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A Deaf survivor and her 6-year-old daughter were recently in a domestic violence incident in their inner city apartment

A Deaf survivor and her 6-year-old daughter were recently in a domestic violence incident in their inner city apartment.  The husband, who is also Deaf, was jailed. He will soon be released. The mother is scared for their lives. She found in the yellow pages a shelter with TTY line. The TTY line kept getting hung up.

Out of frustration, the Deaf survivor took the public transportation to the DV Shelter administration office. She grew up without full access to formal education, so she was not confident in her own English writing. She also had been diagnosed with cognitive disabilities when she was young. The receptionist at the front desk asked, "Can you read my lips? The Deaf woman just nodded not sure what she was saying. Then she started talking fast. The Deaf woman gestured, "Hold.” and pointed to her ears, "I cannot hear.”  The receptionist looked at the child and said, "can you hear?"  The little girl nodded her head.  "Great, tell your mother that an advocate is coming to interview her. You can interpret for your mother." The daughter nodded. The Deaf woman signed to hearing daughter, "What?" The daughter signed back, "Someone named A is coming to meet you.”

When the advocate arrived, she sat down with the mother and daughter to ask questions for the intake. The daughter became overwhelmed with the interpreting role and clammed up. The advocate found a piece of paper and wrote questions for the mother. The mother read with uncertainty. She understood some of the words and answered few of the questions. In spite of limited information from the Deaf mother, the advocate relied on her instincts that they needed shelter and accepted their application.

The mother found that there were none of the following: TTYs, email access, videophones with VRS system, televisions with closed captions, interpreters for support groups, etc.  She also was not sure of the rules to follow including curfews so the shelter staff and roommates scolded her for breaking some of the rules.  During the support groups, she felt left out without an interpreter. The hearing roommates and staff told the Deaf mother she needed to discipline her child for flicking the lights and tapping their arms too hard. The straw that broke the camel's back was when the child was tapping on the floor hard, and the shelter supervisor become upset with her. The child started to cry. The Deaf mother had enough. She decided it was easier to go back to her Deaf batterer who understood her language and culture than to stay in a place where both her daughter and she are always misunderstood and left out.  Her abusive husband welcomed both back and promised them to never abuse again.  This promise only lasted for one week.

It is common for shelters to have a TTY line. However, due to high turnovers, it is often difficult to keep the new staff trained for TTYs. It is a common experience for Deaf survivors to experience their TTY calls to go unanswered.

"Can you read my lips?" is an ineffective method. It means asking the Deaf survivor to go out of her way to get access. Most Deaf people do not lip read with sufficient accuracy. Even the best so called lip reader really only can pick up about 30 percent of the content and rely on educated guess work. Better word for lip reading is actually closure skills. It is the ability to fill in the blanks of an English sentence, a method commonly used for English homework to build fluency of English language. Deaf people with limited foundation of English language and American Sign Language skills will not have enough schemas to utilize closure skills.

The receptionist asked the 6-year-old child to interpret for her mother. Hearing children with Deaf parents are signers, but they are not interpreters. Also the nature of the domestic violence situation is overwhelming for any adult, and even more so for a child. Children should not be involved with the interviews.

Writing notes is not always an ideal way for communication with a Deaf person. English is not the natural language for Deaf people, especially when they are under extraordinary stress. If the Deaf survivor is very comfortable with her English skills and insists to continue with the paper and pen communication mode, then it is her right to do so. In this scenario, the Deaf woman had cognitive limitations and did not feel confident with her English writing skills.

When a Deaf woman comes in, ask her if she wants an ASL interpreter.  If she requests one, be prepared with list of phone numbers to contact interpreting agencies and freelance interpreters to make contacts right away.

The advocate relied on her instincts about putting the Deaf woman in the shelter. It became the advocate's decision, not the Deaf survivor's decision. It goes against the Deaf woman's need to start the empowerment process. She would not have to make her own guesses if she had gotten an interpreter to gather more information about the DV case and find out what the survivor needs for access at the shelter.

The child flicks the light switch on and off, stomps on the floor, and taps on the shoulder, arm or hip as a natural way to get a Deaf mother's attention. This communication behavior is part of Deaf culture, and is often misunderstood by the hearing society. Hearing children of Deaf parents are not auditorally trained to respond to hearing voices. They use their eyes for communications like Deaf people. Often hearing children get punished by the shelter staff for not listening or following the rules Hearing children of Deaf parents are over diagnosed as A.D.D. because of this behavior. Deaf mothers feel powerless with their parenting skills when they are judged by people who may have different values and standards. Deaf people call individuals who condone Deaf behavior “audists.”

Living in a place without access to day-to-day communications, rules, phone, emails, television is a very isolating feeling. The Deaf women came to a place with hopes to find source of support.  Instead she finds her own abusive home to be less isolating. So she goes back where she can get support of her friends via videophones, emails, and TTYs. Furthermore, she will not likely have the resources needed for safety plan regarding use of TTYs, emails and video phones such as deleting the information about abuse, phone numbers of friend which sometimes show on video phone programs, and erasing the memory as well as the printer paper with prior conversations from the TTYs

Ideal shelter would be a Deaf shelter. Unfortunately there is only one in the nation. Some shelters put the Deaf survivors in a hotel using the vouchers because most hotels have ADA kits. Another option is finding a temporary home where people know sign language and have DV training background. The shelters can utilize technology to establish access. One shelter set up a videophone, so the Deaf survivors could contact out of state Deaf DV advocates for one on one support. Another shelter allowed the Deaf survivor to go to a Deaf DV agency's support group in lieu of the hearing support group. There are many creative solutions, which can be worked out with both the Deaf survivor along with consultation from a Deaf advocate.

Using Interpreters