"Most hospitals haven't been doing this," said the plaintiffs' attorney "We're hoping this will tell other hospitals that they better start doing it. Otherwise, you're going to have to pay."
Under the agreement, the hospital must have an interpreter available 24 hours a day; the hospital also agreed to post signs in its admissions office and emergency room that interpreters are available, and prove amplified phones and TDDs.

Canadian hospitals must use interpreters,
High Court says

In the past if you were deaf and became sick or injured in British Columbia, you had no way of communicating with your doctor. The British Columbia government refused to grant the funds needed for sign language interpreters for deaf patients. Deaf parents such as John and Linda Warren were left out of their daughter's birth experience because they had no way to talk to the doctor or nurses. Deaf patients worried how they would communicate their symptoms to the emergency room physician without the aid of a sign language interpreter.
In August all of this will change, thanks to a province-wide referral system for interpreters and interveners to work with deaf persons during hospital visits. The system is being instituted in the wake of last October's unanimous High Court ruling that the B.C. government's policy of refusing to supply sign language interpreters for deaf patients infringed on their rights to be treated equally under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court also ruled that without sign language interpreters deaf people were receiving medical services inferior to those offered the hearing public.
Though B.C. Health Minister Joy MacPhail bemoans the cost and worries about the effect it will have on health care resources, she has little choice but to comply.
Shortly after the ruling the province implemented a phone service for people with hearing problems who use it to communicate to hospital staff. The 24-hour toll-free line, both voice and TTY, It is intended to allow people with hearing disabilities to be consulted in emergency situations -- including consent for surgery, blood transfusions and childbirth.
"We have finally recognized people with disabilities have access to health care on an equal basis," said the Canadian Hearing Society's Gary Makowski. "All Provincial Governments will have to follow the decision." Though some hospitals in the Victoria area had been providing interpreter services for years, the ruling now requires services throughout the province.
-- Reporting by Nancy Bennett
.

More D.R. Nation

Back to table of contents

This Website produced by Cliffwood Organic Works