Deaf file suit against doctors, state agency on anniversary of disability law

McALLEN – Sergio Ayala is tired of not being heard.

Deaf from a young age, he has explained to business owners over and over again that his disability warrants special accommodation, only to be turned away.

He has repeatedly pleaded with doctors for access to interpreters. He has struggled at government offices to communicate with hand-written notes. And he has often had to rely on signing friends to complete the most basic commercial transactions.

“I feel like it’s me against the whole hearing world,” Ayala said through a sign language interpreter.

On Tuesday, a South Texas legal services group filed lawsuits against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and two Rio Grande Valley doctors for allegedly failing to comply with federal law when it comes to dealing with the deaf.

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act guarantees their right to a sign language interpreter at government agencies or medical offices, full compliance with that mandate remains spotty two decades after the law was passed, said Corinna Spencer-Scheurich, director of the South Texas Civil Rights Project, which is representing the deaf plaintiffs in their suits.

“There are no ifs, ands or buts about this,” she said. “If you need an interpreter, you’re entitled to one at the business’ expense. Our clients made repeated requests and were denied.”

For Adam Schraer, that failure has left his family without food twice in the eight years.

Deaf and reliant government assistance to feed his family, the Brownsville resident has repeatedly asked the Health and Human Services Commission to provide a sign language interpreter in advance of his periodic food stamp eligibility interviews.

His ability to understand questions from government workers and respond with accurate descriptions about his income and bills on his own determine the amount of food assistance he can receive.

But after allegedly being denied an interpreter on four separate occasions, the commission revoked Schraer’s food stamp benefits, forcing him and his wife to ration to keep their children from going hungry.

“If I don’t have my food stamps, my family does not have enough to eat,” he said in an affidavit filed with his lawsuit against the agency. “We have to borrow food and money. We have to eat less and conserve food.”

A commission spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of Schraer’s case but said that agency policy requires workers to accommodate those with documented disabilities.

Doctor’s offices in particular pose a problem for the hearing impaired, said Brooke Hernandez, manager of deaf services for the Valley Association of Independent Living, a group charged with aiding the disabled.

The most frequent complaints she hears from clients involve them resorting to writing notes or to relying on friends and relatives who know sign language in order to communicate with their physicians. With complex medical jargon often involved and privacy issues at stake neither is an acceptable solution, she said.

Ayala, of Mission, waited for nearly five hours at his physician’s office earlier this year for an interpreter he was told was on his way. Ultimately, the man never arrived, and Ayala left without seeing the doctor.

He eventually returned with a friend who helped translate discussion over an “embarrassing medical issue.”

“I didn’t have any other choice,” he said.

For others the results can be more serious.

Rolando Luna requested an interpreter while taking his son to a McAllen pediatrician only to be told the office wouldn’t pay since his 9-year-old child was not deaf.

His muddled efforts to describe his son’s symptoms through hand-written notes resulted in a misdiagnosis and the prescription of medicine that made the child even sicker, Luna claims in his lawsuit.

Spencer-Scheurich hopes the suits filed Monday will remind all doctors and government offices of their responsibilities to disabled clients. But after dealing with the same problems two decades after promised reform, she recognizes that change comes slowly.

“We have come a long way in the last 20 years,” she said. “But we still have a long way to go for all people to have fair and equal treatment.”

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 587-9377.