In Washingtonpost.com, Marc Fisher disagrees with a federal judge’s ruling that the Washington Redskins must post on the team’s scoreboard the lyrics of any songs played over loudspeakers during games. An excerpt:

… most non-existent of all in this case is any common sense, any attempt to be reasonable. Handicapped people should expect to be able to gain access to public places and activities without undue hardship. And it’s fair to ask a rich company like the Redskins to invest in some technology to make the game equally understandable to deaf fans — which the team has done for several years now.

But no matter what the law might say or how any narrowminded judge might rule, neither legal verbiage nor wishing it will make all people identical. In any public performance, some people will get more of what’s going on and some will get less. Many blind people love going to baseball games; they wouldn’t expect the team to have to hire a guide to sit with them and narrate the action to them.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 9:35 am and is filed under deaf/hard of hearing, exercise/sports, law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post