February 2008 archive

Sprint Customer Service

Wow. I’m impressed with Sprint so far — and I am not even a customer yet. The company’s customer service e-mails are much better than my current wireless provider’s. My current wireless provider sends long e-mails where only one paragraph means anything to me. The rest sounds phony as it uses a poorly written customer …

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More on Convert Voice Mail to Text

I opened the floodgates when I posted about a voice mail to text service. I learned about another and another and another. Here are the companies that provide voice mail to text services: GotVoice Phonetic Simulscribe SpinVox Pricing is generally the same at $9.99 for 40 messages per month. Curious as to how the services …

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Hollywood and Deaf Actors

Chris of DeafDC Blog opens an interesting discussion about Hollywood’s actions indicating a preference to deaf actors and actresses who speak. My vote — do a mix. Some roles can be deaf actors who don’t speak and some do. This will be more representative of the deaf population’s diversity. Having a hearing actor play a …

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Baby Sign Game

Baby Sign Game is adorable! This game provides a word and players pick one of four pictures that correctly represents the word in sign language. I only missed one word and that was dog (easy), which didn’t use the fingersnapping. Not sure what that was about. Surprised myself — I know more sign language than …

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Convert Voice Mail to Text

OMG! I saw this in Guy Kawasaki’s e-mail signature (he surprisingly responded to an e-mail I sent to Alltop). SpinVox (UK residents go to the main SpinVox) can convert voice mails to text. This just might be worth the money. It also has a Memo feature, but I am not sure if it sends memos …

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Matlin Joins Dancing with the Stars

Exciting news! Marlee Matlin joins the next round of Dancing with the Stars. I never thought deaf people couldn’t learn to dance the fancy stuff (tango, ballroom, etc.), ballet, or tap. I took ballet and tap when I was five and that was it. My dancing career ended as sports was my thang. Sometimes I …

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More on the AGBell Letter to Pepsi

Just learned National Association of the Deaf (NAD) wrote a letter [pdf file] [Letter and video in NAD blog] to Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing regarding AGBell’s letter to Pepsi. Here’s the backstory, if you missed it. I appreciate NAD’s letter. I think it would have more power had …

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The Deaf Super Bowl Commercial

The commercial we all wanted to see during the Super Bowl didn’t air during the game. Instead, it aired 30 minutes BEFORE the game. Yeah, how many people view the pre-game program AND watch the commercials? Most people assume the supposedly hot (some weren’t) commercials will air during the game — not before or after. …

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Deaf Advantages of Travel

Here’s a great story from the Guardian about how being deaf can help when traveling especially to other countries. When I flew alone on Southwest Airlines, I went to the check in desk and let the staff know that I was deaf and would need notification when to board. Without a beat, she said I …

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