I just completed my first phone call through Sprint Web Captel’s service and it was wonderful. I used to make voice carry over (VCO) calls, but the problem is that they took me away from my computer and I couldn’t save the conversation on the Captel phone.
I have used the TTY to make VCO calls and print the conversation, but I didn’t like wasting paper or the noisy grinding it made while printing. So the web service combines the best of both worlds for those who would like to talk rather than type their conversations (and avoid increasing chances of carpal tunnel).
This flyer shows how the service works [pdf file].
The nice thing is that I can hear the person on the other end and when she pauses. As soon as the person stop speaking, I try to minimize the silence by trying to figure out what the person said based on what the operator has typed before completing the sentence. We humans don’t like silence.
But if the person says something very short, then that’s impossible. Generally, I’ll recognize “OK” and other “agreed”-type answers… but if it’s “What’s that called?” Then it becomes an uncomfortable silence while I wait on the operator.
It will take a little practice to get comfortable with this set up since it’s been a long time since I regularly VCO’d. I fumbled a little and it didn’t help that my voice was a little hoarse due to allergies.
Report on SprintCaptel Experience
Comedy Film for the Deaf and Hearing-Impaired
From inrich.com
“A hilarious sitcom about a dysfunctional deaf family.”
Those are words guaranteed to stop traffic. But they’re not pulled from a skit on “Saturday Night Live,” nor are they meant to be offensive.
What they describe is a short, family-friendly comedy film created specifically for the hard of hearing and deaf community. “The Deaf Family” is filmed in American Sign Language.
Captioning Sucks
Admit it. It does!
This is no April Fool’s joke. Many things happen on the first day of the month… well, why wait until May?
My biggest frustration with captions are…
* Too many videos out there and not enough have captions. Project readOn is trying to help… but it’s way bigger than any one company to manage.
* Plenty of good DVDs still not captioned or subtitled (latest being Jeff Dunham’s video).
* Sometimes hard to read as these photos show sucky captions.
Captioning Sucks explains what’s wrong with captions while Open & Closed Project aims to set standards for captioning as well as audio description, subtitling, and dubbing.
A Deaf Character and a Missing Mummy
Here is a nice interview with the Christine Harris, author of Mask of the Jackal. She explains the motivation of including a deaf character named Jordy into the story.
The book isn’t about deafness, but rather just happens to includes a deaf person as a character. That’s the way life is… we just happen to run into people of all cultures and differences in situations not having to do with the culture or difference.
Those interested in Egyptian history will enjoy the interview as the author discusses her fascination with anctient Egypt and its artifacts.
Car Logos in Hand Signs
Fun post from UK site, B3ta. Using hand signs to represent car logos — some familiar and some impossible to get especially for us Americans who won’t be familiar with some of the cars.
I’m impressed with the signer. While on a recent road trip, I attempted to create signs without remembering what this site showed and it wasn’t easy! Below are the links to the logos — don’t worry, no spoilers — click and scroll your mouse over the space to see the answers.
Embed Captions Videos
In celebration of its one year anniversary, Project readOn unveils a new feature — Embedded videos. Users can grab the code from Project readOn to add captioned videos to their own sites, blogs, and social network pages.
The player on the Web site contains two new buttons, “Email this captioned video to a friend” and “Grab this captioned video for my website.” Click one of the buttons and a small popup window appears with the information. Either enter your friend’s email address, or copy and paste the “embed” code as needed.
So here’s my first try at including a captioned video from Project readOn. I had been wanting to check out Jeff Dunham’s shows — but couldn’t find anything captioned (the videos don’t indicate whether it’s captioned or comes with subtitles)… and Project readOn has two videos (one was a Christmas show with Achmed the dead terrorist).
Deaf People Wanted for Reality Shows
Rita suggests deaf people with families to apply to be on a reality show as few have shown deaf families. She lists three shows.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition had deaf parents (Vardons) on the show and the Llanes who have a deaf son. Plus it takes a lot to qualify for the show. I think a deaf family on Wife Swap would be a wonderful eye opener for viewers.
Wife Swap: Wives trade places and join the other’s family.
Super Nanny: Having trouble with difficult children? Super Nanny helps.
Extreme Makeover Home Edition: Family in difficult situation with home that’s dangerous or falling apart? Requires a lot of crying on TV.
Internet Relay with VCO
I have a Captel phone, but hardly ever use it mainly because my family takes care of phone calls or I use the Internet relay service without voice carry over (VCO). I prefer using my computer for calls since I can keep a record of the call — something the Captel phone doesn’t have.
Now Sprint makes it possible to make relay calls over the Internet AND use VCO. I read about a way to do this a long time ago, but it was very confusing and required messing with the phone set up. But not this time.
Already found one drawback, I can’t call someone in Toronto or Ontario. It just happened that the first call I tried was to Ontario (I didn’t realize the person was in Canada from the area code). Nonetheless, Sprint impresses me with all the tools, services, and prices available for the deaf. I’ve worked for two major telecommunications companies and neither were Sprint.
Smell Alarm
Ew. I’m sorry but the smell alarm just doesn’t appeal as shown in this Make article. I’ll stick with the vibrating alarm. Contrary to what the post says, deaf people don’t wear alarms. Yes, they have to be activated — but it’s not hard. Besides… the smell of smoke could erase the smell of horseradish.
UK IVF Couple Wants Deaf Child
The Human Future points to a fascinating story of a deaf couple in the UK that has a deaf daughter. Now they want another child. The mother is in her 40s, so the coupled needs to do intro-vitro fertilization (IVF). OK, so what’s wrong with that? The couple may not get the deaf embryo.
From The Guardian, “The trouble is that, according to clause 14/4/9 of the bill, the selection of a hearing child through IVF is permitted, but embryos found to have deafness genes will be automatically discarded. ‘This sends out a clear and direct message that the government thinks deaf people are better off not being born.”
Does the government have the right to dictate the condition of an embryo? I understand the need for the rule to protect parents from receiving problematic embryos, but what of parents who want a unique one?