“When I saw the announcement on the town hall website, I said thank you.”
Maria, 36, came to seek legal advice at the justice point installed at the Brel Brassens center in Évry-Courcouronnes.
Suffering from deafness, she speaks in sign language to an interpreter who translates for the lawyer in front of her, a device she was desperate to find.
“In the suburbs, there are few legal services for the deaf and hard of hearing.
I tried to find legal advisors on the Internet, with whom I spoke by email.
They were in fact scams,” regrets the thirty-year-old.
After almost an hour of meeting, Maria leaves with a smile and, finally, an answer to her problem.
Disputes, contracts, divorce, etc., the town of Évry-Courcouronnes already offers legal advisors for its residents, but this is the first time that it has set up sessions dedicated to people communicating in sign language.
Every first Wednesday of the month, free of charge, and by appointment, deaf people benefit from this adapted slot with Vanessa, lawyer, and Rhyalène, sign language interpreter.
A difficult audience to reach
The Évry-Courcouronnes town hall has been involved for some time in issues of inclusion of people with disabilities.
Municipal council meetings broadcast live on the city's Facebook page are now subtitled.
In partnership with the CGR du Spot cinema, cinema screenings “open and suitable for all”, with subtitles suitable for the deaf and hard of hearing, are also regularly organized.
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Since their establishment, these legal services in sign language have nevertheless struggled to make themselves known.
The Évry-Courcouronnes justice point has only received four deaf and hard of hearing people since December 2023. “We put up posters in the city's medical centers and among speech therapists.
We flooded all the associations with messages.
But we are not reaching this audience as we would like,” regrets Mélinda Bayol, deputy mayor in charge of disability.
At the same time, the city is interested in the “Acceo” system, a platform allowing the deaf, hard of hearing or blind public to communicate with an interlocutor from their telephone.
The city of Massy has been using the application for several years.
Every first Wednesday of the month from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., at the Brel Brassens social center, Place de l'Orme in Martin.