Mayor's Disability Council
City and County of San Francisco

Resolution

Regarding Deaf and Hard of Hearing Needs Assessment

Resolution 2001-04

November, 2001

Whereas, The Mayor's Disability Council has received an extensive "2001 Needs Assessment of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community Report" from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community Council, and has held extensive discussion and received community testimony on that report, and

Whereas the Report and testimony indicate that a crucial lack of communication access exists within City services and programs for the deaf and hard of hearing community, and

Whereas the Report and testimony indicate that that TTY's are not available in many public places including crucial locations such as City hospitals and courts, and

Whereas the Report and testimony indicate that a serious shortage of sign language, oral, and trilingual interpreting services, captioning, assistive technology, and other means of accessible communication, exists and

Whereas the Report and testimony indicate that there is a need for a system for ongoing training of City staff for working with deaf and hard of hearing people, including cultural competence, communication and other skills, and

Whereas the Report and testimony indicate that there is sometimes inconsistency or absence of appropriate and reasonable accommodations by City employers, both in hiring and promotion in City departments for deaf and hard of hearing employees and

Whereas the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Needs Assessment of San Francisco found that an organized system of arranging, paying for, and monitoring the quality of interpreters, real-time captioning and other appropriate technology is needed in order to provide communication access in publicly funded programs, and

Whereas the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Needs Assessment of San Francisco found a need for building the capacity of deaf and hard of hearing community agencies which have expertise in serving the needs of deaf and hard of hearing people and

Whereas the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Needs Assessment of San Francisco found the need for a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Access Coordinator within the Mayor's Office on Disability to provide technical assistance, referrals, and information about resources for deaf and hard of hearing individuals, service providers, and civil service employees, now therefore, be it