Empty Talk! Empty Promises!

Dear community members and supporters,

This message is on behalf of the Northern California Association of DeafBlind (NCADB) and its Board of Directors. This post details our response to a recent video message from Sharon Giovinazzo, CEO of San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired (LightHouse).

Sincerely,

Northern California Association of DeafBlind

Summary of Giovinazzo's message

In her video message to our community, Giovinazzo said that LightHouse is implementing a five-year Strategic Plan that purportedly includes DeafBlind people. She claims to provide "focused resources to expand and enhance our Deaf-Blind services," which includes "the development of a comprehensive Deaf-Blind program."

In her message, Giovinazzo touched on a "Whole Person Care Model." She describes this approach to service as something that "emphasizes treating each individual as a complete, multifaceted person with unique needs and aspirations." In Giovinazzo's telling, such a model goes beyond the "immediate challenges of daily life" by tackling "the broader aspects of well-being—physical, emotional, social, and psychological."

Our Initial Impression

First, we are not sure who Giovinazzo's real audience is. The way the video message is crafted, and the language she uses to communicate to our community only reinforces our Campaign's purpose: LightHouse’s current leadership is disconnected from the reality of DeafBlind people's lives, and we demand the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decertify LightHouse from administering iCanConnect in California.

In the video, Giovinazzo does not personally appear. Instead, she pathetically hides behind an ASL interpreter, who signs her prepared statement. The CEO assumes that an appropriate way to communicate with us is to use an ASL interpreter and post a video without audio on a social media platform inaccessible to many DeafBlind people. We doubt there was any involvement by a DeafBlind person or professional who understands our culture and language in crafting the out-of-touch message.

A Strategic Plan Full of Empty Talk

When Giovinazzo and her leadership team began developing the Strategic Plan in the spring of 2023, DeafBlind workers and community members were deliberately left out of the planning process. Repeated requests from one DeafBlind worker and non-DeafBlind staff members to include DeafBlind perspectives in developing the Strategic Plan were ignored. Eventually, the plan was adopted, and our community was acknowledged without being included.

While Giovinazzo and her team were developing the Strategic Plan, workers struggled to provide iCanConnect services. That was because Giovinazzo and other executives were actively hindering efforts to provide services to our community. First, they ordered workers to stop directly providing equipment and training in many parts of California where they were most needed. Then, they refused to begin negotiating a contract with a highly qualified tactile ASL interpreter, forcing workers to unsuccessfully search for other qualified interpreters available to provide specialized communication services. In the end, iCanConnect services could not be resumed for more than seven months – and not how the community wanted the services to be provided.

The Deterioration of the DeafBlind Program

The struggle over essential access to communications in 2023 was a preview of what would happen to DeafBlind services under Giovinazzo's leadership. After having forced out a DeafBlind worker in September 2023 because the worker fought back against both the mistreatment of DeafBlind people and violations of the rules governing iCanConnect, Giovinazzo and her executive team got busy dismantling the DeafBlind Program as the community has known and loved for decades. The long-time Manager of the DeafBlind Program, who also raised serious concerns over the ongoing neglect of our community (and also was banned from involvement in iCanConnect despite having administered the program for almost a decade), was laid off, easing the path toward the dismantling of the DeafBlind Program.

Believing she alone understands our community's unique needs, Giovinazzo and her team created the so-called "Service Navigator" title. According to several former employees, this new position was created before the DeafBlind Program's Manager was told of LightHouse's intention to eliminate their title, preventing them from being transferred to that new position. Then, it was announced that one of the most experienced and skilled iCanConnect staffers would no longer be allowed to provide iCanConnect equipment and training but instead become the Service Navigator.

From 2001 until 2023, independent living, employment services, and Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training were provided by the same competent DeafBlind Program Manager, who heavily invested time and energy in the local DeafBlind community and cultivated deep ties with both community members and professionals over the decades. Shortly before the Manager was laid off, LightHouse hired someone to provide O&M training to DeafBlind people, even though this person lacked familiarity with the culture and language of our community and had never worked with DeafBlind people before – and she left LightHouse a few months later, reportedly because she found the work culture too toxic. 

In addition to the adverse employment actions that impacted our community, LightHouse under Giovinazzo made hiring decisions reflecting leadership's disconnect with our community. In September 2023, a new iCanConnect administrative assistant was brought on board after his predecessor was fired for coming forward with a sexual harassment claim. This new administrative assistant, who did not have the experience and expertise to serve our community, was promoted to iCanConnect "program coordinator" a few months later. Then, LightHouse hired or promoted others similarly lacking experience and expertise in DeafBlindness.

Together, the abrupt removal of highly qualified staff from where they were most needed and the hiring of unqualified individuals to serve our community are Giovinazzo's idea of a "comprehensive Deaf-Blind program." But this idea led so many unhappy DeafBlind Californians to complain to the FCC and, precisely, to our Campaign. Giovinazzo continues to brush off the community's concerns, offering paternalism as the solution.

As of this writing, LightHouse continues to exclude DeafBlind community members and staff from involvement in the development of policies and programs impacting our community, including the hiring of key staffers to administer iCanConnect. We do not know what leadership thinks it can accomplish by excluding the very people LightHouse purports to serve. We believe removing the best staff and excluding DeafBlind people from developing and implementing DeafBlind services defies logic.

Promise Made, Promise Broken

Since joining LightHouse in October 2022, Giovinazzo has made many promises to different people and groups to address our community's concerns. She reaffirmed to members of the Northern California Association of DeafBlind in early 2023 of LightHouse's "unwavering commitment" to enhancing our community. She repeated the same stale message repeatedly in the following months.

Indeed, during a June 5, 2023, meeting in her office, the DeafBlind worker she would eventually terminate firmly told Giovinazzo to meaningfully respond to concerns affecting DeafBlind people both within the LightHouse workforce and in the community; Giovinazzo assured him she would. (Instead, the worker was excluded from any involvement with the Strategic Plan, and future meeting requests were ignored because the worker was getting vocal about the continued refusal by Giovinazzo and her team to resume iCanConnect direct services.) Thus, the recent video message is just the latest in a long string of promises made and promises broken.

iCanConnect Consumers Are Still Hurting

In September 2024, we launched our petition demanding that the FCC decertify LightHouse because of the deterioration of DeafBlind services under Giovinazzo's leadership. LightHouse ignored our concerns.

Instead of rectifying the issues identified in our petition, Giovinazzo allowed the problems to persist. As a result, iCanConnect consumers across California continue to suffer. Full compliance with the FCC's iCanConnect rules and access to communications as provided by law cannot be paused. LightHouse does not need a strategic plan or any service model to comply with the certification conditions. If our community is valued, Giovinazzo should have expeditiously resolved legitimate complaints from many DeafBlind Californians struggling to access communications.     

Could You Not Talk About Us Without Us?

If LightHouse's CEO had been sincere, our Campaign would not have existed. None of the significant issues that led to our demand to decertify LightHouse would have occurred under Giovinazzo's watch. In addition, workers who candidly expressed their concerns about the dismal treatment of DeafBlind people would not have been retaliated against under Giovinazzo's leadership, which has exacerbated an already toxic workplace.

But regardless of what happened following Giovinazzo's hiring, we strongly reject the illusion exemplified by the "Whole Person Care Model" that services can be developed by excluding the target community's perspectives. This misguided idea devalues DeafBlind people and ignores their unique circumstances, reinforcing the paternalistic nature of Giovinazzo's approach to "serving and uplifting" communities.

To provide services that genuinely uplift any community, show that you truly value its members by actively listening to its concerns and being open to its ideas. Do not assume that one approach works for every community or every situation. For DeafBlind people, a lack of access to communication through iCanConnect equipment and well-qualified staff is not only an "immediate challenge" but a means of achieving long-term physical, emotional, economic, and social well-being. 

A caring nonprofit CEO diligently works to develop a sensitive plan for serving a community by actively engaging it. Giovinazzo is doing the very opposite here. Therefore, our unequivocal message to LightHouse and other organizations serving disabled people is: don't talk about a community without including it, and don't tell the community how you plan to serve it without its input. After all, it is in the spirit of democracy that organizations solicit input from the public before adopting public policies.