Mar 29, 2018 By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 4 min read

For proof that helping others can make everyone involved happy, meet Rich McGann.

“I interpreted with two deaf-blind gentlemen, one on each side of me, watching a baseball game on television. It was actually the New York Yankees vs. Boston, and I interpreted for both of them at the same time,” he recalled. “And when the Yankees won, the two deaf-blind men jumped up and ran out because they were so excited to tell everyone.”

As someone who was born without the ability to hear, McGann told his story through his own interpreter, addressing a bipartisan panel of lawmakers assembled on March 23 to culminate the fifth annual Disability Summit hosted state Rep. Dan Miller, D-Mt. Lebanon.

McGann is continuing his commitment to helping others by promoting the passage of legislation that would continue to give deaf-blind Pennsylvanians – about 120,000 have some degree of both hearing and vision impairment – access to support service providers, individuals who are trained to act as guides and communication facilitators while offering environmental information.

A 2014 Department of Labor and Industry pilot grant has paid for a statewide support service provider program, which is scheduled to expire at the end of September. Miller and fellow Rep. Thomas Murt, R-Montgomery County, have introduced a bill to codify the grant program into law.

The current program caps the amount of time for deaf-blind individuals with support services providers, who earn about $20 per hour, to 15 hours per month. McGann, who is trained as an SSP, is among those who would like to see more time allotted.

“You don’t want a deaf-blind person to be isolated,” he said. “You want him to be able to get out to go shopping, go to the post office, go to the bank, a wide variety of things.”

Dormont resident Allison Cherry elucidated the legislative panel about what she has been doing for the past two years as an active service support provider.

“I go to doctor’s appointments, haircuts, shopping,” she said. “I help with technology as much as I can, with phones and computers, and also everyday tasks – things we wouldn’t think twice about or wish we didn’t have to think about at all – like paying bills or sending out checks, and reading mail and medical forms.”

What she and others like her don’t do: “It’s not the job of an SSP to be an interpreter, to be a caretaker, an assistant, a driver, none of that.”

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in linguistics and American sign language, Cherry stressed the aspect of fostering independence.

“Before this program,” she said about the pilot grant, “deaf-blind people might have to rely on family members or friends and neighbors to take them to do these kinds of things, and that can come with a sense of obligation or guilt. Or the family member might assume a caretaker role and make decisions they think are best.

“The SSP program removes that,” Cherry continued. “It makes it objective. The deaf-blind person is completely in control of the decisions that they’re making, and they should feel free and empowered to do so.”

Also attending the forum at Beth El Congregation in Scott Township, Joe Strechay said the state Bureau of Blind and Visual Services started working on a support service provider program in 2007.

“Twenty-three states had this program, so it wasn’t a new idea,” the bureau’s current director explained. “It was bringing services to individuals who were underserved.”

Strechay also called on lawmakers to consider the legislation proposed by Miller and Murt.

“We are committed to this program,” he said, “but we don’t have a permanent means of funding at this point in time.”

Along with Miller, state legislators participating in the discussion included Reps. Jason Ortitay, R-South Fayette, and Anita Astorino Kulik, D-Kennedy Township, along with Sens. Wayne Fontana, D-Brookline, and Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township. U.S. Rep.-elect Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, also was in attendance as McGann told the panel:

“No one’s looking for pity, but we want you to understand the situation of our lives.”