Deaf professor at Penn State sues university alleging ADA violations; Deaf girl in Scotland wins legal fight to get BSL interpreters
Deaf professor at Penn State sues university alleging ADA violations
Here are two Deaf News briefs. The first is that a Deaf associate professor of education at Penn State filed an ADA violation lawsuit against the university alleging his rights were violated when he lost access to his ASL interpreters. His name is Dr. Joseph Michael Valente. “Onward State” reported that he worked at Penn State since 2010 and after 2013, had two full-time ASL interpreters and backup interpreters that were familiar with his academic subject matter. In 2023, Penn State cut that down to one full-time interpreter and used AI-generated captions for faculty meetings. In a YouTube video of Valente doing an interview, it shows that he can speak with his voice and uses an interpreter to understand what is spoken to him. The lawsuit said Penn State did not consider important factors such as meeting duration, subject matter complexity, or interpreter fatigue. The lawsuit said the changes caused Valente to experience barriers and alleged that when he tried to fight for his original accommodations, Penn State retaliated against him by soliciting complaints against him and cancelling his graduate-level classes. The report said when Valente started taking legal action, Penn State opened an administrative investigation against him and placed him on leave. Valente’s lawsuit said it’s caused many kinds of harm on him and is seeking compensatory and punitive damages and restoration of his two ASL interpreters. “Centre Daily Times” said Penn State declined to offer a response to the lawsuit and allegations.
Deaf girl in Scotland wins legal fight to get BSL interpreters
The second Deaf News brief is a BBC report about a 16-year-old Deaf girl in Scotland who won a legal fight to have a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter in her class for school lessons. Her name is Niamdh Braid. The report said Braid has been Deaf since birth and her preferred language is BSL. Her high school has deaf teachers but Braid didn’t have interpreters for her classes. As far as I understand it, Braid took classes with hearing teachers and the deaf teachers were probably there for other courses for other students. It also appears that there were BSL interpreters but they weren’t qualified to interpret for Braid’s classes. A video interview shows that Braid can speak with her voice but needs an interpreter to understand what is being spoken to her.
BBC said Braid and her parents’ requests for a BSL interpreter were turned down. Braid filed a complaint to a local council but was rejected. Braid then took legal action in a tribunal, which is like a court. She had financial support from the organization National Deaf Children’s Society. The tribunal sided with Braid and said the failure to provide “advanced BSL support meant (Braid) was missing things in class and does not know what she is missing.” The school is now recruiting qualified interpreters.
Braid’s father said it’s disgusting that they’ve had to fight as hard as they have and that there’s a lot of people out there who won’t fight as hard or don’t realize what they are entitled to.
The National Deaf Children’s Society said they hope that every local authority in Scotland will look at this case and provide the support that deaf children need.
That’s the two Deaf News briefs for today. I’ve provided links in the transcript to the news sources.
Penn State:
https://onwardstate.com/2025/02/19/deaf-professor-alleges-disability-discrimination-in-lawsuit-against-penn-state/
https://wjactv.com/newsletter-daily/deaf-professor-sues-penn-state-claims-university-got-rid-of-his-interpreters-lawsuit-school-pennsylvania-discrimination-hostile-work-environment-centre-county-leave
https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/education/penn-state/article300502364.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8tfAWflc_k
Scotland:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3d5lzyry14o
https://www.tiktok.com/@itvnews/video/7473110237499723030