Deaf woman sues KS city, county over 911 service

Danette Dixon of Lyons says her city and Rice County dispatch don't have TDD devices that would let them communicate via phone with the deaf and hard of hearing. Nor do they use instant-messaging, which is another way to communicate with deaf people. Dixon and the Kansas Disability Coalition say this violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Comments

[anarchanon]

I don't usually say this regarding lawsuits, but...

....this suit feels perfectly reasonable to me. They should have a text-receiving system.

[The Golfer]

And I too normally see these as nothing more than a money grab.

But this suit needed to be filed. Sometimes the people being sued have someone do it for them so the people controlling the purse strings will give them the money to do it.

[aqua]

what?

[Obama is the Man]

Nothing more than a money grab by worthless attorneys and the plantiff.

I empathize with her disability, but I am sick with subsidizing all disabilites with my money without mmy consent! She is placing a burden on others,, She should have to pay for the device..

[anarchanon]

...*is incredulous*

They spend tax money on a system that works for you.

...why shouldn't they spend money on a system that works for this person?

You're both citizens, fully legal, tax paying citizens. So what's your problem?

[rtm]

Correct and wrong. The device is needed and should be in place. That said NO money should pass hands except for purchasing the device. Sorry lawyers, this should be ProBono and no money involved.

[Drew]

Money grab? All the article reads is that the suit is asking the city and county to comply with ADA. That's not unreasonable, is it? To ask a government agency to comply with Federal law?

Worthless attorneys, too? OITM, this should have come about a long time ago, but it seems like it just needed a plaintiff with standing to file suit. Without reading the ADA provisions with which they're alleged to be noncompliant, it seems patently reasonable and fair to me. Any decent civil attorney could scrupulously take this one, broseph.

[Chuck Rizzo]

Back in the day they called this natural selection. Oh you can't hear the lion coming? Guess what blamo!

[Tom Servo]

The regulations on this are *VERY* clear. Any Public Safety Answering Point, whether 911 or a traditional telephone number, must be equipped to answer TTY calls.

The equipment is dirt cheap, at least compared to most public safety equipment.

$400 will purchase an auto-sensing TTY modem which does both Baudot and ASCII (though only Baudot is required by law.) These devices automatically take over the phone line when called via TTY. All the answering person has to do is move over to the keyboard.

A consumer grade stand-alone TTY unit will work fine for smaller operations and costs around $100. The training requirements for these are considerably higher, however. The person answering has to recognize that the horribly loud screeching sounds coming from the phone is not a person, then manually switch the line over to the TTY device or put the phone handset into an acoustic coupler. Tough stuff, though there are seminars available where you can send your staff if they just can't quite get the hang of it.

[gary]

Dave Lettermen is already putting together a top 10 list to make fun of people like this....as long as they over 18 - CBS will back him up on it....