DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 24, 2013

– a deaf winner on a TV show

The Price is Right is a popular TV show. Only just recently,
Eddie Buck, who is deaf, was a winner. He had an interpreter
with him throughout the program. Is he the first deaf winner
or the only deaf winner on this TV program? Do not know!

– a deaf surgeon in Spain

There was a deaf surgeon in Spain. A surgeon that operates on
people? This deaf surgeon worked in the 16th century, but the
job was different from today’s surgeons. In these early days
surgeons were also barbers that used their sharp tools to do
some medical operations. And that job did not require a college
degree. That deaf surgeon was the father of Miguel de Cervantes
who wrote the very famous book – Don Quixote!

– a city surprised by a “Deaf Child” request

Rio Grande City, Texas is a small town of 14,000 people.
A mother of a deaf child asked the city to put up a
“Deaf Child” sign in front of her house. The city people
did not know what to do. Why? Because it was the first
time someone from that city asked for that sign. The
mother had to wait two weeks before the city finally put
up the sign. How much did the sign cost? Just $100.

The network crashed on 5/22/13. If you missed these
stories (below), please go to:

http://deafdigest.com/mid-week-news/20130522/

– India’s beggars telling people they were deaf
– Facebook is the best way for one deaf person
– Attorneys must learn sign language?

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 22, 2013

– India’s beggars telling people they were deaf

In Mokokchung, India, a town of 30,000 people, two beggars, telling
people they were deaf, collected 40,000 ruppees ($722 in USA money)
in few hours. The police, suspecting they were faking their deafness,
arrested them. Just for few hours, $722 is a lot of money.

– Facebook is the best way for one deaf person

An oral deaf person grew up frustrated, not knowing ASL to communicate
with the deaf, and also struggling with lipreading to communicate with
the hearing. He is now happy – thanks to Facebook. He says Facebook
is perfect for deaf people like him – wanting to mix with deaf and with
the hearing.

– Attorneys must learn sign language?

Must attorneys learn sign language to communicate with
deaf clients? The Royal Association for Deaf (in Great Britain)
feels that if attorneys learn five new signs per day, they will
know enough to communicate with deaf clients. DeafDigest feels
it is better to use interpreters.

05/19/13 Blue edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/

05/19/13 Gold edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 20, 2013

– deaf school student is also a volunteer firefighter

Tim Smith is a senior at Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind.
When at home at Gordonsville, VA, he serves as the town volunteer
firefighter. He takes firefighting classes and has completed his
Community Emergency Response Team training classes. It is a family
tradition as his father and his brother are volunteer firefighters.
After he graduates he will continue with more firefighting classes
and hopes to take up more of firefighting responsibilities.

– hating the caption glasses

A deaf moviegoer told DeafDigest editor he hated the Caption
Glasses! Why? He said his head cannot be moved during the
showing; if head is moved, then captions are “lost”. And he
complains that his nose and head hurts badly because of the
heavy Caption Glasses!

– people become interpreters for a good reason

A story was run a Michigan newspaper about an
interpreter. He said interpreting is recession-proof
because of the need for ASL among the deaf. Do keep in
mind, auto industry jobs in Michigan have disappeared,
forcing young hearing people to look for other jobs.

05/19/13 Blue edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/

05/19/13 Gold edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 15, 2013

– a deaf model starting her career at late age!

Many models start their careers while young (before age of 20),
but Carola Wisny, a deaf woman born in Norway, started her
modeling career three years ago at the age of 25! She travels
across Europe taking on different modeling assignments. Now
at the age of 28, her career is just taking off. And 28 is
the age where many models start to worry about their looks
and their future photo shoots. Not so with Carola! As for
sign language, she signs in British Sign Language as she
lives in Great Britain.

– deaf EMT better than hearing EMT!

Chad Grabousky is deaf and is an emergency medical technician
(EMT) with a Bethlehem, PA ambulance company. 4 years ago
at the age of 18, he graduated from a EMT program but could
not find a job; no one wanted to hire him. He would not give
up and found a EMT job in Bethlehem, about 60 miles from
where he lives. The boss knew it was a gamble when hiring
him. What does the boss say right now? The happy boss said:

He is better than some hearing staff!

- Jeff Rosen firing a hearing impaired attorney

Jeff Rosen is an attorney and he fired a hearing impaired
attorney for abuse of power! Jeff Rosen, the chairperson of
the National Council on Disability, an Obama political
appointee? No, not that deaf attorney Jeff Rosen, but yes,
the other Jeff Rosen that is hearing. He is the Santa Clara
County (California) district attorney. He fired prosecutor
Lisa Rogers because of personal misconduct with a domestic
issue. Lisa is deaf and has to depend on a stenographer to
keep up with the proceedings.

05/12/13 Blue edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/

05/12/13 Gold edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 13, 2013

– a former Super Bowl NFL player, himself deaf, very bitter

Reggie Williams played 14 years for Cincinnati Bengals (1976-1989),
and played in two Super Bowls. He has a life-long hearing problem
and as a child, attended Rhode Island School for the Deaf for a
short time. Since he functioned as a hearing person, many people
did not know he was deaf. As a great football player, he paid the
price – many injuries to his legs. He has to use crutches to walk.
He is bitter because NFL would not help him (and many other
badly-injured NFL players). The big, rich NFL will not help its
retired players that made NFL great.

– who was the first deaf around-the-world solo sailor?

Last week the newpapers were full of stories of Gerry Hughes,
a deaf Scot, who sailed solo all around the world, a trip
taking him 8 months. They are saying he is the FIRST deaf person
to accomplish it. First deaf person? DeafDigest mentioned
in Year 2000 (13 years ago) that Paul Thompson, a deaf man
from South Africa, sailed solo all around the world!

– fastest A to Z fingerspeller!

There is a contest in Great Britain called “Hot Fingers.”
Deaf contestants race against each other to see who fingerspells
A to Z the fastest. The average fast speed is 5-6 seconds.
Is it faster than A to Z fingerspelling in USA? Probably not
because British fingerspelling uses both hands, while ASL
fingerspelling is on one hand!

05/12/13 Blue edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/

05/12/13 Gold edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 10, 2013

– a medical school refusing a Cued Speech interpreter

Michael Argenyi, a former deaf student at Creighton University
Medical School, will have a trial. He accused the school of
discrimination because his request for Cued Speech interpreters
was turned down. In 2008, he applied for admittance into the
medical school, explaining that he was deaf and needed Cued
Speech interpreters for his classes and labs. The school
accepted him but gave him other accommodations, but no Cued
Speech interpreters. He had to take out a $110,000 loan to pay
for his own interpreters. After two years he got frustrated
and dropped out. Why not ASL? He does not know ASL.
We will see what happens in the courtroom.

– a deaf ombudsman in Japan

How important is an ombudsman? He is appointed by an agency
to fix small problems that people deal with. Onaka Koji,
a deaf man, has been appointed as the ombudsman on behalf
of the deaf in Otsu, a Japanese city of 350,000 people.
He will help the deaf with many things such as interpreters,
paperwork, setting up appointments, etc, etc. He is actually
an ombudsman, but he prefers to call himself deaf counselor.

– a deaf Texas Ranger?

Could a deaf person become a FBI Agent? Or even a Texas Ranger?
Texas Ranger’s duties are probably the same what the State Bureau
of Investigation agent does. SBI works on state level as FBI works
on the national level. Well, have we ever had a Deaf Texas Ranger?
Yes – and it was Deaf Smith! He only lasted only four months before
he resigned because one of his actions got the Texas Republic governor
angry. Could we see a future deaf FBI agent or even a deaf SBI agent?
Never say never!

(DeafDigest thanks Dr. Steve Baldwin, author, The Legacy of
Deaf Smith, for this valuable piece of information! He is
the nation’s #1 Deaf Smith’s historian)

05/05/13 Blue edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/

05/05/13 Gold edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 8, 2013

– a Netflix captioning lawsuit dispute

Who wins the captioning lawsuit? Netflix or the
deaf plaintiff or the attorneys? A big argument
took place in California over a $262,000 legal
fee. No one wants to pay for it – and the judge
said “me hands off.” Regardless of who eventually
pays, the attorneys win. Should we compare the
$262,000 legal fee with the $7.99 monthly rate
Netflix charges for their movies?

– which captioning glasses is the best?

Few years ago there was just one captioning glasses.
Now we have a few captioning glasses – and just recently
NTID had a contest with five different teams – to design
the best captioning glasses! Don’t be surprised if we
have 10-15 different captioning glasses on the market.
Confusing? Probably!

– being stopped by the police while driving

All of us have, at one time or other, been stopped by
police for any reason while driving. 99 percent of the
time when a deaf driver is stopped by the police, there
are no incidents. But for one percent, the incident could
be ugly. Seven years ago Doug Bahl, a well known deaf
Minnesotan, was stopped by the police and then roughed
up. After a series of lawsuits, the St Paul city reached
settlement of nearly $94,000 with the promise to provide
interpreters when deaf drivers need it.

05/05/13 Blue edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/

05/05/13 Gold edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 6, 2013

– a deaf sports team kicked off the plane

A deaf sports team was kicked off the plane by
the pilot. He felt it was a safety risk to allow
them to fly. Huh? What! The national deaf cricket
team of India was told to get off the Bangkok Airways
plane because the pilot was scared! They were scheduled
to play at Thailand. After an overnight delay, they
were allowed to fly to Thailand.

– an attorney not knowing he was deaf

Gerald Shea, who became deaf at the age of 6 because
of an illness, is an attorney, specializing in complex
corporate deals – mergers and joint-venture issues.
He did not know he was deaf, even though he struggled
to communicate with people. He practiced law for 30
years, first 10 years before he was told by doctors
that he was really deaf! Shocked, he purchased a hearing
aid and continued with law for 20 more years before retiring.
He retired because struggling with deafness wore him out.

– a bionic eye for the deaf-blind?

Second Sight Medical, a company in California, won OK
from U S Food and Drug Administration to build a bionic
eye for the blind. The company says it helps few blind
people get some vision back. It also said that 20
European blind people were helped by the new bionic
eye product. This may be something the deaf-blind
could look into.

05/05/13 Blue edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/

05/05/13 Gold edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, May 3, 2013

– A private investigator to look into problems at deaf school

DeafDigest mentioned that there were problems at the
Arizona Schools for the Deaf and the Blind. It was so bad
that the board of directors agreed to hire a private
investigator to look into a list of accusations filed
against the top administration people.

– an update on Matt Hamill, famous deaf fighter

Matt Hamill retired from Ultimate fighting but came back to
fight one more time (and won). What is he doing these days?
He seems to be a successful businessman in Utica, NY.
He owns a restaurant/bar, named The Cage, and is also
a partner in a gym. He was mentioned in a Syracuse newspaper
as one of the Central New York’s top 100 celebrities. He
was born in Ohio but has made Utica his home town.

– a 13-year old deaf boy lost for two years

A 13-year old deaf boy has been lost for two years
in Rajasthan, a state in India. Apparently the parents
abandoned him at a park and ran away. The deaf boy,
without language or communication skills, has not
been able to give details to the police and social
workers. Very sad, but it happens in India as many
families are ashamed of their deaf children.

04/28/13 Blue edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-blue-newsletter/

04/28/13 Gold edition at:
http://deafdigest.net/category/newsletter/newsletter-gold-newsletter/