LEWISTON — During the night and days after the Oct. 25, 2023, shooting, people who are Deaf or hard of hearing were finding themselves grieving the loss of loved ones while also trying to track down information.

Many of the family members of those who died or were injured at Schemengees Bar & Grille participating in a cornhole tournament that night gathered at a friend’s house trying to find information for one another, according to Thomas Minch, direct advocate for the Deaf or hard of hearing at the Maine Resiliency Center.

Thomas Minch chats on Oct. 10 with Sun Journal at the Maine Resiliency Center in Lewiston. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal file

Things were happening rapidly and the first press briefing by law enforcement lacked an American Sign Language interpreter, he said. There was a lot of distortion in information that night.

“There was a feeling of trauma,” Minch said. “There was shock on top of chasing down details and information.”

Family members did not know if their loved ones had escaped the bar or if they were still there, he said. Deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals who witnessed the shooting had trouble communicating with law enforcement.

About 12 hours after the shooting, interpreters started being utilized to provide access to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, he said

After the first press briefing an interpreter was brought in, but many news stations broadcasting the event did not include the interpreters in the picture, cutting off communication to the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community again. But after some advocating news stations started including the interpreters in their broadcasts, with national stations taking the cue to do so from local stations.

“The outside, the national press, as they were coming to our state, they weren’t considerate of providing access,” he said. “And so what ended up happening was our local news became the educators to those in the national news network so that they knew to include the (American Sign Language) interpreter as well.”

Meanwhile, people who are Deaf or hard of hearing were having trouble that night communicating with staff at some hospitals where victims were taken that night, he said. Almost all of the victims were taken to Central Maine Medical Center.

The hospital was using digital interpretation services to communicate with those individuals, however, that service still proved insufficient as the interpreters used on those digital platforms were not local to Maine and lacked local sign language knowledge, along with some technical issues that came up, he said.

For about two weeks after the shooting, Sorenson, a communications company, provided services to Deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals, he said. The Maine Resiliency Center has also been helpful in providing communication access for the Deaf or hard-of-hearing community.

The incident highlighted the communication issues people who are Deaf or hard of hearing already struggled with, though those struggles were amplified in the hours and days after the shooting, he said.

Since then, the Maine Association of the Deaf has created a website sharing resources about how to seek interpreting services, but communication issues still remain while numerous changes have yet to be put in place.

Minch and others are advocating for “a system that would work. We have one currently that’s ineffective,” he said.

HELP WAS TURNED AWAY

During the night of the shooting, Central Maine Medical Center was on lockdown, the only people who were allowed inside were staff with certain credentials and those who needed medical treatment, according to Chief Operating Officer John Alexander.

With the gunman still at large, it was important to secure the building, he said. Even still, some members of the public were following first responders inside. The building remained locked down for roughly two days until the gunman was found dead.

Some interpreters reported being turned away at some hospitals the night of the shooting when they showed up to volunteer their services, Minch said.

Alexander was not aware of the volunteer interpreters showing up to Central Maine that night until after the incident, but those volunteers were not let in because they did not have hospital credentials required for entry, he said.

“One of the challenges in looking back was that we very quickly locked down our hospital for obvious reasons and we were only letting individuals who had Central Maine Healthcare badges enter the building,” he said.

There was one patient who was deaf being treated in the emergency department that night and staff were able to provide them with the resources they felt they needed, he said.

In-person interpreting services from local people are always the best way to provide communication access to deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals, Minch said.

“Having a person who is local, having a shared experience and a shared language, is always more beneficial, plus it’s nice to have a familiar face during a crisis or emergency situation,” he said.

American Sign Language is a different language than English entirely, he said. English is a second language to Deaf or hard-of-hearing people. Some can interpret spoken words visually or read written English but that skill and education level varies among Deaf or hard-of-hearing people.

Using sign language interpretation technology is challenging because most interpreters connecting through those platforms are from outside the state and have a hard time interpreting local signs, Minch said. They also have trouble reading body language while not being in the same space as the person they are providing the service for.

“If there’s a stranger who doesn’t know you, isn’t familiar with your language, your modalities, that gets stressful,” he said. “And we want to reduce the stress of a patient.”

People embrace Oct. 25, 2023, outside the emergency department at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston as they await word on their loved ones. Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals had difficulty getting information that night and days following the shooting due to a lack of interpreting services. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

In the past year, Central Maine has reviewed all its emergency management preparedness practices, Alexander said. In that process, staff have considered how to better evaluate what language resources may be needed and how to flag interpreters to get them into the hospital.

Faced with translator shortages, including for American Sign Language, the hospital is increasing the capacity to which it can use translation services virtually, referred to as “carts,” increasing televideo capabilities, he said.

The hospital still intends to schedule in-person interpreters ahead of appointments as needed, he said. Providing good and adequate care and services on a day-to-day basis, outside of a mass casualty event, is the foundation for emergency preparedness, he said.

“It shouldn’t take a large tragedy like that to have to mobilize the necessary resources,” Alexander said. “And that’s one of the things we’ve been able to do over the last 12 months has been really looking at ‘how do we gain access’ — ‘how do we communicate our need for resources to the outside and then how do we bring those resources in.’”

MAINE STATE POLICE POLICY CHANGES

On the night of Oct. 25, law enforcement did not provide equal access and communication to Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, Minch said. An After-Action Review, conducted by an outside entity and released last month, recommended that state police leaders review all policies related to communication and interactions with people with disabilities.

Minch is working with officials at the Maine State Police to change policy and training approaches, especially at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy where he hopes handling situations involving Deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals will be added to the curriculum.

The Criminal Justice Academy is working to identify areas of its programming that can be improved to train officers on how to effectively engage and communicate with Deaf or hard of hearing individuals, Shannon Moss, Maine Department of Public Safety public information officer, said.

“MCJA is currently working with a diverse group of law enforcement, community and advocacy groups to review and update the training they already have on this,” she said.

Moss did not give further details about specific changes to the current policy that officials are considering.

Minch is also working to create video resources for first responders around common scenarios they may find themselves in with a Deaf or hard of hearing individual, he said. He hopes it will help them successfully navigate communication with those individuals while responding to a call or situation.

A ‘HUB’ OF RESOURCES, SERVICES

Minch says he has seen progress for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals over the last year. Part of that progress is that the public seems to be more aware of the barriers Deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals face.

But much work still needs to be done in areas such as captioning, general access, and emergency alert systems, he said.

Another remaining challenge: a shortage of American Sign Language interpreters in the state at a time when the need for those services in the last year only increased, Minch said. He is hoping the state can modify the licensure process to make it easier for people to acquire a license to interpret.

The Department of Health and Human Services has also contracted with Innovative Strategies to conduct a statewide needs assessment, identify current gaps in the system and look at how to increase that interpreter pool, he said.

Maine Association of the Deaf leaders hope to open a local community center to help support Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals — they are looking into grant funding for that right now, Minch said. It’s difficult to quantify how many Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals live locally, he said, but it would be beneficial to have a place where they can access resources and come together.

“The whole situation shows us the Deaf and hard of hearing individuals need a community center,” he said, “where all of our resources, our services, could be housed in one location — a hub if you will.”