Browneyedgirl has a good discussion of a book, Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language, going in her blog. I don’t have anything intelligent to add to the already enlightening conversation.
Oppose Requests for TV Programs without Closed Captions
Time to take action and it only takes a few minutes. Just filled out the form myself. Deadline: March 27, 2007.
From DeafNetwork newsletter:
The battle for TV closed captions continues. It is time to take action. Time to oppose requests from TV programs to be shown without closed captions, in your state.
The NAD made it easy to do. It must be done by March 27, 2007.
TV Documentary on Deaf Life in America
Gallaudet University reports that “Through Deaf Eyes,” a two-hour PBS documentary exploring nearly 200 years of Deaf life in America, airs on March 21, 2007 at 9pm ET (check your local listings). “he film presents the story of Deaf life in America – a story of conflicts, prejudice and affirmation that reaches the heart of what it means to be human.”
The film was inspired by the exhibition, “History Through Deaf Eyes,” curated by Jack R. Gannon of Gallaudet University. I’ve had the honor of meeting Mr. Gannon in person when he spoke at the Department of Transportation during Deaf Awareness Week in 1993. Stockard Channing narrates the program, which includes interviews with Dr. I. King Jordan, Marlee Matlin, Bernard Bragg, historians, and deaf Americans.
Based on what I’ve read about the documentary, it takes an honest look into the things that separate people who are deaf. Those “who are part of the cultural-linguistic group who use American Sign Language and often define themselves as ‘Deaf’ – with a capital, and cultural, ‘D’ – and deaf people who, for a variety of reasons, do not identify with the Deaf cultural community.”
Personally, I respect each person’s choice. Just wish people wouldn’t hold it against a person for making such a choice.
NCAM/CC for Flash
WGBH Access Division Creates “CC for Flash” to Simplify Captioning for Adobe Flash Technology
http://ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/ccforflash/
Accessibility and Search Enhanced by Free Tool; Easy-to-Embed Flash-Based-Media Player also Available
Use of Adobe® Flash® technology to add dynamic and engaging video content to Web sites is growing exponentially. With WGBH’s new solution, developers are able to more easily add captions in Flash. Now, millions of users who are deaf or hard of hearing are better able to experience Web-based video in Flash and search engines are able to capitalize on captions as search metadata for SWF content.
WGBH, Boston’s public broadcaster and a decades-long pioneer in developing access solutions to media for audiences with disabilities has created a component for Flash, CC for Flash, that can be authored into any SWF file for playback in Adobe Flash Player. The component is easy to use, and freely available from the NCAM Web site at http://ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/ccforflash.
Funding for development of CC for Flash was provided by a grant to WGBH’s Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) from the NEC Foundation of America, with additional support provided by Yahoo!
CC for Flash: The Details
• Uses external files produced in the W3C’s Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP) of the Timed-Text Authoring Format.
• Imports existing formats such as Apple QuickTime’s QTtext, with support for Microsoft’s SAMI format soon to follow.
• Exposes many of its internal functions through ActionScriptTM language so that the author can control and customize many of the features.
• Can play back caption metadata that has been embedded in the video by tools such as Captionate.
• Can be linked to any video playback components in Flash or directly to Netstream objects in the SWF of the FLV file.
• Allows the author to set the caption display box coordinates and default text attributes, like background color, text foreground color, font face and size, opacity, etc., at authoring time. At playback time, any text attributes that are explicitly defined in the external caption file will override the defaults.
• Captions can be added after the video content in Flash is posted, allowing for flexibility across production and distribution environments.
• Allows captions to be searched.
• Comes with an optional player, ccPlayer for Flash, which allows those unfamiliar with Flash programming to embed video content in Flash into a Web page with minimal effort.
• Is compatible with Flash MX2004 (7) and 8 authoring packages.
A Best Friend for CC for Flash: MAGpie
MAGpie, NCAM’s free do-it-yourself captioning and description application allows developers to create captions once, and then to output those captions in multiple formats, including QuickTime, Windows Media, and Real.
NCAM has now added the W3C’s new timed-text format, the Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP), to MAGpie’s caption export options. MAGpie version 2.0.2 is the only tool available today for authoring DFXP caption files. With MAGpie and CC for Flash, it’s now easier than ever to provide captions for Flash Player compatible video content.
WGBH’s Media Access Group can also provide Flash caption authoring services for long-form content not easily handled by MAGpie, and for producers who would rather outsource their captioning work. WGBH’s Media Access Group, since 1972 the leader in providing captioning and description to the broadcast, film, educational and online media worlds, is now the first organization that can provide DFXP captions for Flash presentations.
Babel Neglects Deaf Audience
The Oscar nominated movie, Bable, has a deaf Japanese woman character who struggles to communicate with her father. The irony is that Japanese deaf moviegoers couldn’t follow the movie as explained ‘Babel’ ignores deaf audience. Variety also has a report.
Embarrassing, but not surprising overssight.
No Soliciting Signs
They came again! Jehovah’s Witnesses came to my door and it was obvious they came to me because they were signing to each other. I have a “No soliciting” sign right by the doorbell, but they probably don’t see themselves as solicitors.
I can’t find a sign or information that takes care of the religious groups. I’m quite happy with my religion and have a relationship with G-d. I don’t need complete strangers talking to me about it and I don’t have time to shoo them away.
I love the funny sign here, but it’s too long and I doubt they’ll read it. A comment in the entry refers to yard signs, but I think the sign by the doorbell is enough as I hardly ever get solicitors anymore since posting it. Besides, I already have two signs in my yard and they’re more deserving of the space (kids’ sports).
Here’s a funny sign I found on Amazon. Perhaps, I need to do what Grant suggested. Post another sign below that says, “No religious visits.” I like that.
Business Meeting with Hearing and Deaf Men
Kokonut Pundits posted a video of a hearing and deaf man conversing without pen and paper, without sign language and lipreading and without misunderstandings.
Why not do this with instant messenger or email? In watching the video, I didn’t see anything that couldn’t be done through instant messenger. But it’s still a great tool because some face-to-face meetings require reviewing papers, demonstrating things and so forth. Cool.
Employement for the Deaf and HoH
The Realities of Employment sadly provides accurate information about the employement situation for the deaf and HoH. When I worked for the US government, I remember reading statistics saying that the deaf group — on average — had the lowest job levels (GS) of all groups working for the federal government. Lower than those who are classified as blind or mentally challenged.
I’m sure there are more recent stats available somewhere — but right now I am playing catch up.
BBC Deaf Comedy and Swindling
Mary Akpalas Weblog shares her experience in watching a deaf comedy on BBC. She’s not deaf, but she found it hilarious in spite of some claiming that only deaf people get it.
Woman swindles deaf by using sign language. Awful.
Tablet PC as a Communications Tool
Deaf Technological Review points out how a tablet PC could be a great tool for the deaf and blind. Places like The Dallas Summer Musicals are using laptops to provide text for their shows, but I tihnk tablets would be better as they’re more portable. But hey, I’m thrilled they offer a way for us to enjoy the show. I’m seeing Wicked there in April.
When I learned about the laptop deal, it took a load off my plate. One of my to dos was to read the book before the show. Between the flu and book abstract work, there was no chance I was going to read the book in time.
What other ways could we use tablet PCs to make our lives easier?