Continuing Saga of Lauri's Discrimination

You know Lauri. She's the Deaf woman who was denied by the CISS/Deaflympics to compete in the Deaf World Golf Championships that was held in Stockholm, Sweden in 2004 only because she wore her hearing aid at the U.S. Deaf Golf Championships in Pinehurst, North Carolina. This U.S. Deaf Golf Championships abide by the rules/regulations of the CISS/Deaflympics even though they tentatively allowed Lauri to wear her hearing aid.

Lauri's audiogram confirms that she is eligible to play in any CISS/Deaflympics games in the United States (and elsewhere). According to their regulations Lauri must have an average 55 dB loss in BOTH ears to play in their games. And for her to play she must remove her hearing aid in her right ear, unless the regulations are changed to allow hearing aids and cochlear implants. For any CISS/Deaflympics related games in the United States with the regulations unchange seems to be in violation of the U.S. current Social Security regulations and Americans With Disabilities Act (which also prohibits segregation).

(SSAregulations, Appendix I, Subpart P, for adults over age 18): Hearing Impairments (criteria for Legal Deafness), Section 2.08, using best available acoustic hearing aids). There are two requirements to determine how one is to be "legally deaf" :

A . Average hearing loss at 90 dB or greater in both ears (Laurie meets this criteris for her Left Ear, but not for her Right Ear, thus she is not "legally deaf" under this section);

OR

B. Speech discrimination scores of 40 percent or less in the better ear,with maximal use of acoustic hearing aids (In Lauri's audiogram report it says that "Speech discrimination testing could not be performed" meaning that Lauri cannot distinguish any sounds of speech in her left ear OR in her right ear (even with her hearing aid)).

In the B section LAURI IS IN FACT LEGALLY DEAF UNDER SECTION 2.08B of the Social Security regulations, which are the regulations of the United States federal government for determining legal deafness.

Despite her use of the hearing aid has not at all changed her status as a Legally Deaf person.

Lauri's rights have surely been violated according to U.S. Federal laws and regulations.

You can read past blog pieces and related links regarding Lauri and other similar discriminatory practices.

http://members.aol.com/deafcultureinfo/notepage.htm

http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2004/12/when-political-correctness-goes-too.html

http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2005/01/canada-to-prevent-discrimination-at.html

http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2005/01/will-6th-deaf-world-golf-championships.html

http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2005/01/disqualified-russian-wrestler-was-not.html

http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.com/2005/01/deaflympics-chinese-player-forgot-to.html

Surreal, ain't it folks?