864 F. Supp. 1201 (S.D. Fla., 1994)
Issues:
1. Must a Federally funded mental health center provide a counselor who is fluent in ASL? Or is it sufficient to provide an interpreter as an aide to a non-signing counselor?
2. Is knowledge of Deaf culture necessary for a counselor to provide a deaf patient with equal access to mental health services?
Facts:
Family members of several deaf and hearing-impaired people brought a class action suit against a Federally funded program providing mental health counseling in 2 counties. The patients claimed that they were not able to receive equal access to counseling services. The program provided a hearing counselor, aided by a sign language interpreter. However, the hearing interpreters did not have any knowledge of ASL communication patterns or deaf culture. Also, the communities were small and the deaf patients felt uncomfortable using the services of an interpreter for the counseling, knowing that they might have to use the same interpreter’s services in other settings.
Decision:
1. Under ADA Title II and Section 504, a Federally funded program must provide disabled persons equal access to all services that are provided to non-disabled recipients. In this case, the language barrier caused by the differences between ASL and English, and the problems caused by introducing an interpreter into the therapeutic process meant that deaf patients were not getting equal access to counseling services. Requiring the Defendant program to provide an ASL fluent counselor was not requiring “special services”, but was instead providing an accommodation for equal access.
2. The court ruled that there was no particular requirement that the program provide counselors who understood “deaf culture”, but it did require the program to provide counselors who understood the specific psychological conditions common to the deaf, as this knowledge was necessary to provide equal access to counseling services.
Procedural:
Ruling on a motion for preliminary injunction.