SchoolMessenger and Accessibility Issues

Living in a county that has 4,000 deaf and hard of hearing citizens, THAT WE KNOW OF, one would think that there would be accommodations for these parents with children attending school. I know for a fact, I'm not the only deaf parent with a child at my son's school. One of his friends here in the neighborhood has a deaf parent, too.

I have emailed and discussed the issue with my son's principal in September about an issue we deaf parents are having regarding the messaging service the school uses. When the first email landed in my inbox with a link to an audio message, but no text about what the message was saying, I contacted the principal, and he quickly answered and CC'd the email to his staff to alert them that from then on all the messages would arrive to me via email in text format.

This week, another email arrived, just like the first one. This is what I received:

"______ School District

You are receiving this message because your contact information is associated with _____.

A new message from _______School District was sent to you using the SchoolMessenger notification service.

Please click below to listen to your message:


Listen to your message

Thank you,
_______ School District

.........School District would like to continue connecting with you via email. If you prefer to be removed from our list, please contact ,,,,,,,School District directly. To stop receiving all email messages distributed through our SchoolMessenger service, follow this link and confirm: Unsubscribe

SchoolMessenger is a notification service used by the nation's leading school systems to connect with parents, students and staff through voice, SMS text, email, and social media."

After discussing this in several forums of deaf and hard of hearing online communities, and a response from an attorney who works with ADA issues, I am following a few of the excellent suggestions that were offered.

I am hoping this is resolved BEFORE the day of the meeting arrives. It would be lovely to be contacted by the School Board to have a face to face meeting and these issues addressed and fixed.  

First, I submitted a letter to the school letting them know I need CART (Captioning Access Real Time) to accommodate my deafness at the next school board meeting, along with the timely request of wishing to address the accessibility issues regarding deaf and hard of hearing people in my community.

The second piece of advice I was given was to submit a letter to the local newspaper requesting a reporter to attend the meeting and record the events.

Here are the letters I sent if anyone else needs to address this issue with their school districts. Feel free to use and modify as you see fit.

Email to the School Board

Hello, 

First, thank you for providing this email address. The automated phone system the school uses is inaccessible for someone deafened like me who uses the CapTel Relay System. Email is my prefered mode of communication.

I see that according to this website, ___________________, I am in time to send this and file these issue with you. 

I am a member of ALDA, Association of Late Deafened Adults. I am also a member of Hearing Loss Association of America, as well as our local HLAA-PA, Lancaster County chapter. I am also on the Hearing Loss Association of America, Pennsylvania Advisory Council. Currently, I am serving on the State of Pennsylvania Telecommunications Relay Service Advisory Board with the Public Utilities Commission.

I am also known as an advocate and  "international deaf blogger". My blog is read in over 47 countries, daily hits anywhere from 200 to  3,000 hits in a day (yes, as many as  three thousand hits in one day)

I am featured on the front cover of ALDA News, Summer 2013, Volume 29, Issue 3. There is a book coming out next year that is in the hands of publishers, which I am not allowed to discuss the particulars until it is published, that I have had a hand in writing with a published author and teacher.

Now that I have a few of my credentials out of the way, let's get down to business.

I am requesting accommodation of CART (real time captioning) or remote captioning services to be provided for my hearing loss so that I can have access to everything that is said at this meeting. 

My name is ______________. I have a son attending ______________ School. I have already addressed this issue with _____________ at the beginning of the school year when the first mass communication via SchoolMessenger was sent out. 

I wish to address the board to resolve accessibility issues regarding myself and other deaf, hard of hearing or deafened parents at the meeting _________. The issue is in regards to the "audio" file being sent to me in emails. I requested all communication that is going out by voice to other parents to accommodate my deafness by sending an email with text of what is being said in the audio link that is attached to the email. That did not happen today. A message came to me regarding my son, and I have no idea what is being said in that audio file. No text of the audio file is in that email.

The automated phone system, as I mentioned above, is another issue. I cannot call into the school. The school's system hangs up on me before the CA has time to type to me what is being said, then I have to read it, then I have to close out the window and open another to press the ext, then I have to close that window and open another one to get back to the CA. By then, we have been disconnected by the automated system.

The other issue regards the intercom system at the front door of the school building. Deaf and hard of hearing people cannot hear that. We don't know what is being said or when to open the door. I have stood out there as long as 15 minutes trying to get into the building. This, too, needs to be addressed as an accessibility issue for parents.

I look forward to resolving these issues with you and making _________ School District more accessible for deaf and hard of hearing persons in the future.

Respectfully,

Email to the Newspaper

Hello,

First, a big THANK YOU for posting an email how to reach you! I am deafened, and telephone calls are tedious through the relay system I have to use.

I am a member of ALDA, Association of Late Deafened Adults. I am also a member of Hearing Loss Association of America, as well as our local HLAA-PA, Lancaster County chapter. I am also on the Hearing Loss Association of America, Pennsylvania Advisory Council. Currently, I am serving on the Pennsylvania Telecommunications Relay Service Advisory Board with the Public Utilities Commission.

I am also an "international deaf blogger". My blog is read in over 47 countries, daily hits anywhere from 200 to  3,000 hits in a day (yes, as many as  three thousand hits in one day)

I am featured on the front cover of ALDA News, Summer 2013, Volume 29, Issue 3. There is a book coming out next year that is in the hands of publishers, which I am not allowed to discuss the particulars until it is published, that I have had a hand in writing with a published author and teacher.

Now that I have a few of my credentials out of the way, let's get down to business.

The purpose for this letter is to bring awareness to the _________ County area and _______________ School district that they must abide by the ADA and provide accommodations for me and other deaf parents to school announcements and entrance into the school.

I have already contacted __________, principal of ______________________ School that I need all communication from the school in writing via text in emails. I informed him that the emails they send with the audio messages are not accessible to me. He assured me that from now on, I would receive everything in text email instead of audio. That communication was last month when the first SchoolMessenger system sent out a mass communication to all the parents.

The email they sent to me today regarding my child has the audio link attached and no text of the message for me, just as it was last month when I contacted __________ about my communication needs and preferences. There is no text of what the audio file says.

Calling the school office is totally inaccessible, to me, as well. I use the CapTel relay system. The school's telephone answering system hangs up on us when I call the office. The automated system does not allow enough time for the relay operator to type to me the message, for me to then read the message, then for me to pull up a screen to select the extension I need to reach. This takes time for a deafened person like me who uses this relay system.

There is also now an intercom system attached at the school's front door. They speak to us through that instead of letting us in. Deaf and hard of hearing parents cannot hear this. It is inaccessible. I addressed this with the school last year. Nothing has been changed or done to accommodate us.

I would like to attend the next school board meeting. When I looked on the site here: __________

It will be ______ at _____ Location is the ______ School, 

There is more information here: ____

I sent an email to them requesting for CART (real time captions) so I can read the text what is being said at the meeting. 

Would it be possible to request a reporter to come along with me to document this meeting? 

All I simply want is accessibility for myself and other deaf, hard of hearing and late deafened parents for the same information and access as "hearing parents". 

My husband works for _________, and before I enlist his office and attorneys help, I would like to approach this as any other parent and see if the school district will accommodate these needs without having to use the words, "According to ADA..."

Respectfly,