DeafDigest Mid-Week edition, August 22, 2012
-- A judge in trouble for refusing to pay for interpreter
Indiana Judge Peter Nemeth is in trouble. He refused
to pay for an interpreter in his court. It was for a
deaf foster son. His foster mother made the judge angry
by telling him she had not paid taxes in 10 years. The
judge told her if she won't pay taxes, she must pay for
interpreter. The state judical ethics committee filed
misconduct charges. The judge said he will retire.
-- No one wants to join a Miss Deaf Pageant?
Years ago Miss Deaf Pageants attracted many young
deaf women. Not any more. Seems Miss Deaf Pageants
are dying. The NAD no longer has this pageant. And
even on the African continent, the Miss Deaf Swaziland
pageant attracted just ONE deaf woman. Why? Texting,
Facebook, Twitter, etc may be the reasons young deaf
women are not interested.
-- A deaf actress to appear on NBC comedy show
Antoinette Abbamonte is the latest deaf actress to
appear on a TV program. She will be on a new NBC
comedy program - The New Normal on September 11th.
It is a pilot about a deaf mother married to a deaf
African-American man.
-- asking an interpreter to do other tasks in school
In Georgia, there was an ad for a school interpreter.
It is a part time job but asks the interpreter to do
many tasks - teacher's aide, classroom monitor,
attendance chart, social events director, disciplinary
officer, etc. And work hours are not the same - day
then night then weekends. Pay is low; pressure is
heavy. These are big reasons why this school has hard
time getting great interpreters.
-- Vice President Biden dumb about interpreter role
VP Biden gave a speech at an event in Danville, VA.
It was interpreted. During the speech, he stopped
and said he was worried about tired interpreters.
He told the audience he wanted to shorten his speech
to give the interpreter a rest. Biden does not know
that interpreters rotate every 15-20 minutes. And they
are so used to long and boring speeches (words going into
one ear and out of another ear, remembering nothing)!
