Firing of Deaf Employee Costs Firm $240K

<i><b>Deaf News: Deaf ex-employee’s court case puts bosses on notice for behaving badly in Mississauga, Canada.</b></i><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://deafyouvideo.blogspot.com/2016/07/firing-of-deaf-employee-costs-firm-240k.html" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Vicky Strudwick"><img height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBDLNBwNZExr_cgJNTqD50iiySZTMDfAYjOnKqUhDOQBtbtc-YdP-hEUblAah_8GANq3_M5M_IY7XZ9_lVaPoQ5UYIF3pcq9Td24c230Ko_6CQpa8qERQ0623CRRZ8cq9jvA_9Lq5_VRUK/s1600/vicky-strudwick.jpg" width="250" /></a>TORONTO, ON -- The Canadian Press: A long-time employee tormented by her employer and unceremoniously dumped after she went <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_loss" target="_blank">Deaf</a> had her damages award more than doubled to $246,000 by Ontario’s top court on Thursday.<br /><br /><br /><br />In its decision, the Appeal Court ruled the egregious nature of the company’s “heartless” misconduct warranted significantly higher damages for Vicky Strudwick.<br /><br /><br /><br />“In the lead-up to Ms. Strudwick’s termination, she was belittled, isolated, humiliated and made to suffer the effects of her disability to the greatest extent possible,” the Appeal Court said.<br /><br /><br /><br />“This conduct was deliberate, malicious and designed to force Ms. Strudwick to quit a job she had held for almost 16 years.”<br /><br /><br /><br />Court documents show that Strudwick worked for <a href="https://www.acceintl.com/" target="_blank">Applied Consumer and Clinical Evaluations</a>, a family-run business based in Mississauga, Ont., that recruits people to participate in focus groups. She began by doing data entry, but later instructed recruiting staff, earning $12.85 an hour.<br /><br /><br /><br />In October 2010, she went completely Deaf - possibly because of a virus.<br /><br /><br /><br />Court records show that Andrew Hoffman, the general manager, and a supervisor, Liz Camilleri, then began a concerted campaign of abuse against Strudwick aimed at forcing her to quit.<br /><br /><br /><br />They not only denied her any accommodation for her disability, but actually took steps to make her life even more difficult, the court said.<br /><br /><br /><br />In May 2011, Hoffman fired her, allegedly for pulling a “stunt” at a company event, prompting Strudwick, then 56, to sue for wrongful dismissal and abuse.<br /><br /><br /><br />Applied Consumer never delivered a statement of defence and was noted in default.<br /><br /><br /><br />In August last year, <a href="http://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/counsel-procureurs-eng.aspx?cas=36122" target="_blank">Superior Court Justice Grant Dow awarded her a total of $113,782 and $40,000 in legal costs</a>. Strudwick appealed the damages award as too low, while Applied Consumer - which has about 80 employees - argued the legal costs award was too high.<br /><br /><br /><br />The Appeal Court affirmed the costs award, but found Strudwick deserved much more by way of damages given the “cruel” treatment to which her bosses had subjected her.<br /><br /><br /><br />Examples included giving her instructions while preventing her from lip reading, then calling her stupid. They refused to let her turn her desk around so that she could see people as they approached.<br /><br /><br /><br />“In the immediate lead-up to her dismissal, Ms. Strudwick was confronted in front of an estimated 13 other employees, yelled at and called a ‘goddamned fool’,” the Appeal Court stated.<br /><br /><br /><br />Hoffman, who would later himself be fired, gave her a termination letter and a cheque for three months’ pay. When she refused to sign a release, he took the cheque back and had her marched out of the building in front of her co-workers.<br /><br /><br /><br />Applied Consumer, which claims to foster an environment of “empowerment, engagement, fairness and responsibility,” then claimed she had been fired for insubordination and wilful misconduct - a tactic that delayed her access to employment insurance.<br /><br /><br /><br />On appeal, Strudwick argued for more than $1 million, but the court said its hands were tied by her initial statement of claim, which sought $240,000 plus an amount for loss of benefits.<br /><br /><br /><br />The Appeal Court said she deserved her full claim for damages in light of the “malicious and heartless” treatment meted out to her. It also awarded another $20,000 in costs for the appeal.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blackburnnews.com/bri-national/2016/06/30/firing-of-deaf-employee-costs-firm-240k/" target="_blank">SOURCE</a>

Firing of Deaf Employee Costs Firm $240K

Deaf News: Deaf ex-employee’s court case puts bosses on notice for behaving badly in Mississauga, Canada. TORONTO, ON -- The Canadian Press:...

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It’s Why Deaf People Don’t Report To Police

<i><b>Deaf News: When it comes to domestic abuse and sexual assault reporting, Deaf women are underserved by police in the United States.</b></i><br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://deafyouvideo.blogspot.com/2016/03/its-why-deaf-people-dont-report-to.html" title="Deaf Victim Are Underserved By Police"><img height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh41YeVty8Dc_xQP44j2lc0N9Dil7qhndixdQcDue_HheyupTRYrtyIqHI-kNL536jt0b0PnjX4T4fMusd3oeD4sKzqGhbLybbL4pq-BUkdUnlOq-eHsgxQaflnhK0vtSi5YpvaD-vG54B/s400/deaf-victim-are-underserved-by-police.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><br /><br />NEW YORK CITY -- <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/when-it-comes-domestic-abuse-sexual-assault-reporting-deaf-women-are-underserved-2334242" target="_blank">International Business Times</a>: The abuse started with a few insults. When Wendy, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_loss" target="_blank">Deaf</a> woman, met her college boyfriend, he was popular and attractive, so she put up with the harsh way he spoke to her. Then he gave her a black eye.<br /><br /><br /><br />“I thought it was normal, and that that was love; that it was just a part of when you care about somebody,” Wendy, 38, who didn’t want to be identified by her real name because she has yet to go public with her story, said through a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_interpretation#Sign_language" target="_blank">sign language interpreter</a>. “Then the insults became a little bit physical, and then a cycle began.”<br /><br /><br /><br />The cycle included her boyfriend holding her hostage in locked rooms after arguments, once almost forcing her to go to the bathroom in a bucket because she couldn’t leave. He beat her up on her 27th birthday, but she didn’t report it at least partly out of fear no one would believe her. She tells the story of a fellow Deaf friend who was abused by a significant other, and when police came to investigate, they didn’t believe the Deaf friend was abused.<br /><br /><br /><br />“It’s why Deaf people don’t report to police,” Wendy, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_culture" target="_blank">Deaf community</a> advocate in the central New York area, said. “It’s always ‘they won’t believe me.’ ”<br /><br /><br /><br />Deaf women experience sexual and domestic abuse at much higher rates than women who hear, but are unlikely to report it. A new initiative announced last week from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Institute_of_Justice" target="_blank">Vera Institute of Justice</a>, a New York City-based nonprofit, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Justice_Programs" target="_blank">U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime</a> aims to change that by training police officers to facilitate communication with Deaf victims, such as teaching them how to find legitimate sign language interpreters. Activists say many law enforcement officials don’t know the best way to communicate with Deaf victims, discouraging the victims from reporting abuse.<br /><br /><br /><br />“Now, they don’t have equal access to get the help they need,” Erin Esposito, a Deaf woman and executive director of the Rochester, New York-based <a href="http://asadv.org/">Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims</a>, said of Deaf victims. “The goal is to create an atmosphere where Deaf people can feel confident to go into a police station and get help.”<br /><br /><br /><br />The Translating Justice Initiative is a three-year program, funded with a $1 million grant from the U.S. Justice Department that will go toward virtual and in-person training sessions of police officers, prosecutors and court administrators <a href="http://deafyouvideo.blogspot.com/2016/03/cpd-gets-new-vrs-equipment-to-assist.html">to help them better communicate with the Deaf</a>, as well as the hard of hearing and those with limited English proficiency. The training is intended to enable police agencies to look at their policies regarding Deaf victims, revamp them to better facilitate communication and show officers how to better use resources already out there to help the Deaf, said Susan Shah, one of the co-leaders of the initiative.<br /><br /><br /><br />Officers will be instructed in telephonic interpretation services, finding interpreters in the community and ways to avoid outdated technology, Shah said. Another major part of the training is teaching police to reach out to the Deaf community so Deaf victims of domestic and sexual abuse can feel more comfortable coming forward.<br /><br /><br /><br />There is no cookie-cutter training for every police agency as every one has different levels of how well they interact with Deaf people, Esposito said. While there have been localized efforts to fund programs for Deaf victims, this is one of the only national initiatives providing this type of training, activists said.<br /><br /><br /><br />No one event spawned the project, which has been in development with the Justice Department and other agencies, such as Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims and the National Center for Victims of Crime. The Office for Victims of Crime said in a statement that inroads had been made in recent years to serve victims who have disabilities or limited English proficiency, and that the program came about to bring together local efforts to help Deaf victims.... <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/when-it-comes-domestic-abuse-sexual-assault-reporting-deaf-women-are-underserved-2334242" target="_blank">Read More</a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /><b>Related:</b><br /><br /><a href="http://deafyouvideo.blogspot.com/2016/03/cpd-gets-new-vrs-equipment-to-assist.html">CPD Gets New VRS Equipment To Assist Deafies</a><br /><br /><a href="http://deafyouvideo.blogspot.com/2015/10/deaf-woman-sues-nypd-for-wrongly.html">Deaf Victims Sues NYPD For Wrongly Arrested</a><br /><br /><a href="http://deafyouvideo.blogspot.com/2016/02/deaf-woman-sues-nypd-for-wrongly.html">Deaf Woman Sues NYPD For Wrongly Arrested</a><br /><br /><a href="http://deafyouvideo.blogspot.com/2015/12/deaf-woman-sues-nypd-for-denying.html">Deaf Woman Sues NYPD For Denying Interpreter</a><br /><br /><a href="http://deafyouvideo.blogspot.com/2015/05/deaf-gay-and-angry-do-not-call-cops.html">Deaf, Gay and Angry - Do Not Call Cops !!</a>

It’s Why Deaf People Don’t Report To Police

Deaf News: When it comes to domestic abuse and sexual assault reporting, Deaf women are underserved by police in the United States. NEW YORK...

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