Holly Rioux

As a Deaf community member who has worked in human services locally for 20 years, I strongly oppose this bill. I am a former Chair of the NH Advisory Committee for the Program of Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I am also the former Director of Deaf Services at Greater Nashua Mental Health. I am professional who holds a NH clinical social worker license with OPLC. With the above credentials I feel qualified to submit testimony as a Deaf NH resident and subject matter expert. I have full respect for the responsibilities that are charged to the overall OPLC for various professions and trades intended to protect consumers and ensure professional services. This bill is a wildly inappropriate abuse of the OPLC. It is ridiculous to propose transferring an entire direct service program, that is vital to the lives of fellow NH citizens who are members of our Deaf community and their families, to an administrative office that has no specialized experience or subject matter expertise in carrying out a statewide direct service operation. Furthermore, putting this program to be at the mercy of an unfunded, poorly conceived piece of legislation is irresponsible. This puts the state at risk for non-compliance with many federal laws and regulations. While this committee is focused on administrative actions, one must consider the social consequences to our community. The consequences in the workforce would be immediately devastating . Any current college students who are deaf and enrolled in this program are at risk of being unable to continue their next semester. Any current employee who are deaf and rely on vocational support services are at risk of becoming unemployed. Any small business owner in the process of hiring someone who is deaf and ready to work is at risk of not being able to hire them. Personally, I would not be the professional I am, one that has served the NH deaf community the past 2o years, without the support of this program while I earned my advanced degree, obtained my professional license, all the while working alongside professional ASL interpreters, and continue to do the work I do. This bill should be killed. Do better. Thank you for reading. Holly