Bionic Ear Blog

You may have seen Fomdi, a web site that helps you locate captioned movies (either open caption or rear window) by zip code and how far the theaters are from your home. Fomdi has a Google search-like interface. It provides a great service, but it doesn’t catch every movie. Today, it shows only one captioned movie within 40 miles of me.

CaptionFish does the same except it detects your location and has a sleek 2.0 web interface. Captionfish shows six captioned movies within 30 miles of me. I know this list is more accurate because I checked with the theaters’ web sites and newspaper.

Nonetheless, Captionfish goes the extra mile and provides captioned movie trailers! So if you find a movie of interest, you can watch its trailer right there if it’s available (not all movies have a captioned trailer). If you want to see what movies will be available tomorrow or for the next seven days, be sure to switch to the “7 Day” tab as I almost missed it. It also has a mobile version of the set as the next image shows a screen shot from a BlackBerry Curve.

Great interface, high usability and valuable features make CaptionFish worthy becoming a part of the entertainment toolbox for those who rely on captions.

Posted by at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Laura Carlson provides loads of links to great articles on accessibility in web design. Want to share them with you.

Create Your Own Accessibility Statement: “An accessibility statement has two basic functions. Firstly, it presents clear information about the target level of web accessibility for the website and the methods used to achieve those targets.Secondly, an accessibility statement is a powerful declaration of commitment.”

Web Accessibility Statements - The Best Of Intentions, Clearly Stated.

Pitfalls of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools

Finest worksong: Covers evolution of web accessibility.

Captioning and Audio Description: Good discussion on the topic. Be sure to scroll down — kinda funky looking interface.

Learning about Video and Captioning: One person’s experience.

The alt attribute is NOT for tooltips: Right on!

How to Provide Alternatives to Non Text Content on a Website: In nine steps.

How POUR is your blog? Ebook by the talented Glenda Watson Hyatt. POUR = Perceivable Operable Understandable Robust

Posted by at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

NoiseAddicts has a great hearing test to see what you can and can’t hear. It provides sounds from 8kHz up to 22 kHz. Don’t fret if you can’t hear anything beyond 15 kHz. It just means you’re most likely to be over the age of 25 and that’s normal.

I can’t even hear the 8kHz with my implant. I thought something was wrong with the volume, but I tested it by watch a video on YouTube and all was fine. My hearing just sucks.

Posted by at 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As a BrightHub writer, I learned about another voice mail to text service except this one has an added feature the others don’t have: Address book. It integrates your cell phone’s address book with the service’s web-based application.

The web-based application lets you see the missed calls, voice mail to text messages, and your address book. You can also make calls and send text messages from within the application. The calls cost 3 cents per call and nothing to send text messages.

Read the full review of Skydeck on BrightHub.

Also, Simulscribe is no more. It’s now PhoneTag (much better name). Like the other voice mail to text services, it charges $9.95 for 40 converted messages plus 25 cents per message sent after reaching 40. OR you can pay $0.35 per converted message with no monthly fee.

The problem, however, is I get many junk calls through my IP relay service. I don’t want to pay for those. Perhaps, I can be more selective about where I post my cell phone number. But how effective would that be as I would need to put the cell number on my business site for prospects to contact me?

Then again, I’ve gotten this far on my current system. Maybe it’s better to avoid another monthly bill especially during bumpy times.

Here are the previous reports on convert voice mail to text services.

Posted by at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Bill Cresswell lists ProudGeek reviews of some captioning methods. Bill also adds other captioning options that aren’t reviewed. If you know of any services or options not included, please leave a comment to add it to the list.

Thank you, Bill!

Posted by at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Love this story about working with NASA:

I was approached by a web developer who was working on a project for NASA: an out-reach program geared towards students at all levels (K-4 through “higher ed”) that essentially encouraged students to use NASA Videos and create “remixes”. Since NASA is clearly a Section 508 respondent, the preview videos on NASA’s site required captioning, but the developer was curious what to do regarding the videos being offered as downloads. Somehow, she ended up IM’ing me at work and we had an interesting exchange.

After a bit of discussion, I proposed that they (NASA) include numerous ‘pieces’ of digital data in a zip file, and some of those bits would be the time-stamped transcript and ‘flat’ transcript, so that the students would have those pieces of the total ‘picture’ to use and remix at the same time that they mixed and mashed their visual media.

And here is the NASA site.

Speaking of captioned videos, here is Easy YouTube caption creator - a very rough first ‘build’ from Accessify and Project Possibility on captions.

Posted by at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had heard about Hulu, yet another video watching service. Originally, I ignored it as I ignore most video service news. I happened to catch the Alec Baldwin Hulu commercial and he intrigued me enough to check it out. Not that I want my brain to turn to mush.

There, I got the shock of the day where I saw videos with the cc symbol. In trying to figure out how to sort out the captioned ones, I had to turn to my twitter friends including Bill Creswell and Neil.

Here is the Hulu captioned search filter.

Posted by at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s hard to find captioned or subtitled videos online. Came across two good resources:

www.Harkle.com

billc.vodpod.com by the awesome Bill Creswell (http://billcreswell.wordpress.com)

2GuysTalking go on the hunt for captioning.

iTunes has an option where you can search all closed-captioned movies (list continues to be skimpy and pitiful). Surprised it doesn’t let you search for music videos with captions like with movies. But then again, there are probably none available.

Apple could also be nice and include lyrics with the song downloads to save us time from searching them. Besides, some bands don’t make lyrics available online. But if you buy them in iTunes, it’s only fair — right?

Posted by at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Deborah alerted me to a service that does subtitling. SubPLY is offering to do free captioning of YouTube videos. That’s a big job to make such an offer, but I’m sure it’s temporary to help promote the service.

Posted by at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Will Cox sent this to me. Love it. I always wondered how hearing people can sleep. It just bugs me to think of going to bed with my hearing turned on. Sure, I’ve taken a nap with my hearing aids on — but mostly because I was conked. But to go to bed and wait to fall asleep seems different.

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2008/10/28

I try to tune out the boom! boom! boom! from the shooting range two miles from my house, and think of the people who live next door

to the targets, or in the din of London and Berlin where nightingales now sing fourteen decibels louder to be heard by mates, quintupling the pressure

in their lungs. I’ve never heard a nightingale, but I know noise came from nausea, and bulls- eye names the goal for some blurry desire.

Bullseye is a band in Norway playing gung-ho rock and roll, like the kid down the street whose car speakers rumble through his closed windows and mine,

drums pummeling our insides. If I told him I once hiked among redwoods, heard ghostly calls in the stillness, branches somewhere in the canopy sky

moaning as they swayed, would he say Cool or Whatever, the way my sons have mumbled it, intending that I shouldn’t—or maybe should—hear,

all talk target practice, ricochet and sashay, headache and heartache, duck and cover. In a fable, Lion realizes too late his vulnerability, the tunnel of his ear,

tiny Mosquito zooming in. Out beyond Pluto, Voyager’s golden disc offers mud pots, thunder, footsteps, a Brandenburg Concerto and Johnny B. Goode.

Was the very first song a hum or a shout, laughter or weeping? When my friend, at forty, praised her cochlear implants, she complained about work,

the ringing office phones—How do people concentrate? I consider her vacations—wind surfing, rock climbing, marathons—how different now that she hears

each splash and scrape, the huh of heavy exhalation. I wish I could adorn my ears the way warriors in India did, with metallic green beetle wings, an iridescent

clacking and tinkling at the Feast of Courage. Imagine if we could hear bread rising, dew forming, the budding of raspberries, the tear of a cocoon, a minnow’s pulse,

our own cells growing, dying. When my husband kisses my ear, I love the swoosh, the quiver, his breath sand driven by wind, my whispered name.

“Tuning” by Christine Rhein from Wild Flight. © Texas Tech University Press, 2008.

Posted by at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Been quiet for a while between my herniated disc and hand surgery. Still can’t type much, so I’ll just point the way.

Bryen’s intro

Deaf Twitter Group

Posted by at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

wikiHow on how to understand deaf people. Many of the points hit the target.

1. We can’t help that we have a “deaf accent.” We have little or no ability to understand inflection.

2. Some people think those with a southern or “redneck” accent are less intelligent. Well, same reasoning applies to deaf people because of their deaf accents. We can’t help our accents. I have a college degree, a successful career, three kids, a spouse, and board positions with PTA and other nonprofits.

3. I’ve been driving since two days after I turned 16. It took two days to get my license because of Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and then the Department of Motor Vehicles lines were long the day after.

4. Yes — please don’t talk louder unless you’re barely whispering. The key is to form your words clearly with your lips. We struggle to understand those who mumble.

5. Even if we can lipread — we catch only one-third of what’s said on average. Read every third word and see how much sense this makes to you. Plus, with our population living longer and people losing hearing with age — they are likely not to know how to lipread.

6. I don’t use or know sign language. Just the finger alphabet and words I’ve picked up from others — just like I’ve picked up foreign language words here and there.

7. I’ll never be able to hear on the phone, so I use instant messenger to connect to the relay service.

8. When my husband was in an elevator with a coworker, the coworker asked if I could read braille. Yeah, I just rub my ear on the buttons.

9. I have a cochlear implant and I still can’t hear on the phone. In fact, the cochlear implant didn’t give me much more hearing than my hearing aids did.

10. Hearing aids make things louder, not clearer. Those who lost their hearing from aging benefit from hearing aids since they already knew how to hear and need help with volume.

11. True. I’ve got an average of 95 dB loss in both ears. Without my hearing devices, I hear nothing. But put my ear against a speaker and turn it up, I’ll hear it.

Bonuses

1. Just because we’re deaf doesn’t mean we can’t write well. I’ve known deaf people who write beautifully and others who don’t write well. I can say the same for hearing people.

2. Conversations move quickly. Thus, deaf people who watch captions tend to be good and fast readers. When we played captions for elementary school kids — they could hardly keep up.

3. Many of us enjoy music and we do so in different ways. I have to learn a song by heart and I’ll be able to follow it when I listen to it (pending the words come through the music — I can barely hear the vocals come through some songs.

Posted by at 6:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

“More than 8 million Britons have impaired hearing, ranging from the 6 million older people who are mildly or moderately deaf, to the 700,000 whose deafness is more profound. In this special issue, we explore how it feels to be part of deaf culture today.” UK’s Guardian presents a Deaf issue. Features:

Heard the one about the deaf comedian? “What defines a deaf stand-up comic - and what makes their audience laugh? Brian Logan discovers that there’s more to deaf humour than first meets the eye.”

Good Vibrations: “Cathy Heffernan: SenCity in Finland brings deaf and hearing clubbers together, in this pioneering, multi-sensory experience.”

Mixed Messages: “Like any language, British Sign Language has its regional variations and idiosyncrasies. These can lead to mix-ups, signer Marcel Hirshman tells Stuart Jeffries”

The issue contains much more. Very cool and fascinating. I love reading about other cultures especially the UK — as that’s one of the first places I want to travel to when I get to the other side of the Earth.

Also, China plans to celebrate International Day of the Deaf. “The latest statistics show China has about 20 million people with hearing disabilities, which is about 20 percent of the world’s total.”

Posted by at 7:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I posted an entry about a conference that encouraged participants to email or send questions electronically. I love it, of course, because it would ensure I hear every question. But I also know the importance of face-to-face connections. What do you think? Read A Real Life Internet Fable.

Posted by at 8:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out Digital Web Magazine’s Understanding Disabilities When Designing a Web site.

Also, A List Apart and issue 265 has a pleasant surprise — Deafness and the User Experience. The article offers well-rounded insight into deafness in general, the culture, captioning, and more. Thanks, Deborah, for letting me know as soon as it was out.

Helping the Deaf See Sound uses software that changes the sizes of the circles based on the sound’s volume and pitch. Not sure how it would help or affect deaf people, but it fascinates.

Interested in knowing more about the author, I clicked Lisa Herrod’s link and discovered a fantastic video with a neat twist.

Posted by at 6:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Viven who tweaked this blog’s design explains the whole redesign process. David Airey left a comment saying the logo needs fixing because the title reads as “Bionic ar Blog” — something I never noticed as a problem until he mentioned it. I’ll have to see what I can do… like I have time!

Posted by at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

• She’s deaf, a college valedictorian and planning FBI career

• Deaf Organisations, Deaf People & Information Sharing Part 1 and Part 2

• Active All Deaf forum discussion on deaf world vs. hearing world

• Finland: Deaf Viewers Demand Public Broadcasters Provide Subtitles

• Australia: Word is out about deaf phone option

• UK Book: Seriously funny

• DeafYoga Foundation Deaf and Hearing Impaired Drive-Thru

• New E911 Calling Method for the Deaf

• Bill seeks to expand captioning for the deaf: References online videos. Yeah!

• Rabbi says deaf ‘ineligible for conversion’: Unbelievable. A step backwards by 50 years. Please know that not all Jewish people agree with the Rabbi.

Posted by at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Trendhunter shows pictures of “Vibering,” a vibrating bracelet that comes with two stylish rings. The wearer must wear both rings, not just one, for the system to work.

The system captures sounds and notifies the wearer of any sounds. The rings do the listening while the watch does the reporting of the identified sound. The rings listen for sounds coming from behind the wearer and determine the length and position of the sound.

“The wristwatch module will identify the sound wave and show results in an easy-to-read LCD display. Heck, it is even smart enough to recognize key phrases such as “Excuse Me”, your own name and even a vehicle’s horn.”

This bears the question of what will Vibering do in a noisy or public place?

I looked all over the Internet for more info on the product other than the standard release that you see in many blogs. No such luck. It could be in Chinese, which may be why I can’t find the original source. I’m sure we’ll hear more about this innovative product.

One thing. The name fits perfectly. However, before I read about the product, I thought the name sounded … ahem… pornographic. Sure enough, in searching for the original source, several XXX-rated products and sites showed up in the search results.

Posted by at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In eight years of blogging, I don’t think I’ve participated in more than 10 memes. I could be wrong, but I’m not about to dig through thousands of entries to prove it. Bob at the Writing Journey asks if we meme. My response:

I find meme postings interesting and insightful. I learn more about the person behind them. But I rarely subscribe to memes in my own blog — more so in the Bionic Ear blog because it’s a personal blog.

I do memes in e-mail though — my friends aren’t bloggers and we love learning about each other through these memes.

So this post motivated me to take up Bob on his meme.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 4 things in these themes.
4. Tag 4 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

So, here we go, my lists of 4s:

4 jobs I have had

• Radio Shack headquarters file slave.
• Toys R Us checker and stocker.
• Gift wrapper in my mom’s short-lived wrapping store.
• Data entry for a cool antique car catalog.

4 movies I can watch over and over

I had to think about this one. I have so many movies that I want to see that I don’t like to waste time watching something I’ve already seen. It was more of a… do I want to reveal what I like though it means I might come across as a dork?

• A Chorus Line: I know it didn’t do well, but I love this musical and it’s all we got on video.
• Fiddler on the Roof. Funny, strong story, and great songs.
• Oklahoma! Sensing a pattern here…? Remember, I follow musical movies better with captions than staged shows. But I do enjoy going to the theater.
• Mame. Stinks that Angela Lansbury didn’t get to do this, but I could play the big Mame song scene hundreds of times without getting sick of it.

4 places I have lived: Actually, this is the COMPLETE list.

• Fort Worth, Texas: Born and bred there. Stayed until married.
• Alexandria, Virginia: First place after the wedding.
• Washington, DC: When we finally got base housing, we moved out of our Alexandria apartment into a three bedroom house on Bolling
• Plano, Texas: My current home.

4 TV shows I love

• Veronica Mars: I discovered it and watched all three seasons after it had been canceled. It broke my heart that this show didn’t get the recognition it deserved. Even my teen daughter loved it and she learned about it from me! How often does a teen listen to Mom?
• Charmed: Just a wonderful show that managed to overcome the lost of a major character It ended on a perfect note.
• Friends: Talkin’ about my generation. Fraiser: Smart comedy.
• Tie (shows on now): Monk and Psych: Love the combination of comedy and a good mystery where we can try to solve it ourselves. Medium: Scary fascination — kind of like Dexter but without the main character being a serial killer plus a family we can relate to. I don’t like scary, but these two I do. Just discovered and watch two seasons of Dexter in the past two weeks! Curb Your Enthusiasm: Rolling on the floor comedy.

4 places I have been on vacation

• Florida. Lost count.
• Hawaii.
• Vegas. Great for a short getaway, but tired of it now.
• Colorado.

4 of my favorite dishes

• Qdoba’s nachos. I can’t get sick of them no matter how hard I try.
• Tex-mex.
• Pizza. Hard to find good pizza that’s not “chain-like” tasting these days.
• A good burger.

4 web sites I visit daily

• Woot.com. Just never know what I find. Sure, I stupidly bought some stuff.
• Gamezebo. Superb casual games site with an active community.
• The Diamond Games. It’s his fault I love casual games.
• NYU Online. Gotta check on the students and make sure they’re getting work done.

4 places I would rather be now

• England. My dream vacation.
• Israel.
• U.S. city I have yet to visit. This includes Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco. O’Hare doesn’t count.
• Paris.

4 bloggers I am tagging

• Like Bob, I’m skipping this.
• I never cared for tagging or publicly announcing who I think will respond and won’t respond.
• Besides, memes catch on with little help.
• I don’t have a fourth comment.

Posted by at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This autobiography isn’t just another one about my life as a deaf person…

“After a head injury that ended his promising football career, and a painful divorce, Thunander downed much of a fifth of Jack Daniels, put a single bullet in a revolver, put the gun barrel to his head and pulled the trigger.”

Corsicana Daily Sun gives us the highlights on the life of former Oklahoma University football player who’s book, Silent Thunder, comes out this month.

Posted by at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My blog sister is celebrating her 8th birthday on June 1. I’m just a baby as I wasn’t born until 2003. If you subscribe to me, you get entries into a drawing for over $2000 in prizes!

Posted by at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

• Captioning Flash-based streaming video [pdf file] [Link, y3]

• Sign Language Interpreters at High Ergonomic Risk

• DEAF411, Inc. researches what makes a city deaf-friendly

• AT&T finally offers data-only plan for deaf iPhone users: the plan is also good for other phones except Blackberry. More info at DeafDC Blog and at&t’s iPhone page and for plans for other phones except Blackberry and iPhones.

• More learning about deaf culture

• Boy regains hearing after cotton pops out: How do doctors miss this after NINE years? Every time I take my kid for a check up, the doctor checks the ears. Heck, the doctor checks my ears knowing I’m deaf. Being deaf doesn’t mean we’re exempt from ear infections and other problems.

• Social Media Summit on Hearing Loss held today complete with closed captioning.

Posted by at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember the 100th Episode celebration show on “Dancing With The Stars” is on Tuesday May 6. Marlee Matlin and other contestants are on “Dancing With The Stars” will appear on that show.

Reader Tokumbo writes, “Go to Amy Efron Cohen’s website to check out the bittersweet story about the true story on movie ‘Sweet Nothing in the Ear.’ Amy explains about how the idea come from that movie and the idea was coming from deaf actress whose her life is based on that movie.”

The video is in ASL. Anyone willing to sum up the video for us ASL-impaired folk?

Posted by at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

As expected, lots of conversations are happening surrounding last night’s TV movie debut.

The New York Daily News

Amazing Sounds

Deaf Mom

Robert Mason

Freep.com

CI Online

Banjo’s World

Countdown to the Revolution

Deafness at About.com

All the Young Dudes

Surround Sound

Pah Mine

Jim’s Deep Thoughts

DeafDC Blog

My opinion? Haven’t finished it yet, but I was impressed with how the film portrayed deaf characters’ interactions with others and sound. I also liked how the movie presented the arguments we hear from both sides of the cochlear implant debate.

However, it was disappointing the story revolved around a custody case. I hated seeing Dan (Jeff Daniels) and Laura’s (Marlee Matlin) relationship take a turn the way it did. They had such a loving relationship with him respectful of the deaf culture and we watched that relationship slowly fall apart thanks to their differences on the cochlear implant issue.

It was a delight watching the kids from the school for the deaf perform Wizard of Oz. The movie turned off sounds from time to time so hearing people could see how the deaf experience noisy situations.

Someone mentioned that no one asked Adam (the child) what he wanted. Like I said, I haven’t seen the whole movie. Considering Adam is at least eight, I believe most lawyers would ask the child what he wants at this age. But I could be wrong.

Jericho’s Shoshanna Stern played a deaf person who went the oral route. She showed her cochlear implant — that thing looked like something from the ’80s. It was thick. I searched for older pictures of cochlear implants to see if they put an older one on her, but no luck. None of the cochlear implants look like that today.

Posted by at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From inrich.com

“A hilarious sitcom about a dysfunctional deaf family.”

Those are words guaranteed to stop traffic. But they’re not pulled from a skit on “Saturday Night Live,” nor are they meant to be offensive.

What they describe is a short, family-friendly comedy film created specifically for the hard of hearing and deaf community. “The Deaf Family” is filmed in American Sign Language.

Continue reading "Comedy Film for the Deaf and Hearing-Impaired" »

Posted by at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is a nice interview with the Christine Harris, author of Mask of the Jackal. She explains the motivation of including a deaf character named Jordy into the story.

The book isn’t about deafness, but rather just happens to includes a deaf person as a character. That’s the way life is… we just happen to run into people of all cultures and differences in situations not having to do with the culture or difference.

Those interested in Egyptian history will enjoy the interview as the author discusses her fascination with anctient Egypt and its artifacts.

Posted by at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fun post from UK site, B3ta. Using hand signs to represent car logos — some familiar and some impossible to get especially for us Americans who won’t be familiar with some of the cars.

I’m impressed with the signer. While on a recent road trip, I attempted to create signs without remembering what this site showed and it wasn’t easy! Below are the links to the logos — don’t worry, no spoilers — click and scroll your mouse over the space to see the answers.

Continue reading "Car Logos in Hand Signs" »

Posted by at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In celebration of its one year anniversary, Project readOn unveils a new feature — Embedded videos. Users can grab the code from Project readOn to add captioned videos to their own sites, blogs, and social network pages.

The player on the Web site contains two new buttons, “Email this captioned video to a friend” and “Grab this captioned video for my website.” Click one of the buttons and a small popup window appears with the information. Either enter your friend’s email address, or copy and paste the “embed” code as needed.

So here’s my first try at including a captioned video from Project readOn. I had been wanting to check out Jeff Dunham’s shows — but couldn’t find anything captioned (the videos don’t indicate whether it’s captioned or comes with subtitles)… and Project readOn has two videos (one was a Christmas show with Achmed the dead terrorist).

Continue reading "Embed Captions Videos" »

Posted by at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rita suggests deaf people with families to apply to be on a reality show as few have shown deaf families. She lists three shows.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition had deaf parents (Vardons) on the show and the Llanes who have a deaf son. Plus it takes a lot to qualify for the show. I think a deaf family on Wife Swap would be a wonderful eye opener for viewers.

Wife Swap: Wives trade places and join the other’s family.

Super Nanny: Having trouble with difficult children? Super Nanny helps.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition: Family in difficult situation with home that’s dangerous or falling apart? Requires a lot of crying on TV.

Posted by at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have a Captel phone, but hardly ever use it mainly because my family takes care of phone calls or I use the Internet relay service without voice carry over (VCO). I prefer using my computer for calls since I can keep a record of the call — something the Captel phone doesn’t have.

Now Sprint makes it possible to make relay calls over the Internet AND use VCO. I read about a way to do this a long time ago, but it was very confusing and required messing with the phone set up. But not this time.

Already found one drawback, I can’t call someone in Toronto or Ontario. It just happened that the first call I tried was to Ontario (I didn’t realize the person was in Canada from the area code). Nonetheless, Sprint impresses me with all the tools, services, and prices available for the deaf. I’ve worked for two major telecommunications companies and neither were Sprint.

Posted by at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ew. I’m sorry but the smell alarm just doesn’t appeal as shown in this Make article. I’ll stick with the vibrating alarm. Contrary to what the post says, deaf people don’t wear alarms. Yes, they have to be activated — but it’s not hard. Besides… the smell of smoke could erase the smell of horseradish.

Posted by at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I opened the floodgates when I posted about a voice mail to text service. I learned about another and another and another. Here are the companies that provide voice mail to text services:

GotVoice

Phonetic

Simulscribe

SpinVox

Pricing is generally the same at $9.99 for 40 messages per month. Curious as to how the services differ. I’m sure with a little Internet research, plenty of answers will come.

However, I’m about to sign up for a plan targeted to deaf people. Great price, but using voice features would cost $0.20 per minute. Not sure I want to get a voice mail to text service for $9.99 a month and pay $0.20 per minute on top of that when I don’t know how many messages — if at all — I’ll get based on past experience.

One company gave me a pager that came with an answering service. The service sent voice messages to me in text. I rarely got messages that way. So what are the chances people will use this service to contact me?

Another option is to wait until my family’s plan expires and join them on another plan that includes voice and unlimited data. In this case, I wouldn’t have to pay per minute for voice mail. Decisions!

Posted by at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Chris of DeafDC Blog opens an interesting discussion about Hollywood’s actions indicating a preference to deaf actors and actresses who speak.

My vote — do a mix. Some roles can be deaf actors who don’t speak and some do. This will be more representative of the deaf population’s diversity. Having a hearing actor play a deaf person who speaks crosses the line.

Posted by at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Baby Sign Game is adorable! This game provides a word and players pick one of four pictures that correctly represents the word in sign language.

I only missed one word and that was dog (easy), which didn’t use the fingersnapping. Not sure what that was about.

Surprised myself — I know more sign language than I thought. I picked up words over the years. Plus my little guy loves learning signs, so we open my ASL book and look up words together. My family has signed ILY for years using only one hand. My little guy goes the extra mile and does “I” [cross arms for love], and [puts extended hand with thumb on chin for mom]. Aww.

Posted by at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OMG! I saw this in Guy Kawasaki’s e-mail signature (he surprisingly responded to an e-mail I sent to Alltop). SpinVox (UK residents go to the main SpinVox) can convert voice mails to text. This just might be worth the money. It also has a Memo feature, but I am not sure if it sends memos to the inbox with sound or with text.

I tried the test, but it didn’t work.

Posted by at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just learned National Association of the Deaf (NAD) wrote a letter [pdf file] [Letter and video in NAD blog] to Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing regarding AGBell’s letter to Pepsi. Here’s the backstory, if you missed it.

I appreciate NAD’s letter. I think it would have more power had the President mentioned deaf people who don’t know ASL. I know the focus is about AGBell’s comments on ASL. But acknowledging that there are oral deaf people shows respect and acceptance of the diversity of those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Now I am tempted to write a letter to Pepsi.

Posted by at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Here’s a great story from the Guardian about how being deaf can help when traveling especially to other countries.

When I flew alone on Southwest Airlines, I went to the check in desk and let the staff know that I was deaf and would need notification when to board. Without a beat, she said I should board first and would let me know.

Nice getting a seat up front so I could exit the plane faster.

I haven’t had the pleasure of traveling to other countries besides Mexico and the Caribbean. The thought makes me a little nervous as English in foreign accents doesn’t come easy for me as a lipreader. Maybe it’ll go better like the article says.

Posted by at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Great links to interesting articles and sites.

• Sharon reports Deaf actor in There Will Be Blood
• Sharon also has a great list of over 170 adolescent books containing deaf characters.
• Kathleen says her speech was better after learning ASL fluenty. This is fascinating as I observed an oral deaf person who later learned sign language and joined the Deaf culture do the opposite. Her speech and lipreading skills dropped. Sounds like it depends on the person.
• 10 Great Traits of Deaf Leaders by LaShonda explores what popular bloggers/vloggers have in common.
• KT Tunstall writing music for the deaf
• Scott Hamm writes his first ASL lyrics

Posted by at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just read about Rally Caps at Hearing Exchange. It sounds like a nice story. Stories surrounding a disability or difference don’t always make a good read. I was looking for a children’s book with a deaf character to read to 2nd graders and didn’t like any of the ones I found. So this might have potential.

The story focuses on two friends on a baseball team. One has a cochlear implant. Here’s the official description:

Ten year old Jordan is injured in an unfortunate and frightening accident while trying out for the Little League Travel team. Recovery is difficult. At summer camp he struggles to conquer his anxiety and fear in order to return to his beloved game of baseball. He forms a friendship with a deaf Italian boy, Luca, who wears a cochlear implant. Luca’s compelling positive nothing is impossible attitude, along with the inspiration he draws from his idol, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., gives Jordan the courage to return to baseball with a passion. Find out what happens as “Rally Caps” are raised in the bottom of the final inning in the biggest game of Jordan’s life. Boys and girls alike will enjoy this touching story of persevering through difficult times.

Posted by at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Found this great video on Blogs with a Face. I may not know much ASL, but the video gets its message across loud and clear.

Within an hour of writing this, I saw this song with captions on TV. It’s a lovely song.

Continue reading "Waiting for the World to Change" »

Posted by at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Ahem. This Wired article is a fascinating read, but read it in a safe place not at work or some place where someone seeing “Sex Drive” on your screen would embarrass.

Sex sells. No matter how you do it.

Posted by at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Alvin Dean Kaplan: 1931 - 2007

Posted by at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Rita’s Expressive VLog has a video of one person’s experience of being the only deaf kid in a hearing family during the holidays. The video is in ASL.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year everyone!

Posted by at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hacking Netflix posts an entry regarding Netflix’s customer support didn’t provide TTY support fast enough when the company moved to phone support. Furthermore, it doesn’t caption its online video (big surprise).

I love that one of the comments says that the lack of subtitles/captioning affects more than just those who are deaf or hearing-impaired. The commenter writes, “Frequently I turn on the English subtitles when watching NF rentals with difficult English accents. And some times I turn on the subtitles when the music is overpoweringly loud compared to the spoken soundtrack rather than constantly adjust the volume.”

Continue reading "Internet Video and the Deaf Problem Noticed" »

Posted by at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Shawn Henry’s book, Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design, is available online. Yes, the entire thing. Henry provides two persona examples of people with disabilities. Personas help Web designers visualize a Web site’s target market and design for that market. Thought it worthy of sharing in this blog.

One persona is a retiree with macular degeneration and the other is a college student who is deaf.

Henry does a good job with the college student. Although, I think many deaf people use a cell phone with a QWERTY keyboard. I could be wrong, but many of the deaf bloggers say they use a Sidekick or other cell phone with QWERTY. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t use a TTY anymore — however, I am sure that’s not common especially those with many friends who are deaf. I prefer using instant messenger to make my relay calls as the computer is faster than a TTY.

Henry does account for differences, “Remember that people are diverse. Be careful not to assume that all users, including users with disabilities, use the product the same way.”

Posted by at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Fookem and Bug ask we print letters and mail them to filmmaker David Risotto. He is working with avid Cincinnati Reds Baseball fan, Steve Sandy, to create a documentary on the life and achievements of William Ellsworth “Dummy” Hoy, the first deaf baseball player in history.

I like what the blog says… that it’s not about the fact he was deaf, but about Hoy playing baseball at a time when citizens ignored deaf people. Read more about the project, writing letters, and Hoy’s achivements.

It only takes a minute to print the letter and sign it.

Posted by at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Just came across this interesting BBC video of a deaf couple who desire a deaf baby. The 2004 video shows the program in its entirety (one hour long) and with subtitles.

Posted by at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Interesting readings…

• Closed/Open Captions, Subtitles, and Rear-Window Captioning: Love the reference to the rear window thingamajing as “flag” and that we feel like we have a scarlet letter when we carry the flag in the movie theater.
• Culture First or Deaf First? Another look at an ages old debate. Lots of comments.
• Creature Discomforts: “series of animations based on the experiences of real disabled people.” Love this site. Has subtitles and sign language for videos and transcripts for radio ads.

Posted by at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Standardized testing… the source of stress, ulcers, baldness, debates… I don’t know what they prove because the SATs proved nothing for me. SATs are supposedly the indicator of how well a student will do in college. Well, my scores were embarrassing (took it twice) and I did fine and dandy in college, thankyouverymuch.

Anyway, Jamie Berke points to an article where a deaf school did very poorly on New York’s standardized test.

I don’t believe deaf people should be exempt from testing. Start that and it leads to other testing exemptions. Besides, don’t we have working brains like anyone else? Some people are smart and some aren’t. Exempting deaf people from test sends a message that we’re all not bright enough.

Sometimes I wish I could take the SAT to see if I can do better (since I was happy with my GMAT score), but I’m not about to show up in a school with a bunch of 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds.

Posted by at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

JobEnable.com is a new site that connects disabled job seekers with job opportunities. Matt Lawrence and the NetworkIP team started the site to help people with disabilities find employment. Matt is an employee of NetworkIP who happens to have a disability. He developed Dystonia when he was 13. It’s a progressive neurological disorder that gradually progressed to affect his speech and fine motor movements.

Posted by at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another aww … story for you. Girl Teaches Deaf Dog Sign Language

Posted by at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As proof that cats and dogs can get along, Libby plays the role of seeing-eye cat to Cashew, a 14-year-old deaf and blind yellow lab. What a sweet story! [Thanks, Dogster]

Aww…

Posted by at 6:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

“Simon J. Carmel’s lecture, ‘Silent No More: Testimonies of Deaf Holocaust Survivors’ related the unheard stories of the persecuted deaf Jewish during World War II.” The article reports that roughly 25,000 deaf Jewish people were killed in the Holocaust and that 20 deaf survivors remain today.

Hitler’s soldiers not only killed Jewish people, but also people with disabilities, gay people, black people, and Gypsies. So it’s a miracle that any deaf person survived. Also German doctors sterilized many deaf Jewish people to prevent them from having deaf children. But statistics show only 10 percent of deaf couples bore deaf children.

Posted by at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

What a fascinating story of a teen who can hit the target with pillows, play video games, rollerblade effortlessly, and identify objects on the street — and he can do all this even though he doesn’t see like we do. The videos show him in action and the article gives all the details.

Found a misspelling in the article. With web “site” becoming a frequently used term, the person writing the article slipped and wrote “site” instead of “sight.” See the screen capture below.

Posted by at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I loved reading this first person story from a teen who is doing well in school, which includes AP classes and loves dancing. Former Miss America, Heather Whitestone, made an impact in her life.

Posted by at 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Access Accessibility gives a rundown on its run in with Freedom Scientific, a big name in assisted technology as the manufacturer of JAWS (screen reader for the visually-impaired). Apparently, the company won’t provide transcripts of its podcasts.

Sure, we’d love for every podcast to have transcripts, but is that realistic?

Posted by at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted an entry on the main blog regarding marketing to people with disabilities. Have an experience? Please share so others may learn from it.

Posted by at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 15 is Blog Action Day in which bloggers post something about helping the environment. One thing I wish everyone especially politicians would do is watch An Inconvenient Truth. Forget what you think of Al Gore, good or bad, the message comes through clear — we must do something for our environment and our future.

You don’t have to do something big like buy a hybrid car. Little things like recycling make a difference. One thing I try to do is limit how much I print. When I do print something, I reuse the back of the paper whenever possible. For shredded paper, I use them in packaging.

If you have hearing aids, TTYs, glasses and other equipment that you or someone else no longer uses, consider recycling them by donating them. The following resources accepts equipment donations:

• Lions Club
• Help the Children Hear
• Hearing Aid for Latin America
• The Starkey Hearing Foundation’s Hear Now

Gallaudet has a page of information pointing to more resources.

Here are resources from Blog Action Day’s site. Go, Green!

Posted by at 7:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ardent support of web accessibility and captioning shares his honest opinion of what’s wrong with online captioning. The focus is on the quality not the lack thereof. It’s a great read in an outline format since it’s from a presentation he gave. Sure, I’d like online captioning to look and read better — but I’ll take what I can get as there’s so little of it online.

One thing that caught my eye from the outline:

Not only is only one show captioned, they have yet again found a new and shocking way to completely screw it up. (Continuous scrolling text in a frame to the right of the image, with upcoming text clearly visible and the current text scrolled upward into a reverse-type field. And! All capitals! 1979 called; it wants its captioning back.)

TV captions have always and continue to be — all uppercase. Why should online captioning be different? In the example Clark refers to — upper case is the least of the problems. The image background makes it very hard to read.

Regardless — I appreciate that he’s speaking loud and clear for online captioning.

Posted by at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Christy Smith, a contestant who is deaf and appeared in Survivor: Amazon, is working with David Justice, sign language interpreter and job coach in Discovering Deaf Worlds. They plan to travel to different countries to meet with Deaf storytellers, community leaders, organizations, and youth from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Thailand, India, Nepal, Kenya.

“While traveling around the world, Dave and Christy intend to visit many Deaf schools and organizations. Their goal is to gain a better understanding of a variety of cultures worldwide, and share the experiences they bring from the United States. They will be capturing traditional stories of native Deaf signers, interviewing Deaf leaders on current issues in their communities, living the adventures each country has to offer, and creating possibilities along the way.” [Thank you, Paula]

Posted by at 8:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A fantastic deaf karaoke performance “singing” Natalia Imbruglia’s Torn.

Posted by at 6:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Over a year ago, I reported Purdue researchers were working on Mathsigner, a virtual reality program that teaches math to deaf students. Future Making Serious Games provides more details. You can download a demo program to learn more about the project.

It will be fascinating to see how well the program does in teaching math.

Posted by at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A Purdue researcher is working on a new method for assessing hearing loss that reflects real world situations. The purpose of the testing is to determine the best route for the patient. This is not for infants.

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Jewish Deaf Congress Web site, www.JewishDeafCongress.org, provides information on about Jewish Deaf Congress, Inc. which was formerly known as National Congress of Jewish Deaf (NCJD). The new site is a work in progress with a goal to give an insight of the JDCs story, JDC Quarterly archives, articles submitted by various Jewish individuals, and updated information of its upcoming retreats and national conference.

The organization’s mission is to provide religious, cultural, and educational experiences. Members include those who became deaf before acquiring language, those who became deaf later in life, and those who are hard of hearing. Parents join our organization, as do grandparents. Some with our deaf constituents represent a community of interpreters or educators, and rabbis, or perhaps even children or siblings or just friends of deaf adults.

JDC, Inc., encourages pluralism in our community - whether Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist - we are all an essential part of Klal Yisrael- the worldwide community of Jewry. As an organization, we join the larger Jewish community in our dedication to tikkun olam - the healing of the world.

Posted by at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

“Whoa!” does not begin to describe my reaction to the bling bling of hearing aids. Widex hearing aids come with 24K gold and 220 diamonds (real stuff… and not the Swarovski kind) and cost $50,000 / £s;25,000. Well, gee, right in line with two cochlear implants cost an estimated $60K.

Sources: SCF FI Tech > Techie Diva

Posted by at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Kokonut Pundit took phone orders while working for Domino’s Pizza. It reminded me of a job I applied for while a teen doing gift wrapping at a department store. First, I had to take one of those personality tests — I had never seen this before in my life and didn’t pass. I don’t know why as I’ve always live my life as an ethical person.

Regardless, the store hired me. When I showed up on the first day, I promptly quit. The manager said I needed to answer the phone. He just didn’t get it that I couldn’t understand what the person on the other end of the call would say.

As a kid, I was more willing to talk on the phone when I needed — to family and close friends. But I don’t do that anymore — especially thanks to all the technology available (when the dagnabbed network on my mobile phone isn’t down). The way I handled the conversation made me feel like a child (hence, my more likely to do it as a kid and not now).

Heck, I admit making a few crank calls with friends. One memorable call — the woman asked if I was French. Hey, cool… my deaf accent sounded French to someone!

Posted by at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kids today have it made. They don’t have to wear the ugly hearing aids and other hearing devices that some of us wore while growing up. Beige, bulky and uncool. It’s not just the Baby Boomers — but many generations that have no problem wearing glasses, but do all they can to hide their hearing losses. Me, too. And I am a Gen Xer.

However, I am not shy about wearing my hair in a pony tail anymore especially since I play tennis. No way am I wearing my hair down for that especially in Texas heat and with thick, curly hair like mine. The “stay comfortable” factor aside, the black-colored implant cover is less embarrassing than the old beige hearing aids I used to wear.

Not only do hearing aid companies produce cool looking ear molds (the ugliest thing of the whole hearing aid), but also hearing aids are now PCAs. Normally I would roll my eyes at this change of name for those things that help you hear better, but PCA does sound cooler than hearing aids. We don’t call glasses “eye aids” or “seeing aids.”

Meet the Lexus, BMW and Porsche of hearing aids: Phonak PCAs. Nice marketing move, Phonak.

Can we stop using “hearing aids” and start using “PCAs?” I don’t like to call my cochlear implant device a hearing aid since it’s not the same thing as what we consider a hearing aid. PCA, however, would be easier to say and understand.

Posted by at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Evelyn Glennie makes a full-time living as a percussionist. According to her site, “Evelyn is the first person in musical history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist.” And she’s been profoundly deaf since age 12.

Her site doesn’t say much about deafness — and that’s fabulous only because it shows she wants people to recognize her as a talented percussionist. She speaks so clearly that I recognized some words without reading her lips. Here’s a Wikipiedia entry on Glennie.

She published her Hearing Essay. which explains why her office rarely mentions deafness in any press releases or on her site with the exception of the essay.

I hope that the audience will be stimulated by what I have to say (through the language of music) and will therefore leave the concert hall feeling entertained. If the audience is instead only wondering how a deaf musician can play percussion then I have failed as a musician. For this reason my deafness is not mentioned in any of the information supplied by my office to the press or concert promoters. Unfortunately, my deafness makes good headlines. I have learnt from childhood that if I refuse to discuss my deafness with the media they will just make it up. The several hundred articles and reviews written about me every year add up to a total of many thousands, only a handful accurately describe my hearing impairment.

Posted by at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Here’s a great post from Deaf World as Eye See It of an interview between a Deaf vlogger and a hearing audiologist. When I started this blog — my goal was to educate people what life is like from my perspective as a person born deaf.

With the diversity of backgrounds, hearing loss histories and hearing loss types — I can only represent my point of view. However, deaf people find we share a lot of common traits and experiences. Anyway, I’m straying from the purpose of this post. The interview is an insightful read since it provides another point of view.

Posted by at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Folks, I am just the messenger here! Found this discussion on MeFi that I had to share. Check out the deaf blogs and you see many write well. However, I did have a couple of pen pals when I was a child and they wrote in ASL-speak. For the most part, it was easy to understand what they were saying. There was one whose writing was very hard to translate.

Just like in America — you have some people who write well and others who can’t read more than a few words in English. You’ll find deaf people who write perfect English, ASL-English and hard-to-understand English. It isn’t just a deaf thing — more like an ESL and education thing.

One thing is true — sign language has its own accents. For instance, ASL and British (UK) sign language are not and do not look the same even to a person who doesn’t know much sign language. Four Weddings and a Funeral has a deaf character who does British sign language. It’s a great movie and fascinating to watch him sign.

Posted by at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For those of us who make our calls through the relay — maybe we should send this article on sounding confident on a phone call to our relay operators :) Actually, it might be useful to those who make voice carryover calls (VCO).

One useful tip in the article is to press # after leaving the message so you can hear your message. Well, that won’t work too well on a relay call. The relay operator will hear your message not you. But it’d be interesting to hear my voice since I know what I said.

Posted by at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Captioned video of a deaf comedian doing his routine on a bus. To be honest, I didn’t get his jokes.

Posted by at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ben and Dennis have an interesting discussion going about Deaf and deaf, and not deaf enough. I know that I’m not a part of the Deaf culture, and that’s OK. I just try to get along with everyone deaf, hard-of-hearing or Deaf. I respect everyone’s communication and culture preferences. When I like a person as a friend, it’s because of her personality — who she is, not what she was born with or how she communicates.

It bothers me when people judge based on someone’s choices or birthright. I’ve met people who do both ASL and speak with their voices. They’re part of the Deaf culture, and they’ve shared stories where their Deaf friends got mad because they spoke or wore hearing aids. It’s not fair to the person because she made the choice of doing both.

I imagine this post might get me in trouble, but I’ve met many people over the years through pen pals, the Internet and in person — I enjoyed getting to know them. If someone has a problem with me because I speak and don’t know ASL, then that is what it is. I would hope people would get to know me and not punish me for my choices.

Posted by at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

What American accent do you have? Deaf, of course, but that wasn’t an option and it didn’t stop me from completing the quiz. The site identified my accent as Midland:

You have a Midland accent is just another way of saying “you don’t have an accent.” You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.

Based on the description of a Midland accent, it doesn’t surprise me. 11 years of speech therapy shows you how to pronounce things the dictionary way, not with a Texas accent. Got to admit that last line in the description of the Midland is funny.

I’ve had relatives claim I have a Texas accent because of the way I said certain things like “Dad” where I make the “a” last longer than normal. I’ve also been asked “What country are you from?” or “Are you French?” I don’t think a deaf accent resembles a French accent.

Posted by at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

The Dallas Morning News [may require free registration] had a fascinating article about how much technology helps athletes. For instance, Masazumi Soejima won the Boston Marathon in his wheelchair coming in almost 45 minutes ahead of the first one on foot.

What about Tiger Woods receiving LASIK to perfect his vision? He has been winning more golf tourneys since the surgery. Having had LASIK myself, I don’t think there’s a performance difference between contacts and LASIK. Contacts can annoy you at times when it doesn’t feel right.

How can we ensure fairness in sports? That’s a tough question and I’m glad I don’t have to figure that out. I don’t plan on joining kind of olympic or sports committee.

Posted by at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Learned that Barack Obama’s Web site contains lots of captioned video. Whether or not you support him — we appreciate the opportunity to get to know candidates as much as we need to with captioned television. I still prefer online mainstream videos and TV videos to be captioned over politics (after all, there’s something in it FOR THEM to have captioned videos).

The folks behind the site say they worked with Project ReadOn. You can read more on Obama’s site or check out the Posted by at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I can’t believe I didn’t know about these sites earlier! I had heard about Will Ferrell’s hilarious landlord video that stars his 3-year-old daughter as a mean and drunk landlord. But I never pay attention to videos since I know most don’t come with captions… until today.

Project ReadOn requires lining up the captioned popup box with the video (turn off pop ups on the site so you can get the captions). The FAQ explains how to ensure the captions and video sync up.

Captioning video gets easier pointed to Dotsub where you enter the captions yourself and Project ReadOn where you can request your video get captioned. So I check them out and got to enjoy the landlord video.

From now on if I hear about a big video — I’ll be sure to put in a request with Project ReadOn. Thank you to BBC.co.uk for the article. Be warned … once you get into them, it may be difficult to get back to work.

Posted by at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interesting reading from Communication Access Now regarding a deaf woman’s terrible experience with the law in Brazoria County, Texas. As a born and bred Texan, I can happily say I haven’t had any experiences like these.

Thanks to of DeafNetwork for the link.

Posted by at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP), formerly known as The Captioned Media Program, has a new home. The change makes sense since it covers or adds the following:

• Video-described media for persons who are blind and visually impaired.

• Educational video description guidelines.

• Searchable information portal, including links to information from educational and consumer groups.

• Expanded media search options.

• “DCMP for Kids” section with separate student accounts, so students can directly access DCMP under the monitoring of teachers and parents who will determine which subject areas are accessible.

• Delivery methods including downloading media and access to streaming via both Real Player and Windows Media Player.

Posted by at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Accessibility: Captioning in Flash CS3 reports Flash CS3 comes with a new component called FLVPlaybackCaptioning that works with FLVPlayback component to make it easy to add captions to Flash.

Another blog entry from Adobe on the Flash component and here is the link to the Adobe Accessibility caption category where you can view examples. More info:

• Adobe Flash CS3 Accessibility design guidelines.

• Flash video learning guide.

• Using the FLVPlaybackCaptioning Component

• Flash and ActionScripts Components learning guide

Let’s hope Flash developers take advantage of this new feature and make their work accessible to a larger audience!

Posted by at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Deaf, illiterate and self-trained, and with a perspective all his own is a nice story about an artist who has many of his works at museums in San Francisco and Boise.

Castle learned how to draw by looking at pictures much like musicians who learned by listening. As a result of not having a formal art education, Castle created his own art materials and used envelopes, matchboxes, and chimney soot. Fascinating story.

Posted by at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you missed Through Deaf Eyes, it may air again in your area. In the Dallas / Fort Worth area (KERA), it won’t be airing in the next two weeks. However, you can check for future airings by going to pbs.org and enter your zip code, then go to the program’s page where it shows local listings for the program. A transcript [pdf file] is also available on the show’s page.

The program is available for purchase (available in May). Maybe you can rent it eventually, if you don’t want to purchase the DVD.

Posted by at 6:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Becky Donnell, a doctoral candidate in Counseling Psychology, has designed a dissertation to draw attention to, and to contribute to, the knowledge of career issues and identity within the D/deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities.

She invites those willing to participate in taking her survey and to pass it on to others who might be interested/willing to participate, thus furthering such research. All participants who complete the survey will have the option of entering to win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com, and to receive the study summary results.

To participate click on this link:

https://www.psychdata.com/s.asp?SID=120527

OR

Go to http://www.psychdata.com and ENTER SURVEY #120527

The link takes you to a page that clearly explains the study and how the data will be used. I value education and research — and research yields strong results when enough people (and the right people) participate without bias.

Posted by at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Director Irene Taylor Brodsky received the Audience Award: Documentary for Hear and Now. The film tells the story about her deaf parents and their decision to receive a cochlear implant in their 60s. Here is an interview with Irene Taylor Brodsky.

Posted by at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Browneyedgirl has a good discussion of a book, Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language, going in her blog. I don’t have anything intelligent to add to the already enlightening conversation.

Posted by at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time to take action and it only takes a few minutes. Just filled out the form myself. Deadline: March 27, 2007.

From DeafNetwork newsletter:

The battle for TV closed captions continues. It is time to take action. Time to oppose requests from TV programs to be shown without closed captions, in your state.

The NAD made it easy to do. It must be done by March 27, 2007.

Continue reading "Oppose Requests for TV Programs without Closed Captions" »

Posted by at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Kokonut Pundits posted a video of a hearing and deaf man conversing without pen and paper, without sign language and lipreading and without misunderstandings.

Why not do this with instant messenger or email? In watching the video, I didn’t see anything that couldn’t be done through instant messenger. But it’s still a great tool because some face-to-face meetings require reviewing papers, demonstrating things and so forth. Cool.

Posted by at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Realities of Employment sadly provides accurate information about the employement situation for the deaf and HoH. When I worked for the US government, I remember reading statistics saying that the deaf group — on average — had the lowest job levels (GS) of all groups working for the federal government. Lower than those who are classified as blind or mentally challenged.

I’m sure there are more recent stats available somewhere — but right now I am playing catch up.

Posted by at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mary Akpalas Weblog shares her experience in watching a deaf comedy on BBC. She’s not deaf, but she found it hilarious in spite of some claiming that only deaf people get it.

Woman swindles deaf by using sign language. Awful.

Posted by at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Deaf Technological Review points out how a tablet PC could be a great tool for the deaf and blind. Places like The Dallas Summer Musicals are using laptops to provide text for their shows, but I tihnk tablets would be better as they're more portable. But hey, I'm thrilled they offer a way for us to enjoy the show. I'm seeing Wicked there in April.

When I learned about the laptop deal, it took a load off my plate. One of my to dos was to read the book before the show. Between the flu and book abstract work, there was no chance I was going to read the book in time.

What other ways could we use tablet PCs to make our lives easier?

Posted by at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Learned about Steve Day, a Deaf comedian from the U.K. So I did a little searching and here is his MySpace page. Looks like he has a busy performing schedule, and you can watch a video of him on a game show.

Posted by at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks to BrownEyedGirl for bringing my attention to Deaf Performing Artists Network (DPAN), which presents music-style videos with sub-titles, ASL or both. There’s more ASL than there are captions. I watched “Where’d You Go” and it is well done and the music rocks. Unfortunately, only bits and pieces are captioned and I try to fill the gaps by reading the signers’ lips.

Ke5ter points to the Open Captions Project:

Open Captions allows anyone to caption online video. With free simple tools to caption videos from a web browser everyone benefits. Whether it is their own work or a favorite video from a friend online, as captions are added the Internet becomes more accessible.

Posted by at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Deaf children without barriers is an excellent read and gives insight on life for the deaf in Israel.

Posted by at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Banjo’s World has a great discussion about captions in the comments. I shared my first experience with captions in an old, old entry. What’s cool is that last line has come true. Music videos are captioned.

Posted by at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The NFL is taking advantage of the infamous Superbowl ads with a contest in which thousands submitted an idea for an independent ad to air during the Superbowl. The NFL narrowed the list down to 12 so we can vote for our favorites.

The pitches, unsurprisingly, aren’t captioned. Thanks to Dan Johnson who notified me about the contest and described Pitch #12 from Vanessa. It sounds like a winner and I hope you consider checking it out. Here’s Dan’s description:

Video of a family in their living room, getting ready to head out to the Super Bowl, grabbing their tickets and packing things up. A boy sits near the TV, juggling his football, watching NFL coverage via the captions. He’s not all that aware of what’s going on and obviously doesn’t share the excitement the rest of the family shares. His mother taps him on the shoulder, telling him it’s time to go. Then it cuts to the stadium, where the football teams have just entered the field. The crowd goes wild, but the boy seems unenthused because his world is silent, which we get to see from his perspective for the first time, as the camera pans across the stadium without any sound. Then he closes his eyes and sits down in the bleachers. He puts his hands on the armrests and feels the vibration from the rest of the crowd.

Then a cut to former deaf NFL player Kenny Walker and Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, using sign language to say, “Feel the Game.”

It’s an opportunity to raise deaf awareness. Go vote!

Posted by at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Deaf Jews in Mathematics — not that we need to break it down by religion and disability, it’s fascinating.

Very cool. I’m impressed with all mathematicians as it was a struggle for me in advanced math classes such as trig, elementary analysis, and calculus. I never understood why I didn’t do better at math as I’m a logical-minded person. [ Link: Acephalous ]

Posted by at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DeafNation updates visitors on the happenings in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. It also provides coverage of events such as Deaflympics and World Federation of Deaf. The site is behind DeafNation Expo, an exhibition celebrating culture, exhibiting technology and providing networking opportunities at no charge to attendees. The Expo is like a traveling showcase that visits many locations throughout the year.

Posted by at 8:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

DeafBlog reports on a guide for dads for deaf children is available for free from the UK. I don’t know if those outside of the UK can get a copy or not. Contact Leigh Holdway on 020 70141113 or e-mail leigh@ndcs.org.uk for a copy.

Though my mom did the driving to get me to speech therapy, my dad was the hardware guy. He tested my hearing aids, bought batteries, and kept them in working shape. But he surprised me one day when I heard a story of what he told a former teacher of mine. An improved version of this story apeears in Stories of Strength.

Posted by at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bionic Boys: More CI blogs to check out.

Posted by at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Ragged Edge Online addresses disability-related issues that many mainstream publications avoid such as assisted suicide, de-institutionalization, abuse and nursing home issues. The site also lists roughly 50 topical blogs. It’s refreshing to see content that confronts issues many are afraid to speak of.

Posted by at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Axistive.com is a news portal that provides news relating to technology that help people with disabilities.

Posted by at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Earlier, I provided a link to an article on how to work around recrodings. Get Human contains a database of companies and how to reach a human.

The link comes from a Dallas Morning News [may require free registration] story on the topic.

This article shows six ways to reach a human operator.

Posted by at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

deafCensus aims to provide access to a database containing services and resources related to hearing loss. The site also contains national demographic data on deaf and hard of hearing individuals for organizations, service agencies, community resources, and academic and research institutions. It has over 7000 entries and should become a great resource.

Posted by at 7:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Deaf Resource Library has information about deaf education, culture, and other related topics. Very nice and detailed library.

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