A Deaf Australian woman has lost a court battle to become the first Deaf juror in Australia.
Deaf people have long been prevented from serving on juries, which has long been argued prevents deaf people from playing an equal part in the justice system.
Indeed, back in 2010 Deaf journalist Cathy Heffernan wrote this Guardian article arguing that the authorities should stop stonewalling deaf jurors.
A woman from Queensland has lost her legal battle to become the first deaf juror in Australia.
Gaye Lyons’ fight began when she was prevented from being a juror for a trial near Brisbane in 2012.
She argued the Queensland government unlawfully discriminated against her by refusing to provide an interpreter, but the High Court unanimously disagreed.
“Why should the powers that be decide what’s right for me,” she told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“Why should they decide what I can and can’t do.”
“Jury duty was something I really wanted to take part in.”
Ms Lyons can lip-read but needs an Australian Sign Language interpreter to communicate.
Read the full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-37560350
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Hartmut
October 6, 2016
Ms Lyons should appeal the decision.
To digress a bit, Australia does not permit a deaf person to imigrate into her country. Immigrants from U.K. could only do do so into New Zealand or South Africa.
In the U.S., Deaf people may serve as a juror as long as they can read English. An ASL-English interpreter, lip speaker or a caption transcriber will be provided.