Deaf & Deaf-Blind Committee on Human Rights
(North Olmsted, Ohio)

In the last month, DDBCHR has made history holding the first and second ever Deaf & Deaf-Blind sit-in protests at local doctors' offices drawing attention to the fact that many doctors still refuse to provide interpreting services for their Deaf & Deaf-Blind patients. These actions have brought excellent media coverage and have grown their membership and reputation both locally and around the country.

After contacting over 100 doctors three times each and asking them to sign our "ADA agreement form" which states they would follow the law and provide interpreters to patients who request them, DDBCHR decided to take their requests in person to doctors' offices who had ignored their attempts to contact them. DDBCHR held numerous planning meetings to prepare for their first sit-in protest to draw attention to this issue.

DDBCHR organized and gained support for our campaign from a number of hearing organizations. Participants in two recent protest included a nun from a local catholic church, members of the UNITE/HERE union, students from Oberlin College and a local interpreter training program, and members of Organize! Ohio, United Clevelanders to End Poverty, the Empowerment Center and the National Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

On March 16, 2006 the first sit-in protest was held at the office of Dr. Solymos who had ignored all four attempts made at contacting her. The doctor, selected as one of the nation's "top family doctors", refused to meet with DDBCHR to discuss their demands. Several people participated in the protest, a handful of whom were trained and prepared to participate in civil disobedience if necessary to bring attention to these issues. After a four-hour protest it became clear that the police would not make any arrests so DDBCHR vowed to be back in two weeks with double the number or supporters.

Read the Cleveland Plain-Dealer article.

Read the Chronicle-Telegram article.

View the Channel 3 coverage of the event.

The next day, however, the CEO of Premier Physicians, the company that Dr. Solymos works for, contacted DDBCHR and said he would be happy to meet with them. On March 29th, members of DDBCHR's negotiating team met with Mark Wiedt, CEO of Premier Physicians at their offices to discuss their demands and requests. Wiedt was very open to working with DDBCHR and agreed to meet all requests.

Read the press release.

He explained that Premier already had a policy requiring their 60+ doctors at 40 sites around northeast Ohio to provide interpreters if requested by the patient. Wiedt agreed to send a staff person in charge of the company's training for special training at DDBCHR's offices about the ADA, finding and using interpreters effectively and different ways to communicate with Deaf/Deaf-Blind patients both in and out of the office. This training material will then be incorporated into training the staff at all 40 of their local offices and for all new hires. Premier will also include ADA educational information in their next newsletter and work with DDBCHR to promote education on this issue in the medical community.

On April 5th Dr. Bennhoff wrote an editorial article to a local newspaper criticizing DDBCHR's first protest and stating that interpreting services were both unnecessary and too costly to provide for deaf patients. The next day, April 6th, DDBCHR staged it's second sit-in protest at Dr. Bennhoff's office calling for an "emergency educational" for the doctor to save patient's lives.

Read the press release for this event.

Dr. Bennhoff is both a professor at a local medical school and on the board of the local medical association. DDBCHR was concerned that Bennhoff was sending a message to the local medical community that was going to harm the health of Deaf/Deaf-Blind patients (because without interpreting services, miscommunication may occur resulting in misdiagnosis, mistreatment or even death). Several members and supporters (including 10 local interpreting students) brought a poster-size copy of Bennhoff's editorial to his office demanding to meet with him. Office staff informed DDBCHR he would not be in the office that day but after a while they got word from him by phone that he would agree to meet the next morning. A press conference was then held outside the office and DDBCHR claimed a second victory that the doctor would meet with us.

On April 7th, Dr. Bennhoff met with DDBCHR members and supporters and listened to their concerns. While it is still not clear that the doctor fully understands the importance of providing interpreters for Deaf/Deaf-Blind patients, DDBCHR did win a victory in gaining his agreement to write a second editorial to the newspaper stating that interpreters are necessary in some situations. DDBCHR is currently waiting to receive a copy of his editorial to determine our next action steps.

Over the last month DDBCHR has received the most media coverage ever in their organizational history. The protests and negotiating meetings were covered in nine separate stories on six different TV & newspaper media sources. These events have also been featured on dozens of internet sources including Deaf, Deaf-Blind, Religious and Indy-media websites, listservs and blogs.

DDBCHR has also received an overwhelmingly positive response to these protests from Deaf, Deaf-Blind and hearing organizations and individuals around the country. As a result of these historic actions, DDBCHR has been contacted by and has definite plans to meet with a group of Deaf & Deaf-Blind seniors in Columbus, Ohio who are struggling with the same issue and want assistance in setting up their own protest.