Pending Lawsuit Against SSA; NCSD Director; Gina Tester Coleman
PENDING LAWSUIT AGAINST SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Several law firms across the country are involved in a lawsuit on behalf of people with disabilities who work for the Social Security Administration (SSA). These SSA employees believe that SSA has discriminated against them in the promotion process. If you work for SSA and believe that you have been denied a promotion because you have a disability or because you are deaf or hard of hearing, please contact Kevin Aldridge at the law firm of Berger & Montague. His e-mail is kaldridge@bm.net.
Since I personally know several Deaf SSA employees who have hit the proverbial glass ceiling due to their deafness, I am not surprised that there is a brewing lawsuit. It was actually a matter of time. MZ
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NCSD Director Position Now Available and Human Rights Commission Meeting
An insider alerted me about the NCSD director job position being advertised on the NC State website. If people recalled, the director stepped down after the Morganton NCSD protest was foiled. Spread the word to others who may be interested in applying for this position. This campus certainly needs a good Deaf-centric Director to pull up the academic quality, improve ASL among the NCSD personnel, and stomp out audism! http://osp.its.state.nc.us/dhhssearchresults3a.asp?vacancykey=4424
Incidentally, the NCSD Human Rights Commission had a meeting with the students and the parents separately last night. Parents expressed grievances about the low academic quality, poor signing skills of the personnel and the lack of communication between the parents and NCSD. The job of HRC is to resolve the issues between the stakeholders and NCSD. Read more about this at http://www.morganton.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MNH%2FMGArticle%2FMNH_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173355221281&path=
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Gina Tester Coleman
Motorcycle accident kills Noblesville woman | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star
I was saddened to hear the untimely death of Gina Tester Coleman from a motorcycle accident at Indianapolis. Not only was she my biology classmate at Gallaudet, her mother, Ruth Tester who had passed away due to melanoma four years ago, was a friend of mine. Now they are back together again. Rest in peace, Gina.
My deepest condolences to her family and her husband who unfortunately saw the accident unfolding in front of his eyes.
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
PENDING LAWSUIT AGAINST SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Several law firms across the country are involved in a lawsuit on behalf of people with disabilities who work for the Social Security Administration (SSA). These SSA employees believe that SSA has discriminated against them in the promotion process. If you work for SSA and believe that you have been denied a promotion because you have a disability or because you are deaf or hard of hearing, please contact Kevin Aldridge at the law firm of Berger & Montague. His e-mail is kaldridge@bm.net.
Since I personally know several Deaf SSA employees who have hit the proverbial glass ceiling due to their deafness, I am not surprised that there is a brewing lawsuit. It was actually a matter of time. MZ
.
NCSD Director Position Now Available and Human Rights Commission Meeting
An insider alerted me about the NCSD director job position being advertised on the NC State website. If people recalled, the director stepped down after the Morganton NCSD protest was foiled. Spread the word to others who may be interested in applying for this position. This campus certainly needs a good Deaf-centric Director to pull up the academic quality, improve ASL among the NCSD personnel, and stomp out audism! http://osp.its.state.nc.us/dhhssearchresults3a.asp?vacancykey=4424
Incidentally, the NCSD Human Rights Commission had a meeting with the students and the parents separately last night. Parents expressed grievances about the low academic quality, poor signing skills of the personnel and the lack of communication between the parents and NCSD. The job of HRC is to resolve the issues between the stakeholders and NCSD. Read more about this at http://www.morganton.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MNH%2FMGArticle%2FMNH_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173355221281&path=
.
Gina Tester Coleman
Motorcycle accident kills Noblesville woman | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star
I was saddened to hear the untimely death of Gina Tester Coleman from a motorcycle accident at Indianapolis. Not only was she my biology classmate at Gallaudet, her mother, Ruth Tester who had passed away due to melanoma four years ago, was a friend of mine. Now they are back together again. Rest in peace, Gina.
My deepest condolences to her family and her husband who unfortunately saw the accident unfolding in front of his eyes.
email contact: mishkazena@aol.com
April 8th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
[...] Lawsuit Against SSA; NCSD Director; Gina Tester Coleman unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSeveral law firms across the country [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Oh, Mishka!
I’m so sorry about your friend, Gina’s passing. My prayers and thoughts are for her husband and family. A real tradegy.
Wow about SSA and the promotion issues. That’s not a good news. I hope deaf will win that case.
I’ve been hearing lot of stories about deaf people being passed over the promotions at various companies. As long as they can prove their abilities at their job, the companies should consider and promote them. That’s unfortunate because most of companies would claim the barrier is PHONE! I was like ‘WTF’???? Have they ever heard of VRS, Relay, Internet Relay, etc.???? The companies need to be educated. Bleh….
Misha
April 8th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
The SSA thing has been a long source of complaints.
[second comment deleted due to its non-constructive bashing nature]
April 8th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
MZ,
That’s interesting about Social Security office related to barrier.
No wonder Social Security office prefer TTY only. I cannot leave their answering machine from IP Relay Service.
I need to investiaged my own about Social Security always prefer TTY. Most of deaf people is no longer useful with TTY Device at all. It has been huge change alot.
Deaf Pixie
April 8th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I think many federal agencies are like that. A few like the Dept of Defense and IRS are pretty good at working with the internal deaf organization to ensure equal promotion opportunities. Still, this discrimination is still very common. The process in which a person applies for promotion makes it easy for a ranking panel to bypass a certain individual. You need to understand that ranking process.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
hi,
NCSD made news in the morganton herald. Please if you know anyone who likes to challenge system and improve the children dorm and education experience here at NCSD apply!!! We need someone who is very strong supportive of full communication access and like MZ said stomping out audism.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Ill vlog it.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
I saw posting #6 -
maybe I will do a fictional story on Deaf Anthology about a new non-nonsense Deaf person who took over the school for the Deaf and, made many radical changes, high expectations, expect nothing but the best, controversial figure, the state, the unions, and the parents can’t stand him, but he has the respect of the kids. Maybe have him carry around a yardstick as a symbol of authority.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Our deaf bikers USA missed Gina Coleman =( Pray for her rest of peace.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hi Elizabeth,
Good to see you. Please keep us informed about the SSA because my sister and other deaf people have been working there for over 15 years.
SSA should also be sued for being unable to provide interpretive assistance when one walks in. One would have to wait for two weeks or thereabouts. The SSA has translators available for hearing Americans of foreign tongues when one walks in.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
That is too bad we lost our Gally alumni Gina to car/motorcycle accident. She was a nice gal. She will be sorely missed.
deafk
April 8th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Misha, that is a cop out many companies uses. Really a flimsy excuse which is against ADA.
Deaf Pixie, unfortunately SSA is still within its rights to use TTYs. It is the law that needs to be updated and include Internet and VP relays.
Deafmomma, I already saw that article, but after your comment, I realized it should be added to the post. Thanks.
Candy, right. However, from what I’ve heard, SSA is worse than the typical federal agency in its treatment of the disabled and Deaf employees and its clients, too.
RR, I don’t really care. You do not have the right to hijack my blog to promote your hatred toward culturally Deaf Community.
Cobra and Deafk, Deaf Community lost a valuable member. She is sorely missed. :/
Jean, really? The foreign clients don’t have to wait for interpreters at all? If so, this reeks of double standards!
April 8th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
TTYs is like Rotary Phones. If the SSA no longer have Rotary Phones in their office, therefore they should add VP or accept relay service calls.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Mishka,
You should block Ricky Roehm’s ip address here so he could not post his baseless and hatred comments here.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Thank you for sharing the two items of news as to SSA and NCSD.
I have learned more about Gina Coleman through Deafread. I’m so honored to get to know her. She sounds a wonderful person. My heart goes out to her family and friends. May God’s comfort and peace with them.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Interesting issues here … I am sorry for the loss of your great friend and her mom. I think I had seen her around on Gallaudet campus. I hope her husband is okay — getting help if needed.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Sciences discovered that chimpanzee have higher IQ than Richard Roehm.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
number 17 very very funny you made my night
number 8 go ahead i would love to see your stories i have read several of them and it brings me joy and puzzling at times too. I used to live in Wisconsin and adopted 2 beauties from China..
about Gina Tester Coleman she was indeed an amazing woman. I am still in shock she passed away. We were classmates at Gallaudet. she was really nice to everyone. She didn’t have any mean bone in her body. Shes probably riding a Harley Davidson in Heaven with her mother.
NCSD one thing about the article it said there is one legally deaf person on the committee. That is not true. He is a pastor and very hearing who has that attitude let’s save those poor Deaf people. But he is a nice guy. that is all I can say.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
How, how, how did Richard Roehm get a position as Director of OCDA in Orange County, Calif.? Why does he work there while the degree of his hostility towards deaf people is way way way high. Deaf people in California should file a complaint against Richard Roehm for his hatred against deaf people and NAD.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I do NOT trust SSA at all!
I recommend that when you call SSA, use printing TTY so that you can keep the transcript of conversation between you and the SSA representative. I’ve kept all of the transcripts. When I received conflict statements from letters and a SSA representative from when I spoke with through TTY directly using my printing tty, I would just go to the local SSA office to show the letters and the transcripts. This is how I won the case a long time ago! When you’re unable to find a job and the only way for you to make yourself comfortable is to get SSDI or SSI, you take a very good care of yourself and be a lawyer to yourself by keeping all of the bank statements (as far as back as possible), all of the letters, TTY transcripts and pay stubs (if you have any). More importantly, you read all through the SSI or SSDI brouchure. If you do not understand what you were reading in brouchure (in fact, I didn’t understand the brouchure!), go to your local ssa office and ask what ‘this’ means. If you use VP to communicate with SSA representative, there’s no way to prove that they make mistake! They’ll always win against you. Most of lawyers wouldn’t help you with your SSA overpayment. I’ve heard so many deaf people lost their cases against SSA because they don’t keep their transcripts, letters, bank statements and pay stubs. Take my advice, do not throw away your printing TTY and use it for when you need to contact the SSA representative.
As for the SSA deaf employees, I hope that they will win and be promoted to higher level.
My thoughts are with Gina and her family.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I appualded to Former SSDI collector Says and I agree with you that I always keep TTY with me all the time when I called Social Security. I dont trust SS office. They play as dumb to revenaged me but, I am getting keep tty device old forever.. That’s sucker!!
I am now on SSDI I don”t have much choice for my kid’s health sake. Dont depoisted your check when you are quit SSDI same time until you get plenty of money.. Money back when you keep check come in your home instead of directly depoist.. Hold check when you have a enough money from work.. Depoist your money from work into your bank. Not SSDI check should not directly before three month trail. Hold 3 month of SSDI check. in your safety box until SSDI asked you for money back. YOu just give three check of SSDI to return to SS office. EASY!!
Be carefully with SSDI systems play around with you if you are stuck and overpayment,too. Be carefully!!
Deaf Pixie
April 8th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Mishka Zena
WHAT! Social Security office need to adjusting because of IP Relay Service. It is useless TTY Device? DUH? Still fueding over no allowing IP Relay Service or i711.com
Deaf Pixie
April 8th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I see lots of irony here. SSA = SS, SSI and SSDI and now this spat.
I find it quite ironic one poster doesn’t trust SSA yet hoping deaf are promoted within SSA. Maybe I’m overlooking that he’s giving SSA the benefit of doubt despite not trusting. What a big mess.
Many deaf work for crooks (either deaf or hearing) because they’d be discriminated elsewhere. After all, I guess life is about choosing the lesser of two evils.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
#23 Anonymous,
you are right, I am no longer trust any of Social Security. It still sometime bullied by me and the lady or man about discriminated everywhere. Not alone in your state.
MZ, I keep wonder why they prefer tty device instead use the VRS with a their explaination clearly instead of TTY device.
Most deaf written is really bad.. but not you.. myself I am really bad written down.
You know what I mean!
April 9th, 2008 at 2:11 am
When did Gina go to Gallaudet? Late 1980s?
April 9th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
from 1983 to 88 I think that is about Gina Tester Coleman. She was nice…
April 9th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Hi Mishkazena:
Apologies for posting off topic, but I saw that you had posted a comment at http://candy.blogono.com/2008/04/09/candy-could-be-kathleen/ … so I know you know at least the broad outlines of the situation surrounding Kathleen Seidel.
Do you think you might blog on this topic also? What happened to Kathleen Seidel could happen to ANY blogger or vlogger, whether Deaf/deaf, hard of hearing or hearing … oral or sign … autistic or non-autistic … person with a disability or person with no disability at all. Any blogger could end up being slapped with an unduly and insanely burdensome subpoenae, not because they have any actual knowledge that would be enlightening in court, but simply because they dared to have an opinion–and dared blog about it.
In short, this is an issue that goes to the heart of FREEDOM OF SPEECH. For ALL of us.
I think it’s important for everyone in the blogging community to stand together on this, to stand up and say, “I am Kathleen, too.” No matter what country we’re in, no matter what our hearing status or cultural status, no matter whether we normally agree or disagree with each other on other things. Because this is about a higher value — FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
Some other posts (which include links to more info on the Kathleen Seidel situation so you can do your own homework on this):
http://www.paotie.com/2008/04/09/i-am-kathleen-a-fight-against-neo-mccarthyism/
http://reunifygally.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/is-any-blogger-safe-the-i-am-kathleen-campaign/
And this one about how bloggers in general have been attacked in a range of ways:
http://elder-abuse-cyberray.blogspot.com/2008/04/war-on-bloggers-comes-home-to-america.html
April 11th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Did you know SSA have no longer anymore? It changed to SSDAC stand for Social Security Disability Adult and Child. I lost my dad when I was 15 years old. I am not happy with SSDAC and SSA because it control my money if I get a new job. It will cut a little. I will be tight money when I get marry. They will cut my SSDAC down about over 200 a monthly. I don’t accept it. I am getting marry in 2 months left to go. Social Security Casework must check it out for my new husband’s SS to see how much he have. He isn’t deaf. Why I must information to SS if I am getting marry, new job and have baby? I suppose to get a tax. I have SSDAC limited money. I am not happy about this. What I can do?
Gina Coleman was my favorite teacher. I heard about her passed away. I was so sad. We will miss her. She is wonderful person! She have a great personality. She is in the heaven with Jesus now.
JLB