Deaf and Hard of Hearing Fight to Be Heard

This is another one of those things I'm on the fence about. Mom vaguely asked why it takes so long for construction nowadays, and I said one of the factors is probably safety. How many people died making the tunnels to provide NYC water? But that shit wouldn't fly now, which is why we have to slowly break ground to assure no one's gonna get hurt in a sudden cave in or water flooding the whole tunnel or what have you. These people can now work in a more stable environment, I'm certain we're all happy about that, but a negative consequence is construction is slower and more expensive.

I feel that way about this too. Let's take this from the point of view of the health club. They have to take a hit by hiring a sign-language interpreter. I doubt they have enough deaf customers to justify keeping one on hand, but getting someone from outside is still about $50-$150 per hour. And she wanted a gym membership, so who knows how many sessions she would require? I doubt this is a small business, so they probably can absorb the cost. If there're enough deaf people though or if I'm wrong and this is a small business, it would start affecting their profits. And to stave this off, they would start raising prices. All of their customers would contribute to pay for sign-language interpreters.

Now, I think we all agree there are some places that should require these services, like a hospital or a police station, but businesses are the fuzzy area. Of course there should not be discrimination, but this isn't like suddenly opening the doors for women or minorities. It costs money to cater for people with disabilities, whether it's hiring an interpreter or adding ramps to a building. NYC has a good compromise for those with wheelchairs: You can keep a building as is, but if you do a major renovation, then you gotta add in those ADA-compliant parts. But what about deaf people? I actually have no idea what the law is. Is for example a bodega required to keep a sign-language interpreter behind the counter if a deaf person wants to patron them? That's pretty ridiculous and I doubt that's required, but then again that health club was legally supposed to provide one.

Being deaf definitely closes much of the world to you, and like the construction workers, we as a society should make sure there are safeguards for them. There should be interpreters at governmental and emergency services. But should we force a place to get an interpreter on the off chance a deaf person will come in? I'm not entirely certain. We did after all force the construction industry to take better care of their workers, increasing the price for all. But then again, that's hundreds of thousands of construction workers, compared to how many deaf people? On the other hand if it's so small, surely the cost of helping the deaf shouldn't be an issue. Or it would if it fell on the taxpayers, but now we're expecting businesses to provide.

See, this is why I'm on the fence. Maybe if I had a clearer picture of the law I could come to a better conclusion, or maybe not. Maybe that's why we're having problems to this day.