DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, February 1, 2012

- A new national organization of deaf truck drivers?

Possible good news for deaf individuals that want to become
truck drivers. The Department of Transportation will allow
deaf individuals to apply for Class A and B Commercial
Drivers Licenses and to drive across state lines. There
is a Facebook group for Deaf Truck drivers. Just go into
Facebook and look for it.

– Some deaf Egyptians earn full pay checks for not going to work!

Egypt requires businesses with over 50 employees to set aside
5 percent of jobs for the deaf and the disabled. Many employers
hate that law but “hire” the deaf to prove that they obey it.
They tell the deaf to stay home and not come to work! Why?
Egyptians look down on the deaf and the disabled. They don’t
want to be seen being with the deaf. Very sad.

– 16 percent of state without E-911 emergency relay services for the deaf

Missouri has 114 counties and one independent city. How many
of these counties lack E-911 emergency relay services for the
deaf? There are 18 counties without E-911 service. It is 16
percent of Missouri not accessible to the deaf!

– A hearing person arrested for yelling at a deaf person

When a hearing person yells at us, we hate it. We often
don’t know why he is yelling. Well, a hearing ex-boyfriend
yelled at his deaf ex-girl friend. He yelled when she tried
to use her computer several times to contact the police
to ask for protection. He shut down her computer without
touching her. But it scared the deaf woman. The police came
and arrested him, charging him of assault and intimidation.
The assault was because he put her in fear. The police told
her to get a restraining order.

 
– Sign language more popular than English in South Africa

South Africa has 11 official languages plus other 20-25 unofficial
languages. Sign language is not an official South African language,
yet it is the nation’s 9th most popular language, higher than
English! Thandile Sunduza, chairperson of the National Assembly’s
Arts and Culture committee, said:

Sign language is used more than English

   In USA many newspapers have special pullout sections. These pullouts are all about special issues like religion, country, political party, health, food, travel, the football Super Bowl, etc.    Deafness issues in a paid pullout section? Never saw one in American newspapers. But in Great Britain, there were a couple of deafness-related pullout sections in the past.    Wish we had one in USA – that would fairly cover deafness from A to Z without showing bias.

  A deaf person had to attend a workshop as part of his job
training. The issue was – who should pay for the interpreter?
Should the employer pay for it or should the workshop host
pay for it.
The deaf person came up with an idea. He made a suggestion
that he attend the workshop free. And in turn the fee that would
have normally paid for the workshop would go to the interpreters.
The workshop host liked the suggestion, and everyone was
happy about it.

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, January 25, 2012

– Some of 600 children certified as hearing may possibly be deaf!

In Liverpool, England, a doctor gave hearing tests to 600 children,
and signed papers showing they were hearing. These tests took place
at the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital audiology clinic between 2007
and 2011. Later, it looked fishy because about 10 of the children
were found to be deaf. The shocked hospital staff fired the doctor
and ordered all 600 children to be re-tested! The angry British
public health officials is investigating it and may revoke the
doctor’s license. And possibly go to jail for fraud.

– A famous comment by a deaf chef of a deaf-owned restaurant

The Viuda Bistro is a deaf-owned restaurant in Buda, Texas, near
Austin. The restaurant chef is Kurt Ramborger. He is deaf.

He said:
You don’t need ears to cook

Kurt is right; we have a few deaf chefs in USA, including two in
the Los Angeles/Southern California area. These two stand out
in the area as one of the best chefs around.

– England wants more deaf reporters on TV news programs

Few weeks ago DeafDigest mentioned that Karen Meyers may be the
nation’s only deaf TV news reporter. England better than USA?
The BBC, a big TV network in England, wants to hire about 10 new
deaf reporters for TV news programs! Why England and not USA?

– Post office confusion between deaf school and hearing school

In Phoenix, there are two schools – Phoenix Day School for the Deaf
(PDSD) and the Phoenix Country Day School (PCDS). It is these
abbreviations, and possibly the full names, that confused
the mail carriers. From time to time wrong letters and wrong packages
would be delivered to the wrong schools! Now, because of better
technology (bar code), mistakes and confusion are no more.

– Kodak bankruptcy and the deaf

It is sad to read about Kodak filing bankruptcy. Years back,
Thomas Edison, a deaf man, invented movie equipment to shoot
movies. Kodak invented the film that Edison needed to make
these movies. In 1971 Kodak hired its first NTID graduate.
And the number of deaf employees grew to about 100. 
These deaf people had backgrounds in engineering, science,
computer aided design technology, photography, printing,
business and computers. And at annual NTID job fairs,
Kodak was always there. What is the future? Kodak will not
disappear and will probably change into something different
and will still continue to hire the deaf.