Posted on 10/10/2006 12:59:50 PM PDT by SmithL
San Francisco -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling that UPS Inc. violated anti-discrimination laws by automatically barring the deaf and hearing-impaired from driving parcel delivery trucks.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson's 2004 ruling that the Atlanta-based company's practices breach the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Henderson, in a class-action case representing as many as 1,000 would-be drivers, ruled that the hearing impaired should "be given the same opportunities that a hearing applicant would be given to show that they can perform the job of package-car driver safely and effectively." The San Francisco federal court order was stayed pending appeal.
On appeal, UPS maintained its hiring practice was a safety issue and that it was not discriminating. The company did not immediately have a comment, a spokesman said.
"While UPS offered anecdotal testimony involving situations where a driver avoided an accident because he or she heard a warning sound, the company ... failed to show that those accidents would not also have been avoided by a deaf driver who was compensated for his or her loss of hearing by, for example, adapting modified driving techniques or using compensatory devices such as backing cameras or additional mirrors," Judge Marsha Berzon wrote for a three-judge panel of the appeals court.
The case was litigated by Disability Rights Advocates who represented current and former employees who were passed over for driving positions, and other potential employees who consented to what the group dubbed UPS's "deaf-need-not-apply" policy.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Well, based on the last several shipments of mine that they have messed up, I would think that perhaps UPS has several visually handicapped personnel in the sorting area.
my mother was hard of hearing. but I still don't think it would have been wise for her to drive a UPS truck. this is the end of the matter for me. HELLO!
ATM machines are manufactured 'one size fits all' - that machine might end up in a lobby, hospital, convinience store, or built into the wall for drive-up use."
They are useful if you have a blind passenger.
Can you imagine the vast money the very same crooked trial lawyers will make suing UPS (a WONDERFUL company) for accidents caused by deaf drivers who cannot hear vehicle horns or childrens' screams?
Hey, blind drivers are also discriminated against!
"Last time I checked Jim Rob that founded this board was doing a pretty good job from his wheel-chair.?"
AND we have a winner! You just won the Non-sequetor award of the day.
Please note that Jim Rob didn't ask the government for anything, other than to keep its cotton pickin hands off the Internet.
The lawyers and 'activists' in the ADA crowd would have sued everyone and every company if they could. With teh ADA, they can. And given time, they will sue (or intimidate) all of us.
It is time for us to recognize the wisdom of the men who wrote the Constitution. They knew G*d didn't create all men equal. As proof of that, I give you any Olympic sprint Gold Medal winner versus Jim Rob, Helen Thomas versus any bright model, etc.
Even less did the Founders imagine man would become so arrogant as to assume that a mere law could outlaw extinction or control climate. Washington, DC needs to have its meds adjusted, STAT.
It's not about abilities, for we all have more ability than we will actualize. What it IS about is using our abilities. Again, Jim Rob is my case in point.
Shouldn't the braille portion be on the passenger side?
Your passenger will sit behind the drivers' seat.
Just wait - some deaf guy will back over someone or something and then the same idiotic lawyer will sue them again for negligence.
Who cares? These folks just wan't to drive the little brown vans. They don't need a CDL for that.
There's no way they discriminate against the blind. Have you ever watched the way those brown trucks are driven?
The 9th Circus is nothing more than a filthy rest stop on the highway to the Supreme Court - - you pull in, do your business, wash up real good, try not to make eye contact with anybody, and get out of there as fast as you can.
If I am wrong, I will like to see documentation that deaf drivers are indeed a threat.
Regarding the deaf individual's ability to communicate, it is really case by case basis. There are many Deaf people who are currently using hearing aids and cochlear implants to communicate with their customers.
Rush Limbaugh comes up in my mind, no matter how much he is able to use cochlear implant, he is Deaf without using it.
So if FReepers are making fun of Deaf people on this forum, or accusing them of not having an ability to do a mundane thing such as driving, that is quite childish to do so.
Odd enough, at the same time I do doubt that the same FReepers would forbid Rush Limbaugh from driving to his job at the radio station.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
There's a popular myth that the loss of one sense makes the others more acute, but research doesn't support it. There's a good reason for that perception, though -- someone with four senses instead of five has less divided attention. A deaf driver isn't distracted by a blaring stereo (his or anyone else's), a ringing cell phone or a yakking passenger.
Deaf people don't see better, but they watch better -- just like blind people don't hear better, but they listen better.
Thanks for saying that. I too am deaf and that's all I ask for too. What you said in your post is very intelligent, unlike some of the ignorant comments made by fellow FReepers. It always amazes me how ignorant some people can be. Thanks for sharing and educating the "ignorant ones" among us.
If the state is willing to issue the driver a license, how can UPS have a cow?
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