Alvin Dean Kaplan: 1931 – 2007
December 2007 archive
Deaf Kid in a Hearing Family
Rita’s Expressive VLog has a video of one person’s experience of being the only deaf kid in a hearing family during the holidays. The video is in ASL. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year everyone!
Internet Video and the Deaf Problem Noticed
Hacking Netflix posts an entry regarding Netflix’s customer support didn’t provide TTY support fast enough when the company moved to phone support. Furthermore, it doesn’t caption its online video (big surprise). I love that one of the comments says that the lack of subtitles/captioning affects more than just those who are deaf or hearing-impaired. The …
For Web Designers: Persona of Deaf Person
Shawn Henry’s book, Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design, is available online. Yes, the entire thing. Henry provides two persona examples of people with disabilities. Personas help Web designers visualize a Web site’s target market and design for that market. Thought it worthy of sharing in this blog. One persona is a retiree with macular …
Help Honor Baseball Player Dummy Hoy
Fookem and Bug ask we print letters and mail them to filmmaker David Risotto. He is working with avid Cincinnati Reds Baseball fan, Steve Sandy, to create a documentary on the life and achievements of William Ellsworth “Dummy” Hoy, the first deaf baseball player in history. I like what the blog says… that it’s not …
Closed Captioning of Web Video Receive Senate Support
I remember when Senator Tom Harkin made news back in the ’90s. From the Alamanac of American Politics 2000: “His interest in deafness prompted him and Senator Jennings Randolph to bring the first closed-caption TV to the Carter White House; in 1991 he passed a law requiring close-captioning on all 13-inch-plus TVs starting in 1995.” …
The Nightmares of HDTV and Captions
It looks like technology for the deaf and digital don’t get along. I remember back in the ’90s when my company’s phone lines went digital. Well, the TTY didn’t work with digital and the company had to install an analog line for me. Last weekend, my husband went shopping for a new HDTV. He knew …
This Is My Family: Wanting a Deaf Baby
Just came across this interesting BBC video of a deaf couple who desire a deaf baby. The 2004 video shows the program in its entirety (one hour long) and with subtitles.
AT&T Causes uproar with Deaf Customers
Deafmac writes, “…we complained about their offering to the hearing people to have Voice-Only plan on their iPhones. As we all know, it spoke of discrimination and they removed it. Now we both, hearing and deaf, are back to square one where we have to pay $59.99 a month for both voice and data plans.” …