HARTFORD, CT – A new bureau for services for the deaf and hard of hearing community is expected to cost less than $250,000 a year, Speaker of the House Matt Ritter said Tuesday morning.
Ritter – who was joined by state Reps Jilian Gilchrest and Christopher Poulos, Dr. Harvey Corson, and Luisa Gasco-Soboleski – said in a news conference that the bill, which would propose a “Bureau of Deaf, Deafblind, and Hard of Hearing” services, was one of his top priorities for the coming legislative session.
The bureau would provide a more centralized resource for the deaf and hard of hearing, and would replace the Commission for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, which was dissolved in 2016. It would consist of one executive director and one or two support positions, according to a release from the CGA Tuesday morning.
Ritter said that the bill is a chance to rectify wrongs that were done under more dire financial circumstances in 2016 that led to the decentralization of resources for deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Ritter said that this bill is about doing what is right for the people, and about listening to them when they express the challenges they are experiencing.
Gasco-Soboleski, who is president of Connecticut Association of the Deaf, who taught at the American School for the Deaf, and was later principal, said through an interpreter that the dissolution of the previous commission in 2016 led to an influx of problems for deaf and hard of hearing people in the state. From interactions with police to healthcare situations, the lack of a centralized institution greatly hindered members of the deaf and hard of hearing community.
“If that doesn’t make you wake up in the morning, as an elected official, and say that is wrong, and make you want to rectify it, it’s time to retire and leave this building,” Ritter said.
Corson, who chairs the Education and Legislative Committee of the Connecticut Association of the Deaf, said through an interpreter that while he knows the lack of services over the last few years was not borne out of malice, but rather from a lack of awareness, he has faith that the state will resolve the problem.
Ritter said he did not anticipate any budget adjustment being needed to accommodate the proposal. However, he said as of yet there has not been substantial communication with the governor’s office regarding the bill.
Gilchrest, whose town of West Hartford is home to the American School for the Deaf, said she would work to make sure that the bill gets passed during the coming year.
Poulos said that through the bureau assistance for the deaf and hard of hearing community would be centralized, and that they would be better able to live with dignity.
The bill would make Connecticut the 38th state to have established a state agency in service of deaf or hard of hearing individuals.
“I hope this can happen sooner than later, Gasco-Soboleski said, “because this is long overdue.”
