Straight from the horse’s mouth….

Recently, we had a lively discussion over at Deaf Pundit’s “Deaf Edge” blog regarding the recent EDHI conference in St. Louis and whether ASL-Centric presentations were excluded due to biases. The lively discussion can be reviewed at the below two links:

http://thedeafedge.org/2012/03/the-afa-protests-at-ehdi/

http://thedeafedge.org/2012/03/corrected-stats-on-ehdi-workshops/

During the discussion, I decided to shoot an E-mail, to the official EDHI E-mail address found on their website, asking a few questions to get the story straight. I honestly was not expecting a response, but to my surprise I received a DETAILED response from Karl White, the Director of NCHAM himself. The E-mail has been pasted below and I BOLDED/Underlined the relevant parts:

==============================================================

Re: Questions regarding presentations at the recent EHDI conference in St. Louis:

From: Karl White

To: me, (6 other people were copied, but I withheld their names for privacy reasons)

Dear Jerry,

Thanks for coming to the source to get answers to your questions. I have answered each of your questions in red below, but have also included a lengthier explanation of the process used for soliciting, reviewing and selecting presentations for the EHDI Meeting. I have also included several attachments you may find interesting.  Please let me know if you have further questions.

 Karl

 

Karl R. White, PhD

Director, National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management

Professor of Psychology

Utah State University

XXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXXX

 (XXX) XXX-XXXX

===================================================================From: Jerry Puorro Jr. [xx@gmail.com]

Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 7:31 PM

To: EHDICONFERENCE

Subject: Questions regarding presentations at the recent EHDI conference in St. Louis:

Hi EHDI,

My name is Jerry, I am a deaf person who is interested in how the presentations were selected at the recent EHDI conference. Below, I have some questions that I hope someone will be kind enough to answer.

1.) How do people submit themselves for presentations/panels/Q&A sessions and etc.. at the EHDI? Is there an application form to fill out? Someone to contact?

As noted in more detail below, abstracts for proposed presentations or posters are submitted in response to an announcement that was posted on the website in late July. Abstracts had to be submitted by late September and a committee of people reviewed and rated them. 167 of the 201 submitted abstracts were accepted.

2.)     What is the criteria for selecting people to give presentations? (e.g. Must the topic have something to do with EHDI? Must    the presentation be at least 30 minutes long?)

The guidelines for abstract submission (see attached) outline the criteria. They do need to be related to EHDI in some way. Presentations could be 30 or 60 minutes long. Posters do not require a formal presentation.

3.)     Is there some sort of a selection committee? If yes, who is on the committee and how were they selected?

There is a selection committee as described in more detail below. Initial reviews were done by 27 people selected by the planning committee. The planning committee then made decisions based on those ratings. Names and affiliations of the planning committee members are listed in the program book available at www.ehdiconference.org

I ask because there are discussions on the Internet about how the EHDI was favoring non-ASL-Centric presentations. I figured I would ask for the facts straight from the horse’s mouth here.

As you will see in the detailed response below, there is no evidence of preference for non-ASL-Centric presentations. The goal of the meeting is to improve EHDI programs in general, so many of the presentations have nothing to do with language, communication modality, or deaf culture. Instead, that part of the meeting focuses on data management, screening and diagnostic procedures, personnel preparation, EHDI program management, etc. Of the presentations that are related to language and communication modality, a relatively high proportion is related to sign language and deaf culture. It is also important to note that the content of the meeting depends in large part on what people submit. If participants want to see more presentations on a particular topic, they need to submit more abstracts on that topic.

Any response of any kind would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you,

Jerry Puorro

Following is a more detailed explanation about the procedures used to solicit, review and select the presentations and posters made at the annual EHDI Meetings. Because so much of the content for the EHDI Meeting is based on presentations and posters presented by participants, the co-sponsors and planning committee members have tried to create a process that is open, inclusive, and results in high quality material being presented.

To understand how presentation and posters are selected, some background information is important. The 2012 EHDI Meeting in St Louis was the 11th such meeting and was attended by almost 1,000 people of diverse backgrounds and experience. All participants are encouraged to submit abstracts for presentations and posters. As a part of the registration process people are asked to indicate their primary roles related to EHDI (more than one could be checked) and the following groups of people were represented at the St Louis Meeting

• 182  people were from State and Local Health Departments
• 56    people were from Hospitals or Birthing Centers
• 65    people were medical providers
• 182  people were audiologists
• 72    people were from Part C Early Intervention programs
• 138  people were family members of a child who is deaf or hard of hearing
• 56    people were from Advocacy Groups
• 15    people were from federal agencies
• 167  people were faculty or staff at Universities
• 157  people were from non-profit agencies
• 78    people were from a State Education Agency
• 111  people were graduate students

We do not ask people to indicate whether they are deaf or hard of hearing, but we do know that 61 people indicated that they needed ASL interpreting services.

A planning committee consisting of 19 people (in addition to the 4 co-sponsors) met monthly for the 10 months preceding the Meeting to organize and plan all aspects of the Meeting, including how presentations, posters, plenary sessions, and pre-sessions would be solicited, reviewed and selected. Names and affiliations of the planning committee members are listed in the Program Book available at www.ehdimeeting.org. The 2012 group included:

• 3 parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing
• 5 people who were themselves deaf or hard of hearing (these people were from the National Association of the Deaf, Gallaudet, CDC, and Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and Maryland School for the Deaf
• 3 state EHDI coordinators
• 2 physicians
• 3 representatives from the co-sponsoring agencies
• 1 early intervention provider
• 1 graduate student
• 1 university faculty member

The process for soliciting, reviewing, and selecting presentations and posters is summarized below

1. An announcement was posted on the Meeting website (www.ehdimeeting.org) and the NCHAM website (www.infanthearing.org) in late July inviting people to submit abstracts for proposed presentations or posters to be presented at the Meeting. At the same time an email was sent to about 2,000 people who have attended a previous EHDI Meeting, another training session sponsored by NCHAM, or who have requested to be on the NCHAM email distribution list. Members of the planning committee are encouraged to have their organizations post copies of this material on their own websites and to “spread the word” in whatever ways seem appropriate.
2. Guidelines for submitting abstracts were posted on the websites and planning committee members were encouraged to distribute them further. A copy of the guideline is attached. The guidelines include the criteria used to review and select abstracts for presentation.
3. The deadline for submitting abstracts (using the online submission tool) was inlate September. This means people had approximately two months to submit an abstract.
4. 201 abstracts were submitted. Each abstract had to indicate which one of 9 “tracks” (e.g., EHDI Program Enhancement, Medical Home, Family Perspectives and Support, etc) was most appropriate for that material.
5.  The planning committee organized 9 different review teams (one for each track) consisting of 3 people on each team. Each team reviewed and rated the submissions in their track and assigned from 1-30 points according to criteria outlined in the Submission Guidelines. Members of these review teams included

a)       11 EHDI State EHDI Coordinators

b)       5 people who were deaf or hard of hearing

c)       4 people from co-sponsoring agencies

d)       4 parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing

e)       2 physicians

f)        1 university faculty member

1. 6.) Using the ratings submitted by the review teams, 123 of the 148 abstracts submitted for presentations were accepted and 25 were rejected. There is no evidence that abstracts that focused on sign language or deaf culture were rejected more often than others. Of the 25 rejected, only 3 (12%) were related to sign language or deaf culture or had authors who were probably deaf or hard of hearing (based on the fact that they had requested an ASL interpreter). Submissions from other groups were rejected far more often. For example, rejected proposals included 7 submitted by EHDI coordinators, 3 by NCHAM staff, 2 by CDC staff and 2 by physicians. Five of 49 abstracts submitted for posters were rejected and none of those dealt with sign language or deaf culture.

Some people have suggested that presentations and posters that dealt with sign language or deaf culture were under-represented or even systematically excluded. This is not true. Although there is admittedly some subjectivity in deciding which presentations and posters qualify as being about sign language or deaf culture, the attached summary shows 27 presentations that were about sign language and/or deaf culture or were presented by people who are themselves deaf or hard of hearing. Based on the people who requested ASL interpreting services, we estimate that about 6% of the participants at the2012 EHDI Meeting were deaf or hard of hearing, but 27 of 167 (16%) presentations and posters were about sign language or deaf culture. So papers about sign language and deaf culture were over-represented based on who attended the Meeting.

2 attachments — Download all attachments  

                2012 Abstract guidelines.docx

20K   View   Download  

Here’s a link to the document on google docs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e_mnJ-J4vgaT7Swi6asbhtn3zJ12yiYJ4w29H8wpO2o/edit

Presentations-Posters Relevant to Sign Lanuage or Deaf Culture.xlsx

29K   View   Open as a Google spreadsheet   Download  

Here’s a link to the spreadsheet on google docs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgcZrBXGDeA-dExpVTlDbnhkcm5XaWdweFVLOGJoYVE

NOTE: Karl White BOLDED the relevant terms such as (ASL, Sign Language, and etc..) as well as relevant names in the spreadsheet he sent to me, but the formatting did not upload to google docs.

=========================================================

Comments/Conclusions:

-Mad props to Karl White for sending a detailed E-mail when he did not have to do so. Thanks, Karl.

-Per Karl White, only 3 ASL-Centric presentations (remember he said that there is some subjectivity as to what is “ASL-Centric” and what is not.) were rejected.

-The names and affiliations of the 27 members on the abstract review committee (3 for each of the 9 tracks who scored on a scale of 1-30 for each abstract) can be found here:

http://ehdimeeting.org/includes/ProgramBook2012.pdf

(page 4 of 86)

-The numbers are:

201 abstracts submitted and 167 accepted.

148 of 201 were for presentations.

123 of 148 presentations were accepted with 25 being rejected.

Of the 25 rejected, only 3 were considered “ASL-Centric” (again “ASL-Centric” is subjective here)

Of the 167 presentations/posters, 27 were considered “ASL-Centric” (again “ASL-Centric” is subjective here)

-The math:

27 “ASL-Centric” abstracts were submitted with 3 being rejected = 11.11%

Compare that with:

171 “Non-ASL-Centric” abstracts (201 minus 30) submitted with 31 being rejected (201 minus 167 minus 3 “ASL-Centric”) = 18%

Take it for what it is worth, but this is straight from the horse’s mouth.

-J.J.

Note: If there are any corrections to be made or errors to point out here, please let me know and I will correct as needed.

Another way to search for subtitled Netflix instant streaming movies:

This link was given to me by a friend a few days ago. I wasn’t sure if it was already posted on DR. Here you go:

http://instantwatcher.com/titles/all

It filters out things by HD/Non-HD, Years, Ratings, Canada/Non-Canadian, and etc..

Enjoy!

Time to do away with Text Relay services?

I live in San Diego and I often pick up a copy of the “Reader” which is a free magazine offered in San Diego. The magazine covers local events, stories, has a lot of ads, and etc..

This story was in its recent issue: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/mar/31/city-light/

Summary of story: Scammers were using text relay to place large orders at a Thai restaurant, but gave the owner a credit card number to use..then they also wanted to charge fees above what the meal would cost (usually for transportation and spending $$$ for the large party coming into town) then have the restaurant owner send a money order to an, “agent who would take care of things”. I am not exactly sure how it works, but I assume that the credit card was stolen or something and the scammer wants cash sent to him..probably in Africa or something…

When I used to use text relay, I would frequently get hung up on. When I switched to video relay full time in maybe 2007…I have only got hung up 1-2 times since then. I like the speed and effectiveness of VRS…for example I can request a male interpreter to accompany my voice (male here)…I can request that the VI not announce that it is a relay call (helpful with calls to banks and etc..who are paranoid about security even if I have all the correct security question answers..duh!)…and I could even request another interpreter if I wasn’t satisfied with an interpreter. [Begin shameless plug in from an ex-ZVRS independent contractor] I use ZVRS and I love their service. [/End shameless plug]

Who uses text relay anymore? I don’t…I used to use it on my T-Mobile sidekick…but I hated it so much that I’d rather drive home to use VRS..or take my laptop out and find a wifi spot to make a VRS call. I hate how you cannot control the operator selection or give specific instructions to the operator…I also hate the time delay between each side of the conversation..seems to be 10-15 secs with text relay…with VRS it’s only 2-3 secs off at worst. Text relay is probably 90% used by scammers these days..or stupid kids having fun on the Internet (a rough uneducated estimate).

Who still uses a TDD? In 2010??? I am sure there are still a FEW deaf people…especially those who live in desolate areas without high speed Internet (yes, there are still some…I know from experience). However, nowadays..most businesses have a website…and some of them even have agents ready to chat on the website…(I know that Bank of America & At&T do…and I always chat with them online…however..there’s a limit to their service for some reason). Also, you can text your order to many restaurants these days…I do it all the time for lunch at work…or I even order food online…(Chili’s accepts online orders…so does Papa John’s pizza…am sure the same goes for Pizza Hut/Dominoes…etc..).

Other than what? 5,000 or so deaf Americans that still use text relay….is there still a NEED for text relay? IMO, if we got rid of text relay…there could be less money spent on it…I wonder how much the TRS fund spends on scammer originated text relay calls? Don’t deaf people have to register for text relay local numbers? How’s that coming along? Is the registration process fool proof? Do you have to show an audiogram proving your deafness?

Forcing everyone to switch to VRS would cut down on the scammers…or increase enrollment in ASL classes all over the world…win win.

Right?

Patriots Hall of Fame to offer mobile captioning!

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2009/01/26/pats_hall_of_fame_levels_playing_field/

The greatest football team on the planet is now offering a mobile device to caption everything on display at their hall of fame at Gillette Stadium.

I have not been to the hall of fame before, I tried to go recently..but it was closing in 5-10 minutes after I got there so I did not go in. However, I have used a similar hand held system at Disney World in Orlando. I hope that this catches on.

-J.J.

Rachel, Ella, Deafread, and Me….

My name is J.J., for those who don’t know…I was one of the six Human Editors for Deafread. This blog will be about my perspective on ALL key issues with Deafread and my experience as a Human Editor. Before I begin this lengthy blog entry, I want to first issue TWO public apologies to two v/bloggers. They are Rachel Chaikof and Ella Mae Lentz.

Rachel, I sincerely apologize for my role in banning you from Deafread. I should have fought harder on your behalf, but I did not do so. I screwed up here, no excuses. I am officially in disagreement with Deafread now over this and this is why I am stepping down as a Human Editor. More about that later….

Ella, I sincerely apologize for publishing Ben Vess’, “Coward” post. I was the one who put it on the front page, the responsibility lies with me and only me. I should have done my job better and recognized it as a direct personal attack on your character and put it into Extra or at least discussed publishing it with my co-Editors. There are no excuses, I screwed up there and I accept full responsibility.

Now to fully extrapolate on Deafread and its many intertwined issues….we have to start at the beginning…way back in the summer of 2006… (Albeit mere 2 years ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago doesn’t it?) Deafread was set up primarily to serve the needs of everyone following the Gallaudet “Better President Now” protests. It was merely set up to “fill a need”. Deafread never set out to be a leader in the deaf community or some sort of a movement. It was set up to be a “one-stop-meeting-place” for all things deaf-related. That was the original intention and that intention has never changed despite Deafread growing bigger than Tayler and Jared ever envisioned when they set up the aggregator.

Despite setting out with the goal of being a “one-stop-meeting-place”, Deafread’s roots stem primarily from the signing community as it started with the explosion of blogs following the May protests at Gallaudet. The only hard of hearing/oral/CI person I truly remember from the beginning was McConnell. He has been with us since day one and even before us. Otherwise, I do not remember many hoh/oral/CI v/bloggers until later on…even if there might well have been a few I am forgetting here. I am sure that my perception is shared by many. This is one of the root causes of the issues within Deafread. The capital D crowd has always had this feeling of, “Why do they want to v/blog with us?”, “What do they have in common with us?”, and/or, “Aren’t they happy and busy in the hearing world by themselves anyway?” So, in short the original signing community crowd on Deafread felt that they were “invaded”…so much of the anti-diversity undercurrent in Deafread stems from this. This is a perfectly natural behavior I have seen in every forum that I have posted in on the Internet. I have been frequenting one sports board for over a decade now and this happens there too. We would be there discussing our favorite team and someone fan from a rival team would come along and post with us and would be welcome by most of us, but alienate a few at the same time. Then more rival posters would show up and a “war of words” would inevitably ensue. It is nothing new…the same thing happens in the real world…I have seen some popular bars in Los Angeles react unfavorably to a “new crowd” overtaking the bar. It’s perfectly natural, people are territorial by nature. Some people will always see the CI/Oral/hoh crowd as “invaders” while most moderates do actually embrace and welcome diversity.

The problem is that those who do not embrace diversity and/or engage in combative v/blogging will unfortunately draw the most attention. I mean, come on…none of us watch those boring TV shows or movies where everything is all rosy…it is human nature to be drawn towards conflict, like we all slow down and look at an accident on the side of the road. Just take a look at the front page of Deafread and the number of hits for each v/blog…those numbers are VERY telling. A post entitled, “Deafread SUCKS” will always get more hits than, “Deafread is the greatest thing since sliced bread”. It is my opinion that everyone should from time to time take a step back and realize that most of the problematic issues are driven by less than maybe forty v/bloggers out of about fifteen thousand v/bloggers and readers (a rough guess here). The truth is that most of us are moderates stuck in the middle as spectators. Trust me, the moderates far out number everyone else…why cannot the moderates lead the way?

The reason the moderates cannot lead the way is simply because none of them feels that passionate about the issues as the extremists do. (Note: When I use ‘extremist’ here I mean anyone who strongly believes in or strongly opposes a particular issue.) There is no way to control this…just like most of us aren’t like Sean Hannity nor Michael Moore…most of us fall in the middle and may lean one way or another a bit slightly. However, make no mistake…the moderates are the greatest force in Deafread. They are the ones that drive up the hit counts and allowing Deafread to remain popular. (FYI, traffic is VERY HIGH this summer and summer is usually a “down season” for Deafread.) They are the ones that provide the extremists with an audience. If you really wanted to hurt a v/blogger…the best way to do it is to not visit their v/blog. I have seen some v/bloggers die a slow death after “shooting themselves in the foot” with their audience because their audience stopped coming back. In short, the moderates need to speak up more or stop visiting those v/blogs that “stir the pot”.

This brings me to my next point…. (Yes, there are a lot of points…but bear with me…I want to keep on track here) it takes a VERY BRAVE person to start v/blogging. It really does…imagine Deafread as a theater with a stage and a HUGE audience in which ANYONE can have their time on stage…there are no auditions…everyone is welcome to speak on stage. The great thing about the Internet is that anyone can express their opinion and it is also the worst thing. This is the reason many v/bloggers feel unprotected, but it is my opinion that you are solely responsible for everything you sign, say, or write on the Internet….this is the power that the Internet gives us and we all need to be responsible for the content we offer. With Deafread we all can reach an audience of eight thousand plus people on any given day and usually even more. In short, anyone who v/blogs on Deafread will always have a huge audience.

Now, there’s one huge difference between an actual theater and Deafread…in an actual theater you can see who is on stage and who is in the audience. On Deafread, it is not always possible to see everyone as anyone could blog anonymously and/or comment anonymously (even vlog anonymously like “Deaf Who”). This is one of the roots of the problems on Deafread. Those who v/blog and/or comment anonymously do not need to take responsibility for the content that they offered unless someone actually tracks them down via their IP number. This is why v/bloggers who do not v/blog anonymously feel “unprotected”. They need to take responsibility for their content while the anonymous v/bloggers/commenters do not have to do so. There are ways to combat this like the v/blogger Carl Schroeder (of Ka’lalau’s Korner) does, he never allows anonymous comments. Personally, I always allow all kinds of comments because I do believe that anonymous comments can be a significant tool. Sometimes there will be people afraid to comment on something publicly in fear or reprisals when they do have something significant to share. Also, it allows people to express their true feelings while NOT exposing their identities. Yes, it is a bit coward-ish…but a valuable tool nonetheless like how many corporations and/or governmental organizations have adopted an anonymous whistle blower policy to prevent illegal activity from occurring within their company/organization.

In summary, Deafread was primarily set up to fit a need during a turbulent time in the signing Deaf community, saw an influx of v/bloggers from the non-signing segment of the deaf community, and started out innocently as a place for everyone in which anyone could make a contribution publicly or anonymously. That sounds like a recipe for disaster now doesn’t it? To me, it came to no surprise that we, the Deafread community, do periodically experience an uprising. However, Deafread has tried VERY HARD to please its community. I have read where some have pointed out that Deafread cannot be everything to everyone. This is where I am in complete disagreement. It is true that Gallaudet couldn’t be everything to everyone, but Gallaudet is a brick and mortar institution whereas Deafread exists solely on the Internet while on some server somewhere in San Diego, California. The Internet makes it possible for web sites to be everything to everyone, just look at Ebay.com, Amazon.com, and etc…those sites serve everyone without problems (I know, they sell stuff…big difference, but the point remains…the Internet makes it possible). I feel that Deafread has already provided the necessary tools to make it work for everyone.

In the beginning, Deafread would not publish non-deaf related posts and many in the community complained about this. This led to the creation of the Deafread Extra page in which Deafread provides transparency in what it does or does not publish by putting non-deaf related entries on the Extra page. Then this led to the creation of the guidelines to assist v/bloggers in creating entries that would be published on the front page. Then this wasn’t enough and Deafread instituted a system in which people could vote to have entries on the Extra page moved to the front page. Then at the conference in San Francisco there was an outcry for a “safe haven” for the signing segment of the deaf community. Deafread heard these people LOUD and CLEAR, but after a lengthy internal discussion and numerous of discussions with experts in the deaf community, Deafread came to the conclusion that as a mere v/blog aggregator on the Internet it was in no position to make that type of decision in which it would effectively decide how the deaf community should be broken up into different segments. So, Deafread instead introduced the filtering function in which you could choose to not view some v/blogs by simply clicking on “hide this blog”. This still did not satisfy the signing community and Deafread then floated the idea of “DeafSide” an entirely new aggregator for the signing community only with a panel of three moderators to determine what qualified as “a pro ASL entry”, but that never got off the ground because of lack of participation. (FTR, I never liked the “DeafSide” idea.) Trust me, there were times that I felt like asking for Deafread to just shut down and post a list of v/blogs and post detailed instructions on how to utilize your RSS feeders. Deafread is effectively trying to be a RSS service so that you all do not need to create your own RSS feeds to keep it technologically simple.

In short, Deafread has already bent over backwards to accommodate everyone’s needs and the tools are already there to make it all to work for each one of you. There have been arguments to remove the Human Editors and just allow everything to be published on the front page and I, for one, do not agree with this option. I personally approved only about half of all entries each day and trust me there were a lot of irrelevant entries that would just have drowned out the deaf related entries. Remember even Digg.com has Human Editors (http://valleywag.com/346263/diggs-secret-editors); Human Editors are a necessity until computers become smart enough to evaluate “gray areas”. I also believe that Deafread must maintain its niche which is being a one-stop-place-for-all-things-deaf-related. As for the need for a safe haven for the signing community, can someone tell me why everybody in the signing community hasn’t utilized Deafvideo.tv? Do you all realize that a non-signer could never participate there as everything is done on video including the comments? And best yet, it’s nearly impossible to be anonymous on Deafvideo.tv as you would need to wear a mask. In addition, you can talk about ANYTHING…there’s no Extra page and there are no Human Editors. I don’t get it, use Deafvideo.tv if you need that “safe haven”. By the way, the traffic there is even higher than Deafread also.

Deafread has bent over backwards for the signing community as well as the non-signing community. From day one, Deafread has REFUSED to eliminate the non-signing v/bloggers despite a massive outcry from some in the signing community. Deafread does not believe in censoring anyone at all. It never has. It is true that every editor is primarily a member of the signing community, but that’s understandable given Deafread’s origins during the Gallaudet protests. However, to characterize Deafread as anti-hoh/oral/CI/whatever else would be erroneous at best. I believe that Deafread has done right by its community for the most part. It has truly remained neutral for the most part.

However, I am in complete disagreement with Deafread over banning Rachel Chaikof’s Cochlear Implant Online blog. I think that this is the biggest error Deafread has made to date and that it needs to be rectified. You see, I am at fault for this error as well. I am not innocent here at all. When it was first revealed that Chaikof was a member of Cochlear America’s volunteer awareness group, I went along with banning her believing that the evidence was damning enough. Then later on after examining the evidence Deafread used and the evidence that Deaf Pundit (of the Deaf Edge blog) posted against the guideline that Chaikof was in violation of, I changed my mind. You see, I was never a huge fan of Chaikof’s site (nothing against her or anything…just a matter of taste), so I never defended to death her right to blog on Deafread. This is where I made a serious lapse in judgment and here I apologize for doing so again. I believe that Chaikof at the very minimum deserved due process. She was simply sent an E-mail informing her of her banishment after the evidence was reviewed. However, it should be noted that when Chaikof made the E-mail public that probably pushed the issue beyond the point of no return. While I do have my doubts about Chaikof being completely and totally innocent in light of the evidence, I still feel that she never directly violated guideline #6 which reads as:

==================

6.) Commercial Sites

We do not link to commercial sites for the purpose of generating profit, other than our own (we have expenses to cover!).

==================

My main beef is that Chaikof never DIRECTLY marketed a single product or a company. She may have intentionally or unintentionally indirectly served as a propaganda site for the cochlear implant industry, but she never once blogged something like, “Oh! Look at this new CI product by Cochlear America! You must buy it ASAP!!!” She mainly blogged about her life as a CI user, other successful CI users, the benefits of having CI’s, and offered links to CI sites for those who were curious to learn more about CI. I learned a lot from her site though.

I felt that Chaikof never violated the SPIRIT OF THE RULE. The spirit of the rule was to prevent competition with Deafread’s sponsor Sprint because Sprint paid for the right to advertise exclusively on Deafread. Also, I felt that rule six cannot be properly enforced unless someone is in DIRECT violation of the rule. The rule cannot be enforced uniformly the way that Deafread enforced it. The rules should cover black and white areas, not the gray areas. I believe that if I looked hard enough, I could find twenty or so more blogs in violation of the rule in the way Deafread interpreted it.

I truly believe that Deafread made a major error here and needs to rectify this error, but I am in the minority here and I am speaking up too late. I have discussed this issue in depth with my fellow editors, many personal friends, and fellow v/bloggers yet many do still support Deafread’s decision. I cannot do so and I cannot remain silent on this issue anymore and it is why I am stepping down as a Human Editor. I cannot go on as if it never happened. It is because of this decision that Deafread is not what it used to be to me anymore.

However, I must note that Deafread never had a sinister agenda to one day remove Chaikof from Deafread. Deafread actually fought against the outcries to remove Chaikof and other non-signing v/bloggers on numerous occasions. The Deafread team truly believes they are on the right side of the argument here and so do many intelligent v/bloggers and I respect their opinions here. I do think that the rule could be interpreted differently by everyone and that it is all relative. Additionally, Deafread is actually perfectly in within its right to determine what content is to be accepted on Deafread, it even says in the guidelines near the bottom that they “reserve the right to make a final decision”. It is also mentioned that Deafread can also change the guidelines to adapt to ever changing scenarios. So, in short…nobody is right or wrong here, it is just that I disagree on Chaikof’s banishment and cannot continue as a Human Editor because of this.

Despite this one error, Deafread is really a great place to visit on the Internet and serves a larger purpose. It is easy to dwell on the negativity and forget the positives. Deafread allowed the signing community to effectively communicate during the Gallaudet protests, helped a young girl named Tara find a place to live, served as the beginning of a great concept behind the Deaf Bilingual Coalition, taught a lot of people…myself included about cochlear implants, increased awareness about Deafhood, covered the protests at schools for the deaf in North Carolina and Mississippi, showed us all different sides of being deaf, gave us many laughs from the likes of Gary Brooks/Seek Geo/Cohen Brothers/JohnABC, gave us thought provoking posts from a wide variety of people, and so forth…just to cite a few examples. I still believe in Deafread and its purpose and mission.

We all need to remember that we all are humans here and we all make mistakes. Being a Human Editor has been a mentally draining experience for me because we had to constantly make decisions on the fly on what to approve and what to not approve. Also, we always thought about ways to improve Deafread and took all suggestions to mind as well and the suggestions were numerous to say the least. Every time a conflict occurred it would be mentally draining for me even if I were on vacation like I was at the time of the Chaikof banishment. I did not even really talk to people, I was glued to my sidekick somewhere in a corner reading everything on Deafread and E-mailing people. During the latest DBC brouhaha I was just going through the motions literally when I published Ben Vess’ vlog when I should have been paying attention more intently. I also hated the fact that I was usually unable to respond to a lot of the ongoing arguments because of my role as a Human Editor. At the end of the day, I am just an unemployed accountant…not some true leader or a professional in the deaf community. Remember, I only came on board to help out during the Gallaudet protests because I lived on the east coast and was able to publish entries early in the mornings. I truly did consider myself a moderate and a responsible Human Editor and yet I still made the error of publishing a vlog that questioned the character of a highly respected member of the ASL community and participated in the banishment of a highly respected young member of the CI community….and managed to piss off both ends of the deaf community in the process. I clearly do not feel like I should be a Human Editor anymore…the responsibility is just too great…

Last, but not least, the Deafread team is filled with people well intentioned people that I still do consider my friends. It is just that I am terminating our professional relationship today based on the Chaikof issue and the mental draining experience of being an editor…I do ask you all to take it easy on the Deafread team and also when you all complain about something, please do at least try to offer a CONSTRUCTIVE solution. That’s one thing I hated as an editor, people who just complained, but never recommended changes to improve Deafread. Sure, there were a few recommendations that we disagreed with, but the Deafread team does listen to each and every recommendation despite how numerous. Additionally, please do not complain about things that Deafread actually cannot control (i.e. comments on someone’s blog).
Whether you all like it or not, Deafread is truly representative of the deaf community at large. And the deaf community is not perfect…it never has been…it has always been divided by language methods and the fact that deaf people are also members of every race and ethnicity. It has always been inevitable that these uprisings would occur. It is unavoidable given how the community is made up…

It is not perfect….it is what it is…..

-J.J.

My Hi-Def Captioning Issues Have Been Fixed!!!

About 4 weeks ago, my captioning on NBC in HDTV all of sudden started to work smoothly. This was after the captions were garbled for a period of 3-4 months with me trying to contact anyone who could help me.

All of this is detailed in my previous entries: http://blog.deafread.com/iwii/archives/28

Go to the above link..and back track to the original entry via the links provided in the above link.

This is an update for those who have been following the story from the beginning…

Everything works perfectly, BUT I DO NOT know what was done to fix it specifically. I have been in the process of finding out how it was fixed and by whom. This is why this update is waaayyy past due…

However, let’s for now ASSUME that my letter to Time Warner’s General Manager worked…because action was taken in exactly 42 days after I mailed off the letter…and the deadline was 45 days for me to officially file a complaint to the FCC per their OLD website (they have since then upgraded the site to allow you to complain directly online: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm ).

So, I recommend anyone with similar issues to do what I did:

a.) Call customer service for your local provider and ASK them for the General Manager’s name or mailing address.

b.) Write a letter to the local provider’s GM telling him/her the EXACT problem and that you will have no choice but to officially file a complaint with the FCC if the issue is not resolved soon.

That’s basically what I did and I did it by snail mail…it may or may not have worked…

I plan on finding out if my process worked or the issue was fixed by itself…will update you all then..

-J.J.

Update on my battle with Time Warner (HDTV captioning issues)

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=7866452564013149761" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi,

First, sorry for no subtitles being provided…. I just wanted to give a quick and short update here. A transcript is provided below.

If you want to know the back story the links are provided below (top link being the most recent):

http://blog.deafread.com/iwii/archives/26

http://blog.deafread.com/iwii/archives/23

This is another update on my captioning problems in HDTV using Time Warner’s (“TW” for short) cable service in the L.A. area…more specifically the valley area.

As I said in my previous vlog, I e-mailed nbc.com and knbc.com (local affiliate)…I haven’t heard anything back from them yet.

I went to the FCC website and the website said that I had to write a formal letter of complaint to my local provider’s general manager and allow for 45 days for the situation to be remedied before filing a formal complaint to the FCC. I sent the letter 3 days ago and am going to follow that procedure appropriately.

See link:

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/tips_on_filing_cc_complaint.html

If I do not hear anything within 42 days, I will then officially file a complaint to the FCC. The letter is pasted here:

==============

March 17th, 2008

General Manager
Time Warner Communications
18533 Roscoe Blvd.
Office # 210
Northridge, CA 91324

Dear General Manager,

My name is J.J.  xxxx, I am a deaf customer of Time Warner cable in the San Fernando Valley. I have a high definition television with a Time Warner provided Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD box connected to it. As a deaf customer, I rely solely on closed captioning to view my programs and the captions are provided digitally by the 8300HD box.

I have been experiencing inconsistent captioning on channel 404 (NBC-HD). The captions either flash too quickly or are skipped over entirely. For example, in a conversation between two characters on television, the captions would only display for one character’s dialogue. This issue is happening consistently twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Please note that channel 04 (NBC standard definition) works perfectly. Additionally, on channel 402 (CBS HD) specifically during broadcasts and recorded (DVR) episodes of the show named, “Jericho” (Tuesday evenings at 10PM on CBS) the captions completely disappear for approximately four minutes early in the broadcast. There are a few other erratic captioning on both channels 407 and 411 (ABC HD and Fox HD), but I cannot specifically pinpoint an issue just yet (some random garbled transmission, but not consistently garbled). The ABC-HD and CBS-HD feeds should be looked into before it becomes a consistent problem, I believe.

I have already taken all necessary steps to remedy this situation with customer service at the local Time Warner offices located in Chatsworth, California. Initially, I placed a call to customer service and they walked me through rebooting my box and asked questions off their customer service scripts and determined that the problem had to be on my end. So, an appointment was scheduled for a technician to come by. A technician came by and he was unable to find any problems on my end. A few days after the technician left, I called Time Warner to follow up and the customer service representative determined that it must have been an issue with NBC’s high definition feed. I asked the representative for a number to call NBC and the representative did not have any other suggestions other than going online and E-mailing NBC from their website. I sent an E-mail to both NBC websites (both NBC.com and KNBC.com) directing my E-mail to their technical support divisions. I have not gotten a response from them for several days now. Additionally, I investigated a neighbor’s service in my apartment complex and he was also experiencing erratic captioning on his NBC high definition channel (channel 404). I further consulted with a friend who uses DirecTV in the Hollywood area and he is not experiencing any captioning issue with NBC-HD. Several of my friends nationwide are not experiencing captioning issues with NBC-HD in markets outside of Los Angeles.

With nowhere else to turn, I finally went to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) website to file a complaint. The website instructed me to contact the general manager of my local TV distributor in writing first before filing a formal complaint. This letter is a formal complaint of the high definition feed captioning problems I am experiencing as a Time Warner customer in the San Fernando Valley. I look forward to resolving this situation immediately!

Thank you,

J.J. XXXX

==============

On my previous vlog, I just got a comment yesterday from someone who saw my vlog yesterday. This person happens to live in the valley as well. She also has the exact same set up I have (box, TV, service) and is experiencing the same exact problem as I am!!!!

She sent an E-mail to TW customer service complaining about the captioning…and GUESS WHAT???…TW actually responded to her telling her that High Definition Channels are not captioned!?!?!?!?! OMG!!! This woman was upset and forwarded that E-mail response to the FCC herself. We’ll see what happens with that…this happened about two months ago in January… The E-mail thread is pasted below, the commenter gave me her permission to do so:

==============

From: (Name & E-mail omitted)
Date: Thu, Jan 10, 2008 at 1:10 PM
Subject: Closed Captioning on HD channels
To: dtvinfo@fcc.gov

This is a response I got from Time Warner Cable in response to closed-captions not appearing on an ABC High Definition channel for two nights on Jan 8 and 9, when in fact the closed-captions did appear on a standard ABC channel. In the past, I’ve been able view closed-captions without any problems on most HD channels. I believe their information to be incorrect.

When there is closed captions on a standard broadcast channel (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc) and if it sometimes fails to show closed captions on the similarly broadcast HD channel, where does the problem lie? With the cable company or the network?

Thank you for any assistance you can provide in this matter.

(Name omitted)

***********************************************

Dear (Name omitted)
Thank you for you e-mail.
We do apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you regarding
your services. Regarding your issue to close captioning not working on
the High Definition Channels, your issue with your Digital Receivers and
duplicate channels. We can help you out with that. Unfortunately the
High Definition Channels are not offered in close captioning due to the
fact the owners of each High Definition channel have chosen not to have
that feature come with there High Definition Channel. The issue with
your Digital Receiver may be your wiring, what we done is have
technician to come out on January 11, 2008 between 8am to 10am to find
the issue with your Digital Cable Service. Time Warner Cable offer
duplicate channels because each channel will represent one for analog
which is Channel 26 for discovery and 210 is a digital channel.
Unfortunately there is not way to stop your favorites from duplicating
the same channels on your favorites. We do apologize for any
inconvenience we may have caused you. All non-digital televisions will
not be able to receive any channels after February 17th 2009 unless they
have the digital converter box hooked up to them. The reason for the
change is so that all consumers will be able to receive movie quality
programming and sound on all of their channels. You will still need to
keep and use the antenna from your analog television as well as the
equipment. The technology being used is more efficient for broadcasters
and consumers and will allow broadcasters to free up parts of the
airwaves for future uses. Most televisions that are being made
and sold have a built in digital tuner which will allow you to keep your
services the same after the conversion. Make sure to check your owners
manual for all of your televisions to see if the contain a built in
digital tuner. The expected cost associated with purchasing the
converter equipment needed for older model televisions will be between
$50-70. There is a brighter side to this cost. The Federal Government
will offer up to two converter box coupons valued at $40.00each to those
households who will need to add this equipment beginning in the early
part of 2008. I have included the link to the website as well as the
phone number that will answer any further questions or concerns you may
have for this change over. You will even find information on where to
purchase the required equipment for analog televisions. Of course you
will still be able to contact us as well if you require any further
information. We thank you for your ongoing support and patience with
this issue during this time.
http://www.dtvanswers.com/dtv_what.html or call 1-800-DTV-2009 to
speak with a live representative.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us
at the number listed below or respond to this e-mail. Our telephone
representatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Avoid trip
charges on your bill by adding the Service Protection Maintenance Plan
for only $2.95. Please respond to this email or call customer service to
add this service.
Thank you (name omitted) for choosing Time Warner Cable Services.
Regards Mohamed H, Time Warner Cable Agent.

Original Message Follows:
————————
** THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN FORWARDED BY THE ONLINE FEEDBACK SYSTEM **
TIME WARNER CABLE WEBSITE CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
Wednesday, January 09, 2008, 14:44:22
The following inquiry was received through the TimeWarnerCable website
feedback form.
NAME: (Name omitted)
E-MAIL: (E-mail omitted)
PHONE: (Phone omitted)
ADDRESS:
(Address omitted)
ACCOUNT NUMBER:
MESSAGE:
The past two nights (1/7 and 1/8) the closed captioning has not worked
on ABC-HD channel 407 for primetime shows. It does work on channel 7.
Can you please ensure you have the captioning settings turned on for the
HD channels?
Also, the cable box still continues to reboot erratically. We have
replaced the cable box many times and have had technicians come out to
no avail. Please advise on what can be done to fix this issue.
Why are there duplicate channels, for example Discovery is on channel 26
and 210. Every time I try to save one as a “Favorite Channel” it saves
both of them and I’m tired of having to click duplicate channels for all
of my favorite channels. What can be done to avoid this?
Thanks -
(Name omitted)

==============

I will follow up with a vlog at the end of April (after 45 days) or before if the situation is resolved beforehand…man, this is really frustrating…(shakes head)…until the next update….

BRIEF UPDATE: CC issues with NBC-HD signal in L.A. area

Read/watch the previous v/blog first at:

http://blog.deafread.com/iwii/archives/23

This vlog is an update. This vlog is NOT SUBTITLED, a transcript is provided below. My apologies in advance.

1 MINUTE 57 SECONDS LONG

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=5578301688094417490" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

Transcript of the vlog above:

===============

Hi all,

First of all, I am sorry about no subtitles being offered here. I just wanted to offer a quick and brief update.

Today, I called Time Warner and told customer service that I already had a tech come, determine that the issue was not on my end, and that my call was a follow up call.

I mentioned that all channels were working just fine except for NBC-HD and that even NBC’s standard definition channel worked just fine.

Time Warner’s cust svc rep said that it MUST BE NBC’s HDTV signal. I was like, “Ummm okay fine” even if I still believe it is a Time Warner issue…and I politely asked him if he knew of someone I could contact at NBC to resolve the issue…he said, “Umm…let me look up on NBC.com for you”..and I told him to not to bother…and thanked him for his time and hung up.

Then I went to NBC.com and couldn’t really find a phone number…NBC.com is a “national” website…but I did find an E-mail for “
Technical/Website” issues which was actually the webmaster’s address…and fired off an E-mail basically summarizing my problem and saying, “I am unsure if this is the correct person to contact, but please forward this E-mail to the appropriate party and/or let me know who to contact…”. I also fired off an E-mail to KNBC which is the NBC affiliate for Los Angeles.

Frankly, I don’t expect to hear back from them (they probably get a lot of E-mail and cannot respond to them all)…but I am gonna give them 1-2 days before I call in the big dogs…the FCC…

IN ASL: KICK.DOWN.DOOR.GUNS.DRAWN

Will follow up with an update on the next step….thanks!

===============

Captioning issues with NBC-HD via Time Warner:

Hi all,

This vlog is in addition to Seek Geo’s vlogs about his issues with Charter cable in Washington state…see the links below:

http://www.seekgeo.com/?p=738

http://www.seekgeo.com/?p=739

http://www.seekgeo.com/?p=752

Seek Geo’s issues were NO CAPTIONING AT ALL on a particular channel. He got fed up and got a satellite dish and now is in the process of filing a complaint to the FCC.

My issue is in regards to Time Warner (see photo —>) in the San Fernando Valley (north of Los Angeles). I am not getting consistent captioning on NBC in High Definition when all of my other high definition channels are working correctly. This vlog is about my situation with Time Warner…this is part one…part two will follow when I make the next step…enjoy!!!

SIX MINUTES LONG…rough transcript is pasted below the vlog as well.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-8284880446753692959" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]
ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

===================
Hi, this vlog is about my captioning problems with my TV. I am using Time Warner cable service. I live in the L.A. area….OK, my problem is with NBC in High Definition…what you see behind me is NBC in standard definition, see the gray bars behind me? I set the TV that way even though I could have stretched my 4:3 picture. I set it that way to be able to show a clear comparison of the differences…Now look behind me….it’s NBC’s standard definition channel here I will show the captions then I will show captions in HDTV….and you’ll see the differences…ok ready???

See?? It’s fine…PERFECT…No problems at all…..Now, I am going to switch from channel 4 to…404…which is the NBC HDTV channel…ready???

Look here……

See? Some words are missing…..or the captions are blinking on the screen Now…I am going to set up the camera
and explain my situation in detail….

Hello….now you just saw what I showed you….the differences between….channel 4 and 404….that proves to me that NBC is not the problem…because NBC has smooth captioning on the regular channel….yet it is screwy on HDTV The problem is THEM!!!,the cable folks…because they are responsible for the converter box which converts the signal into captions. If NBC’s signal is right….and nothing is wrong on my end…..It’s THEM!!!!!!!!!!! So, I called “THEM” roughly two weeks ago….to make an appointment….they wanted to charge me $20 to have a man come over….I was like, “Ummm..why?” They said, “Because it is a problem on your end, not ours”. After a few minutes of back and forth……they agreed to waive the $20 fee. Even though I knew it was their fault I needed to be sure I was not to be charged $20 for any reason…So, they sent a tech over…..and I picked up the remote and showed him the problem……He went to work……Talked on his cell some….Worked a bit more…..Back on the cell again…..It took over an hour….I even had some lunch…..Finally, I said, “So..what’s up?” The tech shook his head and said, “It’s THEM!!!!”. I was like, “Right on dude!”. The tech now supported what I said…while on the telephone with cust svc for 30-45 minutes the week before. When I first called cust svc…I had to be patient while..they went down their script…point-by-point…..when they ran out of options..I asked to speak to a manager….That wasn’t successful..and I said,”I am talking to the wrong person here…there has to be someone in the bldg like a rocket scientist who can fix the problem”. The manager kept insisting that it was a problem on my end…So, I finally agreed to make an appt for a tech to come over Now that the tech has come and confirmed that I was correct….I am going to call them tomorrow…errr…on Monday….I’ll let you all know what happens next…..

I just wanted to update you all because of Seek Geo’s vlogs about his issues with Charter in Washington state….Geo got fed up and is now contacting the FCC…..and he also got a satellite dish!!! I want to see who else may be having the same problems???? Please do let us know of your ideas or stories???? I want to know what’s going on I want to make sure that all HDTV captioning is done correctly everywhere in America……

I also have another problem….with FOX-HD channel 411 the captioning is SLIGHTLY off…it seems to occur about 3-4% of the time per my calculations…With NBC-HD it’s always screwy….I also have noticed some issues with CBS during “Jericho”. Do you have the same problem? When I watch “Jericho” in HDTV..Every week the captions disappear for about 3-4 minutes….and I gotta start lipreading…..then the captions are just fine…It’s been happening for four weeks now…..Is it happening to anyone else??? OK, thanks everyone…..
I’ll update you all on the next step….

=============================

Why *I* think vloggers on DR SHOULD offer subtitles and/or transcripts…

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=3227992418283640682" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

A rough transcript is offered below:

Why *I* think vloggers on DR SHOULD offer subtitles and/or transcripts…

-First of all, I am making this vlog entirely independent from my role as a DeafRead human editor.

-Second, I realize that other vloggers have already brought this issue up, but I felt so strongly here that I had to throw in my two cents as well. We as deaf people in general have always been excluded from many things such as: television shows, movies, airline in flight movies, you tube videos, streaming videos from the internet, even most movies on Ipods, and etc. The fact that everything is not closed captioned and/or subtitled is the BIGGEST ISSUE for me as a deaf person. I just strongly believe that if we are to demand that everything be captioned and/or subtitled, we should practice what we preach.

-Third, here are a few GOOD reasons why we all should subtitle our vlogs or offer a transcript:

A.) There are many deaf blind readers browsing DeafRead and it is important to offer transcripts for them.

B.) Sometimes people do not want to view an entire vlog and if you offered a transcript, they would still be able to get your message without the need to view your entire vlog. It is virtually impossible to view every vlog in its entirety submitted on DeafRead every day unless you quit your day job or something. Reading is faster than watching every time. By offering transcripts, you reach a wider audience more quickly. This would also help us the human editors to approve your vlogs much quicker (sometimes I make the mistake of putting a vlog in extra because the vlogger does not mention something deaf-related within 30 seconds, but does so later in the vlog).

C.) Most important one…the audience!!! I feel that many deaf vloggers need to reach out to the non-signing audience. For example, Seek Geo mentioned that he vlogged about IP Relay Prank Calls being made by hearing pople and subtitled it. After he posted his vlog, he was contacted by a hearing person who apologized for posting a you tube video showing people how to make prank calls via relay and removed those videos from youtube. How can we change the world if we cannot get our message out to a wide audience?

-Fourth, I love and cherish ASL!!! It is my primary language! I also understand that subtitling American Sign Language is very difficult and not entirely possible in some cases, but still a transcript should be offered nonetheless. It does not need to contain words for each sign, it merely needs to simply convey what you want to say. Even a one sentence summary would do.

Fifth, as for wanting your vlogs to be in pure ASL without subtitles, you can use Google Video like I am using here. Google Video in conjunction with ‘Subtitle Workshop’ offer the capability to have your vlogs captioned only if you press the “CC” button on/off.

-Last, I understand that subtitling/transcribing is time consuming, but I feel that we as deaf people should set an example. Just my feelings on the issue…thanks for watching!

This guy is definitely hardcore….

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/T8guMii5Uuw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

 I’d have done a Peter Patriot helmet though…..

Netflix’s "Instant Viewing" does not support closed captioning.

Netflix is now introducing “Instant Viewing” which enables anyone with an Internet connection to be able to watch movies on their personal computer (link: http://www.netflix.com/MediaCenter?id=5384) . This was appealing to me because I would be able to watch movies instantly. The reason I jumped ship from Netflix to Blockbuster online was because with Blockbuster I am able to run out to a local store and exchange my viewed DVD for another one instantly. Timing is especially important for me because I watch tons of serial TV shows on DVD’s and it irriates me whenever I finish a DVD and cannot watch the next episode on another DVD. With “Instant Viewing” I would be able to watch a million TV episodes without even running out to the local Blockbuster. Great idea, right?

Being Deaf, I fully expected “Instant Viewing” to not support closed captioning. Nonethless, I decided to shoot off an E-mail and see if the movies were closed captioned. Here’s the E-mail string pasted below:

=================================================

From:”Netflix Customer Service” <customerservice@netflix.com>
[Add to Address Book]

To:jj.@xxxx.com
Subject:Re: Other [NFC15] NFLX ID: 0WA943MY48U0TCHBURX8FR8U9084TTDA
Date:Tuesday, June 05, 2007 5:55:28 PM
[View Source]
Dear J.J.,

Thanks for your message.

Netflix is committed to assisting our customers. While our instant viewing
content does not currently support closed captioning, it is a feature that we
are looking to expand upon.

You may reach instant viewing support at 1-866-402-2616 between 7am and 11pm
Pacific Time, seven days a week. Please note that we will need you to be in
front of your computer at the time you call.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks,
Christopher
Netflix Customer Service

Satisfied with our response?

SATISFIED

http://www.netflix.com/CSSurvey?tid=0WA943MY48U0TCHBURX8FR8U9084TTDA&mid=2&helpf

ul=yes

UNSATISFIED

http://www.netflix.com/CSSurvey?tid=0WA943MY48U0TCHBURX8FR8U9084TTDA&mid=2&helpf

ul=no

AOL users please copy and paste the link into your browser.

> —–Original Message—–
> From: jj.@xxxx.com
> Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 8:54:16 PM
> To: customerservice@netflix.com
> Subject: Other [NFC15]
>
>
> Subject: watch now
> Error Code:
> Hi,
>
> I am a former Netflix subscriber. I am curious about the “Watch Now”
> feature. Are the movies subtitled or closed captioned? Meaning if the DVD
> offers subtitles, would the movie be subtitled on the PC as well?
>
> I am a Deaf person who relies on captions/subtitles to watch films.
>
> Thanks for any response that I may receive.
>
> -J.J.

============================================

” While our instant viewing content does not currently support closed captioning, it is a feature that we
are looking to expand upon.”

It’s nice that they are “looking to expand upon”, but as a Deaf person I know that this isn’t happening anytime soon. A part of me just accepts this fact and another part of me is sick and tired of this crap. Don’t get me wrong, Netflix isn’t out to ruin things for the Deaf community or anything. It’s just that it does not occur to these people when they are inventing something new to make their invention 100% accessible to everybody. I can understand that “they” don’t mean to exclude the Deaf community and that things like this happen all the time.

However, think about this….does anyone see any public buliding being built these days without wheelchair ramps, handicapped bathrooms, water fountains set closer to the ground, and etc..???? The answer is “No”…at least in America. What happens if a builder builds a bulding without wheelchair access? Surely, the builder would get fined and be forced to install accessible ramps and so forth.

There needs to be a law in this country that requires everything on broadcast on TV, shown in the movie theaters, on DVD, and streamed on the Internet to be closed captioned. We in the Deaf community are always playing catch up with techonology. Right now, we can’t watch movies from Netflix on our PC’s, we cannot catch a missing episode of ‘Lost’ on line, we cannot always watch the bonus features on DVD’s, and so forth…it is getting old. I lived through TV not always being captioned on prime time, movies not being captioned at all, and now streaming videos…..when will we ever be “ahead of the technological curve”? Will it ever happen?

P.S.- I have to moderate all comments. I was just hit with 8,000+ spam comments….anyone know how to delete all of them instead of 20 at a time???

Uncharted Territorty

Disclaimer: I simply want to draw on my experience from being a Deafread.com human editor and make some comments about Deafread.com. However, I am making this blog entry independent of my role as a Deafread.com human editor. In no way, does Deafread.com endorse this blog entry.

Hi all,

I watched Aidan Mack’s vlog and read the ensuing comments with great interest. (Link: http://deaffilmblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/open-v-letter-to-deafread_16.html) This blog entry is my general response to Aidan’s vlog and the general concerns that have arisen about Deafread.com’s audience and the content found on Deafread.com.

The Internet began to gain wide acceptance and usage in the mid to the late 1990’s. Since then, there have been many Deaf related websites posted up on the Internet. However, prior to 2006, you had to stumble upon these websites either by a search engine or word of mouth. Even during the initial protests last May at Gallaudet, I found myself jumping from DeafDc.com to Ridorlive.com to Elisa Abenchuchan’s Xanga site to Joey Baer’s ASL Vlogsite to McConnell’s site and book marking as many sites as I could. I found all of these sites either by links on each site or by comments made by others. It was not until sometime in the summer of 2006 that Tayler and Jared both had their brilliant idea to ‘centralize’ all Deaf related blogs and news into one place.

(Link: http://jarednevans.typepad.com/blog/2006/07/simplify_your_b.html)

The first time I ever stumbled upon Deafread.com, I said to myself, “Nice! What a great idea! Thank god someone thought of this!” Then sometime in October when things were starting to heat up at Gallaudet, I thought to myself, “Gee, I hope Deafread.com can keep up.” I then simply shot an E-mail to Tayler and said something to the effect of, “Great job! Do you guys need any help searching for links to post on Deafread.com?” and Tayler told me that it was actually simpler than that and that Deafread.com was an aggregator. Then he said, “I do however need someone on the East coast to help us out early in the mornings”. I at first was a bit reluctant because I am simply not a morning person, but at that time I felt it was time for the Deaf community to unite for ‘the greater good’ and decided to do my part. So, I became a human editor.

You see, I have only been doing this for four and half months and that Deafread.com is only about seven months old!!!!! This finally brings me to my point: We are in uncharted territory right now. This has never ever happened before and we all in the Deaf b/vlogsphere are making up history as we go along. Even Jared Evans raised an interesting question a few days ago when he asked about who was the first “true vlogger”? We are in the age where we all are too impatient at the ATM machines, get frustrated by dial up Internet (if you even still have it), prefer computer check in kiosks at the airport over standing in a line, and so on. Technology is increasing at an exponential rate. A fast fact: I carried with two hands to college a 25 pound “word processor”, then I left college with a six ounce palm pilot in my palm that had 10,000 times more computing power than that bulky thing. Times are changing and ever so rapidly.

By now you should get my point (yes, I ramble sometimes…er..ok..a lot) that we all at Deafread.com are trying to do our best over here centralize deaf related content for a wide audience. We are concerned about the content that we post on Deafread.com and we do try our best to approve specific deaf related content in as a balanced way as we possibly can. In fact, Tayler and Jared are now working on a specific guideline that all human editors can follow to determine what content will be posted at Deafread.com. They are even considering the possibility of Deafead.com for kids someday, but you all need to realize that Deafread.com for kids is not the ONLY IDEA that we have heard of. We get a lot of E-mails from brilliant people with brilliant ideas and we wish we could make them all come to fruition some day, but at the end of the day we are only 6 human beings with full time jobs that do this in their spare time. Tayler and Jared actually do about 85% of the work and the rest of us do about 15% (a rough estimate). They even launched, “Deafread.com Extra” so that you all could see what content we were approving.

As for our audience, to be honest, I have no idea who is reading Deafread.com other than the people who identify themselves in comments or people that I have encouraged to read Deafread.com. This is the primary reason that I decided to be a little “PSE-ish” in my 1st vlog and to also subtitle it. (Trust me, my ASL is better than I showed…just buy me a beer sometime ) I have even considered starting some sort of a census count for everyone reading/watching in the Deaf b/vlogsphere to determine the audience. Then again, I understand why many prefer to remain anonymous; it’s one of the true rewards of the Internet while also a thorn in its side. Maybe if I can figure out how to list a poll on this blogsite then I could list simple anonymous polls such as ‘male or female?’, ‘ages?’, and so forth. Even if I did so, my results wouldn’t be perfect…there could be multiple voters or people voting for categories they do not belong to or even people that don’t vote. In short (rambling here again, sorry), we will never really know our audience.

Because we at Deafread.com do not know our audience, I believe that we all here at Deafread.com share a personal responsibility to provide ‘reasonable content’. As for what ‘reasonable content’ is, that is an argument that rests on top a very slippery slope. The rule of thumb that I have been using for my content approvals is this: If it’s content could be allowed on Network TV during prime time, I will post this entry. This is all that I can do until specific guidelines are set forth by Tayler and Jared. I really appreciate the fact that Tayler and Jared are proceeding with EXTREME caution. I have never met them in the flesh, but through E-mail correspondence I have found both to be very reasonable people. I am asking you all to be a bit patient because we are truly in uncharted territory here and we need to proceed with caution.

Thanks for reading (if you even made it this far )

-JJ

It is what it is.

Welcome to my b/vlogsite!

My name is J.J., which is short for Jerry Jr. and that’s the last time I am gonna tell you that.

A bit about myself, I’m Deaf, 33 years old, married, with a dog & a cat, and a glorified cubicle working gofer. Just your average boring person who decided to launch a b/vlogsite so that he could have a “microphone”. Just beacuse!!!

I am unsure as to what direction I may take with this b/vlogsite, but for starters I’ll start off with a humorous video that I filmed last October in Washington D.C. I’ll post it in the next entry.

As my mortal god, Bill Belichick likes to say, “It is what it is”. For now….:)

-J.J.