DeafDC.com Blog

DeafDC.com Movie Listings
DeafDC.com Captioned movie fans, we've updated DeafDC.com to contain links to two indispensable resources on the top right side of our homepage that DeafDC.com used over the past several years to manually update our captioned movie listings. We want you to have direct access to up-to-date movie captioning times and dates with accurate information. What was once [...]
Tech Thu, Jul 03 2008 hide this blog

SLA, VLI, and GoAmerica Merging
DeafDC.com Via a leak, I just got this announcement from Janet Bailey, president of Sign Language Associates (SLA): Interpreters:  I am writing to formally announce that SLA, VLI and GoAmerica have merged into one new full service company.  You may remember that in January of this year, GoAmerica acquired Verizon’s text and video relay products [...]
Tech Wed, Jul 02 2008 hide this blog

Too Advantaged Yet Still Disabled
DeafDC.com All right, let me get this straight.  First the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) told Oscar Pistorius that he was ineligible for the 2008 Summer Olympics... not because he's a double amputee without a chance in hell of beating, much less competing against, “able-bodied” runners, but because he has an unfair advantage over them [...]
Media Audism Tech Legal Mon, Jun 02 2008 hide this blog

“The zeitgeist of academic possibility is a great inverted...
DeafDC.com It was a breath of fresh air to read the anonymous Professor X's essay in the June edition of Atlantic Monthly entitled “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower.” In a nutshell, Prof. X debunks the notion that a college education is attainable for everyone, using his own experience teaching at both a community and private [...]
Higher Education Fri, May 23 2008 hide this blog

AT&T offers “Deaf” iPhone Plan
DeafDC.com So, AT&T has finally offered a “Deaf/HH” plan for the iPhone. Yay! Deaf iPhoners — go forth and changeth your plans to saveth money. AT&T offers iPhone plan (via Engadget) AT&T Text Accessibility Plan Executive summary: $40/month Unlimited SMS & data (web, etc) 40¢ per minute voice visual voicemail (pretty useless for most of us) ...
Language Tech Wed, Apr 30 2008 hide this blog

“Sweet Nothing” Portrays Ongoing Struggle for Recognition
DeafDC.com There's a plethora of things to praise about Hallmark's Sweet Nothing in My Ear, the film centering on a deaf mother and hearing father's custody hearing, which aired last night on CBS. And at first glance, it seems as if the pervasive controversy over whether the deaf child, Adam, played capably by the charming Noah Valencia, [...]
Media Art and Storytelling Tech Culture Mon, Apr 21 2008 hide this blog

Pushing the line between style and function
DeafDC.com As members of Costco, we're constantly receiving “junk mail,” our favorite of which are the seasonal coupon books. Amidst bargains on toothpaste and cereal, we'll see things we really really reeeeally want at really really reeeeally good prices. It's porn for our checkbook's salivary glands. He'll want a flat-screen TV; I&#...
Tech Tue, Apr 15 2008 hide this blog

Deaf Spam?
DeafDC.com Sharing this with DeafDC for our collective amusement — my first “deaf” spam (I don't read spam so I might have gotten one before now, but this one slipped through Gmail's spam filter...).  Pasted verbatim, including errors. Dearest One, It is my pleasure to write you but first I will introduce myself to you. I am a [...]
Media Legal Tue, Apr 15 2008 hide this blog

Airline Policy Experiencing Turbulence
DeafDC.com A friend sent me a hot-off-the-presses article about deaf people who aren't allowed to fly solo. That's the apparent policy of the Australian subsidiary of Singapore-based budget air carrier Tiger Airways. Deaf passengers who want to fly on the airline must be accompanied by a fare-paying adult care provider, according to Jinky, a Tiger Airways reservation...
Media Audism Fri, Apr 11 2008 hide this blog

D-PAN Releases “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera in ASL
DeafDC.com Anyone remember that ASL music video from last year, “Waiting on the World to Change”? D-PAN has done it again with Christina Aguilera's “Beautiful.”  According to their website, D-PAN (Deaf Performing Artists Network), based in Detroit, “exists to bridge the existing gaps between the deaf/hard of hearing community, the entertainmen...
Media Language Art and Storytelling Mon, Apr 07 2008 hide this blog

Sign Language in the New York Mercantile Exchange
DeafDC.com Deaf folks aren't the only ones using sign language, as we all know — from baseball umpires to the gnomes on airport tarmacs.  The New York Times published an interesting infographic on the sign language used in the New York Mercantile Exchange here. For me the most interesting thing was to see some parallels between a [...]
Culture Mon, Apr 07 2008 hide this blog

I *heart* Muck.
DeafDC.com I love Michelle McAuliffe, better known as MUCK.  Not just because she’s my long-lost fake sister*, a cooler, hotter version of me but also because she creates gorgeous, thought-provoking work.  I had the privilege of visiting her studio and viewing Muck’s most recent body of work, When The Horse Is Dead, Get Off, created as [...]
Language Art and Storytelling Culture Sun, Mar 30 2008 hide this blog

Barking Up The Deaf Tree
DeafDC.com My uncle forwarded me this New York Times article about young John Cave Jr., a deaf student, who wanted to bring his service dog, Simba, to school. There is a cute picture of a Simba, a yellow Labrador, in the article. To summarize: the Nassau County school said no to the Cave family, “concluding that having a dog in [...]
Education Legal Culture Thu, Mar 13 2008 hide this blog

Notes from Israel: Ten Years Later
DeafDC.com I have been back to the States for a week now. Israel, a 13-day adventure, morphed into a steady line of mental snapshots hanging on a clothesline. Barely a dent in my lifetime and yet, I returned 10,000 times richer in appreciation of my border-free freedom and wide gateway of accessibility. It has been ten [...]
Language Education Culture Sat, Mar 08 2008 hide this blog

Interpreting War
DeafDC.com There I was Monday morning at a military hospital in the Intensive Care Unit waiting room, not really sure what I was there for. I only knew that I got a page from a dear friend that simply said- come now. As an interpreter, you get used to this. We met as soul mates on Parris [...]
Thu, Mar 06 2008 hide this blog

Watch Subtitled Movies on iPod, Apple TV, or iPhone
DeafDC.com A friend sent me an awesome link to Submerge, (sorry, Mac OS X only) an new-to-me program that allows you to take any subtitle file (.srt, .sub, etc) and merge it with an mov, m4v, avi file so that you can view the subtitles on any Apple device — from an iPod to the Apple [...]
Tech Mon, Mar 03 2008 hide this blog

The End of Deaf-Blindness
DeafDC.com Last Friday, my sister Liz and I went to the Day of Science conference by the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB) in San Diego. We were in town anyway for our father's birthday the day before, so this event was a welcome opportunity to find out the latest research in retinal degenerative diseases. We both have [...]
Tech Culture Mon, Mar 03 2008 hide this blog

Based On My Experience
DeafDC.com Based on my experience, twenty-nine year old Deaf women should have twelve tattoos, read Paul Auster, and have a penchant for watching Buffy shows. Based on my experience, Deaf women my age should be spending their days and nights reading the latest (and the oldest) articles about what a sentence means in ASL. Based on [...]
Media Language Art and Storytelling Tech Culture Tue, Feb 26 2008 hide this blog

Does Hollywood Prefer Deaf Actors Who Can Speak?
DeafDC.com Based on recent movie and television shows, there is an inclination that Hollywood prefers deaf actors and actresses who speak. Regardless of talent or experience, there is an obvious preference for actors who can vocalize. Ever since the deaf acting profession lost equal ground in 1929 with the first talkie The Jazz Singer, there has been [...]
Media Audism Art and Storytelling Mon, Feb 25 2008 hide this blog

What’s in a Name?
DeafDC.com It has been a long time since I’ve posted on DeafDC.  Too long, in fact. My excuse is that I’ve been writing other stuff, namely a dissertation that has to be defended this term, but also a brief piece on the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill for Bionews co-written with some superb academic colleagues [...]
Language Legal Culture Sat, Feb 23 2008 hide this blog

Update on GoAmerica Outsourcing to the Philippines
DeafDC.com Several days ago, I blogged about my concerns with GoAmerica outsourcing a chunk of its text relay services to the Philippines. Afterwards, I had a very pleasant and eye-opening videophone conversation with Gerald “Jerry” Nelson, Director of Regulatory and Strategic Affairs for GoAmerica / HOVRS. That, in addition, to some of the [...]
Media Language Tech Sat, Feb 23 2008 hide this blog

A Renegade Captionist?
DeafDC.com Reddit.com is one of my favorite sites. If you haven't check it out yet, do so. So, I was looking at it today and found this story: Here are the photos of the CNN Closed Captioning. It's not every day that closed captioning is a story on Reddit's front page, so off I clicked, and found [...]
Media Language Tech Thu, Feb 21 2008 hide this blog

GoAmerica Outsourcing Relay Call Center to the Philippines
DeafDC.com According to a recent Modesto Bee newspaper article, GoAmerica has begun outsourcing its Internet relay services to a new call center in the Philippines. As I explained in a recent blog post, GoAmerica operates the popular i711 relay service as well as a number of other state-based relay services, and had taken over Verizon's relay service. [...]
Tue, Feb 19 2008 hide this blog

Deafness Trumps Rape in New Jersey Newspaper
DeafDC.com In rape cases in close-knit communities, it often seems best to leave judgment to those charged with that task. This story out of New Jersey in which a 19-year-old deaf male is charged with the rape of a 16-year-old deaf female classmate at Mountain Lakes High School is probably no exception. Still, it's hard not [...]
Media Audism Legal Sun, Feb 17 2008 hide this blog

Chris Heuer - You Can’t Hide
DeafDC.com There's a double meaning in that title. Watch for it. I'm writing this for a friend who is having a hard time making a major life decision because she's afraid. I understand. All of us to an extent have to worry about what other people will think of us—whether we blog or not, [...]
Culture Thu, Feb 14 2008 hide this blog

Guest Blogger - Requiem for Kenya: Goodbye, Farewell, and...
DeafDC.com By Allen Neece “Nothing sorts out memories from ordinary moments. It is only later that they claim remembrance, when they show their scars.” -Chris Marker, “La Jeete” The scars run deep. From my chair on this verandah above the town of Lamu, with the muezzin call to prayer reverberating below (I can hear it because I got my aids [...]
Mon, Feb 11 2008 hide this blog

Shane Feldman - Yes We Can!: An Interview with Shoshannah...
DeafDC.com Last weekend Shoshannah Stern, a deaf Hollywood actress, was part of a pro-Barack Obama web video titled “Yes We Can” along with other celebrities such as Scarlet Johansson, John Legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Herbie Hancock. The video was posted just prior to Super Tuesday and, according to USA Today, recently hit 3.7 million views. Shoshannah has [...]
Culture Fri, Feb 08 2008 hide this blog

Josh Mendelsohn - Snap!VRS and Ojo Troubles
DeafDC.com Since I haven't received my Ojo videophone yet, I wasn't aware that the Ojo network is now down.  But I just received an email from the CEO of Snap!VRS explaining that the Ojo manufacturer and operator of the Ojo network had been “forced to shut down operations.”  I'm including a copy of the email below. Makes [...]
Tech Wed, Feb 06 2008 hide this blog

Shane Feldman - What Irony, PepsiCo Super Bowl Ads Not...
DeafDC.com After all is said and done, PepsiCo hypocritically did not caption their two Super Bowl spots, and they know how to caption ads. “Bob's House” in addition to the “Making of Bob's House” and the supplemental videos with Keith Wann were all captioned for the deaf-impaired. The opening of “Making of Bob's House” says:...
Mon, Feb 04 2008 hide this blog

Chris Heuer - My Response to Karen Youdelman’s and...
DeafDC.com I'm a regular blogger here on Deaf DC.com, but I have been away from the blogsphere for the better part of a month now because my son was born just a few weeks ago. He's a full-time job in and of himself–if you have children of your own I'm sure you can understand what [...]
Media Language Audism Education Tech Culture Sun, Feb 03 2008 hide this blog

Shane Feldman - AGBell Tackles Pepsico SuperBowl Commerical
DeafDC.com In this morning's AGBell Update, the Alexander Graham Bell Association of the Deaf called on its members to contact Pepsico and object to its Super Bowl commercial, complaining that it “perpetuates a common myth that all people who are deaf can only communicate using sign language.” The blurb reads: AG Bell Speaks Up on Pepsi Super [...]
Culture Thu, Jan 31 2008 hide this blog

Vikki Washington - Nose Sign Raising A Stink
DeafDC.com There's a strong stench coming from Thailand. It stemmed from the fast-growing controversy concerning how the sign language interpreters in that country identify prominent politicians. Samak Sundaravej, the first elected prime minister since a September coup two years ago, has been crowned “Mr. Rose Apple Nose” because of a strong resemblance to the ...
Language Culture Thu, Jan 31 2008 hide this blog

Guest Blogger - Noisy Media Capitalizes on Silence
DeafDC.com By Hilary Franklin In this golden age of visual media, where we all communicate with one another (silently) via instant messaging, e-mail, blogs and vlogs, videophone, paper and pencil, and yes, even TTYs sometimes, Why, oh WHY does the emphasis still have to be on silence whenever the news media picks up on an issue that relates [...]
Media Language Tech Culture Sat, Jan 26 2008 hide this blog

Adam Stone - Apple Adds Closed Captioning Support for...
DeafDC.com I went to MacWorld last week! As a Mac user and a newly-minted resident of San Francisco, it was my holy and solemn duty to go. I made especially sure to go the day after Steve Jobs' keynote so I could see new Apple machines on display. While my hopes for a MacBook Pro update [...]
Language Tech Mon, Jan 21 2008 hide this blog

Shane Feldman - RIT Tigers, Hear us Roar!
DeafDC.com I can't get enough new info about the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), my alma mater. I know more about the latest at Gallaudet University than RIT/ National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID). With an occasional peep from NTID every now and then, I have longed for dedicated, RIT/NTID-related blogs with almost-daily updates. Well, now [...]
Higher Education Thu, Jan 10 2008 hide this blog

Bobby Cox - Whither Ojo?
DeafDC.com I've been on the SnapVRS Ojo Videophone waiting list for a long time now, and have been looking forward to getting and playing with it. However while waiting for it, a new piece of deaf hardware porn has arrived from Viable — the Viable Vpad. These two devices, along with the Sorenson VP-200, VP-100, and [...]
Higher Education Language Tech Thu, Jan 10 2008 hide this blog

Shane Feldman - Is it Selfish to Intentionally Make a Deaf...
DeafDC.com God no longer has absolute authority in determining which child is born deaf and which is not. Some deaf parents have taken matters into their own hands, intentionally creating deaf children. This has led to an international uproar, as well as the proposal of legislation to prevent the selection of or creation of deaf babies. The [...]
Fri, Dec 28 2007 hide this blog

Chris Heuer - Distraction
DeafDC.com In almost every blog I read these days about a deaf person standing up for himself; there will usually be at least one comment that looks something like this: “Oh, grow up! Not everything is about audism! You can't blame hearing people for not knowing how to react...” This type of comment rarely varies with [...]
Language Audism Culture Tue, Dec 18 2007 hide this blog

Bobby Cox - Dorm of the Deaf - A hilarious comic
DeafDC.com A friend sent me a link to a comic that I thought was hilarious.  The comic's author relates his experience at Tower A/Ellingson Hall at RIT.  Absolutely hilarious, and the punch lines he raises are ones that we are all too familiar with.  Speaking from the perspective of someone who went to RIT, he is [...]
Higher Education Language Tech Culture Thu, Dec 13 2007 hide this blog

Teresa Blankmeyer Burke - British Bioethics and the Human...
DeafDC.com By now many of you are aware of the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (HFEB) in its second reading in the House of Lords in London and the response of the British Deaf Association opposing this bill due to its eugenics implications, which include the potential to place restrictions on certain kinds of reproductive [...]
Audism Tech Wed, Dec 05 2007 hide this blog

Deaf Parents and PTAs/Parent-Teacher Conferences
DeafDC.com Several weekends ago, I attended a Maryland Metro KODA (MMKODA) meeting to learn more about the challenges that deaf parents of Kids of Deaf Adults (KODA) face. The main topic was lack of access to Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings. One parent explained that she went to the secretary of a Montgomery County public school with [...]
Language Audism Education Tue, Dec 04 2007 hide this blog

Bobby Cox - Deaf Man Tased by Police
DeafDC.com I have been following the stories of police tasing various people see (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8...) for a while now, and even cases where police were fired for not tasing. So it is not surprising that after tasing pregnant women, police would also tase a deaf man. It is every deaf [...]
Legal Tue, Dec 04 2007 hide this blog

Chris Kaftan - Fernandes Selected As Provost at...
DeafDC.com In an announcement today, the University of North Carolina-Asheville has named Dr. Jane K. Fernandes as the new Provost/Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, effective upon approval of the University's Board of Trustees. Fernandes, who most recently served as the president-designate of Gallaudet University and the Provost for six years, beat out more than 160 ap...
Higher Education Fri, Nov 30 2007 hide this blog

Julie Hochgesang - I Read a Great Book Last Night.
DeafDC.com My good friend, Rachel Knopf, gave me “the unheard: a memoir of deafness and africa” (words in the title uncapitalized in respect to how it was printed on the cover of the book) by Josh Swiller for a birthday present a few weeks ago. When I pulled the book out of the gift bag, I [...]
Education Culture Wed, Nov 28 2007 hide this blog

Shane Feldman - Clinton Snubs MDAD Conference
DeafDC.com The Maryland Association of the Deaf (MDAD) recently announced that Hillary Clinton will not be attending this weekend's MDAD Conference. I posted a blog last month, “Hillary Clinton to Appear at Maryland Association of the Deaf Conference“, urging deaf and hard of hearing people to attend, so we could make an impression on the current [...]
Culture Tue, Nov 27 2007 hide this blog

Adam Stone - DeafHope Featured On CNN
DeafDC.com DeafHope, a non-profit organization founded and run by Deaf women, will be featured on CNN on Tuesday, November 27 and again on Thursday, December 6. Based in the San Francisco Bay area, DeafHope's mission is “to end domestic and sexual violence against Deaf women and children through empowerment, education and services.” Currently, DeafHope provide...
Media Tue, Nov 27 2007 hide this blog

Chris Heuer - Not A Hearing World, But The Illusion Of One
DeafDC.com We could do much to counteract the political paralysis in our community if we realized something once and for all: the hearing world in a very real sense does not exist. Now before I get into this, I want to admit that I probably as much as anyone else am guilty of perpetuating the propaganda responsible [...]
Audism Sun, Nov 25 2007 hide this blog

Adam Stone - Deaf Children: More ER-Prone?
DeafDC.com According to an article in The Annals of Family Medicine, the answer is yes. The lead-in to the New York Times article that cites this study reads, Children who have hearing problems are much more likely than other children to end up in an emergency room with a wide variety of injuries, researchers say. Score one for [...]
Culture Tue, Nov 20 2007 hide this blog

Bobby Cox - The University
DeafDC.com The other day, I picked up a great local newspaper called the Washington City Paper and started reading an article called “The Office” that focuses on DC Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee's efforts to revive, improve, and reform the DC public school system (DCPS). As I read it, I found myself drawing many parallels between what [...]
Higher Education Mon, Nov 19 2007 hide this blog

Adam Stone - Now You Can Listen To The Radio!
DeafDC.com Alas, deaf people! How tragic our collective disability is! We are lacking in hearing, and because of this, the world of radio is a mysterious realm. FM 98.1 has as much meaning to us as coriander does to a person who cannot taste. How many of you know about NPR–National Public Radio? According to my [...]
Language Tech Mon, Nov 12 2007 hide this blog