Taking A Step Further.

I've recently been thinking, how do I keep making people coming back to my blogsite? Not for egoistical reasons but to spread the ideals of self-advocacy for the deaf, by the deaf.

I've come to reach a decision...I've decided to use both avenues of mass communication; e-mail and this blogsite. Each time I publish a posting on my blogsite, an automatic mass e-mail will go out with the message that I've recently blogged on my blogsite.

I hope that this message through e-mail will be forwarded on to friends, family, church, school, and businesses. I also hope that with this e-mail, people will come to this blogsite to read previous postings ranging from interpreter issues to captioning issues and to promote American Sign Language.

To be added to this newly created listserv for this blog, e-mail me at sonnyjames(at)yahoo.com and please use 'deaf advocacy' in the subject line. Thanks in advance!

Flat-Panel Televisions.

With the prices dramtically going down on the flat-panel televisions...I'm beginning to see more and more of them hanging from the ceiling in stores such as McDonalds, Walmart and et cetera whereas there wasn't a regular televison being there before. They would either have a news show, music video and/or a marketing gimmick displayed.

I love TV, who doesn't? Its reality that with the advancing technologies of the shrinking televisions that we will begin to see them everywhere. I just wish it would equally be the reality that captions would be on at all times on all public televisions that we see in stores, offices, schools and et cetera.

Earlier tonight at my new local Supercenter Wal-Mart, I made a stop at the customer service area before I exited the store. I notified the store manager on duty that I would like to see all the televisions to have captions on at all times in the near future. He was receptive to my request and said he would contact the "home office" then he would follow up with me with an e-mail.

Comment Cards.

It came to me last week as I was shopping at IKEA that every comment card I come to...I will write down that their staff; barista, bartender, cashier, waitress, librarian, stewardess, mechanic, hair stylist, et cetera...should learn sign language as part of their people skills in their field of work.

It's one thing to have schools to offer American Sign Language (ASL) classes...we need to think outside of the box, which is to notify employers that we'd like to see their staff with basic sign language skills.

One comment card from me will not make an impact on employers but if all of you readers adopt this principle of filling out every comment cards you see then we're bound to have an impact one or more businesses.

Maximize Our Value.

The world's largest movie theatre chain is Regal Entertainment Group also known as Regal Cinemas. I have found them to be receptive to provide captioning and descriptive audio (DA) in their theatres which I have successfully gotten them to install in Macon, GA.

I checked their site and searched to find how many theatres they have in the state of Georgia. The number came up to 16. I also checked to see how many theatres provide captioning and DA. Only 4 theatres do and they are in Atlanta, Buford, Chamblee, and Macon. That's merely 25%.

I want us to maximize our value. Let's get the remaining 12 Regal theatres in Georgia to provide captioning and DA. Those cities are Alpharetta, Atlanta (Perimeter), Atlanta (Tara), Augusta (Exchange), Augusta (Village), Austell, Douglasville, Duluth, Kennesaw, Savannah (Eisenhower), Savannah (Stadium) and Snellville.

The method I used to have Macon to provide captioning and DA is no secret! You have to do 3 things.

1. Add your local Regal theatre's number and the headquarter's number to your phone address book. The HQ's number is 1-865-922-1123.
   
2. Call both the local theatre and the headquarter in a friendly manner and request that they provide captioning and DA. Do this 5 times a week. It'll only take 10 minutes of your time.
3. Call them 5 times a week and when they finally say they'll do it, keep calling anyway until they finally start providing captioned and DA movies.

Every states can do it too! In Minnesota, there are 3 Regal theatres and only 1 provide captions and DA. Minnesotans can maximize their value by making calls to get the other 2 theatres to provide captions and DA.

Now Showing At Macon, Georgia.

I received an exciting e-mail this morning that I'd love to share with you all.

Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006
From:"*Joelle*"
Subject: open captioning now at regal
To: sonnyjames@yahoo.com

Mr. Wasilowski

Hi, this is Joelle Roth from Regal Cinemas on Tom Hill Sr blvd. I am pleased to inform you that the open captioning projector is now complety installed.

The open captioned films this week are as follows: Sunday 1:15 V for Vendetta Monday 1:15 V for Vendetta Tuesday 4:05 Inside Man Wednesday 1:20 Inside Man Thursday 4:05 Inside Man

Joelle Roth
Assistant Manager Rivergate
14 245 Tom Hill Sr blvd
478-477-8117

This comes after months after months along with dozens and dozens of calls to this movie theatre and to their headquarters to have the open captioning projector to be installed at my location. Go to Regal Cinema's website to see whats being captioned near you.

Anyone Up For C-Print?

Go to this great article titled, 'Laptop-based class captioning proving a boon' to learn what a C-Print is and what it does.

I have not had an opportunity to experience C-Print but I could easily envision the benefits having C-Print. For those complicated terminology classes that I've had like Business Law or any Science classes. C-Print would be benefit me more because there are many terminology that don't have signs for it and seeing the terminology in print would help put me in an equal footing in the learning process with my hearing peers.

I want to give my 2-thumbs up to C-Print and encourage people to consider a career in C-Print.

An excellent website to refer others to a captioning career is National Court Reporters Association: Serving the Court Reporting and Captioning Professions.

Genuine Response.

I send out many e-mails to different companies and e-mail addresses about my advocacy for captions on their online videos. For the first time, I've received a genuine response...read on below.

Subject: Re: Comment
From:"Movie Trailers" "trailers@mac.com"
To: "sonnyjames@yahoo.com"

Hi Sonny,

You are right we don't have any captioned trailers at present but it is something we want to change.

Our team has been proactive in the past in reaching out to the studios requesting the assets necessary to caption trailers. The studios have yet to deliver the assets we need like timecoded text. All have been interested in offering this ability, but somehow it just doesn't get delivered.

We inquire about their progress from time to time but it appears the process is not one that they know how to incorporate into their workflow. The trailers we receive are not closed captioned but if they were, we would not have a process to open the captioning and make it deliverable for the web.

We do not know if the trailers that they deliver for television are captioned by the studio, or if they have a third party add this to the trailer afterwards. This is why we ask for the dialog in text form.

Access to trailer dialog by the deaf and hearing impaired is something the movie trailers team would like to offer as an open caption option. Not only would this be good for the deaf and hearing impaired, but it would help the young and English language challenged. QuickTime has a process of allowing text to be added to the media and we have previously offered open
captioning on product commercials via the apple.com website.

The Movie Trailers Team is committed to trying to offer trailers that are captioned and hope our continued persistence delivers results.

We will not give up and appreciate your email.

-Movie Trailers Team

Reminder.

Please take a look back at a post, 'Feedback Links Provided', I've made earlier in the year.

I want to remind everybody that we, as an advocate, cannot let our guard down for a day. We must keep on sending letters, e-mails, blog, and talk among our family and friends about our cause in the field of captioning, interpreting, education, and more.

My e-mail of the day went to trailers@mac.com. I asked them to provide captions on the trailers that they have on their site so it will give me a clear decision of which movies I'd like to watch at the theaters or through Netflix.

Parents and the family.

I'm a big believer in the power of the family. I'm also a believer in the ancient African proverb - "it takes a village to raise a child." For a deaf child to suceed in life, I believe s/he requires both family and the village to be involved.

A solution to a dilemma came to me while working at Georgia School for the Deaf. We, as a village (deaf community) must take up the responsiblity to empower the family of the deaf child with his/her natural language. American Sign Language (ASL) must be used around the deaf child at all times. I've seen too many parents and family members that don't sign or sign at all times around the child. The child loses valuable information from daily activities that s/he goes through with the family that will later contribute to the child's future.

If you're a believer in the power of the family and a believer in the ancient African proverb then please take it up to yourself to educate the parents and the family of the deaf child that they must learn ASL and sign at all times around him/her.

The rewards of the parents and the family using ASL around the child will be seen as the child grows up to be intelligent, mature, and successful anywhere and anytime s/he may be in life.

New Additions...

I've added a new feature "Contact Lawmakers" on the right side of this blog. It's a wonderful tool that puts us few clicks away from sending out letters to our lawmakers to begin making changes for us. The changes begin within us hence the quote on top of this blog - to promote self-advocacy for the Deaf, by the Deaf.

I would also like to welcome Bradley Porche and his new blog site as an emerging Deaf Advocate for the emerging technology. He has typed up a great letter to the FCC to have them to mandate captioning on the Internet.

Urgent: Concerning Idaho School f/t Deaf & Blind.

Subject: New Legislation to Close ISDB By July 1, 2008
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006
From: Maynard, Wes J. - Council for Deaf and Hard of Hearing - MaynardW@idhw.state.id.us
To: Anyone Interested in Deaf/HOH Education

Three legislators have written a Bill to close ISDB by July 1, 2008 and mainstream all the students into regional day programs. The legislators behind the Bill are Representatives Henbest, Skippen, and Senator Lodge. It is called House Bill 821. See www.legislature.idaho.gov for the full print of the Bill.

The Bill goes up for debate in the House Education Committee next Tuesday, the 21st at 8:00 a.m. in the Gold Room on the 4th floor of the Capitol building.

This Bill is a surprise to many people because the State Board of Education has been planning to appoint a Work Group of experts to explore issues regarding deaf and hard of hearing education, and to work with those experts to make sure they address all the details. However, individual legislators have the ability to introduce any Bill they want at any time during the legislative session.

This is why it is important that you come and testify to make your views known. Any citizen is allowed to come and testify next Tuesday. Whether you agree or disagree with it, the legislature won't know unless you tell them your opinions.

The Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is currently forming an official position on this issue and I will be testifying on Tuesday.

This is a Summary of What the Bill Says:

1. To be in full force and effect on July 1, 2008.

2. Close the school in Gooding and sell the property.

3. Mainstream all the students to five non-residential regional day programs within these areas: (1) Kootenai or Bonner County; (2) Nez Perce or Latah County; (3) Ada or Canyon County; (4) Twin Falls, Gooding, Jerome, Minidoka or Cassia County; (5) Bingham County.

4. Each of these five regions would have a "host" school district that would coordinate services and transportation with surrounding school distrcits.

5. The State Department of Education would annually distribute to the districts $50,000 per student, based on average daily attendance.

6. The educational services to be offered at each of these programs for deaf/hoh students would include, but are not limited to:

-auditory/oral program for pre-kindergarten through 1st grade
-a sign language based program for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade
-speech and language therapy services

7. The State would maintain a small Administrative agency in Boise to coordinate with and consult local districts on deaf/hoh educational issues. It would be called the "Division of Deaf and Blind Education" instead of ISDB. The Outreach program would report to this new agency, not the local school districts.

Regards,

Wes

-------------------------------------------
Wes Maynard, MBA, CI/CT
Executive Director
Council for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing
1720 Westgate Drive, Suite A
Boise, ID 83704
208.334.0879 voice/videophone
208.334.0952 fax
208.334.0803 tty
www.state.id.us/cdhh

Audism.

The advocacy that I bring on this blog is all me. My feelings, thoughts, and wishes...the three things that I feel strongly about for our needs as a deaf individual are captioning, interpreting, and American Sign Language (ASL).

I'm open to feedback, ideas, suggestions, or even interviews. A while back an old classmate of mine from Gallaudet whom graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) posted a comment on my blog urging me and others to go over to Wikipedia to help to contribute to the term of Audism. In short, Audism is a term referring to a situation whereas a deaf or hearing person makes another deaf or hard of hearing person feel inferior.

I have not blogged about Audism in the past because I've felt that the solutions to Audism is really only presentable to places where the Deaf people are the majority and there aren't many places like that. To name few places, would be the Deaf schools across America. This is something that Deaf schools should address and put a stop to Audism. As for places outside of Deaf schools or places where the Deaf people are the majority, solutions are not able to be presented. Hence, one of my three main advocacy issues is to put ASL in high schools nationwide, by learning ASL people will learn about our deaf culture and adversaries.

I experience Audism on a daily basis and I would love to see Audism being eradicated. The best defense to Audism is to spread awareness about it.

Interview with MSNBC.com

Many thanks to Bob Sullivan of MSNBC.com - he has written an brilliant article on 'Net Video Leaves the Deaf Behind'. It was a great honor to be interviewed for my input on his article. I hope there will be more articles similar to this on other websites such as AOL, CNN, and BBC.

Many of you may not know that this is my second interview on a national media outlet. Here's a 'copy and paste' of my first interview by Wall Street Journal Online (WSJ.com) four years ago.

Deaf Adopt Text-Messaging As a Means to Communicate

By STACY FORSTER THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE

Before he started using wireless-messaging services, Sonny Wasilowski, who is deaf, felt like he was tethered to his computer -- constantly booting up to check and re-check his e-mail to keep up with friends and family. Even routine conversations, such as making plans to meet friends at a bar or getting picked up at the airport, were frustratingly time consuming.

Now, the 21-year-old Gallaudet University student says his two-way pager has helped him cut the cord; so much so that he almost never puts it down. One exception: "My fiancee does not allow me to use it at all while driving."

Wireless paging has become nearly as ubiquitous for the roughly 30 million people with hearing loss in the U.S. as cellphones are for the hearing population, its adherents say. Pagers, from such companies as Research in Motion Ltd. and T-Mobile, and text-messaging services via cellphone allow the deaf to communicate with family, friends and co-workers in the same fashion as their hearing counterparts.

Demand for text-messaging services among the deaf is soaring as the technology revolutionizes the way the hard of hearing communicate. Their enthusiasm also comes at the same time when demand for wireless data services in the general population is weak, and ever-lower prices can be a big draw for the deaf. But the services still aren't cheap and some deaf users would like to see greater coordination with emergency and other assistive-listening devices as teletypewriter phones (TTY).

About three years ago, pagers became widely available at a relatively low cost, and the tide had turned, says Judy Harkins, director of the technology access program at Gallaudet. "Pagers filled a need for mobile communication and the deaf community became hooked," she says.

At Gallaudet, the nation's only liberal-arts university for the deaf, a wireless pager is a must. Thumbs fly in classrooms as students send flurries of messages across campus, observers say. "If you don't have a pager, you're considered behind in the culture," Mr. Wasilowski says.

The deaf have long had access to TTY phones, which haven't translated very well to the wireless world. Newer cellphones don't always have the proper adapters to hook into a TTY phone, and digital cellphone service interferes with hearing aids. Moreover, spotty cellphone service -- an annoyance even for people with good hearing -- often garbles sound.

Wireless pagers, on the other hand, free a hard-of-hearing person from the bulky equipment that accompanies a TTY phone and the cords connecting them. Users of pagers from companies that cater to the deaf, such as Wynd Communications, a unit of GoAmerica Inc., can send text messages through a relay operator to someone on the phone or who is using a TTY.

Using the pager alone delivers greater independence; when talking on a text telephone, both parties must wait for a relay operator to tell the other party what the deaf person is saying, and then key in replies.

"It's like walking around with a text telephone," says Andy Imperato, president of the American Association for People with Disabilities, about pagers, which have "opened up avenues of instant communication."

Louis Schwarz, who is deaf, is a certified financial planner in Silver Spring, Md. When he started his business in 1983, Mr. Schwarz says he worked hard to educate financial institutions about how to use the relay-telephone service, which was slow and cumbersome.

WIRELESS FOR THE DEAF

Many deaf people choose to buy wireless services through companies that cater exclusively to the hearing impaired because they offer better deals for people who send lots of data. Here's how some services stack up:

WyndTell Wynd Communications, a unit of GoAmerica Inc., Hackensack, N.J. www.wynd.com1 * $39.95 a month for unlimited characters sent or received each month, unlimited e-mail * RIM 850 pager free ($399 retail value) with one-year contract

DeafWireless Subsidiary of Boundless Depot, Las Vegas www.deafwireless.com2 * Standard plan: $19.95 a month for 150,000 characters; 10 cents for every 100 characters over the limit * Power plan: $39.99 a month for unlimited use * RIM 850 pager free with two-year contract, or $69.95 with one-year contract

Now, Mr. Schwarz uses a two-way pager called SideKick through wireless operator T-Mobile. His service includes unlimited Web browsing, instant messaging, e-mail and phone services. The device also doubles as a digital camera.

"It keeps me in touch with my clients at all times and they feel more assured knowing that I'm doing services for them," Mr. Schwarz says.

To be sure, the devices don't always meet all their needs. Many users rely on their pagers to relay information in emergency situations, but users still can't send text messages to 911 emergency services.

And though pagers remove operators from the equation, conversations still don't have the ease or immediacy of discussions between hearing people, says Jim House, director of member services and public relations for Telecommunications for the Deaf Inc., in Silver Spring, Md., a group that promotes distribution of technology for the deaf. "It is not real-time, meaning you have to wait for a response, not like the back-and-forth banter hearing people enjoy on the phone," Mr. House says.

The cost also can be prohibitively expensive. Mr. Wasilowski says many of his friends have stopped heavily using their pagers as they move out of college and into the work force.

But many employers of those with hearing loss find they're an easy way to make the workplace accessible. "Pagers serve as the functional equivalent of what a hearing person needs to access messages when away from the office," says Daniel Luis, president and chief operating officer of GoAmerica, adding that hundreds of companies and the federal government have tapped them for this purpose.

Although the deaf population remains a niche market, some companies are catching on to the potential it could deliver as the technology continues to spread. As a whole, the disabled community has $175 billion in discretionary spending and $1 trillion in income, according to management-consulting firm Booz, Allen & Hamilton in Washington.

Verizon Wireless, for example, made its network and handsets TTY compatible, but also understands that text-messaging is a compelling product for the deaf, says spokesman Brian Wood. Although the company doesn't know how many customers using its services are hard of hearing, Verizon plans to make improvements sometime next year to its customer-service call centers so that it can better serve the needs of its deaf customers.

Also still to come are some standards and etiquette for using the pagers -- not too far from what's needed for cellphones, observers say. Tom Walsh, a marketing manager for Advanced Bionics in Sylmar, Calif., which makes cochlear implants for the deaf, reported watching attendees at a recent conference reaching into their bags and pockets to grab buzzing pagers, and punching back replies during seminars.

But restricting their use might be a tough sell at Gallaudet.

"They could try, but I don't think they will," Mr. Wasilowski said, laughing at the prospect of a university policy to curtail pager use during classes. "It would cause chaos."

Write to Stacy Forster at stacy.forster@wsj.com3

URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1037129766286676268.djm,00.html

ASL Meetups

American Sign Language (ASL) is my passion and its my desire to see everybody to have at least basic knowledge of ASL. It would be a blessing someday to see schools nearly everywhere offering ASL classes. For the time being, I've discovered this website a while ago and I want to share this with you all and you can set up ASL meetups in your community to learn, teach, and enjoy the privilege of using ASL in jokes, stories, converstations and more...

Here's the site - http://asl.meetup.com/ - go there and set up a free account and say you're either interested or would like to start an ASL meetups. I've just registered and I would love to participate in an ASL meetup in my area if someone comes forward but if not, that's okay, I will start it in the summer when I'm off from teaching my little kids at school.

ASL Books In Bargain Bins.

In bookstores, I like to check out the foreign language area every now and then to see what's the latest book on American Sign Language (ASL). Yesterday at the mall in B. Dalton's, I didn't have to look far for ASL books...2 different ASL books were in the bargain books area right in the front of the bookstore. Granted, the bargain bin is bad news for the book because it won't be restocked, but HEY, it gets great exposure for ASL and people do love buying bargain books.

A light bulb went off above my head and...here's the idea - if you love ASL as much as I do and want to give ASL more exposure and have people to buy ASL books. Before you leave the bookstore, take 2 or 3 ASL books and place them in the bargain bins. Do this every time you visit a bookstore and you would be giving ASL greater exposure and have people buying them whether they're really not being sold at bargain prices. Haha. How about it?

Fargo.

Fargo as in Fargo, North Dakota has an article in their front page newspaper yesterday titled 'Sign language interpreting a rare profession in N.D.' by Teri Finneman in the Forum. Please click on the article before reading ahead.

Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota and the Forum is the largest newspaper in the state along with several hundred thousand of readers in northern Minnesota. The article was a great expose on our problem of having a shortage of interpreters however it has missed out on giving us a solution.

I called Teri earlier today to compliment her on her writing and giving us a voice on the interpreting shortage then I asked to offer my solution to this interpreting shortage as I've presented on this blog in the past. She appreciated the compliment and was open to anything I had to say.

I told her that it truly was unfortunate to hear that only ONE college in the state of North Dakota to offer a interpreting program. One person in the article commented that the shortage of interpreters is due to the lack of knowledge of the career. I told Teri that this is smaller of the two problems. I told her that the bigger problem is that American Sign Language (ASL) is not being exposed out there in North Dakota.

ASL should be offered in as many K to 12 schools across North Dakota. Then in the outcome of students taking this class, they can make an informed decision whether to make a career out of ASL such as teaching, counseling, interpreting, and et cetera. One problem...North Dakota's Department of Education (DOE) does not have ASL in their curriculum as a foreign language for K to 12. They only have it for post-secondary school which means community college, college, or university may only offer ASL. The reason why the only college in North Dakota to offer an interpreting program is because its in a town called Devils Lake where the state's school for the deaf is at. To find if your state recognizes ASL as a foreign language, click here.

Teri was very nice and receptive over the phone. I thanked her for her time and I hope that she will have a follow-up article presenting this solution to the communities of North Dakota. To everybody reading this, promote ASL to be taught in as many schools in your state and if you know anybody in North Dakota, please do have them check my blog and have them to contact their DOE to have them to include ASL in the k to 12 curriculum.

Elected President.

Yesterday, I drove 90 minutes to the Georgia chapter of American Sign Language Teachers' Association (GA-ASLTA) meeting in Decatur. I met up with 12 wonderful and intelligent people who are in the field of interpreting, teaching, advocacy, and more. There are 27 members altogether in this organization.

This meeting marked the one year anniversary of their founding however the chapter has not really gotten going until 3 months ago. In the meeting, we've discussed about the progress of getting a tax-exempt status id, setting up a website, promoting the revisions of the ASL bill, providing workshops, and recruiting more members.

During the meeting, I was happy to see that I was making an impact by making two motions. First was to appoint a videographer and videotape all of our future workshops so we can show 30-45 second clip on our future website and set up a video library where people can rent or buy them. Second was to have one or two person to attend the Deaf Awarness Banquet at Macon on April 22nd as an exhibitor for GA-ASLTA to spread awareness of the organization and recruit more members.

At the end of the meeting was the election for the position of the President and Professional Development Coordinator position. The positions are for two year terms. Elections came up early for those two positions because one has moved out of state and another is moving out of state soon. To my surprise, I was nominated and I've accepted the nomination because I know I can and will make positive impact on the building progress that this organization is going through. No one else was nominated nor wanted to be nominated, I was accepted by the 12 other members as their new President. As for the Professional Development Coordinator position, no one has come forward to run for this position so the person who has held this position will continue to hold the position until the next meeting.

To sum all of this up, I truly look forward to successfully get this organization growing in terms of members and money to be able to make a bigger impact for all types of community in Georgia. We will be having a board meeting shortly and our next event is our first annual St. Patrick's ASL fest on the campus of Atlanta Area School f/t Deaf (AASD) on March 18th. If any of you Georgians reading this blog are interested to inquire more of the organization or want to join, please do contact me at sonnyjames(at)yahoo.com

Reaffirm My Belief.

I've been absent from this blog for nearly two weeks for a good cause. I've recently moved to start a new job as a teacher at Georgia School for the Deaf (GSD) in Cave Spring, Georgia. I teach third to fifth graders in math, reading, and social studies. It's a challenging and fun experience. I won't go into details with my job but I do want to reaffirm my belief on this blog that every deaf and hard of hearing child should be sent to the deaf school as early as possible. One shouldn't allow a deaf student to fall behind his/her hearing peers when s/he has an opportunity to advance his/her learning experience more proactively along with his/her deaf peers.

American Sign Language Teachers Association

I'm looking forward to my first meeting with the Georgia chapter of American Sign Language Teachers Association (ASLTA) at Decatur in Georgia this Saturday at the local GACHI office.

ASLTA is an non-profit organization that has eight objectives. To provide a closer relationship between teachers of American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf Studies and other organizations with interests consistent with the mission of the Association. To provide development opportunities for ASL and Deaf Studies teachers. To develop and maintain certification standards for ASL teachers and programs offering ASL and Deaf Studies courses. To certify ASL teachers and programs offering Deaf Studies courses. To develop standards and procedures for the accreditation of training programs, facilities and personnel involved in the education of teachers of ASL and/or Deaf Studies. To develop and maintain a national directory of members, certified teachers, and certified ASL and/or Deaf Studies programs. To provide an effective avenue for the exchange of information regarding methods and materials in the instruction of ASL and Deaf Studies. To encourage the development and maintenance of affilated chapters.

My intention for the meeting is to add a 9th objective. To have every high school in America to offer ASL classes. I'm not an ASL or Deaf Studies teacher but I am a strong advocate of ASL, not just for the deaf but for the hearing, for those who use English as their second language, and for those who have multiple disabilities.

ASL in high schools mean more teachers, professionals, and interpreters for the deaf. They are our future to better services for the deaf.

Harkle.com

I discovered a neat search engine last week called Harkle.com This search engine is geared to find captioned video and audio on the web! I tested it out and I was disappointed that most of the results came from PBS.org. I've found that there is an e-mail listserv on Harkle.com that is open to the public. I signed up and sent out an e-mail to the listserv asking how this search engine works and who is behind it. I've gotten a response and I've decided to throw my full support behind this wonderful new search engine. I'm posting his response. I hope you'll also throw your support behind him and the website to improve the captioning quantity and quality on the web.

"Harkle Speaks"

Hi Sonny-

I'm James Short and I run Harkle.com. You're finding a lot of PBS results because they have made the biggest committment so far to provide online captioning. But there are others! Federal government organizations like the National Institutes of Health, HUD and CDC along with many universities and sites like www.at508.com are providing some captioning. The University of Texas did a nice series called "Photojournalism and the Presidency." A search for "Texas" will get results.

Here's a tip: to find more records, try doing a single letter search like "a" and see what you get.

Harkle is a work in progress and a labor of love without much funding. It needs user feedback to improve. Please send me your suggestions and encourage people to submit their captioning to the database!

Thanks,
James Short
Harkle.com

Movie Theaters Accessibility Act of 2006

Not long ago I blogged about "by the year 2030..." Read the link before going on.

I've strayed for some time from writing up the new Act for accessibility in movie theaters because I'm no expert in legal writing. However, it came to me that I could copy the 'Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990' and change the wording to make it into its own Movie Theaters Accessibility Act of 2006. It's work in progress and I'm reaching out on this blog to ask you to help me to give me feedback on this and I need help revising section 3, 4, and 6.

As you will notice from reading below that I've added the mandate of having movie theaters to provide audio description to the Act below. The reason I've done this was to strengthen the Act by grouping the deaf and hard of hearing people with the blind and people with low-vision.

---

Movie Theaters Accessibility Act of 2006

An Act to require new movie theaters to have built in captioning and audio description devices in 50% of their screens.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SHORT TITLE
Section. 1. This Act may be cited as the "Movie Theaters Accessibility Act of 2006".

FINDINGS
Sec. 2. The Congress finds that--

(1) to the fullest extent made possible by technology, deaf, vision and hearing impairments people should have equal access to the movie theaters;
(2) movie theaters with captioning and audio description devices have made it possible for thousands of deaf, vision and hearing impairments people to gain access to the movie theaters, thus significantly improving the quality of their lives;
(3) movie theaters with captioning and audio description devices will provide access to information, entertainment, and a greater understanding of our Nation and the world to over 28,000,000 people in the United States who are deaf, vision and hearing impairments;
(4) movie theaters with captioning and audio description devices will provide benefits for the nearly 38 percent of older Americans who have some loss of hearing and vision;
(5) movie theaters with captioning and audio description devices can assist both hearing and hearing-impaired children with reading and other learning skills, and improve literacy skills among adults;
(6) movie theaters with captioning and audio description devices can assist those among our Nation's large immigrant population who are learning English as a second language with language comprehension;
(7) currently, a consumer must travel to limited theater locations in order to enjoy movies with captioning and audio description devices provided;
(8) the availability of movie theaters with captioning and audio description devices will significantly increase the audience that can be served by captioned and audio description movies, and such increased market will be an incentive to the movie theaters to provide more captioned and audio description movies.

REQUIREMENT FOR CAPTIONING AND AUDIO DESCRIPTION EQUIPMENT
Sec. 3. Section 303 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 303) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following:

"(u) Require that apparatus designed to receive television pictures broadcast simultaneously with sound be equipped with built-in decoder circuitry designed to display closed-captioned television transmissions when such apparatus is manufactured in the United States or imported for use in the United States, and its television picture screen is 13 inches or greater in size.".

PERFORMANCE AND DISPLAY STANDARDS
Sec. 4. (a) Section 330 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 330) is amended by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection (c), and by inserting immediately after subsection (a) the following new subsection:

"(b) No person shall ship in interstate commerce, manufacture, assemble, or import from any foreign country into the United States, any apparatus described in section 303(u) of this Act except in accordance with rules prescribed by the Commission pursuant to the authority granted by that section. Such rules shall provide performance and display standards for such built-in decoder circuitry. Such rules shall further require that all such apparatus be able to receive and display closed captioning which have been transmitted by way of line 21 of the vertical blanking interval and which conform to the signal and display specifications set forth in the Public Broadcasting System engineering report numbered E-7709-C dated May 1980, as amended by the Telecaption II Decoder Module Performance Specification published by the National Captioning Institute, November 1985. As new video technology is developed, the Commission shall take such action as the Commission determines appropriate to ensure that closed-captioning service continues to be available to consumers. This subsection shall not apply to carriers transporting such apparatus without trading it.".
(b) Section 330(c) of such Act, as redesignated by subsection (a) of this section, is amended by deleting "and section 303(s)" and inserting in lieu thereof ", section 303(s), and section 303(u)".

EFFECTIVE DATE
Sec. 5. Sections 3 and 4 of this Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

RULES
Sec. 6. The Federal Communications Commission shall promulgate rules to implement this Act within 180 days after the date of its enactment.

Feedback Links Provided.

Nearly everyday, I send out at least one e-mail complaint or feedback form regarding captioning online videos provided by all the major networks and Internet sites. I encourage everybody to do the same. Instead of going out in search for the phone numbers, e-mail addresses or feedback form links. I thought it would be convenient for me to post them here for everybody.

Major Network Stations: ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and NBC.

Major Internet Sites: AOL, Apple, Google, MSN and Yahoo.

For future referrence, you can come back to this blog and find the links on the right of your screen. If you have more links that you feel I should also provide, please let me know through my comment form. Thanks!

Boston Light & Sound.

Here's an update on the costs of rear window captioning system (RWC). I called Boston Light & Sound because their website states that they're the exclusive manufacturer/supplier of the reflectors used in the rear window systems.

The number I dialed (617) 787-3131 connected me directly to a salesperson who was more than happy to share the information about their 'reflectors'. I asked how they've come to be the exclusive manufacturer/supplier of the 'reflectors'. She explained that the company jumped at the idea of the RWC when it was in its development stages and they immediately made a top-notch prototype and received a patent on it. They've been selling it every since with improved versions coming out every other year. I expressed my concern that their reflectors were priced too high at $100 per reflector and hindering the market for more RWC in movie theaters around the country. She assured me that they're reasonably priced to the value that they're being made. This answer led me to ask where they make their reflectors. She said that in the early years, it was made in Ireland but now the production has moved to New York. I suggested to her that they could have their reflectors made in China or other countries to lower the price on the reflectors. I half-expected her to be offended by the suggestion but instead she laughed and said oh no, she doesn't think so because the company believes in keeping production in America.

I took a turn in the converstation by asking her about the 'whole RWC system' with the red led light display and the device to run it. She said the other companies does that but they do handle it and they charge $17,000 for the whole service per movie screen and get this, they don't install it, they just mail you the equipment and the theater has to install it themselves. WOW! $17,000 is much higher than I've reported in my previous blog at $11,000. I thanked the salesperson for the informative converstation and she referred me to check out the supplier of the captioning devices that nearly all the theaters have. I will call DTS sometimes this week and post an update about it.

TIME Magazine.

I subscribe to TIME magazine. I've just received the January 23rd edition and on page 69, there's an one page article on '5,000 CHANNELS: TV ON THE INTERNET' and it features Apple iTunes, Google, AOL and Yahoo!. This article has made me send my first e-mail to TIME magazine and hopefully it'll get published in their 'LETTERS' section.

A realization has come to me that any time a publiciation touts the television or movie content being available on the Internet...We MUST reply back to the publication and spread the awareness that we're being denied of services where there's no captions provided online whereas they're provided on our television screen. Below is my letter to TIME magazine.

In reponse of January 23rd, 2006 issue of Time magazine on page 69 - titled '5,000 Channels: TV on the Internet'.

"Millions of deaf and hard of hearing people including those that use English as their second language are being left out of '5,000 channels: TV on the Internet' because not ONE of those companies mentioned - 'Apple, Google, AOL and Yahoo!' provide captions or subtitles on the TV or videos content provided online. I ask Time magazine and other media outlets to give us a voice that we're being denied of services and please push those 'so-called online leaders of the Internet' to caption/subtitle all of their videos provided online. It's common sense - those shows are captioned on our television screens hence it should be captioned on the Internet too."

Thanks,
Sonny

Rear Window Captioning System At $11,000!?!

Great news! I've just gotten off the video phone (VP) with the manager of my local movie theater in Macon, Georgia. The rear window captioning system (RWC) equipment has arrived and is in process of being installed. I'm very excited about this and I truly hope that readers of this blog will take up the intiative to contact their local movie theater chain and the headquarter often to have them put your theater on the top of the list of receiving RWC equipment.

However, there is one disappointing news. My local theater has 14 screens and I was initially told that two of the screens will be equipped with the RWC and 20 reflective windows but instead only one screen will be equipped with 14 reflective windows available. I asked the manager what happened with the cutback, the response was the costs of the RWC.

I checked around online without making phone calls. I found that the costs of a movie theater to receive a RWC system is at estimated $11,000 or more and the cost goes down a bit if they order more than one. I found this price to be eye-popping. I decided to search further around the web to find the manufacturers of RWC systems and I could only find one, Boston Light & Sound. Check the link and you'll see that they sell a single reflective window at $100 a piece. Whoa, expensive! As for the RWC system, they don't advertise it online but I'm pretty sure they manufacture and sell them...I'll be calling them tomorrow to find out more information.

Deaf/Blind Specialty License Plate.

As of January 1st, Georgia debuted 18 new specialty license plates to choose from along with over 40 specialty plates already available.

An idea came up to me recently about having a specialty license plate with the revenue coming from it to go to the deaf. How cool would that be? It could go to any designed deaf services available that pushes for it. My support would go for the state funded deaf schools in Cave Spring and Clarkston however I can't forget that the state also funds a blind school (here in Macon) thus I thought it would be best to be fair to include them. The more the plate sells the more money the schools receive.

If you know of any other states that have something like this? Please do comment. I recall my past Director of Human Resource at Gallaudet University had a specialty license plate that says 'Gallaudet Univ Alum'.

What An Experience.

Deaf peddlers with sign language cards is something I've heard of in my childhood days. I was naive to believe that they don't exist anymore until a few weeks ago, I've read a blog from deafdc.com about his experience of bumping into a MSSD graduate who was peddling in the Metro (subway) of Washington, DC.

I had my first experience with a deaf peddler last night at the Macon mall only to find out that this well dressed guy in dark blue corduray pants with tucked in off-white polo shirt wasn't deaf. He was making up signs and mostly gesturing. When I signed back to him, his eyes widen and he knew he got caught and quickly walked away from me only to bump into my wife in another store. The funny thing is that my wife is a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the deaf and she offered to help him find a job but she was also disappointed to find that he was faking his deafness.

Quickly, we made a stop at the customer service desk at the mall to report this "deaf" peddler and to be sure that they're aware that his deafness is an act. Within 15 minutes, this guy was caught and escorted off the premises. We waited a while to officially file a complaint to ensure this doesn't happen again in the future but a security officier never came to the customer service desk. Instead we received a business card of the security director of the mall's security services and we headed out for the night.

I called around lunch time today to follow up on this incident and to my pleasant surprise that this security director was a former security officier in the 70's at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC and he remarked that he still keeps in touch with Dr. Carolyn McCaskill, who is an awesome deaf studies professor that I've had. I had a nice chat with him and he said he wish he was working yesterday but he was off. He checked the security logs and he notified me that everything has been documented and the "deaf" peddler won't be allowed at the mall in the future.

As for advocacy, I will be writing an editorial piece to the city paper about my experience with a man faking his deafness to peddle sign language cards. I want general public to be on the look-out for this person and be aware that this act is offensive and degrading to the deaf community. However there may be true deaf peddlers out there and I'll let them know that money shouldn't be given to them because it promotes their behavior and there are social services out there to help them out.

Communication Disorders.

Yesterday, I've gotten an e-mail, who complained that Minnesota State University, Mankato was teaching American Sign Language (ASL) I, II, and III under the Communication Disorders department. She felt that ASL should be taught under the Foreign Language department. This appears to be also the case at other college and universities.

This was new information to me thus I googled about it. I've learned that Communication Disorders is an medical term for a disease or condition that partially or totally prevents human communication. The defect can be in producing, receiving or understanding the communication as found in Wikipedia.

In my response to this person, I told her that I feel that changing this view is really out of our hands, BUT we can have a win-win situation by contacting the chairpersons of the Communication Disorders department, Foreign Language department and the Registrar's office to set up a meeting to have them to agree to offer ASL under Communication Disorders and the Foreign Language department both in order to allow students to earn credit from this class in whichever department they choose.

By the year 2030...

A friend of mine, Jose "Pepe" Cervantes from San Diego, California has proposed a solution for captioning in movie theaters to me. Instead of fighting the current movie theaters to provide captioning, he proposed to fight the future movie theaters that will be built. The idea is to lobby the state legislations to make it into a law that all future movie theaters must include captioning devices and variety of listening devices in thier building plans when a theater is built. Just like back in the early 1990s' when we had a law that went in effect that all television sets 13" or larger must have a captioning chip built in. Let's imagine if this law came in effect today, by the year 2030, the majority of the movie theaters out there will have captioning devices provided for us to enjoy. Pepe and I will be working together to propose this to our state legislature of California and Georgia in hopes that they'll take action on this. If you're interested in joining us in a piece of this action, please do e-mail me at sonnyjames(at)yahoo.com.

Toward A United America.

Shortly before Christmas, a history teacher and I discussed about America and its languages. He brought up that America should adopt the English language as its official language due to monies and quicker immersion of immigrant childrens in our schools with English. That's right, you read it here, America does not have any official recognized language.

English as America's official language isn't something I would care strongly enough to push for until few days ago, a light bulb went on in my head. If English became America's official language then we should PUSH for American Sign Language (ASL) to be America's official sign language! How about that!?! The bad news is that I've googled over the web that pushing English as America's official language has failed and failed over time...but if you're interested, here's a link you can check out.

This doesn't mean, the reality of having ASL as an official sign languge is dead. I've learned while our federal government doesn't have any official language BUT 29 states have recognized English as the official language. These 29 states presents us an opportunity to push ASL as the official sign language in those states. Georgia is one of them, I'll be checking out to see what I can do. To find the list of 29 states that recognize English as their official language, go to here.

"The one absolute certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, or preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. We have but one flag. We must also learn one language and that language is English."

--Theodore Roosevelt

Let's Push Apple Around.

I never thought, I would say this but lets push Apple around. Although, their computers are still in the 7% range for the worldwide computer use but as for their hottest product for the last few years - the iPod, it's in the 92% range for worldwide use.

At the last Macworld conference it came out with the newest generation - the Video iPod, where you can download tv shows and various of clips. We've all been clamoring for them to add captioning or at least subtitling capabilities just as the Playstation Portable (PSP) is able to show subtitles when you play movies on it.

Things first, we need as many feedbacks made about adding captioning/subtitling capbailites at this iPod feedback link. If you have not done it, do it. If you've already done it, do it again (why not?).

Second, the next Macworld conference coming up in few weeks from January 9th to 13th at San Francisco, CA. This event is a huge thing for Apple and their customers/fans. The CEO - Steve Jobs will be there. I urge all deaf and hard of hearing people that go to the conference, let's promote captioning/subtitles to be added to their Video iPods and see what they have to say in person.

2005 Deaf Blog Awards.

The polls have opened today for the best deaf blogs in variety of catergories. The voting will last a week and you can vote once per day, per ip address. I'm very excited about this because I'm reading great blogs by the deaf that I never knew was out there. Thus, I encourage you to go over to http://www.2005deafblogawards.blogspot.com/ not only to vote but to read everybody's blog and I'm certain that you'll add some of them to your favorites/bookmarks.

An Update on Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind.

Subject: Concerned for ISDB
Fr: Christine Ivie
To: Sonny
CC: Dwight Johnson

Dear Mr Wasilowski,

Thank you for your email regarding the School for the Deaf and the Blind. We appreciate your interest in education in Idaho for this specific population. The State Board committee to review education for
the deaf and the blind presented general recommendations to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee and the State Board of Education this month. The committee's final report can be found on the State Board
website: http://www.boardofed.idaho.gov/

As you will find in the report, the committee has recommended that the Board appoint a workgroup to address each recommendation over the next two years. There are currently no recommendations for specific
programs, school closures, etc. The recommendations focus on a variety of education and funding issues designed to ensure access to good educational programs for students all over Idaho.

Please feel free to email any comments to the Board email or to my email and we will be happy to share your comments with the workgroup once it is established. Also, please feel free to email any additional
questions to me.

Sincerely,
Christine Ivie
Elementary Secondary Academic Officer
State Board of Education

Lower the Decibel (dB) Minimum?

Continued from my previous blog on Idaho School for the Deaf (ISDB).

I did a bit of asking around and checked online to see what makes Florida School for the Deaf and Blind (FSDB) stand out of other state residential schools. You may not know this but I believe that they are the largest deaf and blind school in America, I checked their website, they have nearly 800 students.

I was told of two things, Florida has a law where they promote deaf and blind students to attend FSDB over public schools and FSDB has the ability to recruit students whereas other schools don't have that ability.

Both things appear to be untrue because I have not found concrete proof of this. If any of you have further information, please do comment and please do send me a link if available.

BUT, I did find something that amazed me! The admission criteria to FSDB can be found here. Their decibel (dB) minimum for enrollment is at 30. Whereas I believe other schools decibel (dB) minimum is at 55, which is also the minimum requirement to be eligible for the Deaflympics.

To gain a better understanding of what the number of decibels (dB) represents.

Mild hearing loss: for adults - between 25 and 40 (dB), for children - between 15 to 40 (db)
Moderate hearing loss: between 41 and 55 (db)
Moderately severe hearing loss: between 56 to 70 (dB)
Severe hearing loss: between 71 to 90 (dB)
Profound hearing loss: 90 (dB) or greater.

Based on the findings that FSDB is the largest deaf and blind school in America and their minimum decibel for enrollment is at 30. This tells us that all other deaf schools should lower their minimum decibel requirements to increase enrollment.

ALERT - Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind Might Close.

I was recently alerted by a friend in Idaho that the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind (ISDB) might close in a few years. For some time being, there has been committee meetings to discuss the future of the deaf and blind students in the state of Idaho and what to do with the state school in the town of Gooding (pop. 3,384).

Please go to these two links to read various documents about the possible closing of ISDB. http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/ope/publications/reports/r0503.htm and http://www.idahoboardofed.org/ISDB/index.asp.

I've read through the committee meeting minutes and reports. The bottom line for them is the declining enrollment of the school. If the enrollment number reverse then I'm more than certain that they will keep the school open. If you have any ideas of how we can increase the enrollment, please do comment.

Could someone explain to me what I've been hearing a bit about Florida School for the Deaf and Blind...that they have some kind of a law that promotes deaf and blind students to go to the state school over public school. Perhaps, this needs to be brought up for Idaho and other states.

Get Your Interpreter's Business Cards.

Interpreters regardless if they're with a school district, medical center network, or an agency...they are nearly always on the lookout for more opportunities. They are what is known as freelance interpreters, often they do not advertise but if you ask them for their business card, they'll give you one.

This may not be significant in large populated areas but in smaller populated areas where businesses and doctors office are smaller but employ more than 15 people per the ADA law. It is very important to keep those business cards because often we'll hear from the local business/doctor's office that they're unable to find an interpreter.

While that may be true but at what resources did they use? Give out copies or give them the contact infomation from the business cards over the phone or e-mail. This will greatly improve the chances of having an interpreter available. However, if there is none still available, I highly recommend calling the ADA's 800 number to file a complaint.

Some of you may not take this seriously because you can read and write well enough to exchange notes with your doctors or so. Please think of the others in your deaf and hard of hearing community whereas they cannot read or write well.

To wrap this up, here's a link to the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc., (RID) searchable database to find interpreters or interpreting agency in your area.

Georgia Council for the Hearing Impaired, Inc.

Last night, I had the opportunity to meet the new executive director of Georgia Council for the Hearing Impaired, Inc (better known as GACHI). His name is Tom Galey, he was very much welcomed at Macon by the local people. He was witty, open and was geninuely interested in who we are and what we do in our area.

In the brief sense of what I can tell you about GACHI is that they're very much like CSD of South Dakota. Tom Galey in fact worked for CSD before coming here. He has told us that his number one priority here is not only to be advocates for us but to have us to be self-advocates. I'm very excited with what he had to share and I will be in touch with him after the holidays to volunteer to help GACHI in the areas of self-advocacy.

She's Inspired, I'm Inspired!

A new friend I made from Cave Spring, Georgia...checked out my blog for the first time yesterday, later that very evening, she visited a friend for dinner. Her friend talked about wanting to see the new movie that is coming out in theaters; "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe."

And you know what? She told this friend about how I've gotten my local theater in Macon to receive a captioning device sometimes in 2006. She was inspired and she wanted to know how she could do it too. Hence, I'm inspired!

Here's how I did it and you can do it too in three steps.

1. Check out the movie theaters in your area. I picked the newest and the largest theater because I felt they were more likely to be receptive to receive a captioning device.

2. Add their phone number to your VP speed dial. Call them few times a month. Always ask for the manager, state your name and explain them about captioning in movie theaters and ask them to work toward receiving a captioning device.

3. You'll also need to find out their headquarter's phone number and add that to your VP speed dial. Call them few times a month. Ask for the customer service reprenstative, state your name and your specific movie theater's name and location then explain to them about captioning in movie theaters and ask them to provide your location with a captioning device.

Coming Soon to Macon, Georgia!

One of the very first activism I've done when I moved to Macon from DC in September, I called Regal Rivergate Cinema 14 to encourage and promote captioning. I've found that there's little they can do, because it's up to the Regal Cinema headquarters (in Knoxville, TN) to decide which Regal Cinema locations will receive the captioning device or not.

From September to present, I've called Regal Rivergate cinema 14 several times a month and to the headquarter's 865-922-1123 number to provide captioning at my location. To my delight, today, I was notified by the Regal Cinema headquarters that at their recently meeting; Macon, Georgia's Regal Rivergate Cinema 14 will receive the captioning device shortly in 2006. I'm thrilled that all my calls went heard. I encourage you all t do the same for your local movie cinema.

To add to this exciting news, check out an article that came recently came out today about movie theaters in New York/New Jersey area.

Hello Principals?

Last week, Wednesday, November 23rd...the day before Thanksgiving. I sent e-mails to principals (12) throughout two counties. I had hoped to hear from at least a half of them and as of today, I have not heard from one of them. Thus today, I've decided to send an e-mail to all of the school board members for those two counties and I hope to hear from them this time. Any suggestions?

I truly believe that having ASL classes in as many high schools possible across America will improve the lives of millions deaf and hard of hearing people. I hope you'll also send letters, e-mails, or spead the message in person to people of influence to have ASL classes everywhere.

An Article from NAD.

Eye on Washington
Keeping Up with New Technology
November 30, 2005 -- Vol. 4, No. 4

By Kelby N. Brick, Esq.
Director, NAD Law and Advocacy


The response from the last column on captioning was very positive. Many of you took action. Kudos to each of you. Those of you who have not-do so now at http://www.nad.org/captioningaction. Your comments showed how important captions are in each of your lives. Thanks to all who wrote. A select few are at the end of this column.

NAD Working on Broadband Bill

The NAD is working hard to pass a law in Congress on broadband. Broadband is high speed Internet. There are many things that we are trying to accomplish that will affect internet acces, relay access and video captioning access. We need your support.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was written almost 10 years ago. It is out-of-date. That is why Congress needs to re-write it in 2006. The U.S. House of Representatives has already started. Its Energy and Commerce Committee aims to have a bill by December. The Senate is moving more slowly -- and needs to be told to get going.

What we need right now is public support for key issues in the draft of th ebill that will make telecommunications more accessible.

Ask Yourself these Questions...

Do you use e-mail?
The current law doesn't discuss e-mail. Most people started using e-mail in 1997 or 1998, after the 1996 law.

Do you use Instand Messaging (IM)?
Most people started using IM in 2002 or 2003. (It's true -- it seems as if it's been around forever but it hasn't!)

Do you use a webcam, a video camera, or a video phone to sign to other people?
That's not covered in the law (again, no one was doing it in 1995).

Do you use your computer for relay calls?
The law as revised in 1996 expected you to be using a TTY.

Do you use Video Relay?
That's not covered under the outdated law.

Do you watch any streaming video -- like a video on your computer? Or a short version from a TV show? Some people even get short videos on their cell phones. None of this is captioned. That's perfectly legal now.

Do you feel as if you're paying enough, or even too much, for your services?
Universal service is the key to keeping costs down. Legislation is needed to protect and preserve universal service, especially in rural areas.

Do you want a law to change all that?
We've proposed some changes. The House of Representatives seems to indicate that they will support our proposal.

The House draft would:

* require that video be captioned. It would say that the same rules that now apply to broadcast and cable-cast programming apply to video steaming.
* outlaw "locking you in" and otherwise preventing interoperability of video relay.
* requires companies, as they design new products and services, t take steps to make sure they are accessible. This includes all kinds of communication services, including video, email and IM. So we won't face a future where e-mail "talks" to us instead of showing us text.

Here is How You Can Help! It's Easy!

You need to tell your Senators and Reprensentatives that our proposal is important and must be supported. It'll only take two minutes of your time but is very important to your access to technology.

Just go to http://www.nad.org/BroadbandBillAction and follow instructions.

Don't forget to spread the word.

Onwards and Upwards!

Kelby

NOTE: Eye on Washington information is a product of the NAD copyright 2005 National Association of the Deaf. This Eye on Washington may be copied, printed, and distributed freely with credit given to the National Association of the Deaf.

If you find this information beneficial, please consider joining the NAD!
http://www.nad.org/join

Subtitles in Video Games.

My brother Shawn, an avid video game player, asked me to blog about subtitles in video games. He buys all his games and accessories from Game Stop...I've learned that it is the world largest video game retailer. It has stores all over North America and in other countries as well.

Currently my brother is playing a game called God of War. He loves this game, however, he's disappointed that it doesn't have subtitles in it as other great games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Final Fantasy X, and Kingdom Hearts. This game God of War has received a rare perfect 10 rating from Game Stop's magazine called Game Informer. I checked it out and decided to e-mail them about it. Read below.

---
Date: Tues, 29 Nov 2005
From: sonnyjames@yahoo.com
Subject: Feedback On Ratings.
To: reiner@gameinformer.com
CC: joe@gameinformer.com

Mr. Reiner,

Based on your perfect 10 rating on God of War in April of 2005 issue. I purchased the game from my local Game Stop and I loved the game except one thing.

I was immediately disappointed by one thing that happens too often in video games. Like millions of other forgotten people, I'm deaf and my brother who is hard of hearing, we are unable to truly enjoy the game like others who can hear because there are no subtitles to the awesome storyline it has.

Highly rated games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Final Fantasy X, and Kingdom Hearts has subtitles in their games, those are the games that we love because of the subtitles and we have been hoping that more games will follow suit.

I hope you will have Game Informer to encourage game makers to add subtitles to their games by adding a new standard to your ratings by checking if they have subtitles or not. If not, deduct ? number of points, if have subtitles, add ? number of points.

I hope to hear back from you about this feedback on ratings regarding subtitles in games.

Thanks,
Sonny

CNN's Response.

Yesterday, I filled out an online feedback form about captions/subtitles not being available on their videos on CNN.com and below is the response that I've gotten from them today. Their reponse is disappointing because we know that their claim of "constraints of content" is untrue. I ask you all to go to the feedback form and let them know that you want them to provide captions/subtitles on all their video contents on their websites. In the meantime, I will try to call them about this.

---
Subject: CNN.com Free Video Support
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:51:45-0500
From: Reply.Captions@turner.com
To: sonnyjames@yahoo.com

Grettings,

Thank you contacting CNN. CNN.com's Free Video service does not offer closed captioning due to the constraints of content.

More information about CNN.com's Free Video service is available on our FAQ page: http://www.cnn.com/help/video/. Video content is located throughout the site. The latest clips in all sections can be found at http://www.cnn.com/video.

Please continue to send us your feedback on our free video service. Your input helps us consider changes that will most appeal to you, our valued user.

Thanks again for your interest and keep your browser pointed to http://www.cnn.com/

Sincerely
CNN Public Information
"CNN, The Most Trusted Name In News"

One Game At A Time - One Website At A Time.

You often hear this quote among coaches giving their speeches to their players to take it "one game at a time" to reach the championship.

This is pretty much what I'm adopting for online web captioning; take it one website at a time. It takes time for a law to be written, lobbied, debated, and to be put in effect. We have to start now, do our part, take it one website at a time.

Two days ago, I went over Target's website for their black Friday sales and I found their TV commericals were online. I love Kermit the frog and I clicked to watch the videos but there no captions. Hence, Target became my website of the day. I did two things, filled out their online form and I called their 800 guest service line that they had provided. The number is 1-800-591-3869.

Two Counties in Georgia Covered.

Yesterday, I surfed through twelve high school websites. Six in Bibb County and six in Houston County. Nearly all the schools have over 1,000 students; some even have over 2,000 students. None of the schools offers ASL classes; they offer French, German, Spanish, and Latin.

I sent an e-mail to twelve of these schools' principals requesting them to offer ASL classes and I hope to hear from at least six of them. I will be keep you posted on my progress. I hope you guys can take 5 to 15 minutes of your time to find your local high school's contact information and send them a letter, e-mail, or a phone call. Please feel more than free to use my letter in my previous blog to send to the principals.

Start Of An E-mail Campaign.

Hello Friends,

I'm starting an e-mail campaign with you on having 'ASL Classes In The Mainstream'. After you've read this, I ask you to forward this e-mail to your family and friends and I hope they'll do the same.

It's a topic I've brought up on my blog. You can check it out at http://sonnyjames.blogspot.com/. To sum up on what I'm doing, I'm asking you all to practice self-advocacy, to be a planter of our future.

Attached with this e-mail is a letter asking a high school principal to consider offering ASL classes in his/her school. The underlying basis for this is to improve our way of life by increasing the number of our interpreters, teachers, counselors, advocates, and on and on. To increase awareness of the language and the culture it brings. Who knows, maybe a past ASL student will become a future Senator or Governor where he or she could help us implement laws that will improve our future such as enforcing videos on the Internet to be captioned for us.

With this letter, I ask you to find your principal's name and the school's address from the phone book or the Internet then mail this letter. You could send an e-mail if you prefer or if you have the opportunity to bring it up in person then that would be awesome.

Thanks,
Sonny

How About A Southern Signing Town?

Cave Spring, GA!

Cave Spring is nestled in a gorgeous valley in northwest of Georgia, few miles from the Alabama border. They're perfectly described as a classic small southern town. This town's population is listed at 975. There is only one stop light in town. No fast food restaurants there. It has 90 buildings and sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Georgia School for the Deaf (GSD) is located there since 1844. The median house value is at $75,000. The crime rate is nearly at zero. The average temperature in January is at 40 degrees and in July is at 88 degrees. There is a deaf senior citizen living center. You can pretty much walk to everywhere if you wanted.

This town is clearly not for everybody but its perfect for me. It's an incredible place to raise kids. To have a neat little garden in the back. To get to know nearly everybody in town. Attend GSD events and support them. Give visits to the deaf senior citizen living center. Take out a small business loan and set up a 'Sonny's Tavern' in town.

As we can see from the people's interest in the future northern signing town of Laurent, SD. How about giving them an option... Cave Spring, GA is it. I would guess that there are approximately 90 deaf residents there already. That is nearly ten percent of the town's population. I don't see why not to have this number to grow and make it 'our' town.

Please do leave comments and questions...anything. I'll reply to them.

Shortage of Interpreters

Video relay services (VRS) have been rapidly expanding for the last two years and continue to do so today. I have been seeing more and more people pointing out that they're the cause of our shortage of interpreters. This has to stop. We need to practice self-advocacy.

The shortage of interpreters has always been there! It's stated at the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) website that there are 4,424 certified interpreters nationwide as of July 2003. Certainly there are more interpreters out there but it is not enough.

Join with me here and read my two past blogs about ASL classes in the mainstream. We must become planters to plant the seeds of our future. Send out letters, phone calls, e-mails, or bring it up in person that you request the school to have ASL classes.

Advocacy Letter: ASL Classes In The Mainstream.

Here it is below, you can copy this letter and make a few adjustment then send it to your neighborhood principal urging them to have ASL classes. Feel free to comment on any revisions needed for this letter.

November 14, 2005

Pat Coxsey
Principal, Westside High School
2851 Heath Road
Macon, Georgia 31216

Dear Principal Coxsey,

I write to you to ask you to consider having American Sign Language as part of your school’s foreign language department.

American Sign Language also known as ASL is the fourth most used language in the United States. ASL has allowed the communication gap between the deaf community and the rest of the world to bridged. Interest in sign language continues to grow with more and more people wanting to learn this unique form of visual communication. Many colleges and universities offer sign language classes and a growing number of high schools are adopting this. Learning ASL takes time. It does not take five minutes or overnight. To pick up enough signs for basic communication and to sign them comfortably, without stiffness, can take one or two years.

It can make difference in your students’ lives and those of others. There are hundreds of job opportunities they can explore the possible careers as teachers, counselors, consultants, therapists, specialists, and interpreters for the Deaf.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for further information at sonnyjames@yahoo.com. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Sonny

ASL Classes In The Mainstream.

I recall few years back around 2000; it was a time when a wave of high schools across America began adopting American Sign Language (ASL) classes in their curriculum as their foreign language requisite.

It was awesome. It opened up new jobs for us as instructors. Some of them have gone on to become our interpreters and other deaf related fields. I love it when I bump into a signing waitress, bartenders, or store clerks. Yes, there are few annoying people that approach us and say "look, I can sign" but the benefits far outweighs this annoyance. You get the general idea.

Have ASL classes in high schools hit its plateau? The chatter of new ASL classes popping up in our neighborhood schools has pretty much dissolved after five years. What is apparent to me is that we need to renew our diligence to request and promote schools in having ASL classes.

Over the weekend, I'll come up with a generalized letter draft that you all can copy and paste then send it to your local high schools through e-mail or letters. I will also see if I will find some helpful links out there in the web and add it to my sidebar for future references. If you have any feedback or comments, please do share.

The Laws On Web Accessability.

I did a bit of web searching on what are the laws out there for us deafies on web accessability. I was directed to two Sections, 255 of the Telecommunication Act and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

I read through it and I have to admit, I'm lost. Not because I didn't understand it, it's because of two things.

First, there's a huge gap missing for what must be provided for us on the Internet, specifically along the lines of web captioning. Is there anybody or an organization out there that is working on filling in this gap? We can only do so much to promote and encourage websites to provide captions on their videos but realistically enforcing the law is the way to go.

Secondly, section 508 is only limited to the federal sector. What I'm lost on is why doesn't it enforce the same rules to those in private sector that receives federal funding? This is one obvious way to broaden the powers of section 508.

To sum this up, when new technology or an idealogy comes, we must go back to our laws and ensure that its updated otherwise we'll be left in the dust.

More On Web Captioning.

I can't move on to a new topic without providing at least some support on where and how to get web captioning. So I headed over to Google (who doesn't?) and here's a select few links that I will be adding to my collection of links on the right of the screen.

Here's the link on how to create your own web captioning for Quicktime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player. I found something upsetting...you cannot view captions on Quicktime unless you're willing to fork over $29.99 for the Quicktime Pro version because the Pro version has the option to turn on the captions. Isn's that an outrage? What's with Apple? Here's another thing about them, I discovered a blog complaining that the new video iPod doesn't have subtitles whereas the new Playstation Portable has it. Here's the link to air out your complaint that the new video iPod ought to have subtitles too.

Here's the rest of the links on web captioning services. National Captioning Institute. CaptionMax. Video Caption Corporation.

To wrap up on this topic, I found an e-mail listserv for the advocacy of captioning. It has 900 members on it, cool! I'm signing up.

The Demand For Online Captioning.

I've finally decided to jump the bandwagon from the little known world of Xanga to the unlimited reach of Blogger. Two reasons, I've done this is because I am now committed to blog once a day whereas at Xanga, I blogged every now and then. Secondly, it's because I want to step up on activism. I want to speak up and reach an unlimited potential of people out there. Just the other day, a friend of mine, known as Ridor was quoted on Slate.com and that blew me away.

***

There are more and more videos streaming online and they aren't those pesky advertisements or music videos. They're movie trailers, local and international news, baseball games, and now coming soon are 99 cents tv shows. Every now and then I would send the webmaster of that site my request for their consideration to add captions on their online videos. I've gotten nearly no answers. It is my request to you all reading this. Every time you see an online video without captions, find an e-mail address and send them your complaint. I've checked the National Association of the Deaf website on this issue and this was all they had.