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Page 46 Annual Reports of various Organisations Racism Report 2004
of a company said the following to the Work Assistance: “… do you have more of these cheap workers? I get money
for them and they never speak and that means they can work even more.”
We’re also repeatedly confronted with the following statements by hearing superiors and/or people in leadership
positions: “… this person can’t speak and doesn’t read particularly well. What am I supposed to do? I don’t need
people like that.” This statement clearly shows that hearing people often expect deaf people to be good readers. But
due to bad schooling and a lack in information many deaf people don’t know a lot of terms and foreign words. The
education system currently available to deaf people doesn’t use Austrian sign language but tries to teach the second
language German without referring to another linguistic basis. The result is that many deaf people have major
language problems.
A young deaf man for instance told the Work Assistance: “… my boss gave me a book to read which describes the
machine I’m working on in great detail. I tried very hard but I don’t know most of the words. When I told my boss
about it he replied: ‘But that’s not possible, I mean, you’re not an idiot, are you?’” In a meeting with counsellors of
the Work Assistance sufficient information was supplied about the schooling of deaf people in order to correct such
images and ideas—not to be able to read and write well in German doesn’t automatically mean that someone is an
idiot.
Die Bunten
In August 2004, Ms. U. who is an Austrian citizen decides to visit the outpatient department of Otto Wagner Hospital
because she hadn’t been able to sleep properly for several days. She takes a taxi. When the driver goes very fast and
doesn’t react to her repeated pleas to slow down, she asks him to stop. Upon getting out of the taxi Ms. U. thinks she
may not have enough money on her. Instead of agreeing to take her to a cash dispenser the driver takes her to the
next police station and forcefully drags Ms. U. into the station. There her backpack is taken away from her and the
taxi driver is paid with her money (of which there was enough in her purse after all). After the taxi driver had left,
two male officers grab Ms. U. by her arms to prevent her from leaving. In the station’s lobby they undress the upper
part of her body and carry out a body check. Ms. U’s arms are twisted round her back resulting in a complicated bone
fracture which needed emergency surgery. During a first court hearing more than a year after the violent assault
the verdict confirms that the injury was caused at the station. But since the police officers summoned as witnesses
testify that the officer accused of the assault was on patrol duty at the time in question he is discharged. No further
investigations are undertaken although the victim can clearly identify him.
Mr. S. from Egypt has lived in Austria for 14 years. In Egypt he was a student of linguistics, in Vienna
he worked in the restaurant business. He has suffered from Hepatitis C for more than a year and
undergoes treatment which consists of a therapy debilitating the entire organism. In July 2004 he is involved in an
incident with the police: In the course of a manhunt at an Underground station two police officers demand to see
his I.D. which he readily shows. One of the officers walks off to talk into a walkie-talkie. In the meantime a third
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