Got some email about Ontario Association for the Deaf's concerns about the usage and quality of ASL in Deaf schools. This is the first video I have seen made by OAD. What is scary is the guy claims that 97% of children aged 0 - 5 years old have cocklear implants. Is this era in Deaf history going to be called "Age of Deaf Cyborgs"?
Just in case some of you have not received this email - seems like CAD is working on trying to get some kind of national Video Relay Service set up in Canada. Looks like Sorenson's Canadian entity is not going to be considered for a VRS provider in Canada.
TO: Members of the Deaf Community
CCSD and CAD Affiliates
AVLIC President and MembersDate: January 31, 2007
__________________________________________________________This is a brief update to let you all know what is happening with VRS in Canada. Everyone has different opinions or information about what is happening and so we wish to update everyone together. We have not forgotten about this need and we have not forgotten you.CAD and CCSD submitted their proposal to the CRTC for a national VRS in August 2006. The problem is funding. It is easy for us to say, that the government should fund it. In reality, this does not happen so we are relying on CRTC's decision to push for funding from telecommunications companies. We had several meetings with the CRTC one year ago. We applied to the government and got approval for a company called Sign Relay Canada – Service de Relais Canada Corporation, at arms length from CAD-CCSD but with CAD and CCSD as the overseeing Board.We submitted our proposal for national VRS in August, 2006 the first chance we had after six months of CRTC proceedings. CRTC proceedings must follow strict rules and they decided we should not submit our proposal so soon because it was bending rules. It took them three months to decide to call another proceeding to deal with the accessibility issues.They then extended the deadline for proposal submissions again (due February 19, 2007) in order to give telecommunications companies more time to submit their proposals. Once they have made a decision about whether VRS should be at a national or provincial level, we believe it will be set up right away, hopefully by the end of 2007.People have been asking, "What about Sorensen? They have a call centre in Canada, right?" They are asking for sign language interpreters applications, etc. We need to clarify it is for US services, not Canada. They are in dire need of ASL interpreters for the US.Our position is to have a national level VRS in Canada with Canadian interpreters and Canadian workers. The new CRTC proceeding which you can follow at the CRTC's own website, www.crtc.gc.ca at Telecom Public Notice 2006-15 sets out a one year timeline that makes it clear when VRS will finally start up. If we win this funding fight, it would be up and running on the national level by the end of 2007. If Bell and Telus win their fight, it will be up and running in only four provinces probably by the beginning of 2008.Stay with us on this...we have not forgotten you.
Helen Pizzacalla
President
Canadian Cultural Society of the DeafSheila Carlin
President
Canadian Association of the Deaf
Aux : membres de la communauté sourde
membres de la SCCS et de l'ASC
président et membres de l'AVLIC
Date : le 31 janvier 2007
Voici une brève mise au point afin que vous sachiez ce qui se passe avec le Service de relais Canada (SRC). Chacun a une opinion ou détient de l'information différente sur ce qui se passe, c'est pourquoi nous souhaitons faire une mise au point. Nous n'avons pas mis de côté ce projet et nous ne vous oublions pas.En août 2006, l'ASC et la SCCS ont soumis leur proposition de SRC au CRTC. Le problème reste son financement. Il est facile pour nous de dire que c'est au gouvernement de payer pour ce service, mais dans les faits, cela n'arrivera pas. Nous espérons donc que le CRTC forcera les compagnies de télécommunication à financer le SRC.Il y a un an, nous avons rencontré le CRTC à plusieurs reprises. Nous avons mis sur pied une compagnie canadienne du nom de Sign Relay Canada – Service de relais Canada, indépendante de l'ASC et de la SCCS, mais dont le conseil d'administration est formé de dirigeants de l'ASC et de la SCCS.Nous avons soumis notre proposition de SRC en août 2006, notre seule chance après six mois d'audiences du CRTC. Les audiences du CRTC sont régies par des règles strictes et le CRTC a dit que notre proposition arrivait trop rapidement et qu'elle ne respectait pas les règles de travail habituelles. Il leur a fallu trois mois avant de convoquer une nouvelle audience afin de parler de l'accessibilité.Par la suite, le CRTC a reporté la date limite pour la remise de propositions au 19 février 2007 afin de laisser le temps aux compagnies de télécommunication de déposer la leur. C'est après que le CRTC aura statué si le SRC est de niveau canadien ou provincial que le service entrera en vigueur. Nous espérons que ce sera à la fin de 2007.Les gens nous demandent : « Que se passe-t-il avec Sorenson? Ils ont un centre d'appel au Canada n'est-ce pas ? Ils sont à la recherche d'interprètes en langue des signes, etc.». Clarifions quelque chose, cette recherche d'interprètes vise le service de relais américain et pas le service de relais canadien. Oui il manque d'interprètes ASL aux États-Unis. Notre position à nous est d'avoir un SRC canadien, avec des interprètes et des travailleurs canadiens.Il est possible de consulter le site www.crtc.gc.ca afin d'en connaître plus sur ce qui se passe lors des audiences publiques 2006-15 qui s'échelonneront sur une année, ce qui nous donne une idée de la date probable de mise en service du SRC.Si nous remportons cette victoire financière, le SRC sera prêt et en fonction dès la fin de 2007. Si Bell et Telus remportent la victoire, le SRC ne sera en fonction que dans quatre provinces canadiennes, peut-être au début de 2008.Continuez à nous appuyer, nous ne vous oublions pas.
Helen Pizzacalla
Présidente
Société culturelle canadienne des SourdsSheila Calin
Présidente
Association des Sourds du Canada
Remember my post about NBC reporting that most IP Relay calls are scams? Got an newsletter email from NAD and they met and talked about how to deal with the IP Relay scam issue.
The NAD and other consumer advocacy group representatives have been meeting with relay service providers and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to address concerns about IP Relay misuse, fraud, and scams. IP Relay is misused by people who are not deaf or hard of hearing. Those people use IP Relay to engage in fraudulent and scam business transactions. We have been trying to find ways to reduce or eliminate IP Relay misuse, fraud, and scams, but the issues are complex. For example, the deaf and hard of hearing community may be willing to consider registering for IP Relay services, but someone first needs to identify a registration system that would be centralized, relatively convenient for relay users, and, most importantly, effectively reduce or eliminate IP Relay misuse, fraud, and scams. No such registration system exists today.
On January 26, 2006, we met with United States Senate staff members who were interested to learn more about Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS). TRS is intended to provide functionally equivalent telecommunication services for members of the deaf and hard of hearing community, as well as for people with speech disabilities. Today, TRS enables communication with telephone users through the use of TTYs and through the Internet via computers, videophones, and mobile devices. We also talked about IP Relay misuse, fraud, and scams. We believe actual or reported IP Relay misuse, fraud, and scams hurt the deaf and hard of hearing community. Many businesses refuse to conduct any business with anyone who calls through any relay service (TTY, IP Relay, Video Relay Services, and others). Businesses discriminate against deaf and hard of hearing consumers when they do not accept relay calls. We believe refusing to accept a relay call violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
All things considered, we are convinced that outreach efforts must be made to inform and educate businesses about fraud and scam prevention, the importance and benefits of TRS, and the ADA legal obligation to conduct business with consumers who use relay services. We will be meeting again with the FCC to discuss ways to raise awareness in the business community about IP Relay misuse, fraud, and scams, and advise the business community not to hang up on legitimate relay calls. We expect that FCC outreach efforts will be joined by and collaborated with other agencies that provide information, education, and outreach to businesses about fraud and scam prevention (i.e., Federal Trade Commission, Small Business Administration, etc.), TRS, and the ADA (i.e., U.S. Department of Justice).
Got this essay from a friend - the author's name is Dianrez. The only explanation included with the email was "Jane Fernadnes opened Cochlear Implant Center at the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center in 2000. Here is a five-star essay by Dianrez."
Thought it was kind of interesting how Dianrez used the George Orwell's title to do her/his essay.
Imagine that in 75 years all schools for the deaf are abolished. Instead, all deaf children will have CI's, handheld electronic reading aids that use voice recognition, and will watch video interpreters on small laptops in their neighborhood schools. Even at that, the ultimate goal is to reduce deafness to a medical condition curable at birth by surgery, like clubfoot or cleft palate and eliminate all expensive special accommodations.
Legislators, pressured to cut expenses, cite the Least Restrictive Environment argument to support mainstreaming deaf and formerly-deaf kids. They seize upon the selected success stories of CI children and require insurers to support implants for all deaf babies. Public relations people promote hearing restoration out of a misguided concept that it eliminates all the effects of deafness. Distressed parents and uninformed public call for first fixing hearing at all costs and eagerly support anything that goes in that direction.
Closed captions become optional and slowly disappear from TVs, replaced by cued interpretation on the same basis as the old closed caption system. The interpreters appear in 3-D behind TV hologram speakers, their hand waving in circles near mouth and chin. This sometimes is replaced by a cartoon face with lights blinking in the same positions near the face.
Newspapers have disappeared; instead people carry super ipods which they wave at terminals to download facts to listen to on the way to work. Formerly deaf people squint to read the captioned/cued version on their ipods; the screens are bigger but still hard to read. The lucky few will be able to understand snatches here and there of conversation. Those that don't must dock their Ipods with handheld reading aids and adjust the voice recognition dial until rolling captions have the fewest mistakes.
The opinions of the elderly deaf are dismissed as ignorant, crackpot talk akin to Luddites trying to block technology. No more SSI/SSD and no more Vocational Rehabilitation funds will be available for the coming generation. Interpreters are obsolete, no longer a public expense. A culture of Dyborgs (deaf cyborgs) are created; using a strange sign language that resembles a cross between Cued Speech and Signing Exact English called Newsign and looking down on archaic signers. The younger generation is definitely a huge gap away from the older generation Deaf.
Deaf people not using aids or Newsign will be driven underground by popular opinion saying "You want an interpreter? Go get a CI!" Avoiding public disapproval, they hide in old Deaf clubs, pass for Hearing in shopping malls, and again covertly depend on family members to say what they need. Their choice not to accept the imperfect hearing of CI's will be scorned as deliberately choosing dependency and being a willful drain on welfare.
Genetic screening and CI implantation at birth will be mandatory for all hereditary Deaf to prevent bringing children into a system that has closed schools for the deaf. Charts displayed in medical conventions proudly show the population of deaf people shrinking every year; by the year 2100 there will be none left. History books will describe them in chapters next to chapters about lepers and include mention of the horrors of institutional schools for the deaf and complicated politics of deaf colleges.
Success is measured by dollars saved everywhere--educationally, in government access programs, and in rehabilitation. (Not counted is the expense of surgery, followup, aural rehabilitation and speech training.) A modern society free of disabled people is touted as the wave of the future.
Historically, this has actually happened. Whole communities of people have been absorbed, decimated, legislated against or exterminated in the interests of achieving a perfect society. It could be within this century, or the next one that deaf people will be the next ones they come for.
We laughed at 1984, enjoying the hair-raising specter of a totalitarian society and were relieved to see that year come and go, not realizing that Big Brother has arrived since then. Electronic surveillance is everywhere, freedoms are limited in the interests of defense from terrorists and increased protection from drug-corrupted criminals. We can not access public buildings without walking through surveillance machinery, nor can we obtain medicines without signing in and showing ID cards. In this vein, we may face child neglect charges if we do not implant our Deaf children, maybe even lose parental rights.
What we can do now is increase the visibility, outreach and information from us, the deaf community. We ask for sign language interpreters everywhere. We make our Deaf children more visible, our presence in the neighborhoods more noticeable, and instead of running for office in our Deaf community, we run for office in our public school boards, town halls, and county elections. We blog in hearing blogospheres as Deaf people, commenting on topics of interest to everyone. We spread information on our Deaf culture, interests and values. We share our lives with others openly and welcome them into ours.
We need to graduate more Deaf teachers and ask that they be hired in public schools that have Deaf mainstreamed children. We can create new private schools and draw upon the best of the community and not base them on paternalistic old-time schools for the deaf with lowered expectations. We can draw into our society Hearing friends and teach them to teach others about us. We get involved in legislation and block ill-advised and ignorant bills that limit or cut off our access and schools. We do this as an integrated, diverse community, carrying our hearing aids, CI's, special technology and rights to our opinions with us.
We can become more visible and more influential in our own communities with ADA provisions and the principles of No Child Left Behind. We use technology to enhance and protect our rights of access and require that they apply to all people. Once we are fully visible, we can slow the machinery that is rolling to close our schools and limit our freedoms and accessibility. We can fight those who erroneously think future advances will completely normalize deafness and make it a nonissue but which will actually leave a majority of us still disadvantaged.
Those who think this cannot happen should look at the Milan Conference and the hundred years it unleashed upon us of oralism, the last miraculous advance that would normalize deaf people. How successful was that for all of us?
