Yesterday I attended a meeting held by Monroe County DSS on what will be a mandatory component of Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Programs in Monroe County.

This new mandatory system is supposed to help cut down Medicaid fraud and increase consumer safety. Attendants will now have to use this Voice Recognition system to clock in and clock out.

At yesterday’s meeting a question was asked from the audience about this new system also being in Spanish for our Spanish speaking attendants. The representative from Monroe County DSS stated, “Well, I guess they are just going to have to learn English now!”

I must say, I was very offended and appalled at what I heard. To make it worse, she did not stop there. She went on to say, if she could learn to count from 1-10 in Spanish then they should be able to count from 1-10 in English.

At that moment I said to her, you are being racist, prejudiced, and discriminatory. You cannot tell someone that they cannot speak their native language or be comfortable within their own culture. I added, this is a barrier to our Spanish speaking attendants as well as Latino with disabilities they may work for. She waved her hands in the air to cut me off, laughed and repeated her statement of “them” learning English.

The more she talked the angrier I got. Who does she think she is? What gives her the right to tell or suggest that to someone? As I listened to her and her co-presenters speak, I kept playing her statements over and over. How insensitive she was, and to blatantly show it in front of a large group of people! Worse still, out of an audience of healthcare providers, it astounded me that the only ones with the courage to speak out against this were staff of CDR and RCIL. Were the audience members so immune to or complacent with such bigotry, or were they afraid to speak out?

After a long battle, a man who said he was from Maxim, another CDPAS agency, told us that we (CDR) were responsible for providing accommodations. He said we had to teach CDPAS attendants English or provide an interpreter. The county representatives did not refute this statement. One of my coworkers spoke up and said we (CDR) are not the employers, the consumers are. I turned to him and said that is the whole purpose of “Consumer Directed”.

Cultural sensitivity means being aware that cultural differences and similarities exist and have an effect on values, learning, and behavior. Wouldn’t you think Monroe County DSS should know that?

The actions and words were racist, prejudiced and discriminatory. Something needs to be done about her actions. How can we expect the county to serve our best interest when they are culturally insensitive? Maybe she and her co-presenters could use a class or workshop on cultural sensitivity.

After I got back to the office and told my boss what happened, we did some research and learned something that makes the County’s lack of Spanish language accommodation even more serious.

Executive Order 13166 (Clinton , 2000) requires all agencies receiving Federal money to provide for individuals who have limited English proficiency. We spoke with an attorney who believes that since the money the county has control over is, in part, federal money and it affects the Spanish speaking employees’ ability to do their job, the county has an obligation to follow this Executive Order. In practical terms, the new phone system must have a Spanish language option. The attorney also mentioned that the lack of Spanish language accommodation may be a violation of Title VII.

Personally, this one representative from Monroe County DSS, and Monroe County DSS as a whole, have lost all respect from me. If she thinks that way about people with language barriers, what does she think about those of different races or abilities? After all, a significant portion of their clients are people of color and people with disabilities. It is hard to work with bigots.