We Southlanders been rattled big time this morning with the subterranean rumbler below Chino Hills.
But, by the afternoon has passed, I get a lot of communications from deaf people. This wasn't about the quake, it was about the coffee settlement, big enough to picture an interesting aftershock.
Last February I published on my other blog about an opportunity to participate in the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf settlement.
You can see that at http://www.deafadvocacy.org/blog/2008/02/for-those-who-attended-our-deaf-asl.html
A good number of people got the forms from us.
Today we got checks in the mail almost $2,000 each.
I contacted people we gave the forms out to see if they got their checks.
The thing I find interesting that most people who grew up in American Sign Language (ASL) didn't get the checks, instead they got a letter 3 months ago from the consultant stating their form was incomplete. Did they understand that? NO. They're still waiting for their checks. They're not getting them because they didn't fix their forms because they didn't understand the letter they got. The deadline to fix their forms has passed and they never got to understand that too. This clearly synonymizes ASL with illiteracy. The forms were in simple 2nd-3rd grade level.
The others who didn't grow up in an ASL only environment got their checks today. They're happy and thankful for my assistance.
From this I can tell theres a big difference between those who got the checks and those who didn't and that difference is ASL itself.
This is one of the biggest frustrations faced by people who grew up in an ASL only environment, and one of the heartbreaking disappointments faced by people trying to help them, like myself.
The solution is to become literate and I honestly believe that ASL clearly stands in the way.
Richard Roehm
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Deafread Guideline Changes A 'Lil Bandiaid
Deafread's guideline changes amounts to a tiny bandiad trying to cover a huge wound.
Deafread needs to set up a system that prevents them from being misled, or tricked, by deaf bullies ganging up on someone to get banned and deafread istself from being tricked into functioning as a harrassment tool against a blogger.
We have seen deafread being tricked by bullies in to banning people and we have seen deafread be used as a harassment tool against bloggers.
These require a real big bandaid and the bandaid deafread is proudly showing of is too tiny to cover a big wound.
Richard
Deafread needs to set up a system that prevents them from being misled, or tricked, by deaf bullies ganging up on someone to get banned and deafread istself from being tricked into functioning as a harrassment tool against a blogger.
We have seen deafread being tricked by bullies in to banning people and we have seen deafread be used as a harassment tool against bloggers.
These require a real big bandaid and the bandaid deafread is proudly showing of is too tiny to cover a big wound.
Richard
Monday, July 21, 2008
Island Of Sanity In a Deaf Sea Of Chaos
Yeah I hate to break my silence, in fact I've been video blogging our booth at the county fair for a while.
Whats been spinning around deafhood is noted. The confusion, the white flags popping up from notable deafhood bloggers lends credence to the theory that the ASL minority prefers to chew down their leaders and messengers than develop constructive discussion of the issues they present. With me being banned from deafread for a while, they cant point the finger at me any more. Instead they point it at others and this started the domino effect. Soon almost all deaf blogging leaders were under attack.
This has caused notable bloggers and video blogers, most notably the deafhoodists, to leave the deafread site.
You cant find inclusion at deafread, you cant find constructive dialogue and teamwork there either. The deafread leadership clearly makes the definition the word dysfunctional. Deafread represents a big crack on the surface of the ASL planet and its getting bigger and bigger every day.
Given all this, I'm happy to be vacationing on an island of sanity in the middle of a deaf sea of chaos.
Whats been spinning around deafhood is noted. The confusion, the white flags popping up from notable deafhood bloggers lends credence to the theory that the ASL minority prefers to chew down their leaders and messengers than develop constructive discussion of the issues they present. With me being banned from deafread for a while, they cant point the finger at me any more. Instead they point it at others and this started the domino effect. Soon almost all deaf blogging leaders were under attack.
This has caused notable bloggers and video blogers, most notably the deafhoodists, to leave the deafread site.
You cant find inclusion at deafread, you cant find constructive dialogue and teamwork there either. The deafread leadership clearly makes the definition the word dysfunctional. Deafread represents a big crack on the surface of the ASL planet and its getting bigger and bigger every day.
Given all this, I'm happy to be vacationing on an island of sanity in the middle of a deaf sea of chaos.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Cruising Over The High Peaks Of Life
I will be taking a hiatus, a break, from blogging and video blogging until the end of August.
The Orange County Fair starts today and lasts for 3 weeks. We'll be focusing on promoting our agency, the Hearing For Life Foundation, and positive communication options for hearing impaired people especially the babies.
The community response to our 2nd group home in the past week has been overwhelming. Supermarkets donated hundreds of dollars, people donated new refrigerators, people donated sofas, paint, and carpeting. Even a major pet store chain donated supplies for the service animals.
One can accomplish a lot more deaf advocacy not with blogs and video blogs, but with good old fashioned word-of-mouth over TTYs.
This will be my signoff message.
Marvin Miller, I have a better capability of starting a 'city' of hearing impaired residents than you do. The first impressions the authorities are making of my group homes so far has been more than just positive. I can replicate this on a large scale using existing apartment structures, and the HM Foundation will be helping me do it in the fall. I don't have to do it from scratch and at least not in a tornado alley like you wanted to do in the first place.
See you all in September!
Richard
The Orange County Fair starts today and lasts for 3 weeks. We'll be focusing on promoting our agency, the Hearing For Life Foundation, and positive communication options for hearing impaired people especially the babies.
The community response to our 2nd group home in the past week has been overwhelming. Supermarkets donated hundreds of dollars, people donated new refrigerators, people donated sofas, paint, and carpeting. Even a major pet store chain donated supplies for the service animals.
One can accomplish a lot more deaf advocacy not with blogs and video blogs, but with good old fashioned word-of-mouth over TTYs.
This will be my signoff message.
Marvin Miller, I have a better capability of starting a 'city' of hearing impaired residents than you do. The first impressions the authorities are making of my group homes so far has been more than just positive. I can replicate this on a large scale using existing apartment structures, and the HM Foundation will be helping me do it in the fall. I don't have to do it from scratch and at least not in a tornado alley like you wanted to do in the first place.
See you all in September!
Richard
Monday, July 07, 2008
The Chrysalis Of The OCDAC Agency
As times change, we change too. We, over the decade, have recognized several key issues of deaf advocacy in the course of our agency's mission. The top 3 key issues faced by the deaf communities are communication/access equipment, education, and housing. Nothing else seems to matter in the deaf community nowadays. Gone are the many traditional elements of deaf advocacy. This reality is being echoed in other states like Florida, Colorado, and Wisconsin to name a few.
In the past 2 years, we've been addressing communication/access equipment needs through our TOP-RATE ( T-each O-ur P-eople to R-euse A-daptive T-echnology E-veryday ) program. This is a very successful program and we've served thousands of people worldwide already. We are having our first accessible technology expo next year. Http://www.deafadvocacy.org/events/expo2009/expo2009.html and this is where we'll show everyone the key elements of our TOP-RATE program.
Last Friday we took the big step in addressing the key housing issues the deaf community faces. We opened our 2nd group home and the response was overwhelming. We have people in our group home hailing from as far as Indiana and Kentucky. Instead of fighting for accessible housing, we PROVIDE it. So its now at the point whenever we have a client with a housing complaint, we send them to our group home. While it may appear that we're taking advantage of the foreclosure crisis, were using this opportunity to help the deaf people who are oftentimes left out or relegated to second class citizenship when it comes to equal housing opportunities. The government agencies, particularly HUD, have done poorly insofar ensuring equal housing access for deaf people and that's a void we're filling right now.
The next step is to put our education model into action. Established deaf education models that have been infiltrated with ASL zealots who don't believe in inclusivity are being phased out. Our model is total inclusivity. We will continue to push for inclusivity in deaf education and that may include bullying the ASL zealots out of the deaf education system if we have to.
Richard
In the past 2 years, we've been addressing communication/access equipment needs through our TOP-RATE ( T-each O-ur P-eople to R-euse A-daptive T-echnology E-veryday ) program. This is a very successful program and we've served thousands of people worldwide already. We are having our first accessible technology expo next year. Http://www.deafadvocacy.org/events/expo2009/expo2009.html and this is where we'll show everyone the key elements of our TOP-RATE program.
Last Friday we took the big step in addressing the key housing issues the deaf community faces. We opened our 2nd group home and the response was overwhelming. We have people in our group home hailing from as far as Indiana and Kentucky. Instead of fighting for accessible housing, we PROVIDE it. So its now at the point whenever we have a client with a housing complaint, we send them to our group home. While it may appear that we're taking advantage of the foreclosure crisis, were using this opportunity to help the deaf people who are oftentimes left out or relegated to second class citizenship when it comes to equal housing opportunities. The government agencies, particularly HUD, have done poorly insofar ensuring equal housing access for deaf people and that's a void we're filling right now.
The next step is to put our education model into action. Established deaf education models that have been infiltrated with ASL zealots who don't believe in inclusivity are being phased out. Our model is total inclusivity. We will continue to push for inclusivity in deaf education and that may include bullying the ASL zealots out of the deaf education system if we have to.
Richard
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Good Riddance To The Deaf Starbucks Scourge
With many deaf people lamenting on the closure of 600 Starbucks cafes. Some blogs and vlogs carried out their messages. Here is my 2 words, my 2 cents, to the lively discussion over Starbuck's impending demise.
Over the years at Starbucks Coffee center at the Block At Orange, the monthly Starbucks Coffee social events has gone from a healthy meeting place for deaf people to a beacon of scourge from the ASL extremists.
In the late 90's every month particularly on the 2nd Fridays, hundreds and even thousands of deaf people would converge to Starbucks at the Block at Orange. At one point it even reached 5,000 people.
Over the years, it's evolved into a place where deaf people can easily start malicious rumors by handing out fliers, pick on those "not deaf enough" by ganging up on them, throwing firecrackers to terrorize deaf people in order to embarrass the host organizations.
Yes we played host to it via the "Wild Deaf Club" for about a year. We're even responsible for making it past the 5,000 mark in attendance.
The craziness was not limited to outside the Starbucks coffee shops.
The Starbucks "Make Your Mark" program is dysfunctional. After promising us 15 hands, they never sent anyone to help us with our fireworks stand in 2003. They haven't sent people to help us with our education booth at Orange County Fair either. They tell me of a 'revolving door' at the management levels while they explain their reasons why they didn't send people to us.
The deaf community has responded to the deaf Starbucks scourge by setting up smaller social events in Tustin, Chino, Riverside, and National City to draw people away from Starbucks at the Block at Orange.
So good riddence to Starbucks as it's evolved into a pillar of the deaf scourge.
GOOD RIDDANCE!
Over the years at Starbucks Coffee center at the Block At Orange, the monthly Starbucks Coffee social events has gone from a healthy meeting place for deaf people to a beacon of scourge from the ASL extremists.
In the late 90's every month particularly on the 2nd Fridays, hundreds and even thousands of deaf people would converge to Starbucks at the Block at Orange. At one point it even reached 5,000 people.
Over the years, it's evolved into a place where deaf people can easily start malicious rumors by handing out fliers, pick on those "not deaf enough" by ganging up on them, throwing firecrackers to terrorize deaf people in order to embarrass the host organizations.
Yes we played host to it via the "Wild Deaf Club" for about a year. We're even responsible for making it past the 5,000 mark in attendance.
The craziness was not limited to outside the Starbucks coffee shops.
The Starbucks "Make Your Mark" program is dysfunctional. After promising us 15 hands, they never sent anyone to help us with our fireworks stand in 2003. They haven't sent people to help us with our education booth at Orange County Fair either. They tell me of a 'revolving door' at the management levels while they explain their reasons why they didn't send people to us.
The deaf community has responded to the deaf Starbucks scourge by setting up smaller social events in Tustin, Chino, Riverside, and National City to draw people away from Starbucks at the Block at Orange.
So good riddence to Starbucks as it's evolved into a pillar of the deaf scourge.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Who Won In Milwaukee Last Weekend? AG Bell or the deaf coalition?
AG Bell won by having a smooth, seamless, rich, and wholesome conference that brought hope to the future generations of the deaf community. They did it without any static from the deaf coalition. This was capped by the newly elected president of the organization having a well televised interview on national TV http://www.agbell.org/uploads/2008Convention/JayTVMilwaukee.wmv .
The deaf coalition who were steadfast in their hatred toward AG Bell and toward people who are "not deaf enough" were successfully locked out of the venue. Brian Riley in his "Gearing Up" editorial at the deaf coalition website emphasized confrontation and shows everyone that the coalition is of, for, and by deaf bullies. Furthermore the conference by the deaf coalition was riddled with contradicting, conflicting, and confusing messages. It even caused a popular deaf blogger who goes by the name of 'Mishka Zena' to state "I would like to make a recommendation that the DBC leaders work together on making the goals of DBC more consistent to the public and the media" in her blog. The deaf coalition's hostility continues as they remain utterly unyielding at getting the AG Bell's name off one of NTID's dormitory buildings.
The deaf coalition who were steadfast in their hatred toward AG Bell and toward people who are "not deaf enough" were successfully locked out of the venue. Brian Riley in his "Gearing Up" editorial at the deaf coalition website emphasized confrontation and shows everyone that the coalition is of, for, and by deaf bullies. Furthermore the conference by the deaf coalition was riddled with contradicting, conflicting, and confusing messages. It even caused a popular deaf blogger who goes by the name of 'Mishka Zena' to state "I would like to make a recommendation that the DBC leaders work together on making the goals of DBC more consistent to the public and the media" in her blog. The deaf coalition's hostility continues as they remain utterly unyielding at getting the AG Bell's name off one of NTID's dormitory buildings.
Convincing Video Blogs!
I'm so proud of these video blogs!
They actually convince Milwaukee folks to do things!
Richard
They actually convince Milwaukee folks to do things!
Richard
Who Won In Milwaukee Last Weekend? AG Bell or the deaf coalition?
AG Bell won by having a smooth, seamless, rich, and wholesome conference that brought hope to the future generations of the deaf community. They did it without any static from the deaf coalition. This was capped by the newly elected president of the organization having a well televised interview on national TV http://www.agbell.org/uploads/2008Convention/JayTVMilwaukee.wmv .
The deaf coalition who were steadfast in their hatred toward AG Bell and toward people who are "not deaf enough" were successfully locked out of the venue. Brian Riley in his "Gearing Up" editorial at the deaf coalition website emphasized confrontation and shows everyone that the coalition is of, for, and by deaf bullies. Furthermore the conference by the deaf coalition was riddled with contradicting, conflicting, and confusing messages. It even caused a popular deaf blogger who goes by the name of 'Mishka Zena' to state "I would like to make a recommendation that the DBC leaders work together on making the goals of DBC more consistent to the public and the media" in her blog. The deaf coalition's hostility continues as they remain utterly unyielding at getting the AG Bell's name off one of NTID's dormitory buildings.
The deaf coalition who were steadfast in their hatred toward AG Bell and toward people who are "not deaf enough" were successfully locked out of the venue. Brian Riley in his "Gearing Up" editorial at the deaf coalition website emphasized confrontation and shows everyone that the coalition is of, for, and by deaf bullies. Furthermore the conference by the deaf coalition was riddled with contradicting, conflicting, and confusing messages. It even caused a popular deaf blogger who goes by the name of 'Mishka Zena' to state "I would like to make a recommendation that the DBC leaders work together on making the goals of DBC more consistent to the public and the media" in her blog. The deaf coalition's hostility continues as they remain utterly unyielding at getting the AG Bell's name off one of NTID's dormitory buildings.
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