The Internet is global by nature.

Chan Suh

Fellow Appeal-Democrat blogger and reporter, Robert LaHue, has declared on his blog that he will shave his eyebrows if he raises $1,000 by May 21 for his participation in Relay for Life.

Help him do this!

Online Relay for Life Donation web page, click here.

There has been many reviews on DeafRead.com regarding the movie “Sweet Nothing In My Ear.” It is  about a deaf and hearing couple who struggle over whether to or not to have their deaf son implanted with a cochlear implant. After reading several reviews online, I found one that revealed the history behind the film and the story.  Here it is in a 10-minute vlog.

I’m puzzled about something this morning and I’m not sure if I should be mad or what.

I was scheduled for an online conference with one of our vendors about a project that I wanted consultation on. I had e-mailed them earlier in the week about this and they set me up with a online conference. I didn’t mention that I’m deaf because what does it have to do with my ability to do conferences?

A few minutes before the appointed conference, I logged onto the web portal and called up My IP Relay and had them call in the phone number and dial in my access code. I got the man that I was supposed to speak with, on the phone. That’s when he figured out I was impaired but he wasn’t sure what kind of impairment I had. He actually asked if I was visually impaired or hearing impaired!

I just replied that I was deaf and my eyes are fine and informed him the relay was being done on Instant Messaging, and offered to IM him instead. He just wanted to e-mail me everything and if I had questions, e-mail him back.

I don’t know exactly what to think. I’ve never had this happen before. I’ve talked with their people before on the relay with no issues. I informed him that he was always welcome to use the relay, but he insisted on e-mailing. I said, “Fine, I will be expecting your e-mail today” and ended the converstation.

In hindsight, I think he was thinking of Helen Keller. I apologize in advance, but sometimes I wish she was not so famous historically because too many people think of her and apply her identity to the deaf population in general. I am deaf, not blind-deaf. And I want my consultation right now !

What do you think?

Found this comic in Appeal-Democrat’s paper today:

Yesterday, I joined 9 other working deaf professionals for a three-hour discussion with Yuba City High School’s graduating class of deaf seniors. We shared our experiences as deaf people in the work force and we had a diverse background represented; Sutter County On-Call Janitor, State Department of Rehabiliation Counselor, two NorCal Center on Deafness employees, Webmaster (me), Retired Rice Farmer, Quest one-on-one monitor, Hospital Notarist, Construction, and an employee who has two jobs with Employment Development Department (EDD) and Hands On Video Relay Service (HOVRS) Care Support. Each one varied in age, from late twenties to late sixties. All of us were deaf to some degree, from hard-of-hearing to profoundly deaf and varying degrees of ASL usage.

Each one of us told a basic background of who we were, what we do now, where we went to school, what we did after graduating from high school, how and where we got our jobs. Some of us were going back to school for another degree, such as the counselor who was getting her Master’s and me who is going back for a Bachelor’s in Web Development. I think some of the seniors were surprised that some of us were returning students. Life is really about on-going learning and some jobs do revise their requirements for employment.

The students asked us questions about our jobs in detail, how we felt about being deaf, if we had ever faced discrimination and how we dealt with it individually. This class and future graduating seniors are actually fortunate in that they have more resources for assistance to help them succeed. Back when I graduated from high school, the support system was fragile and newly started. I had to depend on support from my family and whatever resources I could find through contact with other deaf people. The graduating class still have it hard with the evolving hiring requirements. For example, teacher assistants are now required to have an AA degree. Back in 1996, you only needed a high school diploma.

Michael Payne of EDD and HOVRS Care Support had very good words to share about the Grandfather Clause, which allowed entry level workers to climb the corporate ladder without the required accredited degrees after hiring regulations were revised at certain places of employment, to explain why some people were employed without an accredited degree. He also related the story of trying to get a job with the UPS delivery at an airport where the superior was concerned about him being deaf. He got the job after he challenged the supervisor to let him prove if he could do the job. Years later, EDD worked with them on setting up a buddy system that allows able-bodied deaf people to work with a hearing counterpart.  Although the hearing buddy did the “hearing” for both, both looked out for each other on the job since it’s a fast-paced and heavy work.

Kimberly Dethlefsen of NorCal Center on Deafness explained about Social Security Income (SSI) for one student who had questions about it as an immigrant student. I’ll never forget what she said. “SSI is not only for the deaf. It is for the disabled. People who have amputations, mental illness, blindness, and other things that prevent them from being able to physically work. If you’re not able to work, you may qualify for SSI.”

Marcia Turner from Quest, shared a funny story about her first summer job as a sheepherdess.  The owner of the sheep flock never communicated with her and would just give her tools and act out what her job was. I told about my experiences trying to find a job for the first time while living in New York and how I lost interviews because the potential employer would not use the relay service. Educating others is also part of our jobs as deaf individuals.

Being deaf is part of our individual identity, as much as belonging to an ethnic group, but it should never be used as a determining factor in whether we can work or not.

It was a good discussion, and our regret was only that there wasn’t enough time to go further in details. I would like to go back again.

The attention span of a computer is only as long as its electrical cord.
-Murphy’s Technology Laws

I just saw this while updating Corning Observer’s web site .

Deaf, abused pup needs a home.

The dog’s blue eyes caught my eyes. She is 5 months old, white and spayed. For more information, click the above title read entire article and see photo. Hopefully one of you reading this will be interested in adopting her.

After hearing and reading about scams targeting the Deaf on Deafread.com and elsewhere, it has finally hit the Yuba-Sutter area.

In the span of one week, I got two text messages from friends who reported getting the scam Instant Message offering money if they would give their information. The name (surprise) was Deafagent06, aka Walter Morgan, johnsmith, and probably dozen other aliases.

Do yourself a favor and educate yourself. Google for ‘deaf world lottery scam’ and you will see records of scammers going after Deaf people.

How do they get your E-mail or Instant Message information?

From the chat groups, forums anywhere you are in where your instant message name and e-mail is shown publicly.

If you get an instant message or e-mail from them –  block, delete, and report them. Document it so that you can report to the police.

This site describes how to recognize Lottery Scams and what to do.

Key Tips:

1. You can’t win a prize in a lottery you haven’t bought or been given a ticket for.
2. Legitimate lotteries don’t ask for funds in advance of paying out prize money.
3. Never provide personal identity information to a company or person you do not know.

And most importantly: Legitimate lotteries do not use email to notify their winners.

Sent over from Cynthia Fontayne of Greetings from Marysville. Visit her blog here.