Accommodation denials lead to school staff and student frustration, as well as loss of time and financial resources
Members of the Department of Family Medicine, along with an international team of researchers, have recently published a first-of-its kind study showing more than half of medical students with disabilities from a sample of U.S. medical programs were denied accommodations by the organization that administers the United Stated Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1. Researchers found these rejections had detrimental impacts on students and the medical schools they attend.
In conjunction with The International Week of the Deaf, McDonald’s Finland collaborates with the well-known rapper Signmark to translate the restaurant chain’s iconic jingle into a sign language based song. Signmark and McDonald’s hope that the song will help to shed light on the prejudices people with hearing impairments face daily. Agency NORD DDB is behind the initiative.
McDonald’s latest campaign contributes to increased awareness about deafness with its first of a kind sign language jingle called Something bigger (I’m lovin’ it). The song is a part of McDonald’s Togetherness platform which aims to promote equality and inclusivity.
On the 10th anniversary of the day they met, Joel Alfaro and Yusela Machado Silvente were dressed up and ready to become husband and wife when they visited the Duval County Clerk of Circuit Court’s office in October 2021, called again in August 2022, to receive their marriage license.
To the couple’s dismay, the Duval County Clerk of Circuit Court’s office denied Joel and Yusela, who are both deaf, their marriage license because they didn’t bring a sign language interpreter with them to the clerk’s office. This is a clear violation of their rights, specifically the Americans with Disabilities Act.
As disappointed as they were to be turned away on their special day, the couple’s sadness only deepened when they ran into complications while making many attempts to figure out what they actually needed to do before they could say ‘I do.’
A year later, the Clerk of Circuit Court in Duval County still hasn’t issued the couple a marriage license, so Joel and Yusela have yet to get married.
Joel and Yusela have now filed a lawsuit against the Circuit Court of Duval County and Clerk of Circuit Court Jody Phillips in an effort to ensure that other deaf couples do not endure the same unnecessary challenges that they have.
The couple is represented by John Phillips of Phillips & Hunt, Mary C. Vargas and Michael S. Stein of Stein & Vargas, LLP and Marc Charmatz of the National Association of the Deaf.
The couple and attorney John Phillips of Phillips & Hunt will address the media today at 11 a.m. at Phillips’ law offices, 212 N. Laura Street, 4th floor, Jacksonville, 32202.
A copy of the complaint, which was filed today in Duval County, can be viewed here.
