Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s [National Center on Disability and Journalism](http://ncdj.org/styleguide/) provides a style guide that explains the common terms related to disabilities and their usage. The style guide points which items follow the AP style guide and which don’t.
It offers tips on when to use certain words and when to avoid others. Do you say, “Confined to a wheelchair?” (No) Do you ever use the word “Handicapped,” which many consider offensive? (Only in reference to laws and regulations such as “Handicapped Parking.”)
Great reference for writers and for people to share with others who wonder about the same thing.
Disability Style Guide
Beward Scam Targets Deaf
Just got the following email — brilliant. They’re targeting the deaf. Because of their ability to not only identify me as a deaf person, but they also mention “Texas” (my home state). They mention National Association for the Deaf (NAD). The email doesn’t request a bank account — nonetheless, ignore the email. Here’s an excerpt:
The Entire Team of Deaf Charity organisation, Congratulate you on your Win of a Cash prize of $150,000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollars) Only in today’s Draw.
We are also Pleased to inform you that you have been verified.
We got millions of Email address from the the deafvp and deafconnect and our electronic System Randomly Picks 10 Lucky People to win $150,000.00 Cash prize each all in the effort of empowering the deafs and the disabled in general.
We are Charity Organisations, Lending a Helping Hand to the Deaf, as we know that Disability is not Inability.
We are affiliated to Organisations Like NAD (National Association of the Deaf), UNAD ( United Nations Aid for Disabled)
Subsequent to the United Nations Disabled Day Held in texas in July 2009, we came up with a lottery tohelp the deaf through out the States.but u need to believe this cos it is real.
As matther of fact, the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT is aware of this and also the department of IRS and we are compelled to give out the cash winnings to sucessful and lucky winners after they have met up with the laid down requirments and have been cleared
Our System Randomly Picked your Email Address and a Unique Winning Number assigned to you.
Are you Ready to claim your cash the Prize Now? As you have the Option of rejecting it and will be sent directly to the motherless babies home in europe within 48 hrs.
I need to advice you on this,pls once you get your money i will advice you to pls spend it wisely and reasonably 5 other winners have claimed there cash prize and now they are living happily with there family and you are the 6th winner…….u are so lucky..i am so happy for u………a check will be issued to you in your name………
Free Tools for Captioning YouTube Videos
Terrill Thompson of University of Washington has a great post detailing [free tools to caption YouTube videos](http://terrillthompson.com/2009/08/free-tools-for-captioning-youtube.html) and reviews some of the applications. I’ve used [CaptionTube to do my video](http://www.meryl.net/ci/2009/04/captiontube_you.html).
– [CapScribe](http://capscribe.snow.utoronto.ca/): Mac and Firefox
– [CaptionTube](http://captiontube.appspot.com/): web-based
– [dotSub](http://dotsub.com/): web-based
– [Easy YouTube Caption Creator](http://accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/accessibility-tools/easy-youtube-caption-creator/): web-based
– [MAGpie](http://ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/magpie/index.html): Windows and Mac
– [Overstream](http://www.overstream.net/): web-based
– [Subtitle Horse](http://www.subtitle-horse.com/): Windows
– [Subtitle Workshop](http://www.urusoft.net/products.php?cat=sw&lang=1): Windows
– [TubeCaption](http://www.tubecaption.com/): web-based and broken
– [vSync Bookmarklet](http://vsync.tunezee.com/bookmarklet.html): web-based
– [UW-Madison’s World Caption](http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=7096): Mac
Will Mozilla Blow It on Captioning?
Joe Clark, accessibility advocate extraordinaire, posted “[Will Moz blow it on captioning?](http://blog.fawny.org/2009/07/27/mozcc1/)”
I don’t know what’s the right answer. But so many organizations do it differently, it’d be near impossible to have a standard for everyone that’s easy to use.
Text to Speech with TextAloud
I don’t forget other people have different challenges from the deaf. Just received a note about [TextAloud](http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/index.html), a text reader solution that costs $30.
TextAloud software translates any written text into speech including web sites,emails, documents and PDF files. TextAloud doesn’t require other hardware. Users export their reading into sound files for listening on portable MP3 players, iPhones and iPods, Blackberries, laptops, TX using TiVO’s Home Media Option or burned to a CD. The software also integrates with iTunes.
A [free trial](http://www.nextup.com/TextAloud/download.html) is available.
Closed-Captioned Movie Trailers
After seeing *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*, it got me thinking there has to be a place online to view many subtitled trailers in one place. Within a few minutes, I found [http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/](http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/). [CaptionFish](http://captionfish.com) has subtitled trailers for the current releases, but I wanted to find them all in one place without trying to change locations especially since some may not be in theaters yet.
The trailers at Harry Potter weren’t captioned (no surprise there), but they aroused my curiosity about the movies (9, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Where the Wild Things Are and 2012). So I wanted to look them up and see them with captions. Your Local Cinema didn’t have all of movies I previewed, so I went to [Bill Cresswell’s site](http://billcreswell.wordpress.com/) and he had one.
Hey, I don’t go to the movies often. In fact, the last few movies I’ve seen have all been Harry Potter movies.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer
Here’s the link to view the closed-captioned trailer of the sixth Harry Potter movie.
[http://www.captionfish.com/movie/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince](http://www.captionfish.com/movie/harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince)
Wonder when a captioned version of the movie will reach the Dallas area. Definitely not next week.
Netflix and Captions
I heard the news on Twitter from an unexpected source: @marleematlin. I happened to browse Twitter and caught her tweet. It’s great to have someone with her name speaking out about Netflix’s lack of captions on streamed movies. Like it or not, celebrities can make things happen a little faster than as ornery folk.
Netflix responded to the caption issue in its blog. While I appreciate the company’s action to deliver captions in 2010, I take issue with a few things:
1. Silverlight: “Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) is on Microsoft’s Board of Directors.” No wonder why Netflix is only looking at Silverlight instead of what’s best and fastest. Heck, I captioned my own YouTube video. Also see http://www.codeplex.com/amp. Besides, Microsoft hasn’t implemented all of the SAMI specs.
2. A year? Really? Even the major TV networks caption full-episodes. Hey, Hulu even does some!
Pshaw. Give us a better answer, Netflix. Not looking at the gift horse in the mouth, but the fact you’re letting your own “constraints” affect customer service.
Fishing for Movies with Captionfish
You may have seen [Fomdi](http://www.fomdi.com/), a web site that helps you locate captioned movies (either open caption or rear window) by zip code and how far the theaters are from your home. Fomdi has a Google search-like interface. It provides a great service, but it doesn’t catch every movie. Today, it shows only one captioned movie within 40 miles of me.
[CaptionFish](http://captionfish.com/) does the same except it detects your location and has a sleek 2.0 web interface. Captionfish shows six captioned movies within 30 miles of me. I know this list is more accurate because I checked with the theaters’ web sites and newspaper.
Nonetheless, Captionfish goes the extra mile and provides captioned movie trailers! So if you find a movie of interest, you can watch its trailer right there if it’s available (not all movies have a captioned trailer). If you want to see what movies will be available tomorrow or for the next seven days, be sure to switch to the “7 Day” tab as I almost missed it. It also has a mobile version of the set as the next image shows a screen shot from a BlackBerry Curve.
Great interface, high usability and valuable features make [CaptionFish](http://captionfish.com/) worthy becoming a part of the entertainment toolbox for those who rely on captions.
Defensive Situations
Amazing Race‘s Luke responded to a question that confirmed that some deaf people (me included) tend to be more defensive than the average person. Here’s the interview response I’m talking about:
The deaf community has responded very positively. They were very happy with how I played the game and that I made the final three. They were a little disappointed about the Kisha and Jen incident. It’s kind of the deaf-culture thing that the natural reaction is to protect myself when I’m bumped into. I was also really upset when Jen called me a bitch because I couldn’t hear what she said. She should’ve said it to my face and not behind my back. I thought that was a very cowardly thing to do and I felt like she kind of got away with that. The deaf community was mad about that.
We don’t want people to view us as pushovers or say something about us out of our view when we’re right there. If a hearing person can hear it, then be fair and tell the deaf person in front of him or her. Luckily, I can recognize a few words my kids say when they’re mad and catch them red-handed when they walk away calling me names or saying inappropriate stuff.
I wonder what other habits I have that are common for deaf people, but uncommon for hearing people.