This year is going to be an interesting year for the deaf and hard of hearing community. In the past, the police had problems with communication between the deaf and police officers, especially during traffic stops. Some examples are that the police do not believe people have hearing loss because they can speak. At the same time, many do not realize that a person is deaf when they do not speak back. Often the deaf person wants to know why they were pulled over.

At thi9s time, no two police departments have the same policy on how to communicate with the deaf people they pull over. The Rochester Police Department (RPD) has a policy that the police need to get a driver’s license before they communicate with the person. So, they take the license and check it in their police car to be sure the person has no warrant. Other police departments will have some kind of communication with a person prior to taking the license. This is no easy task for RPD because they have enough issues to deal with in the city.

RCIL formed a Committee with deaf people and police officers known as the Deaf and Police Interaction Committee. This committee got together to improve the communication among the police and deaf community. They came up with a Deaf Driver’s Communication Visor Card that allows the deaf to communicate with the police when they are pulled over for traffic violations. Even Rochester Mayor Duffy was impressed. The committee will be giving out about 10,000 of them to the Rochester community sometime this fall. The group will be giving presentations and workshops at the same time they give out the communication visor cards.

In New York State, there were also two bills providing for an ear symbol on the license plates of the deaf drivers to help improve communication, introduced by Assembly member Joseph Morelle and Senator Michael Nozzolio. Many of the deaf and hard of hearing voters are not in favor of the bill because they do not want a symbol on their license plate. Many feel that it will give people opportunities to take advantage of their deafness.

Assembly Member Joe Morelle was impressed with the communication visor card and is interested in making it into a law required by the DMV. Somehow, this newly created bill is causing problems with the hard of hearing community because the Deaf Communication Visor Card would cost $10 under the bill. Assembly Member Morelle’s staff felt that due to the poor budget in New York State a fee would be needed to cover the costs of distributing the visor card throughout the state. He also added that the fees will be used to cover costs of training the police department or related services that may be needed.

During the Assembly’s Disability Awareness Day, Senator Nozzolio expressed interest in the visor card too. He said that he might be writing a bill in favor of the Deaf Communication visor card that would avoid the fees. He will consider removing the license plate bill if he can see enough evidence of the security issues for the deaf and hard of hearing drivers. What a great advocacy year for the deaf and hard of hearing community! Let’s hope that the Police Communication Visor Cards will become a successful story starting in Rochester!