Deaf Woman Boxer

Not only is she a female, but she’s also deaf. Union-Tribune reports on Leni Hall’s first professional boxing match, which ended in a draw. Her handler, Bernie Navarro, believes she can make an impact in women’s boxing as a super flyweight.
I love sports, but boxing isn’t one of my interests. It’s always exciting to hear about woman making advances in any sport.

iPods Make Ear Molds Cool

A green ear mold caught my eye on TV right before commercials (you know how the news likes to tease us), so I stuck around. It was the story [free registration required] of kids with iPods getting ear molds made to protect their ears. Audiologists say custom-fitting ear molds work better than ear buds because they don’t come close to the ear drum like ear buds can. As a result, the ear mold shuts out background noise so the listener can hear the audio better.
Even the kid in the story thought ear molds weren’t cool until she learned they come in a variety of bright colors. That’s why my hearing aid is silver and not beige. I got so sick of that color as that was the color of ear molds and hearing aids I wore for most of my life.
Hmm… maybe I should get them for my family. Don’t want them to lose their hearing. Now I can just see the deaf world coming after me for saying that.

Jericho ASL Episode

Shoshannah Stern sent an email to the deaf network asking we watch her show this coming Wednesday, November 29. Here’s her note from Deaf Network.

This Wednesday, November 29, (2006) is a very special episode of Jericho for me. As some of you might know, I am a regular on this show, which airs on CBS at 8 pm Pacific time. There are so many people on the show, however, that there is so much ground to cover. I’ve been trying for a scene ONLY in sign language (no voice over or simcom) from the beginning. The writers and producers have been amazing and even let me try my hand in writing part of the scene! It will be aired THIS Wednesday. I don’t know how much of the scene will actually make it because of time constraints, but I would LOVE if you guys would watch and help me spread the word! This is a big step for everybody within the deaf community and of course for my character, Bonnie. Please, please watch… or at least TIVO it! Feel free to forward this to whoever you think may be interested!

For more information about this TV show “Jericho”:
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/jericho/
Shoshannah Stern – The Offical Web Site:
http://www.shoshannah-stern.com/

Deaf Job Seeker

I read Joyce Lain Kennedy’s Career Advice column and in last Sunday’s column, she provides advice to a deaf job seeker [may require free registration] who is struggling to find a job that doesn’t require telephone work. The writer also says that employers are reluctant to hire someone with a disability. I’m disappointed to read that as I rarely ran into this sort of problem since graduating college. Furthermore, I’m a full-time freelancer so I’m constantly “seeking new employers” in the form of clients. Perhaps, I’ve been lucky.
The only time I may have run into an employer who wasn’t comfortable with a deaf person was in high school — the retailer was the only one that didn’t accept me for the job. I even had the opportunity to work in a department store’s gift wrap shop in spite of the requirement to answer the phone. I turned it down because they believed I could handle the phone. It wasn’t a loss as I don’t have a talent for gift wrapping.
Anyway, Kennedy use professional athletes as an analogy. At the end of their professional sports career, they rely on their network of friends and family to open doors to a second career. Troy Aikman and Emmitt “Twinkletoes” Smith have done well in their post-football years. Kennedy points to DeafProfessional.net, a one-year-old web site covering deaf professional issues and profiles successful stories.
Sadly, Kennedy quotes a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)statistic saying that “only 55.8 percent of the disable community has a job.” SHRM is working with the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy to provide resources to employers on hiring people with disabilities.

More Cochlear Implant Blogs

Bionic Boys: More CI blogs to check out.

Relay through MSN Messenger

My IP Relay is available on MSN Messenger.
To use it, add myiprelay@verizonbusiness.com to your MSN Messenger Contact List.
To make a call:
* Just click on contact name, My IP Relay
* Enter the phone number you want to reach and follow the directions
* My IP Relay connects your call
Learn more at http://www.ip-relay.com/myiprelay.html. This is the same service that offers AIM relay (contact name: myiprelay). I use it most of the time because it’s faster than web-based relay services and it blends right in with my online chat application. Furthermore, I get my own phone number that goes through the AIM service.

Internet Scammers Target Deaf Community

Internet Scammers Target Deaf Community doesn’t surprise me. Many people view senior ciritizens and people with disabilities as weak — easy to scam. That’s why I believe religious organizations keep coming to me (there’s no question they target me because I’m deaf). Such organizations believe deaf people are easier to sway especially since we can feel socially isolated.
I know of a religious organization that preys on senior citizens especially when they’re hospitalized. They visit them and show interest in their lives. Sadly, many seniors don’t have family involved in their lives, so when they don’t feel lonely as a result of the organization’s visits, they’re more likely to give in.
My rule: I have to be the one who approaches an organization when it comes to helping and donations. If the organization approaches me, I’m not going to cooperate unless I know the organization and the folks behind it.

Play by Play of JKF Protest

When I read stories from the 1990s, I’m amazed how different they could’ve turned out had cell phones been more common then. Paul and I had numeric pagers. We came up with different codes to communicate with each other. Now we both have Sidekicks and can AIM to text message each other.
Forbes explores how Gallaudet protesters kept each other informed with technology. Paul and I use our ‘kicks to stay updated on game scores, shopping questions, and children whereabouts. Is it any wonder why I love technology and gadgets?

More Ugly News on Captioning Exemptions

An update to previous entry on Captioning News: Not Good News:
By Cheryl Heppner
Many of you have been following the recent saga of sudden mass exemptions granted for closed captioning of TV programs. The exemptions, over 270 of them, were given by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to mostly faith-based organizations. Few of these organizations provided the required evidence to show that captioning would be an undue burden.
Actions by Consumer Organizations
I have been working with a team of advocates from TDI, NAD, AAPD, CSD, DHHCAN and HLAA to address the serious errors committed in the granting of these permanent exemptions from closed captioning.
Among our actions were:
– Two meetings were held with FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate, one with Commissioner Robert McDowell, one with Chairman Kevin Martin, and conversations with Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.
– An “Application for Review of Bureau Order” filed with the FCC. We asked that all grants of exemption be rescinded and that the FCC individually review each petition for exemption to determine undue burden, and place all current and future exemptions on public notice. We pointed out that the FCC had violated the Telecommunications Act and Administrative Procedures Act, and had committed a number of procedural violations.
– A “Petition for Emergency Stay” was also filed with the FCC. In this petition, we noted that the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau arbitrarily overruled its own precedent without giving any rationale. We also reminded the FCC that the Bureau did not have delegated authority to create new rules or categories of captioning exemptions, only to administer and enforce rules and policies already created.
Action by National Religious Broadcasters in Opposition
The National Association of Religious Broadcasters (NRB), which is based at Technology Drive in Manassas, VA, filed an opposition to our “Application for Review of Bureau Order”, requesting that it be denied by the FCC.
In response, we filed a reply today that refutes their argument. The NRB gave as its interpretation of the test of undue burden a requirement that shows captioning would “likely produce a central interference, a mission-critical intrusion onto the non-profit organization’s ‘programming’ or ‘other activities important to its mission’”. Among other things, we pointed out that it’s not clear how the FCC would characterize an organization’s “mission”, or determine which activities are “important” or which intrusions are “mission-critical”.
Yesterday’s Shocking Development
The FCC released a Public Notice on November 7, 2006 that we did not receive until the afternoon of November 8, 2006. This notice said that the FCC had put the petitions for those 290+ entities which received exemptions on its website on October 12, 2006 The FCC also made information about additional petitions available on its website.
Buried in a footnote was the news that the petitions for exemption already granted by letter order were being “held in abeyance until the comment cycle on these petitions has ended.”
Good news: The FCC is indicating that its earlier decision to grant 290+ exemptions apparently isn’t final.
Bad news: We must submit comments on these and hundreds more new requests for exemption – a total of about 600 petitions – even though most of them clearly lack any information to justify an undue burden exemption. The FCC staff needs only to look in their files to see this.
Incredibly bad news: We have 20 days to file our comments. That’s 20 days from the date the Public Notice was released. We already lost 1 1/2 days before we knew of its release. Tomorrow and November 23-24 are holidays. November 11, 12, 25, and 26 are weekends. This gives us a total of 11 working days to go through and write up comments before the deadline of Monday, November 27, and two of them are already gone. That’s an average of 66 or 67 we’d have to comment on each working day.
You can find the FCC’s Public Notice at:
http://www.fcc.gov/da062287.pdf
And More Gripes!
We didn’t need another stab to the heart, but the Public Notice issued on November 7 had a lot of objectionable language and inaccuracies. One that definitely didn’t sit well was the FCC’s note “where similar petitions were previously placed on public notice, an opposition was filed by only one coommenter:. Our coalition of organizations that had worked together to file comments in the past (aided enormously by pro bono lawyers at Bingham McCutchen) does its best to represent the more than 30 million people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The FCC’s public notice also blames our coalition for deciding not to put any more petitions for captioning exemption on public notice. They cite a letter sent to them in after we learned that more than 450 exemption requests had been sent to the FCC. In this letter, we said that it was a hardship to our organzations to file oppositions to petitions that were “clearly deficient” — the ones that didn’t have all the information required by the FCC’s own regulations. We said we’d only file oppositions to petitions that raised new issues. We felt that after filing dozens of oppositions we had established a clear precedent with the FCC that we expected them to put each petition to the test contained in their own regulations.
The November 7 public notice says, “As a result, the Commission stopped placing these petitions on public notice.” the November 7 public notice says. How crazed is that? How can we know if the exemption requests are clearly deficient or not unless they’re placed on public notice? And why assume that we are the only people in the entire nation who might have something to say about the petitions for exemption?
So this is our reward for speaking up, 600 petitions to respond to in 20 days.
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©2006 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), 3951 Pender Drive, Suite 130, Fairfax, VA 22030; www.nvrc.org Items in this newsletter are provided for information purposes only; NVRC does not endorse products or services. You do not need permission to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC. This news service is free of charge, but donations are greatly appreciated. To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your email address, or report a problem receiving the news, send an email to cheppner@nvrc.org

Ragged Edge

A Ragged Edge Online addresses disability-related issues that many mainstream publications avoid such as assisted suicide, de-institutionalization, abuse and nursing home issues. The site also lists roughly 50 topical blogs. It’s refreshing to see content that confronts issues many are afraid to speak of.