How did my achievement feel? It saddened me because it is 1999, not 1959, and brought into stark relief for me how far behind Kentucky's over 300,000 Deaf and Hard of Hearing citizens lag in vitually every area of life.

I consider this lag to be a violation of equal protection. The sad truth is few groups are so utterly at the mercy of the state. Virtually from cradle to grave the government dictates the educational, employment, political, civil liberty and entertainment abilities and opportunities for the Deaf.

Approximately nine out of 10 Deaf children are born to parents with normal hearing who find themselves with conflicting information about how to educate their Deaf child. The total effect has led to what Oliver Sacks, author of Seeing Voices, calls the most common yet entirely preventable retardation in America. The average Deaf person reads at only the fourth grade level and has math skills (their best subject) at the fifth grade level. Deafness does not cause poor academic performance. Through inadequate communication and exposure to language, parents and communities unwittingly retard the child's ability to learn.

The state, through inadequate funding, essentially ensures that Deaf children will never grow up with the same abilities as their hearing peers. The average Deaf person living in the information age emerges from the system at best prepared to take menial jobs with no hope of advancement.

The situation is even more critical when the Deaf confront law enforcement and judicial systems. All too often, Deaf people are detained, questioned, arrested, and arraigned without an interpreter, which means they rarely know why they are being held. They are unsure of their Miranda rights or even if they were given their Miranda rights. They are sometimes urged to sign a waiver of Miranda though they lack the ability to read and understand. Ulitmately, they are taken to court where they may not even understand the charges being brought against them.