Matter of Grandy

This is the first appeal brought under Oregon’s newly revised mental retardation commitment statute, ORS 427.005 et seq. (Oregon Laws 1979, c. 683). It involves a challenge by a 22 year-old woman, a resident of Fairview Training Center since the age of nine, to the institution’s continuing legal ability to confine her.

Appellant is deaf. Because of cerebral palsy she is confined to a wheelchair, which she is able to propel with her feet. She communicates by means of sign language and an electronic communication board. Though she can feed herself and, to some extent, dress herself, because of…