Category Archives: Mid-Week

2012/02/22

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, February 22, 2012

– A hearing employee insulting the deaf, not fired

Tom Petry, not deaf, is the technology director of the Collier County school district in Florida. He insulted his deaf employee, mocked racial groups, accused of bad behavior and mismanaged department finances, etc. A disciplinary hearing took place with 200 pages of evidence. Yet, the school superintendent did not fire him!

 

– A deaf female jockey in a future Kentucky Derby race?

Neiba Ponce, 23, a deaf woman from Kennewick, Washington, is now a horse racing jockey. She is practices with horses at a training track. The local NBC Right Now ran a short program of her. Kentucky Derby? It is a big dream of all jockeys. We hope she will become a successful jockey and deaf bettors winning money on her horses!

 

– ASL person cannot run for election in a small town

San Luis, Arizona has 15,000 people and is near the Mexican border. This town passed a law 120 years ago that candidates in town elections must be fluent in English. Last week a hearing Spanish-speaking woman was told she cannot run for public office in San Luis. Same thing with ASL person; if his English is bad, he cannot run for public office in same town!

 

– National Theatre of the Deaf in danger of going broke

The NTD, founded in 1967, is the nation’s oldest continuing deaf theater. It survived past financial problems, but today may be the worst. NTD, in Connecticut, is funded by the state. Connecticut is broke, and has cut funding for many groups. NTD was supposed to get $151,000 but may be zero dollars. Everyone was surprised about zero dollars. But there is hope; theater and cultural groups are screaming mad. The state then said their budget cutbacks are not really cutbacks at all. Confusing? Yes!

 

– Obama praises a successful deaf person

President Obama, on his web site, praised a deaf person who was a success in life despite not being well known in the national Deaf Community. At age of 16, he competed in the Deaflympics; after graduation from deaf school, he worked in a factory assembly line. And he helped establish an agency serving the deaf in the area. And he is encouraging the deaf to go out and vote. His children have become successes. Who is that person? Go to: http://www.barackobama.com/news/entry/organizing-against-all-odds-abram-p/

2012/02/15

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, February 15, 2012

– Deafness was a secret with a famous TV actress

Charlene Tilton, who played the role of Lucy Ewing
in the famous TV series – Dallas, during the early
eighties, was deaf. It was a secret with everyone.
Her TV producer and director knew nothing about it.
Her hearing aids were hidden in her hair. Why a
secret? She was afraid she would not be hired if
TV people knew of her deafness!

 

- An important deaf man in the Japanese court system

The courts in Japan operate differently from USA.
In Japan, lay judges handle non-jury court trials.
They have no law degrees, but investigate the cases,
study the evidence and decide if the defendants are
guilty or not guilty. One lay judge, Tomaru Takayuki,
is deaf and uses sign language. He has interpreters
in the court room. He is Japanese’s first deaf lay judge.

 

 
– New Zealand Parliament fights deaf legislator

New Zealand Parliament won’t pay for electronic
notetaking needs for Mojo Mathers, the first
deaf member of Parliament. Her party will pay but
may seek legal action to get money back from the
Parliament. She gave a speech, saying that Parliament
speaker’s attitude is wrong. New Zealand’s “ADA”
gives rights to the deaf. When Gary Malkowski
was in Ontario’s parliament, they paid for his
interpreters. It is different in New Zealand.
Already the New Zealand papers said the Speaker
spends money on trips, art, parties, but not
a penny on deaf devices!

 

 
– A comedy about audism in a theatrical play

Playwright Nina Raine, not deaf, wrote a play,
“Tribes” going on now in an Australian theater.
While the phrase – audism – is not mentioned
in the play, it is so obvious. The play is
about a deaf boy that struggles with his
hearing father that wants “perfect” speech,
“perfect” lipreading, “perfect” acceptance
into hearing world. The deaf boy rebels and
joins the Deaf Community. The father is upset.
The deaf character in the comedy is deaf
himself. The audience is mostly hearing and
they laugh at the comedy.

 

– Why was Super Bowl ASL Sing Signer ignored on TV?

The list below shows ASL Sing Signers that were shown
on TV in the past Super Bowls:

1993 – Marlee Matlin
1995 – Heather Whitestone
2007 – Marlee Matlin, again

all others were ignored on TV
It is obvious. If the signer is famous, she will be
televised. If she is not famous, the TV will ignore her.
Shame on these TV people for their attitude!

2012/02/08

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, February 8, 2012

 

– Super Bowl captioned ads on smartphones and tablets?

Did we, the deaf, catch these Super Bowl captioned ads
on our smartphones and tablets? These corporations
placed  their ads on TV plus mobile devices. Did
captions show up on mobile devices? And did we use
magnifying glass to read these tiny captions?

 

– ESPN employs a deaf marketing person

Luke Faxon-St. Georges, a young deaf man, has a job with
the ESPN. It is a dream job for deaf professionals that
want to mix sports with marketing. His job title
is Account Executive, and his marketing territory is the
Northeast USA. He works on marketing deals with corporate
clients. Is he the only deaf person in a sports job?
No. We have deaf coaches, trainers, sports information
directors, game photographers, sports web site operators,
scoreboard operators, newspaper sports editors, etc
It is not easy for hearing and deaf to find these types
of sports jobs.

 
– Which Super Bowl commercials were captioned?

There were about 70 Super Bowl commercials. All
of these commercials were captioned – except -
1&1 Internet, American Family, Cenex, Comcast Xfinity,
Dairy Queen, General Electric, Howard Stern/NBC,
Jimmy John’s and Kraft Foods. No, Kraft Foods does not
own the New England Patriots (two different companies
with the same Kraft name; it is The Kraft Group
that owns the team that lost the Super Bowl).

 

– The Deaf Biggest loser kicked out and invited back!

Selena Brown, a deaf participant on the Australian TV
program – On the Excess Baggage on Nine. It is a reality
TV weight loss show, same as our The Biggest Loser TV
program. She was kicked off the program because she
could not lose 11 pounds within one week. Yet, she
was asked to come back few days later, because of
some strange voting rules among these overweight
participants! On her weigh-in at her comeback, she
lost 5 pounds, making it a total of 16 pounds in
two weeks.

 
– No Deaflympics in 2013??

Hungary agreed to host the 2013 Deaflympics. But Hungary
is broke, can’t afford it because it is expensive. Also
Hungary is not communicating with the Deaflympics governing
group, keeing things quiet. No other nation has volunteered
to host this event. Does not look too good right now, but
we should be optimistic.

2012/02/01

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

2012/01/25

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.

 

2012/01/18

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, January 18, 2012

– A letter by Beethoven in 1823

In 1823, four years before Beethoven died, he wrote letters
asking for money to fund a big musical event, the Missa Solemnis.
It was to be the greatest achievement of his composing career.
There was a problem – Beethoven was broke and couldn’t afford
this new project. So, he wrote letters, asking for money.
One such letter was saved for many years, and it is being
auctioned off now. Auctioneers said this letter is valued
about $131,000! Missa Solemnis? It was a flop, and Beethoven
died, disappointed about it.

 
– Long time deaf employees becoming rare

A newspaper posted a story on Richard Anderson, a deaf
post office employee in Ohio. He is retiring after 41
years at the same job. In the past many deaf employees
spent 40-45 years at same job (factory or newspaper
plant). Not any more. There are layoffs, employer
buy outs, factory closings, etc. If we see a deaf
person employed for 40 years, it is from job to job,
not at one job.

 

– A surprise demand by a mother of 3 deaf children

A hearing mother of 3 deaf children, made a demand that is
surprising. She was attending an election rally in India and
confronted candidate Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, not deaf. She
demanded that that Sodhi give a free house for her and her
3 deaf children!. This shocked candidate immediately
promised her a house, only if he is elected! As we all know,
politicians anywhere in the world, make promises, hoping
to get votes. And that almost all of these promises are
broken.

 
– A deaf carpenter on a reality TV program

Michael Arwood, is deaf and he is a carpenter. He joined
the construction crew that worked on a new home in the
Knoxville, Tennessee area – that will be shown on the
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition TV program. He was recently
interviewed on a local TV news program.

 
– CART eyeglasses in few years?

Lumus, a high tech company, is manufacturing a special
eyeglasses where people can see images in front of them
while walking. Already it is used by jet pilots, surgeons
and military forces. This company is also manufacturing
different designs for movies and video games. What
about the deaf? Lumus could also possibly create
CART eyeglasses. It could be used when a deaf person
talks to a hearing person on the street. The deaf
person would need a small microphone so that the CART
operator will know when to start captioning. Will this
happen? Who knows!

2012/01/11

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, January 11, 2012

– Was Alexander Graham Bell really a bad person?

Many people hate Alexander Graham Bell for two
reasons; he supported oralism; he thought deaf
people should not marry each other. Yet, he had
a brillant mind with many ideas – the phonograph,
boating technology, taking salt out of seawater,
the National Geographic Magazine, etc, etc.
This is the reason why he and Thomas Edison,
the famous deaf inventor, hated each other
(jealousy). And remember, his telephone made TTY
possible many years later.
 

 

– A deaf soccer player thrown out of game for not
obeying the whistle!

Philip John Dolan is a deaf member of a hearing
soccer team in Scotland. In a game last week, he
thought he scored a goal and jumped up, happy.
The referee blew the whistle just before the score.
Philip, not knowing the whistle, still jumped around.
The angry referee threw him out of the game. The team
did warn the referee, before the game, that Philip
was deaf. But the referee ignored it. The team is
filing a protest with the league headquarters. The
referee refused to answer questions from a newspaper.

 

– a 86-year old deaf woman got a letter telling her
of her apartment eviction on Christmas Day

A 86-year old deaf woman received a letter from the
Toronto Community Housing Authority (TCHA). It told her
she would be evicted from her apartment on Christmas Day!
Her angry neigbhors accused TCHA of being cruel to
her and violating her human rights. TCHA backed off and
allowed her to stay. And the Canadian Hearing Society
stepped in, trying to resolve this issue.

 
 

– A deaf woman wins a TV reality show contest

Chivonne Chapman, who is deaf, with husband Adam, not
deaf, competed against three other hearing couples on
the popular British TV reality show – Four Weddings.
They won the top prize, a free honeymoon. As with other
reality shows, these participants vote on several
questions. Chivonne said that Adam helped the win the
contest because he learned enough signs to improve his
communications with her. Does it look fishy? (How did
he communicate with her while they were dating?)

 

– Cost of captioned commercials during the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is Big Time business. A 30-second commercial
cost is $3.5 million dollars, sometimes $4.0 million
dollars. Many commercials are not captioned. Why? The
TV people say captioning is “very” expensive. Truth is
that captioning work is about $125.00 for each 30-second
commercial. The TV people are trying to fool us by saying
they go broke on money spent on captioned commercials!
To see the captioning costs, look at:
http://davideo.tv/gpage.html

2012/01/04

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, January 4, 2012

– The nation’s only deaf TV reporter

Years back, we had several deaf TV reporters. But
now, there is only one. Why? Some reporters had
their TV programs canceled. And some of them passed
away. Now, who is the only deaf TV reporter?
It is Karen Meyer, who is on TV twice a week with the
Chicago’s ABC News station. She discusses issues about
the disabled.

 

– Year 2011 Strangest Deaf News

What is the Strangest Deaf News of 2011? It was when
two deaf men were chatting with each other in ASL at
a Florida bar. An angry hearing woman thought ASL was
Gang Sign Language, She stabbed both of them with her
knife! Yes, the police arrested her.

 

– A future hearing aid is smaller than a dot

Hearing aids are getting smaller and becoming more
invisible. Engineer Bahram Azizollah Ganji, not deaf,
is building a hearing aid that is smaller than a dot,
which makes it invisible. He said deaf people can wear
it and hearing people would not know about it. He also
says this tiny hearing aid would be as powerful as
some of the bigger hearing aids. He is hoping to
manufacture it for a much lower cost than these
$5,000 hearing aids.

 

– Our 30,000 deaf college students?

How many deaf and hard of hearing students attend
American colleges? A survey said 30,000 students.
The survey did not say if it also counts students
from Gallaudet, NTID, CSUN and SWCID. This survey
also did not say if it is 4-year colleges only
or if it includes both 2-year and 4-year colleges.

 

 
– Captioned movies in 3-D?

Some electronics manufacturers are building 3-D Home
Movie Theaters. Strange, because there are too few
3-D movies available for showing. Anyway, could these
3-D movies be captioned? Yes, according to observers
that have watched these open and closed captioned
demonstrations. Still – too few 3-D films around.

2011/12/28

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, December 28, 2011

— A teacher questioning arrested deaf man at police station!

Normally when a deaf person is arrested, the police would use
an interpreter to help with questioning at the police station.
This should be the way in USA. But in India, it seems things
are different. A deaf man was arrested for theft, and the police
could not question him because of communication difficulties.
Instead the police hired a teacher from a school for the deaf
to question the arrested deaf man. We are lucky it does not
happen in USA.

— A deaf musician with his unusual skills

Musicians normally play with just one instrument, such as
a violin, a saxaphone, guitar, etc. They spend hours of practice
to perfect their skills with that just one instrument. Even
Evelyn Glennie, the world’s most famous deaf musician, only plays
the percussion. Yet, musician Jay’d Hagberg is deaf and is capable
of playing more than 30 different instruments! He is from the
Twin Cities area of Minnesota and studied music for a while in
Austria.

— A deaf girl wins hearing Spelling Bee championship

Emily Neal, a 4th grade deaf girl in Chesapeake, Ohio, has won local
and regional spelling bee championships. And while she came in
second place in the county, she hopes to be able to compete
in the national spelling bee championships. A difficult word
she was able to spell easily was “bildungsroman”

— Painful to take a dizziness & balance exam

A deaf person is going to take a VNG test. VNG? It is called
videonystagmography! And to get ready for that exam, this
deaf person must follow these rules:

* no eating or taking liquids for 4 hours before the exam
* no alcoholic drinks for 2 days before the exam
* no coffee or soft drinks the day of the xam
* no medicine for two days before the exam
* (for women), no make up the day of the exam

This deaf person will be dizzy and uncomfortable on the day of
the exam. Why VNG? To tell the doctor why you may have dizziness
or balance problems!

— 10-year old deaf girl’s best Christmas gift

Amorette Mackey is a deaf 10-year old girl that lives in
College Springs, Iowa. For six months, she begged for a
very special Christmas gift. And in few days before
Christmas, she was at a basketball game with her ASL
signing choir. Suddenly she got the surprise she was asking
for. It was in a big box that was pushed towards her.
Someone came out of the box and shocked her. It was her
daddy, Sgt. Seth Mackey, who just came home from Iraq. People
watching the basketball game stood up and cheered at
the surprise.

2011/12/21

DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, December December 21, 2011

— Deaf man arrested by police for telling them he is deaf!

Shaun Phuprate, a deaf British man, was stopped by the police
because of a minor street incident. As he could not understand
what the police was saying, he pointed to his ear to explain
his deafness. The police thought this gesture was a dirty
word, and they arrested him! Luckily for him, the angry judge
quickly threw the case out of the court.

— Knowing nothing about Deaf Devices!

A deaf woman recently moved to a Senior hearing Retirement Home.
She made friends with a few late-deafened residents. She found out
that they never heard of closed captions on TV, of alerting
devices and captioned telephones. She then gave demonstrations
of these deaf devices and they were surprised!

— The Deaf Pizza in San Francisco

Mozzeria is a new pizza restaurant in San Francisco, owned by Russell
and Melody Stein, both of them deaf and Gallaudet graduates. There
was no grand opening ceremony, but instead, two special fund raising
events took place. One was for California School for the Deaf at Fremont
and for the Deafhood Foundation. The other event was to raise funds for
the school that Stein’s children attend. On opening day, the restaurant
was booked solid. A Deaf Writer/Food Critic was in attendance. He said
everything was great – food, pizza dough, pizza ingredients, open dining
space, wood burning stove, a full menu, reasonable price, wide selection
of local beer and wine, atmosphere, walk-in location, etc.

— Hollywood is fighting us!

FCC has given Hollywood 6 months to put captions on everything -
movies, TV and videos. The Motion Picture Association of America
is telling FCC that 6 months is impossible and have asked for about
8 years to complete this captioning project.  Six months by FCC or 8
years by Hollywood! Who is right – FCC or Hollywood?

— UPS punished for discriminating against the deaf

The UPS has agreed to pay $95,000 to Mauricio Centeno, a past
deaf UPS employee who filed a discrimination lawsuit. He asked
for an interpreter in staff meetings and UPS said no, and he
sued. UPS has to pay up $95,000 and also must provide interpreters
at all staff meetings for all of its deaf employees. Remember few
years ago, UPS was in a lawsuit for not allowing deaf employees
to drive trucks.