Dear Friends,
The judges have spoken. We got a red ribbon for our largest deaf
education program. Many thanks to everyone who helped us from last
January at the planning stages through now at the booth. Many thanks
to our sponsors for making this a wholesome and fully inclusive
educational project. Our key sponsors are; Oberkotter Foundation,
Animated Speech Corporation, Family Empowerment Center, Crestar Bank,
California Silent Studios, Radio Shack, Trader Joes, Oneill Wetsuits,
Albertsons Supermarket, California Avocado Commission, Law Offices of
Morse Mehrban, Prestige Catering, Westminster Ice Arena, Law Offices
of Jim Carver, Westminster Lanes, and finally a big big thanks to our
favorite fundraising supplier Gosa Toys!
Our free Sign Language booklets are a big hit at our booth. We have
been passing out an average of 3,000 copies a weekday and 20,000
copies a weekend day. Our poor copying machine is being put to the
real test and the copier's drum is already showing signs of wear. We
even have school teachers grabbing as many as 50 copies off our
booth. That's a lot of people being introduced to American Sign
Language and this makes our whole education project a complete
success and makes Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center a leader in deaf
awareness education. There is an animated photo of the traffic at
our booth at the front of our website.
Thanks to Sprint VRS for their patience in letting us demonstrate the
Video Relay Services. It has grabbed a lot of interest among the
crowds.
We're getting more volunteers and newsletter signups through our
booth at the Orange County Fair.
We remain the record holder of the most ribbons won by a non-profit
at a single fair event.
Our very own Deaf-Blind services director, Beth Koenig, met
Congresswoman Loreta Sanchez at the fairgrounds and discussed with
her the importance and need of deaf blind services in Orange County.
Kudos to Beth for standing up for the Deaf-Blind! A photo of this
encounter is at the front of our website.
If you live in the Southern California area, come on over to the
Orange County Fair ( www.ocfair.com ) and visit our booth at the
Orange County Building.
If you shop at Albertsons and have a community partners card, please
consider adding your card to our list of supporters. You can now
download and print our Albertsons Community Partners signup forms at
Http://www.deafadvocacy.com/AlbertsonsSignup.pdf and have your
friends, neighbors, associates, and relatives sign up as supporters
and then mail it to the address on the form. Our goal is 25,000
supporters who shop at Albertsons. And when you shop at Albertsons,
please dont forget to use the community partners card.
OCDAC Communications
-------------< INSIDE NEWS >
Our Festival of Children education booth planning has already begun.
We need donations of bright colored paper to print our deaf awareness
materials on. This event is in September and was attended by 2
million people last year. A lot of the materials for this event has
already arrived at our office.
We need to start a committee for our Tiller Days Festival, our 2nd
largest fundraising event of the year. Tiller Days is in October and
in Tustin, California. Also we have decided to elimninate our Rose
parade fundraiser and replace it with a bigger times square like
event at the Orange County Fairgrounds. We also need committees for
the Pirate's festival, Silverado Festival, and Winter Festval
fundraisers as well. Were going to be starting our nightly
fundraising activities at the bowling centers soon to help us raise
funds for the expenses of the bigger fundraising operations. We have
some new products that hold good promise in our fundraising.
We also started on our Deaf festival awareness booth planning that's
taking place in Van Nuys this coming September.
We have also started on our Deaf Expo (Mata.tv) planning for the
event in November in Long Beach.
We have begun our internal discussions on getting a grant to build a
six unit apartment building for the deaf and disabled in Salton City,
California. They recently built a casino and a major travel center
in the area and its becoming a boomtown after decades of slow
growth. Plans are on the way to re-open the airport, start a
fairground in the area too. We need to establish a committee who
will help us get the funding reservations.
-------------< OUTSIDE NEWS >
Positive sign at deaf restaurant
http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2005-07-
17_775114.html
Oregon Deaf And Hard-of-Hearing Services Ensured; Disability
Commission Preserved
http://www.medfordnews.com/articles/index.cfm?artOID=306188&cp=10996
Center for the Deaf acquires West Allis building
http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2005/07/18/story8.html?
from_rss=1
Samaritan Saves Deaf Girl From House Fire
http://www.nbc10.com/news/4734856/detail.html
Deaf-mute unfit for trial?
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-50321sy0jul18,0,1150430.story?
coll=dp-headlines-topnews
Americans With Disabilities Act: A job not done (yet)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05196/538181.stm
Smoke detectors for deaf installed in home
http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20050715/NEWS0102/507150419
FCC Adopts New Rules Covering Video Relay Services
http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/94986
2nd Deaf World Cup schedule formally announced
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=112602
Baseball fantasy camp for deaf youths at Boysen Park
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/07/16/sections/sports/other/article
_600032.php
Deaf school campers go missing for several hours
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20050715/NEWS/107150040/-1/rss01
Widely Used Alcohol Screening Instruments Confusing to Deaf Persons
http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0%2C1854%
2C577716%2C00.html
$50,000 cost to comply with disabilities act
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/top/j15county.htm
Police: Coach paid kid to hurt disabled teammate
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/more/07/15/bc.bbo.youngplayerhur
t.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
Users of Assistance Dogs Leave a Trail of Lawsuits
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dogs10jul10,1,96540.story?
coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true
-------------< DEAF GRAPEVINE >
Rumors concerning the Sidekick III, a new version of a very popular
hand held mobile communicator, continues to dominate the deaf blogs.
Discussions have sometimes heated up to ad-homenum attacks on some of
the participants. The editor has decided to lighten up the
discussions up by 'finding out what the Sidekick III will look like"
and used a photo of the old teletype machine that was one of the
first communication machines used by the deaf communities.
-------------< BULLETIN >
ATTENTION DEAF PEOPLE WHO HAVE MYSTERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH THE DISNEY
COMPANY.
We are looking for DEAF People and others who have problems with the
Disney Company:
--apply, and no call back?
--apply, but no interview because deaf/ interpreter issue?
--apply, interview, but no interpreter or captions?
--got job, but then no interpreter for staff meetings?
--you feel punished because after being hired youre excluded from
training's, staff meetings, or other staff events?
(1) NEED YOUR NAME AND (2) ADDRESS (3) and E-mail (4) explanation of
your problem with The Disney Company.
We work with Morse Mehrban who is a rising star in the field of
disability access litigation. Morse needs to know about this no later
than September 4, 2005. Please email [email protected] and
please use 'Disney Problems' in the subject line.
-------------< ADVOCACY NEWS >
FCC LAUNCHES REVIEW OF CLOSED CAPTIONING RULES
The Commission has begun a proceeding to assess how its closed
captioning rules are succeeding in ensuring that video programming is
accessible to the millions of deaf and hard of hearing Americans and
whether any revisions should be made to enhance the effectiveness of
those rules. It asked for comments on several compliance and quality
issues relating to closed captioning that were raised in a Petition
for Rulemaking filed by Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc. (TDI),
the National Association of the Deaf, Self Help for Hard of Hearing
People, Inc., the Association for Late Deafened Adults, and the Deaf
and Hard of Hearing Consumer Advocacy Network.
The current closed captioning rules have been in place since January
1, 1998. At the time the rules were adopted, the Commission indicated
it would review them after closed captioning was implemented to
determine whether its expectations regarding closed captioning were
being met. The Commission initiated this review as a follow-up to the
Commission's prior assurances and in response to TDI's Petition. The
Commission also noted that, effective January 1, 2006, all non-exempt
new programming must be captioned, and this rulemaking proceeding
provides an opportunity to ensure that video programming distributors
are prepared to fulfill this requirement.
The Commission is interested in comments about various aspects of
closed captioning. It asked commenters to address the following types
of issues:
• Is there a need to adopt standards for non-technical quality of
closed captioning, such as, for example, accuracy of transcription?
What would be the costs of mandating such standards? Should any non-
technical quality standards be different for pre-produced programs
versus live programming?
• Is there a need for additional procedures to prevent and remedy
technical problems such as, for example, captions not being delivered
intact, or captions ending before the end of the programming? If so,
what form should they take?
• Should distributors have specific mechanisms in place for
monitoring and maintenance?
• Should the existing complaint procedure be changed?
• Should the Commission establish specific per violation forfeiture
amounts for noncompliance with the captioning rules?
• Should the Commission require video programming distributors to
file compliance reports as to the amount of closed captioning they
provide?
• Should the ban on counting electronic newsroom technique captioning
to meet captioning requirements be extended beyond the top 25 markets?
• What is the current status on the supply of available captioners?
• Should the Commission require electronic filing of requests for
exemption from the closed captioning requirements?
Action by the Commission July 14, 2005, by Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (FCC 05-142). Chairman Martin, Commissioners Abernathy,
Copps, and Adelstein.
-------------< ANNOUNCEMENTS >
COME TO OUR MEETUPS! The Orange County American Sign Language Meetup
Group - http://asl.meetup.com/37/ - meets each 3rd Wednesdays of the
month. The Orange County Deaf & Hearing Impaired Meetup Group -
http://deaf.meetup.com/38/ - meets each 1st Saturdays of the month.
Our new ASL class schedules have been released. Please consult the
deaf center's website for the ASL class schedules.
Please visit our iGive store http://www.igive.com/ocdac
The Orange County American Sign Language Meetup Group -
http://asl.meetup.com/37/ - meets each 3rd Wednesdays of the month.
The Orange County Deaf & Hearing Impaired Meetup Group -
http://deaf.meetup.com/38/ - meets each 1st Saturdays of the month.
Please visit our bookstore that has related books and different kinds
of assistive living devices at http://store.deafadvocacy.org
If you shop at Albertsons and have a community partners card, please
consider adding your card to our list of supporters. Our goal is
25,000 supporters who shop a Albertsons. You can now download and
print our Albertsons signup forms at
Http://www.deafadvocacy.com/AlbertsonsSignup.pdf
We recycle used cell phones, empty printer and toner cartridges. If
you have any of these to unload from your hands, please send or drop
them at our agency at 2960 Main Street, A100, Irvine, California 92614
-------------< DEAF QUOTES >
"Peter Owusu-Ansah is a symbol of courage and bravery for reporting
this incident of police brutality. It is not the first time deaf
people have experienced similar police harassment and unacceptable
practices. Police enforcement officials should be mandated to undergo
awareness training in anti-racism, anti-ableism, anti-audism and anti-
discrimination." Gary Malkowski, Vice-President, Consumer,
Government & Corporate Relations with The Canadian Hearing Society
-------------< COMMUNITY BULLHORN >
NAD PROCLAIMS SUCCESS, APPLAUDS FCC ACTION
Silver Spring, MD - The National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
applauds the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for taking
action on a number of issues that the NAD has been working on.
The NAD, with other advocacy groups, petitioned the FCC to improve
the closed captioning rules. The FCC accepted the petition and will
start the rulemaking process for better quality and enforcement of
closed captioning.
The FCC also announced, for the first time, mandatory speed of answer
requirements for Video Relay Services (VRS); that VRS is to be
available 24 hours a day, seven days a week (24/7); that ASL- Spanish
Translation VRS is eligible for compensation; and VRS providers can
be compensated for providing VRS Mail. In addition, the NAD commends
the FCC clarification that two-line captioned telephone service is
eligible for compensation from the interstate Telecommunications
Relay Services fund.
"The NAD is thrilled to see this positive outcome on issues are
important to deaf and hard of hearing Americans," said Kelby Brick,
Director of the NAD Law and Advocacy Center. "This success would not
have been possible if not for the hard work of NAD members and the
collaboration of NAD with other key organizations and leaders."
Continued Brick, "The NAD applauds FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and the
other Commissioners for their leadership and commitment to making the
nations' communication network accessible to all Americans."
NAD has been working to make VRS a functional equivalent service by
asking the FCC to making VRS a mandated service, available 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week and be immediately available to callers, ensuring
funds for research and development for VRS, and ensuring qualified
interpreters for VRS.
The NAD posted its goals on the Advocacy Issues section of the NAD
website at: http://www.nad.org/vrs. For information on NAD action to
improve the quality of relay services, please go to
http://www.nad.org/relay. Interested individuals can also see the
NAD's goals and FCC petitions on Captioning at
http://www.nad.org/captioning.
Despite these groundbreaking rules, Brick said, "The NAD will
continue to work with the FCC to take steps to enforce existing rules
against blocking so everyone can use any VRS provider without
interference. In addition, the NAD will encourage the FCC to consider
faster speed of answer in future rules."
The NAD urges consumers to take a moment to thank the FCC for
adopting VRS rules that will significantly improve VRS service at:
http://www.nad.org/thankfccjuly05
Anita B. Farb
Director, Outreach and Communications
National Association of the Deaf
Email: [email protected]
Voice: 301-587-1788
TTY: 301-587-1789
FAX: 301-587-1791
-------------< DEAF FRIENDLY JOB OPPORTUNITIES >
2 deaf or hard of hearing mortgage consultants needed for a
Riverside, California mortgage company.
5 deaf students needed at a store in Irvine for work experience
credit.
3 openings at fairground in Costa mesa for temp work in July via
subcontractor.
All candidates interested in any of the job opportunities are
required to apply for our job placement services. Our intake form is
at Http://www.deafadvocacy.com/intake.htm
-------------< DEAF FRIENDLY BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES >
Become an owner of a _________.WS website for only $10 a month! All
_________.WS owners automatically become .WS website resellers and it
comes with an automatic selling program and all you have to do is
lead people to your .WS reseller website. The WS stands
for 'website'! Link has video of the program in American Sign
Language and is a excellent self-sufficiency opportunity for people
who want to be on the top of the .WS cyber real estate market.
Hearing people can participate as the reseller link also has a video
for them. Begin your journey toward self-sufficiency by sending a
blank email to [email protected] and it will auto-reply back to you
with information about this fantastic program. And you will get
another email message a few days later with the full explanation of
the program.
-------------< LETTERS >
CALIFORNIA'S SENATOR BOXER WRITES TO OCDAC NEWSLETTER READERS
Thank you for the opportunity to share my views on programs of
concern to Americans living with disabilities. I appreciate this
chance to discuss the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and the
reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA) with the readers of the OCDAC Newsletter.
I strongly believe that programs that provide medical coverage,
housing assistance, job training, and income support play an
essential role in enhancing the lives of individuals with
disabilities. Continued federal funding for this continuum of
services is essential because these programs allow people to fulfill
their full potential and so often prove cost-effective by preventing
the need for institutionalized care.
The Americans With Disabilities Act is a landmark piece of
legislation that reinforces a core American value -- equality of
opportunity. While establishing this legal framework has
revolutionized the workplace for many individuals, proper enforcement
of ADA regulations is essential. I support the continued efforts of
the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division as well as the
Attorneys General at the state level to ensure that the ADA is
consistently implemented.
Additionally, I proudly support full funding for the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act so that children with disabilities have
access to education programs which enable them to realize the maximum
degree of independence and self-sufficiency possible. I am committed
to securing funding for programs that improve opportunity and quality
of life for America's disabled children.
Senator Barbara Boxer
-------------< EPILOG >
If you wish to contribute to this newsletter, feel free to send in
news, stories, and opinions relating to the disability community.
Your support for this effort to move the disability community forward
will be greatly appreciated. We will continue to aggressively
pursue justice, fairness, and equality for the disability community
as it has been doing since November 1996. We have chosen that
EDUCATION is the best way accomplish this objective.
Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center is a community based organization
that puts people with disabilities first in their advocacy for equal
opportunities in safety, health, and productive living.
The Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center provides services for disabled
individuals and their families in our community who need help in
navigating the social services maze go without proper food, shelter,
and essential medical care every day due to a variety of factors
including low wages, job loss, injuries, illness, age, domestic
violence, or divorce. While all of us are susceptible to hard times,
disabled individuals are at the most risk. With the generous support
of people like you, we are able to help many of these families and
individuals not only to meet essential daily needs, but to work
toward a brighter future with programs in job training, education,
counseling, elderly assistance, and temporary housing.
Feel free to forward this email message to any one and any of your
personal mailing lists so we can get the important messages out far
and wide and encourage them to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
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