We must hold government officials accountable. For two years, HEARD has tried to educate the FL Department of Corrections about Deaf Culture and Communication. We have tried to assist deaf prisoners to obtain basic access to telecommunication, programs, services, interpreters, etc. Under the FL DOC, deaf prisoners have not only been denied this access, but have been abused and retaliated against for filing grievances.

Investigative Journalist James Ridgeway wrote this piece about the deaf and deaf-blind prisoners housed in Florida's Department of Corrections.

 Click here to read HEARD's Comment to the FCC.

HEARD mobilized more than forty deaf and hard of hearing prisoners to submit comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the importance of access to telecommunications and the current lack of access to telecommunications access for deaf prisoners. HEARD also mobilized Deaf Community members, family members of deaf prisoners,  civil rights organizations, law firms, and hearing prisoners to send comments to the FCC about the impact of [lack of/no] communication access on deaf and hard of hearing prisoners & about the importance of ensuring that deaf prisoners have access to videophones, captioned telephones & other auxiliary aids to ensure that all prisoners can connect with their families, attorneys and advocates.  You can read some of these comments here.

View HEARD's signed & captioned video on this information here.

Beginning on April 1, 2013, we will post one letter each day (for 30 days) from deaf prisoners across the nation here and on our Facebook Page!

Many thanks to our intern Amanda Ulland who worked tirelessly on HEARD's first Quarterly Newsletter!  

Click HERE to see HEARD Highlights from the past four months!