From the San Francisco Chronicle, CBS:

United Parcel Service tentatively settled a lawsuit Tuesday by agreeing to give employees with hearing loss accommodations for testing and training so that they can compete for jobs driving small delivery vans. The agreement awaits approval by a federal judge.

U.S. Department of Transportation regulations require drivers of trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds to pass hearing tests, but employees sued the company for applying the same standards to its smaller vehicles.

UPS argued that deaf drivers were more likely to get into accidents because they couldn’t hear sirens, screeching tires or other danger signals. Plaintiffs in the nationwide suit said they were unfairly confined to low-level jobs as loaders and sorters despite records that showed they were safe drivers.

“This first-of-its-kind class action on behalf of deaf and hearing-impaired employees broke new ground and made new law,” said Todd Schneider, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Marcella M. Meyer, a prominent deaf advocate who helped found the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness and ran it for almost three decades, has died. She was 84.

Deaf since contracting scarlet fever at the age of 6, Meyer fought to expand civil rights and establish social services for people with impaired hearing. She pushed for TV closed-captioning in the 1970s, and was instrumental in opening up jury service in Los Angeles County to the deaf and hard of hearing in 1981.

Roz Rosen, director of the National Center on Deafness at Cal State Northridge, called Meyer “visionary, radical, straight-shooting, compassionate and caring.”

“She conceptualized the consumer-based community service centers serving deaf and hard-of-hearing people and created the statewide network much respected and revered by so many, within and outside of California,” Rosen told The Times in an e-mail. “Her energy, enthusiasm and empathy were boundless.”

(Los Angeles Times photo)

From the [Memphis, TN] Commercial Appeal:

Colleges are increasingly welcoming students with disabilities. A national survey of college freshmen last year by UCLA found that 3.3 percent reported having a disability, up from about half a percent in 1983.

New technology, federal laws and increased awareness are helping colleges support students with such conditions as autism, Asperger’s, attention deficit disorder, hearing deficits and other learning and behavioral disabilities.

… Professors are slowly altering long-held teaching methods to ensure that class lectures and assignments are accessible. These adjustments may be as simple as printing handouts on light blue paper, because some autistic students with visual sensitivities find black text on white paper jarring.

Maxine Ford, the recently retired director of disability services at Southwest Tennessee Community College, said the college has seen a “tremendous increase” in the number of students with disabilities such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), hearing impairments, and autism.

Students with disabilities typically require more tutoring and take longer to earn their degrees, according to the University of California, Los Angeles, which tracks college trends nationwide. Its national freshmen survey found that last year 3.3 percent of college freshmen reported having a disability. In 1983, only a half percent of freshmen reported having a disability.

From Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland Oregonian

Eighteen-year-old Tiffany Hill of Eugene, Ore., became the first deaf contestant to recite poems in sign language in the national Poetry Out Loud contest, held in Washington this week, but she didn’t make it into the final round.

Organizers redefined their judging criteria to include contestants using American Sign Language without offering special treatment.

(Photo from Oregon Arts Commission)

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Walt Disney World has added an “audio description” feature to its proprietary wireless system so that visually impaired guests can hear a narrative description of scenes unfolding in popular attractions.

The rugged hand-held device, which relies on a series of remote, infrared sensors, already offered amplified sound and hand-held captions for guests with hearing loss.

“We want to make our rich stories available to everyone,” said Greg Hale, vice president of worldwide safety and accessibility for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

The venture has also grown into a side business for Disney and its partner the Houston-based Softeq Development Corp. which markets the system to other attractions, museums, and businesses, including the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta.

(Walt Disney World photo in Orlando Sentinel)

From the Colorado Springs Gazette:

The Qwest Pioneers, a volunteer group of Qwest employees, hosted an adaptive Easter egg hunt at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind this week that featured a technological innovation for those with visual impairments – audible plastic eggs.

The handmade eggs were based on a 1964 invention of a beeping softball that was created so blind people could play.

Deaf students competed to find brightly colored eggs. Similar egg hunts were hosted in Denver, Grand Junction and other areas in which Qwest provides service.

See also:

Beeping eggs make Easter hunt a blast for blind students - Tucson Citizen

Easter Egg Hunt: Visually impaired children find more than eggs - Omaha World-Herald

Cleveland Sight Center holds Easter egg hunt for blind, visually impaired – Cleveland Plain Dealer

(Photo from Colorado Springs Gazette)

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Educators reached for the tissues this week when Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin delivered the keynote address at the Council for Exceptional Children’s national convention in Seattle.

Her message: A big thank-you to those who speak up on behalf of people who can’t speak for themselves. “I know,” she told the crowd, “that I am here today because people like you listened to me.”

Matlin, who is deaf, praised educators for their work encouraging children to follow their dreams. “I will always be listening to my children and any child that wants to be heard,” Matlin signed to the crowd. “In the end, silence will be the last thing the world will ever hear from me.

“And I know and can feel that it’s the same for you.”

(Photo from Seattle Post-Intelligencer)