50 Years of MDCR #6: Todd Morrison of Michigan Deaf Association (video)
(Crystal A. Proxmire, Oct. 16, 2014)
As the rallying cry for fairness is loud for people based on race, religion or sexual orientation, the advocacy for those with disabilities – particularly the deaf community – are disproportionately silent, says Todd Morrison, Director of the Michigan Deaf Association. When he spoke at the Michigan Department of Civil Rights 50 Year anniversary symposium in September he urged fellow advocates to add those with disabilities to their fights for equality and fairness.
State services for the deaf community have been moved around through various departments in the State government, not really seeming to fit in anywhere until finding a home in the Department of Civil rights last year. State spending on for the 900,000 people in Michigan who are deaf or who have hearing loss also reflects where the community stands in terms of priority.
Morrison explained that there are 200,000 blind people, with an annual budget of $23 million. There are 900,000 people in the deaf community, with an annual budget of $780,000. That means that Michigan spends $118 per person to serve the blind community, and only 91 cents per deaf person.

Everything from early childhood development, educational support to interpreters to assist with access is covered in the 91 cents per person of funding.
“In this room I see a variance of people, different faiths, different religions, ethnic backgrounds, all these diverse people and I can tell you that I envy you,” he said. “The accessibility that you have to communication [and] you can go anywhere right now, today and you have people advocating for you, right now today, in this world and I can’t. When I go anywhere I have to figure out how to make communication accessible for myself.”
Morrison said “The biggest challenge we face right now is the legal system. They refuse to provide interpreters.” Businesses and the state are required by law to provide them, but consistently don’t, he said. He gave a particularly touching example of a divorce case where a couple is separating the court made the wife be an interpreter for her estranged husband. “How could you do that? How could you separate yourself from that?”
He said that nation-wide there are only 300 deaf attorneys. They work all over the county in many areas of law, but because there are not many they are not able to be a visible force in advocating for deaf rights. Morrison encouraged the students and staff of Wayne State University Law School to recruit and support more deaf attorneys. He also urged advocates to keep the deaf and other disabled communities in mind.
The Michigan Deaf Association has been serving the deaf community since 1880. Learn more about their work at http://www.mideaf.org/.
Over the past three weeks, the Oakland County 115 News Hub has shared video and stories from the symposium in our series: 50 Years of MDCR.
Learn more about the MDCR at http://www.michigan.gov/mdcr.
Learn more about the Keith Center at http://keithcenter.wayne.edu/
For other stories in this series see:
http://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/10/02/50-years-of-mdcr-us-district-judge-linda-parker-on-affirmative-action-more-video/
http://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/09/26/50years-of-mdcr-4-mel-larsen-speaks-on-adding-lgbt-protection-to-civil-rights-act-video/
http://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/09/25/50-years-of-mdcr-3-chris-king-of-st-louis-american-on-covering-ferguson-protest-video/
http://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/09/23/50-years-of-mdcr-2-speaking-on-the-future-kamilia-landrum-video/
http://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/09/21/50-years-of-mdcr-stories-of-civil-rights-in-michigan/