Top news of the month
January 2019
When the FBI raided the home of Roger Stone to arrest
him in the early morning hours, his wife was scared
and confused. The newspapers said she was deaf. Do not
know the extent of her deafness – deaf but functioned
as hearing, or was late deafened or deaf all her life
but not knowing ASL?
…
February 2019
How does one compare captions at Regal Theaters
and at AMC Theaters? Regal uses glasses; it is
“heavy” on the nose. AMC uses display which may
be difficult to hold steady in the cupholders.
Those that responded said only one thing is best
– open captions!
…
March 2019
Advice for deaf people that get “voice” video relay
calls that are interpreted – beware if you do not
recognize the hearing person’s name, it may be
a scam. There was a story of hearing scammers
using video relay services to try to scam the
deaf out of their money.
…
April 2019
Melissa Perrell Parker, who is deaf, but
functions as a hearing person, was profiled
in a magazine interview. She manages nearly
300 employees, over 2,200 volunteers on
a budget of $15 million dollars with the
Novant Health in North Carolina. Her job
title is Patient advocacy officer and vice
president of patient services.
…
May 2019
An ugly contradiction is taking place in
Scotland. A deaf man was told by
social services agency that he was not
fit for employment. Yet when he applied
for disability benefits he was told he is
not “disabled” enough for it. This ugly
contradiction hit the front pages of a
Scottish newspaper.
…
June 2019
Central Michigan University is offering a course on
attitudes towards the deaf and the disabled. Goal
is to prevent stereotypical opinions which lean
towards negative thoughts.
…
July 2019
Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen ordered all TV news
programs to have sign language interpreters. This
was a repeat order since TV stations ignored it
in the past.
…
August 2019
There is an irony to Dubai’s goal of becoming the
world’s best disability-friendly city. Their movie
theaters are not captioned, a point raised by
an advocate of the deaf.
…
September 2019
Governor Simon Lalong (Plateau State, Nigeria)
has personally removed hearing members of the
Disability Rights Commission, replacing them
with deaf and disabled individuals.
…
October 2019
The American Bar Association is hosting an event
to encourage law firms to hire the deaf and the
disabled.
…
November 2019
Back-up deafness genes? Russian deaf gene
designer Denis Rebrikov said he plans
to give double copies of deaf genes for
deaf couples that do not want hearing
babies. Single copy, double copy? This
story gets a bit more complicated!
…
December 2019
Harvard, after facing a lawsuit, has agreed
to caption all of its videos.