October is nearly upon us; Thursday will be October 1st, and that begins a month of Halloween-esque displays, events and advertising.

Marysville NorCal Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing is throwing their annual event. This year it is based on the Addams’ Family with a mystery scavenger hunt. The folks running the mystery scavenger hunt will be dressed as the Addams Family for your entertainment.

When: Friday, October 16, 2009

Time: 6pm - 9pm

Where: Boyd Hall

Address: 1895 Lassen Ave. Yuba City, CA 95993

Cost: $10 per adult, $5 per child.

Come in your Halloween costume and enjoy some interesting Halloween themed cuisine! There will be interpreters provided so there should not be any lack of communication.

It is recommended you RSVP your tickets because after October 9, it will be cash only. RSVPing will also help the staff provide adequate amounts of food and drinks. All proceedings will go to supporting NorCal’s presence here in Marysville.

Contact Kim Dethlefsen-Koons for tickets.

Hope to see you there!

Click below to download the flyer.

Flyer for Marysville NorCal Halloween Event

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NorCal Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing has a flyer up detailing information on Deaf Awareness Day at the Sacramento Zoo.

There are discounts for attendees, purchase made at the Zoofari Market and medium sized beverage. However, pets and service animals are not allowed in the zoo. There will be ASL interpreters all over the zoo for your convenience.

Go and have fun!

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E-mail me at hnoda@appeal-democrat.com.

An example of an interview goes like this: click for past interview with Susan Stacy.

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When: Sept. 19
Time: 9 AM - 4 PM
Where: Sacramento Zoo at 3930 West Land Park Drive, Sacramento, CA 95822
Web site for more information: http://www.saczoo.com/ and click on “Calendar” on left side navigation menu.

Thanks, Dale Baird.

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In a nation whose foundation is in civil rights, the constitution and liberty, the civil rights of a Deaf person in the court room is very important. The Deaf person must have equal access and understand what is going on in a court room, whether he/she is on the jury, a defendant or a plaintiff. Therefore, an ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter who is certified by the Judiciary system, is required if a Deaf person requests one.

Recently, I was corresponding with Ms. Decker, who works for one of the local courts, managing jury services. She was asking for a more comprehensive listing of ASL interpreting agencies. We discussed alternatives for hard of hearing or non-signing deaf people, such as UbiDuo, real-time captioning, video interpreting, and text-based interpreting. I was interested by her request and put together a list of local interpreting agencies with help from Client Advocate/Coordinator Kimberly Dethlefsen-Koons of Marysville NorCal Services for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I also posted a copy of the list on this blog. I think the list will be very handy for local offices who need to look up local interpreting agencies for the Yuba-Sutter areas quickly.

I have reservations when it comes to text-based interpreting for the deaf who do not have an excellent grasp of the English language. I believe that a Deaf person who uses ASL primarily to communicate, has the right to request an ASL interpreter and not accept text-based interpreting. The text-based interpreting may be acceptable for some deaf or hard of hearing individuals, but not for everyone. The problem is that one solution does not fit all members within the deaf category. Those who are medically categorized as “deaf” have varying degrees of hearing less/deafness and not all have chosen to speak verbally; some have chosen to use ASL as their primary language because it is the most clearly understood, and still others may be from foreign countries such as Japan, Britain, Mexico, which all have their own sign language.

As a Deaf person who uses ASL primarily for communication, I’ve seen a huge difference between the levels of interpreting skills. Level 1 are beginners who are just starting out in the interpreting field. Progressing through Level 2-4, you see a variety of them interpreting in educational interpreting situations, like in elementary schools and high schools, and in the medical field. The professionalism and skill  increases through the levels. Level 5 are usually certified interpreters.

I met my first Judiciary and R.I.D. certified interpreter while a 21-year old student at American River College, Sacramento. (R.I.D. stands for Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, and is a national registry. There is a web site if you click on the name.) Her name was Carol McDonnell. I remember sitting at my desk trying not to look so slack-jawed. I was simply in awe of her interpreting skills. Never before had I received such clearly conveyed information! I’m happy to say that I usually get a certified interpreter for my work-related situations.

I have a couple e-mails out to some local Judiciary certified ASL interpreters that I want to post next time, about their experiences. I can’t say that I’ve ever been involved in a court room. I have received two jury summons but they were canceled when it was decided a trial was not needed. Still, I am curious as to what my own experience will be if I am called to a court room.

More information about judiciary interpreters can be found at California Courts Programs. Next time I will be posting in-depth about ASL Judiciary Interpreters and what they go through.

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If you know of another agency that serves the Yuba-Sutter areas, please let me know so that I can add. Also, if the information has changed, please let me know immediately at hnoda@appeal-democrat.com.

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Full story is under this jump.

I became deaf at 14 months old from spinal meningitis. I am profoundly deaf with nerve deafness. My family chose to use sign language with me to communicate and put in me a fledging program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at Lincrest Elementary School. I had my first mainstreamed class experience at third grade with an interpreter who knew ASL from America River Community College’s new interpreting program back then (I’m in my early 30s). I became fully mainstreamed at 7th grade and went through junior high at Gray Avenue (before it became Intermediate School) and graduated from Yuba City High School in 1993.

I’m the eldest of three girls. I don’t have brothers. My entire family signs, although my younger sisters sign fairly. My mother is the most skilled at ASL — she used to be an education interpreter.

I told the ASL I class about my experience in mainstreamed school as “a not nice experience” because kids teased me for being deaf. However, on Facebook recently, old classmates found me and told me that they remembered me and were inspired to learn ASL because of their experiences with me. I was surprised and touched that some of my former classmates remembered me after all those years, and humbled by my small influence on them as a deaf kid teaching a few signs.

College life was when my world opened up through meeting and socializing with many other Deaf people and learning about my identity as an Deaf person in a hearing world. I took a break from college and went to live in New York, where my husband’s family is, and had my first real job experience there. After September 11 happened, we moved back here and I applied for my job here at the Appeal-Democrat shortly afterwards, and have been here since December 13, 2001.

I married my high school sweetheart whom I met in drawing class at Yuba City High, in Lake Tahoe. He is fluent in ASL. We don’t have children but five cats — Molly, Happy, Jack Tunney, Houdini, and Sammy. The class seemed taken back by the names Jack Tunney except for some of the men who immediately recognized the name. Others drew a blank on the name Houdini. I named one of my cats Houdini, after the famous magician and escapist artist Houdini, because he kept disappearing from the large box I was keeping him in with his brother Jack Tunney to help them become used to us! I’d go away, come back and find Jack Tunney dozing in the box minus his brother Houdini.

In 2007, Appeal-Democrat formed the Internet Department. As the webmaster, I am responsible for implementing the directives Courtney Lopez, the Internet Operations Director gives me. I work with Steve Nelson and Robert LaHue with related Internet content along with other department managers, the Publisher, and our Freedom Communications Corporation which we are under. Courtney is the primary person in charge of the web sites we operate. I am the one who codes the web pages and makes it all work  with Freedom Interactive’s policies/procedures on webmastering. Steve Nelson oversees the content posted online — articles, photos, slideshows, videos submitted by staff and users, forums and comments on articles. We communicate in the office primarily through Instant Messaging (Bonjour).

Someone asked about why I am in this particular industry. I answered that I love computers and technology is moving rapidly towards a virtual New Media, where a printed newspaper may be a bygone product or a rare product. I believe it is the newspaper industry’s responsibility to keep up with the technology and learn how it can evolve with new trends and expectations. It will not be 20 years later, but actually sooner. Europe already uses electronic editions with special readers similar to Amazon’s Kindle. Cari Carter had her Kindle, and showed it to the class. I do a similar thing with my 2nd Generation iPod Touch — I buy and download some books to my iPod for reading in the bed.

The technology to create virtual newspapers is already in process of being refined for mass production. Right now we are taking advantage of the social network medias and feeding short blurbs of our news to those sites for those who practically live on social networks like Facebook.

Discussing Facebook and MySpace brought up another topic: these two sites are Deaf-Friendly sites. Many, many Deaf people are on Facebook or MySpace. Deaf people can message, chat, post videos, join groups with other like-minded Deaf people and friends and carry on lively discussions.

With that note on social media, there is a link in my sidebar for quick access to join Deaf Californians on Facebook. Also, there’s an excellent video on “Trouble with Twitter” that Bill Creswell captioned. Robert LaHue shared the non-captioned version the other day, I’m sharing the captioned version here.

Enjoy!

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When: Friday, April 3, 2009

Where: Raef Hall at American River College, 4700 College Oak Drive, Sacramento, CA 95841

Time: 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Download flyer here.

I’d like to take a moment to talk about Audism and explain it, because I know this is not a common public knowledge.

What is Audism?

Quoted from the flyer itself: “Audism is attitudes and practices based on the assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak and hear is desired and best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting in stigma, bias, discrimination, and prejudice - in overt or covert ways against Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life.”

In the e-mail accompanying the flyer, was this additional text: “Audism Free America, a grassroots Deaf activist organization, will stage a one-day protest rally on April 3, 2009 in front of the Volta Bureau of the Alexander Graham Bell Association located at 1537 35th St., NW in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area.  To promote participation by people from the greater Sacramento area in this growing movement for linguistic and human rights of Deaf citizens, this Blue Ribbon ceremony will be held in solidarity for Audism Free America.”

From personal experience myself, I’ve discovered that the word “Audism” is little known in the public world, yet it is practiced almost daily either with or without conscious knowledge by persons. Audism is equal to race, sex, language discrimination. The word Audism specifies discrimination on the inability to hear and the notion that a person who cannot hear, is inferior to a person who can hear. For example, a person who pushes to have a deaf baby implanted with a cochlear implant because “she/he will never have a fulfilling life as a deaf person,” is committing Audism. A person who denies an applicant a job because he/she is deaf regardless of how skilled and capable he/she is of doing the job, is committing Audism. A deaf person who apologizes for being unable to hear, is also encouraging Audism. These are small examples to illustrate Audism.

Advocacy is needed to spread knowledge of Audism and stopping it, because Audism affects both deaf and hearing people. Audism stunts the deaf person from achieving their full potentiality as human beings. Audism closes others’ eyes to the deaf person’s potentialities. Both deaf and hearing people need to be aware of Audism in order to stop discrimination that is both obvious and insidious. Standing in solidarity is a step towards spreading the knowledge of the word Audism and ending the act of Audism.

More information on Audism, Audism Free America: Google Search “audism” or visit http://www.audismfreeamerica.blogspot.com/, or http://www.audism.org/.

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Marysville NorCal Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are hosting their 2nd annual Dinner & Theater, “Follow the White Rabbit,” based on Alice in Wonderland.

Quick Info:
When: April 25, 2009
Where: Boyd Hall at 1895 Lassen Avenue, Yuba City, CA 95993 (Entrance is on Klamath)
Time: 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Doors will open at 5:45 p.m.
Cost: $10 per person. It is strongly reccomended that you RSVP your tickets now because after April 17, only cash will be accepted.

Contact Kimberly Dethlefsen-Koons at: kdethlefsen@norcalcenter.org or call 530-763-1537, 530-740-7802 TTY. She also has OAC (Outreach Advisory Commitee) members selling tickets at locations near you.

Voice Interpreting will be provided. Dinner is served from 6 to 7, play starts at 7. Come, eat, socialize and sit back to enjoy a play in which madness ensues! Alice, the White Rabbit, the Twins, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, March Hare, and the Queen and King will be present along with some of their Cards. This is also for a general audience — some of the characters are children. Click to download the Alice In Wonderland Flyer.

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