HB 2816 — Removing the terms “hearing impaired,” “hearing impairment,” and “deaf mute” from the West Virginia Code and substituting terms

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Red = new code to be enacted WEST virginia legislature regular session IntroducedENROLLED House Bill 2816 By Delegates Campbell, Canestraro, Higginbotham, Lavender-Bowe, Atkinson, Williams, R.

Thompson, Caputo, Hornbuckle, Dean and Pack [Introduced[Passed FebruaryMarch 1,8, 2019;

Referredin toeffect theninety Committeedays onfrom Governmentpassage.] Organization]AN AACT BILL to amend and reenact §5-14-1, §5-14-2, §5-14-3, §5-14-5, and §5-14-8 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended;

(a) There is a need for West Virginia to adequately identify the hearing-impaired deaf or hardhard-of-hearing of hearing population and provide efficient and effective services to such population;

(b) Hearing-impaired Deaf or hardhard-of-hearing of hearing people need to be more involved in the decisions and programs that affect their lives by soliciting and seriously considering their collective opinion on appropriate matters;

(e) A rubella epidemic from 1963 to 1965 caused a number of infants in West Virginia to be born hearing-impaired deaf or hard of hearing.

(g) There must be more emphasis on the use of telecommunication devices for the deaf (TDDs) and means to provide them for hearing-impaired deaf or hardhard-of-hearing of hearing people;

(c) “Hearing-impaired” means persons who are either deaf or hard of hearing.

(c) The Governor shall appoint nine persons, at least five of whom are deaf or hard of hearing, one of whom is the parent of a deaf child, one of whom is a certified teacher of the hearing-impaired deaf or hard of hearing, one audiologist and one otolaryngologist.

(a) The commission shall maintain a clearinghouse of information, the purpose of which is to aid hearing-impaired deaf or hard of hearing persons and others in obtaining appropriate services or information about such services, including, but not limited to, education, communication (including interpreters), group home facilities, independent living skills, recreational facilities, employment, vocational training, health and mental health services, substance abuse and other services necessary to assure their ability to function in society.

(d) The commission shall develop an outreach program to familiarize the public with the rights and needs of hearing-impaired deaf or hard of hearing people and of available services.

The commission shall also determine the advisability and necessity of providing services to the multi-handicapped hearing-impaired deaf or hard of hearing.

To the extent possible, the executive director shall be hearing-impaired deaf or hard of hearing and shall be proficient in communicating with hearing-impaired deaf or hard of hearing individuals using varying communication modes.

Charges or fees for items on the periodic statement that are not public utility services, including surcharges for telecommunications relay services for the hearing impaired deaf or hard of hearing and fees for enhanced emergency telephone systems, are not included in the gross amount subject to the measure of this tax.

(a) There is hereby established a West Virginia hearing impairment difficulties testing advisory committee which shall advise the Director of the Division of Health regarding the protocol, validity, monitoring and cost of testing procedures required under this article.

(9) A parent of a hearing-impaired deaf or hard of hearing child;

(3) Children exposed to even low levels of lead exhibit learning disabilities, decreased growth, hyperactivity, impaired hearing deafness or hearing difficulties, and neurological damage;

Severe behavioral disorders, severely speech and language impaired, deaf-blind, hearing impaired deafness or hearing difficulties, autistic, physically handicapped, disabled profoundly intellectually disabled, trainable intellectually disabled or visually impaired.

Severe behavioral disorders, communication disordered, deaf-blind, developmentally delayed, hearing impaired deaf or hard of hearing, other health impaired including autism, physically handicapped, mentally impaired or visually impaired.

(c) Where a dwelling is not occupied by the owner and is occupied by an individual who is deaf or hearing impaired hard of hearing, the owner shall, upon written request by or on behalf of the individual, provide and install a smoke detector with a light signal sufficient to warn the deaf or hard of hearing individual of the danger of fire.

(1) Reasonable accommodation includes, but is not limited to, certified interpreters for the hearing impaired deaf and hard of hearing, spokespersons for the speech impaired, real-time court reporting and readers for the visually impaired.

(a) In any court proceeding wherein a party or witness or juror cannot readily understand or verbally communicate the English language because the witness or juror is deaf or a deaf mute or because of any other hearing impairment difficulties, such person shall have the right to have a qualified interpreter to assist the witness or juror at every stage of the proceeding.

(1) The director shall prescribe, determine and certify the qualifications of persons who may serve as certified interpreters in courts of this state in proceedings involving the hearing impaired deaf and hard of hearing.

Persons certified by the director shall be interpreters certified by the national registry of interpreters for the deaf, or the West Virginia registry of interpreters for the deaf or approved by the chief of services for the deaf and hearing impaired hard of hearing of West Virginia of the West Virginia Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, or shall be such other persons deemed by the director to be qualified by education, training and experience.

(2) Each circuit court shall maintain on file in the office of the clerk of the court a list of all persons who have been certified as oral or manual interpreters for the hearing impaired deaf and hard of hearing by the director of the administrative office of the Supreme Court of Appeals in accordance with the certification program established pursuant to this section.

(3) In any criminal or juvenile proceeding, or other proceeding described in §51-11-5 of this code, the judge of the circuit court in which such proceeding is pending, or, if such proceeding is in a magistrate court, then the judge of the circuit court to which such proceeding may be appealed or presented for judicial review, shall, with the assistance of the director of the administrative office of the Supreme Court of Appeals, utilize the services of the most available certified interpreter, or when no certified interpreter is reasonably available, as determined by the judge, the services of an otherwise competent interpreter, if the judge determines on his or her own motion or on the motion of a party that such party or a witness who may present testimony in the proceeding suffers from a hearing impairment hearing difficulties so as to inhibit such party's comprehension of the proceedings or communication with counsel or the presiding judicial officer, or so as to inhibit such witness' comprehension of questions and the presentation of such testimony.

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The purpose of this bill is to remove the terms “hearing impaired’ and “hearing impairment” from the West Virginia Code and to substitute, based upon appropriate context, the terms “deaf and hard of hearing,” “hard of hearing,” or “hearing difficulties” in all instances of the removed words.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

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