Kids make fun of each other. That’s an accepted part of childhood and growing up. It’s unbelievable what kids in 6th grade say nowadays. Words I’d never heard people say until at least high school. No matter what I do, I can’t prevent my kids from learning things too young. As a parent, I do …
Category: The D Life
Captel Phone
Since the state of Texas had a special offer on Captel phones for its residents at $99, I got one. It’s great for making calls, but receiving calls are a pain. Making calls: Just pick up the phone and dial the number while ensuring the caption button is lit up. You can also hear the …
UpYourBudget Adventures and Sales People
Last Friday, I did something out of character. I spontaneously drove to downtown Dallas to join the UpYourBudget Treasure Hunt. I wrote about it here and here. From a deaf perspective, I ran into two challenges. One, if you find the UpYourBudget sticker, you have to call the number on the sticker. I figured my …
Patriotic Duty: Voting and Sitting on a Jury
Since Tuesday was election day in the U.S.A. and I saw this article from New Zealand that talks about deaf on juries. Sign language interpreters are making it possible for the deaf to do jury duty. I remember a few years ago reading about a court that had technology so a deaf jurist could read …
iPod Captioning… Not
iPod does not have captioning capabilties as confirmed by an article and in this Washington Post interview and many blog comments / postings. There is also a good article on the topic, but I can’t share the article with you because it’s copy-protected AND you have to register to view the article. Hence, my rant …
Parents Who Are Not Supportive
Alex dropped me a line and soon we started having an email conversation. I learned she’s fluent in ASL. She’s not deaf nor does she have a relative that is. Not a teacher either. Anyway, I enjoyed getting to know her and she mentioned a person who wanted to use ASL, but her mother was …
Short Survey
A group of MBA students at Washington University in St. Louis is conducting a survey on behalf of a company called iMAT, which is developing a new product to benefit the deaf and hard-of-hearing. It would be most appreciated if you would help this educational endeavor, and also help a company trying to assist deaf …
Making Webcasts Accessible to the Deaf
I’ve largely ignored webcasting and podcasting — just learning enough to understand what’s going on and staying up to speed with online technologies. But beyond that, it’s a waste of my time. I had thought about downloading podcasts and using them to practice listening, but I have enough material thanks to the speech therapist. Besides, …
Blasting Speakers
Ah, the good ol’ days when we had three feet tall speakers. I’d take out my hearings aids and press my ear against the speaker with the stereo volume turned way up. This was the only way I could hear with my own ears. I got reminded of this yesterday. My son’s school had a …
Texas Residents Only – Captel Phone Sale
Brand New Captels for $99 Sprint and WCI has come to an agreement to promote this special for Texas Residents only. It’s available for a limited time and for a limited number of units. WCI is now offering brand new CapTels (Captioned Telephones) for only $99.00 each. It will come with a one-year full money …