Deaf Legislative Day

Deaf Legislative Day is an assigned day for us to visit the state capitol to tour and have an opportunity to meet legislators. Workshops and speeches are often presented regarding specific issues within the deaf community.

The 'real deal' with attending Deaf Legislative Day is how to become a better citizen armed with knowledge of how to efficiently advocate within a group or to self-advocate. I will be attending Minnesota's Deaf Legislative Day on March 8th and I urge you to attend your state's assigned Deaf Legislative Day.

Promote Deaf Youth in Government.

We cannot learn to swim from a textbook. We have to go out to the pool and jump in the water to learn how to swim.

'Youth in Government' is a YMCA program that enables high school students to have an interactive learning and understanding how politics work by being in the midst of it.

I have recommended the program to my alma mater at Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf and Minnesota North Star Academy. I hope you will too because deaf politicians are the ones that truly will make changes for us rather than constantly lobbying for change with the people that don't have full understanding of us.

Closed-Captioning Enabled Ordinance

With a new legislature in Minnesota, it's been widely talked about that there will be a state-wide smoking ban in indoor public places and workplaces within a year or two. This has come through from many cities adopting their own city-wide smoking ban ordinance. With this ideology, I came up with an ordinance called 'Closed-Captioning Enabled' ordinance for cities that will later on with the support of many cities to become a state law and who knows, a federal law on this. I am currently working on this to have it enacted in St. Paul, Minnesota. Please feel more than free to copy this letter that I have drafted and propose this to your city council and get this enacted.

Hello [Name],

My name is [ ]. I am interested in proposing a new city ordinance for [City], [State]. I would like to meet with you to work together on this to make it happen.

The ordinance that I have written is;

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Closed-Captioning Enabled Ordinance

Effective Dates and Coverage Areas:
July 1, 2007: this ordinance requires closed-captioning feature to be enabled in all televisions at all times in public indoor and outdoor places and workplaces.
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This proposed ordinance is valuable to all people with hearing loss; people with English as their second language; reduces the noise pollution; children will rapidly learn to read.

I want to be clear about this proposed ordinance that this is not requiring the television programs to be captioned. It merely asks that the televisions to have its closed-captioning feature enabled so that the closed-captioning will appear if the programs has it.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Again, I would very much like to work with you or others on this to make this happen for our fellow citizens.

Thanks,
[Name]
[Home address]
[Phone number]
[E-mail address]

Raise the Priority of Captioning at Netflix...

Netflix has recently announced that they will offer subscribers the option of instantly watching movies on their PCs within six months. I called them and asked them about the captioning issue of being transmitted online. They’ve apologized that captions and subtitles will not show online and they are working on it amongst the hundred bugs and kinks. My best bet is that captioning is at the bottom of their list of bugs and kinks. I urge you all to call them at this number 1.800.715.2135 and raise the priority of captioning at Netflix.

Leaving Idaho Deaf School to be Closed?

I have been monitoring the events as they unfold at Idaho school for the Deaf and Blind and one frustrating thing is...why aren't more people outside of Idaho stepping in to help the Idaho deaf citizens? I can understand that every state has its own problems and their own citizens are attending to it. The bigger issue for me is - why aren't Gallaudet University, National Technical Institute for Deaf, National Association of the Deaf, et al stepping in? Isn't it their mission to serve the deaf citizens at large whether they are afflicted or not with the school or organization?

To whom have the right connections with Gallaudet, NTID, NAD, et al. Please ask them about stepping in to assist Idaho deaf citizens to save the residential school. Two links are provided to contact and offer your assistance; Idaho Association of the Deaf and Idaho Council for the Deaf.

Target Survey (win $5,000 GiftCard or a Saturn Vue)

For some time now, when you shop at Target, on your receipt it offers you a chance to win $5,000 GiftCard or a Saturn Vue if you fill out their online survey about your shopping experience.

I love doing this survey not because I am in it for the prize but I get in give my feedback in regards to accessibility for the deaf. The survey merely takes few minutes of your time and at the end of the survey it'll ask you an open-ended question, "What can we do to serve you better?" I type in the same feedback over and over... that they could have the majority of their employees to learn basic sign language, to have all TVs in the store including the electronics department to have captions showing, to have all Target exclusive DVDs to be captioned/subtitled, and to have all their online videos on Target website to be captioned.

I urge you guys to do the same when you get home from shopping at Target.