Faulting Services for Deaf, Activist Plans New Center

An activist for the deaf who is dissatisfied with services available in Orange County has decided to open a new center for the hearing-impaired, sparking debate in the local deaf community over its need.

Richard P. Roehm, who is deaf, said there is not enough advocacy for deaf people and plans to open a nonprofit center in November in Santa Ana.

Roehm, who is running the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center out of his Santa Ana apartment, said he wants to strengthen enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act to protect the rights of hearing-impaired people.

“There’s no one here to help them,” Roehm, 36, said. “I’m really using the center to educate them, that they have this law that is protecting them. I don’t see anything like this coming out of the other disability organizations here.”

But groups that work with deaf people said another center is not needed.

Roehm “is reinventing the wheel,” said Ed Kelly, director of the Orange County Deaf Equal Access Foundation, whose parent group is the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness, or GLAD. “He is causing quite a stir in the deaf community. He doesn’t know what we really do here.”

Kelly said his organization serves up to 12,000 people a year and makes sure the Americans with Disabilities Act is enforced.

“A lot of deaf people come to us when they’ve been discriminated [against],” he said, adding that his organization often challenges doctors and lawyers who are unwilling to accommodate deaf people.

Kelly said it is often necessary to persuade attorneys and physicians to pay for sign language interpreters when they serve the hearing-impaired--rights the ADA provides.

For Roehm, the local organizations are not aggressive enough.

He said that when he complained to them about problems between deaf people and police, he got only “excuses.”

“That tells me they were not in the position to help the deaf people in Orange County. . . . For a few months I did try to share it with the top levels of GLAD, only to discover they have a country club mentality,” he said.

Marcella Meyer, the chief executive officer of GLAD, said she has heard Roehm’s complaints and countered that her organization is effective.

“We work with the police closely; we have had lawsuits against police,” she said. “Maybe our approach is not to [Roehm’s] liking, but believe me, this is a grass-roots organization and we are proud of our work.”

Others say deaf people will benefit from the new center.

Roehm “is putting new energy into a community that really needs it,” said Alicia F. Speare, who runs Special Task Interpreters for the Deaf in Atwood. “A lot of [deaf] people are complaining that their needs aren’t being met.”

Speare, who has known Roehm several years and has worked with him, said Roehm is “an extremely bright individual” who can help educate the hearing public and make deaf people more aware of their rights.

At the new center, Roehm said, he plans to offer social activities and classes to improve relations between deaf and hearing people. The center will also arrange for interpreters and provide real-world guidance for hearing-impaired people, including how to find work, get bank loans and fill out tax forms, he said.

Roehm said volunteers will run the center office and that he will use donations and fund-raising activities to support it.

“I want to help deaf people find and retain their jobs and help employers find accommodations” for them, Roehm said.