ADA is a federal civil rights law enforced and dictated by Department of Justice. no state is exempted from it. however - the problem with ADA law is that it's not strict enough. It's somewhat loosely interpreted. In short - what your doctors did was not technically illegal but borderline illegal. This definitely warrants a complaint. That's all however..... it's a difficult and slow process.... unless you have a lawyer or public attention.
because your Spanish community is large and has a political representative with significant influences. I guess the deaf community within your area is very small with no political representative and no significant influence.
sometimes that's why it's usually lot easier for deafies to live in big city. but this does not mean you should move to big city nor give up. You must make example out of them.
The deaf community here is small? Move to a big city?
I am ALREADY living in a RIDICULOUSLY HUGE city. The Deaf community here is HUGE, very large. Hell, we even have a large part of the Deaf community here that uses LSM in addition to ASL. WE have TAD, NAD, NEAD, CSD, and a whole bunch of other Deaf organizations that I am not able to remember at the moment and my fiance has already gone to bed so I can't ask him. I live in San Antonio which is about 3 times the size of Milwaukee. It is so huge that it takes me TWO hours on the public transit bus from just from the north side of San Antonio to the south side. And that's one way, using the 551 looper-skip bus (A express bus that only stops at every other bus stop instead of every single bus stop along the way). We have a very large Deaf community here. We have two Deaf bowling leagues just on the northeast area of San Antonio alone. We have THREE MAJOR ASL interpreting agencies and one minor ASL interpreting agency. So, San Antonio is a VERY LARGE CITY. I grew up in Milwaukee from the age of 4 until I was 21, and that was a BIG city, with ample public transit (Hear Again can vouch for this) and a VERY sizable deaf community as well. But it only takes an hour to get AROUND the city on the bus, and no more than 2 buses. Here, it can take up to 4 buses or even more just to get to somewhere. It's the "NYC" of Texas. When I first came here, I was shocked at how large San Antonio was, and when I attempted to get around the city using only the bus, I found it quite difficult and exhausting due to the size of the city. San Antonio is a very overwhelming LARGE city. We have one Army base and two Air Force bases right here in San Antonio as well as Camp Bullis and Camp Stanley (military training camps) just outside the city. We have an International airport, and it is quite large. We have Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, and we also have Schlitterbahn Park just outside the city (which I have to brag is the best damn water park in the U.S.). I'm surprised we don't have a Disney theme park here yet. San Antonio is so large, that all the public schools in the entire city has been split up into so many school districts. Milwaukee had only one district - Milwaukee Public Schools. Here...it's NEISD, ISD, and every other acronym that you can think of to call all the districts here in the city. We have several art museums as well as a natural science museum. The rush hour traffic here is WORSE than CHICAGO, and I have been through Chicago on a very frequent basis. It's insane. During rush hour, it takes me 45 minutes to get from Village Drive to my street, which normally should take only ten minutes. We have about 30 (my estimate) hospitals here in the city, including the BAMC hospital near downtown where their normal wait time in the ER is 12 hours. The nearest hospital that I go to, the wait time in the ER is 6 hours. In Milwaukee, I usually get into an exam room within 20 minutes. San Antonio is insanely and ridiculously huge that we seriously desperately need metro rail service, because the buses here are not enough. Chicago is lucky to have the EL. We do not have that. DC and NYC is lucky to have the subways, we do not have that. All we have are the crappy buses. We have about 20 cab companies here. We have the Riverwalk. We have 5 LARGE private universities, 5 community colleges, and one ridiculously LARGE public university (UTSA) with a medical school attached to it and MANY medical school campuses all over the northwest area of the city and many teaching hospitals connected to UTSA. We have two transplant hospitals. We have countless dialysis centers and blood/plasma donation centers. We have quite a few cancer hospitals. We also have a medical research center, the only one in the whole south Texas region. We constantly fly in patients from other areas of Texas on Medicaid and Medicare's money. In fact, the entire northwest area of the city is dubbed "Medical Drive/Medical Center area". We have our ghettos and we have our suburbs outside the 410 loop. With a city this size, normally getting ASL interpreting services shouldn't be such an issue...at least that is what I thought. I never had this issue back in Milwaukee and EVEN in St. Cloud, MN. St. Cloud is pretty SMALL. St. Cloud has a population of 59,107, and I had NO issues with getting an interpreter there at all, even at the university there. Milwaukee has 602,191 people and is only the 23rd largest city in the USA population-wise, and I had no problems getting an interpreter there, either. San Antonio has a population of 1,336,040, and is the 7th largest city in the U.S. and that's NOT including the suburbs at all, just what's in the San Antonio city limits, period, and I have the biggest issues in getting an ASL interpreter at all. It's insane.
So please don't tell me that it's easier to live in a big city. It is NOT easy. I have the worst time trying to get doctors to even think about hiring an interpreter for me. Most of the time, if I am only visiting the family doctor for, like say, I need birth control, I usually waive the interpreter because I already know the process and I have good writing skills and I already know enough about what I need that I'm able to get by without an interpreter, because I know it's useless and a waste of time to fight with the doctor to get an interpreter if all I need is some birth control. It's the other doctors that I have issues with, the specialists, that I want to have interpreters for, because in those situations I have multiple issues that I want addressed, the medical conversation is going to be in-depth, with medical words and phrases and terms, where I will often ask for definitions of, and if I have an interpreter present, it would make the appointment a lot easier, a lot more can be said, more issues can be addressed much quicker, we can discuss more in-depth of all my medical issues, the medical process can go much quicker, and I would be able to do all that in ONE HOUR...if I used only paper and pen, I would only be able to address one or two issues, I won't be able to get in-depth of all my issues, and I won't get the most out of the conversation that I have with my doctor, and the entire medical process can be drawn out and waste a lot of valuable time, simply because writing back and forth takes a lot longer and a lot more time than it would be if I had an interpreter present and I can just make my hands fly and say everything that needs to be said, putting me more at the same level as a hearing patient who can just flap his or her lips and say everything that needs to be said. Using only paper and pen would pull me way down and keep me way down (you could use the crab theory if you want) and total refusal to provide an interpreter just simply keeps me at the very bottom of the barrel, period. I fight for my equality as a Deaf patient and I lose every time, and I am very tired and sick of of it.
