The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation did four wrong things that hurt the Deaf Community of Pennsylvania when appointing Melissa Hawkins as the director of Office for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. They oppressed the Deaf Community by:

• WITHHOLDING the names of candidates from the president and members of the Pennsylvania Society for the Advancement of the Deaf for their inputs while interviewing the candidates, including the candidates must have knowledge of Deaf Culture and be skilled at American Sign Language as stated in ad’s description for position as the director of ODHH
• IGNORING the Act 184 section 2 (b) by appointing a UNQUALIFIED candidate for the director’s position who is NOT proficient in ASL as required in the position description
• DISRESPECTING the Deaf Community by overlooking A.S.L. as the language that allows the Deaf population be treated as equal human beings
• VIOLATING the Disability Rights Movement’s philosophy to “free our people” by withholding information and limiting input to only the Deaf Advisory Committee, which also doesn’t know A.S.L. and Deaf Culture. The O.V.R. violated that philosophy with the first three wrongful acts

Therefore we petition the state government to demand the removal of Melissa Hawkins as the director of the O.D.H.H. and replaced with a candidate who is proficient and fluent in A.S.L., and for the Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to be moved out of O.V.R. and operate independently of any other departments.

Sincerely,

Participants of The Deaf Human Rights Movement