Deaf News Briefs: Deaf winner of Miss South Africa; Two EEOC discrimination cases

Here are two Deaf News briefs.

Mia le Roux first deaf winner of Miss South Africa

In South Africa, a deaf woman named Mia le Roux won Miss South Africa 2024. She lost her hearing when she was about one year old and received a cochlear implant. She is able to speak with her voice and communicates with others using her implant and lipreading. When Roux won, she said, “I am a proudly South African deaf woman and I know what it feels like to be excluded.”

Roux said in an interview with SABC News that she didn’t have sign language education growing up and her family focused on speech therapy. She said she would support the idea of having sign language be made more accessible in rural areas. Congratulations to Mia le Roux.

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Two EEOC deaf discrimination cases

The second Deaf News is that there are two new EEOC cases representing Deaf clients who said they were discriminated against when applying for jobs.

The first is a case in Missouri against a trucking company, Wilson Logistics. A deaf job applicant with trucking experience and an exemption from hearing requirements from the U.S. Department of Transportation was told by a company representative that they do not hire individuals who communicate through sign language. The EEOC said this violated the ADA.

The second is a case in North Carolina against a news organization called Champion Media. A deaf job applicant who sought a job in the company’s printing facility completed a phone call interview process with a video relay interpreter and was selected for an in-person interview. It ended up being canceled after she requested an ASL interpreter. The EEOC said this violated the ADA.

Links to both cases are in the transcript.

That’s the two Deaf News briefs for today.

Mia le Roux: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1l5nrge372o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rZP-cDRBNE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnMRysL35wU

EEOC cases:

https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-sues-wilson-logistics-violating-americans-disabilities-act

https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-sues-champion-media-disability-discrimination