Medical Interpreting Access - From Media to Reality
Workshop Description:
Civil rights tend to advance when supported by favorable media portrayals. This workshop will explore the challenges for improving medical interpreting given the failure of media to provide positive utilization of qualified and medically-trained sign language interpreters. In addition, the workshop will explore strategies to disrupt and address the lack of full communication access within medical settings.
Workshop Objectives:
At the end of this workshop participants will be able to:
1) Identify ways in which media promote or impede civil rights
2) Explain media trends depicting sign language interpreters in medical settings
3) Describe how disability rights laws have failed to ensure optimal communication access in medical settings
4) Assess proposed strategies to improve communication access in medical settings
Presenter Bio:
HOWARD A. ROSENBLUM is the Founder, Chair, and CEO of Deaf Equality, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing equality for Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, Hard of Hearing, and Late Deafened people in the USA and worldwide. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona (1988) and a law degree from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law (1992). Mr. Rosenblum has used his skills as an engineer and as a lawyer for over thirty four years, including: two years at Deaf Equality; thirteen years as the CEO and Director of Legal Services at the NAD; nine years as a Senior Attorney at Equip for Equality, a nonprofit disability rights advocacy organization in Illinois; and ten years with a private law firm. He spearheaded significant legal precedents such as: NAD v. Netflix, NAD v. Harvard, NAD v. MIT, NAD v. Trump, Campbell v. United States Department of Agriculture, and Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools. He currently serves as the legal advisor to the World Federation of the Deaf. In 2010 and again in 2014, he was appointed by President Obama to serve on the U.S. Access Board. In 2024, he was appointed by Governor J.B. Pritzker to serve on the Illinois Human Rights Commission.