Don's Blog

Are You Neutral?
Don's Blog A bud of mine, Travis Dougherty, posted a video on Facebook. I thought it delivered quite a powerful message. Facebook, of course, wouldn't share the video to the public (being a “closed garden”). But I found a copy of the video on YouTube. It also is subtitled. Just wanted to share it with ya'all, [...]
Culture Tue, Feb 10 2009

My Trip to Fremont
Don's Blog Nathan Kester generously let me crash at his place for the night before the Pleasanton DeafNation Expo 2008 event. He told me Viable was hosting an event at the City Beach recreational facility, and that he was going there to meet up with a few friends of his. I decided I’d go too. As soon [...]
Language Tech Culture Sun, Oct 26 2008

Video Relay Services VS Text-based Relay Services
Don's Blog A friend of mine while talking to me via IM asked me why I preferred the Video Relay Services over the Text-based Relay Services. She dared to tell me to “elaborate”. She asked for it, so I elaborated. (The friend of mine is Rachel S. in Rochester, NY- greetings goes out to her! Thanks [...]
Media Language Sat, Sep 13 2008

MoveOn.org Not Captioning Videos
Don's Blog Noticed that MoveOn.org wasn’t captioning the videos they were sending out in their mass emails. So I sent them an email just a few minutes ago: I'm a blogger at DonCullen.net. I am deaf, am a member of the California Association of the Deaf, National Association of the Deaf, and the World Federation of the Deaf. [...]
Media Language Tech Culture Wed, Sep 03 2008

National Forum on Disability Issues
Don's Blog Got a newsletter from the NAD. A part of it said: The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) is pleased to be a Hosting Sponsor of the “National Forum on Disability Issues.” This forum will feature the presumptive Republican candidate Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (by satellite) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), representing the presumptive Democratic candidate, [...]
Media Fri, Jul 25 2008

Comcast Screw-up
Don's Blog Two weeks ago, I contacted Comcast asking them to establish service here for cable TV and broadband internet. They informed me that they’d be out to our residence in a few days. True to their word, they showed up the day after I contacted them. After a cursory examination of our house, the technician informed [...]
Media Tech Sun, Jul 20 2008

Google Now Captioning Videos!
Don's Blog Or at the very least, the political ones! They’ve developed software that transliterates spoken speech into text for videos. The end result is captions on the videos, and also a side benefit is that now spoken words can be used as keywords for searching! Pretty cool! The internet just got a bit more accessible [...]
Media Language Tech Tue, Jul 15 2008

Viable VPAD Pictures
Don's Blog Thought you’d like to see the pictures I took of the VPAD while I was in a hotel at Los Angles after I bought it! I bought the Viable VPAD at the Deaf Nation Expo 2008 at Pomona, California. That’s basically right next to (if not part of) Los Angles. They said it was $99, but [...]
Tech Mon, Jul 14 2008

Viable VPAD
Don's Blog Recall the Viable VPAD I blogged about, where I actually drove all the way down to Los Angles to buy it? Will be reviewing it sometime this week or the next as soon as I have switched over to Comcast. I haven't been able to test it since I bought it (bad high speed [...]
Media Tech Sun, Jul 13 2008

Congress Trying to Make Internet Accessible to the Deaf
Don's Blog I was reading the news when I saw a mention of Congress in the process of legislation that would substantially enhance accessibility for the deaf and the disabled for the internet. Naturally, this got my attention. Here’s the link if you’d like to read the bill for yourself: [link] For those who’re wondering, the bill has just [...]
Legal Fri, Jun 27 2008

Obama & Captioning for the Deaf Update
Don's Blog As some of you may know, I’ve been in contact with the Obama administration regarding captioning all of their video media on their website. I got a response from them: Dear Friend, Thank you for contacting us about closed captioning of video on our website.  We appreciate your message, and work hard to make our website accessible. To [...]
Media Tech Legal Fri, Jun 27 2008

Obama and Captioning
Don's Blog I noticed that most of the media on Barack Obama's website was not captioned. They did have a webpage that contained links to several captioned videos, but that's it: the rest of the website wasn't captioned with the exception of the disabilities issue page. So... I sent a message to the Obama administration: “There's a problem [...]
Media Tech Fri, Jun 27 2008