SCBassist

If you had the chance to tell a presidential candidate, which of the following general concerns would you want their attention to the most?

Air Travel
American Sign Language
Assistive Technology
Captioning
Employment Opportunities
Education
Emergency Preparedness
Human Services
Infant Screening
Interpreting
Law Enforcement
Relay
Telecommunications

__________________

Deafness

__________________
This advertising will not be shown in this way to registered members.
Register your free account today and become a member on AllDeaf.com

jillio

It only let me vote for one, so I chose education. But I think employment opportunities ranks right up there, too.

Jiro

I think CAPTIONING should be an issue. What I mean about that is - in public places, we ride in mass transit, go to government places (local court, INS, whatever), malls, etc. etc.... they always make public announcement and we're at great disadvantage. In fact - it could be a matter of life and death! I think most public places should at least have visual form of communication like "EXIT" sign. Same for airlines.

Cheri

Great input.

__________________

jillio

Good points, but if our kids can't read, captioning isn't going to do them a whole lot of good.

Brian

Speaking of captioning in mass transit - they already have captioning on the subways and possibly buses in Atlanta (MARTA) and I believe Washington, DC (METRO).

__________________
-Brian

Cheri

Kids don't go on a transit or go to government places by themselves. I fail to see your point.

__________________

Jiro

lol! if kids can't read... sounds like they're too young to be out by themselves in the city!

Not in NYC. Boston did have captioning in subways. There are always emergency announcements in cities so I believe it's very vital for deaf people to be aware of it. I don't want to just run along with the crowd without knowing what's going on. My life is at jeopardy! Even 2-words announcement will do me a huge service!

jillio

My point is, kids who can't read grow up to be adults that can't read. If we don't concetrate on their education first, all the CC in the world will not benefit them.

jillio

See post above.

Jiro

There are estimated 31 million Americans who have hearing disability so I'm sure there are far more literates than illiterates. I guess to compensate for illiteracy, how about some pictures on captioning?

jillio

Why not just focus on education.....then pictures wouldn't be necessary. That doesn't mean that I don't think that visual announcements are unnecessary. But, actually, that is already provided for under the ADA. It is just a matter of enforcement. But the policy is already in place. What we need is new legislation affecting educational policy.

Brian

This is shocking. NYC is supposed to be first city to get everything before other cities.

I will try to go by the subway station to check if they have public/emergency announcement systems that is deaf-friendly.

I know we as deaf/hh lack so many things, but should we be face some kind of emergency, we have to use our eyes to depend on the movement of people.

__________________
-Brian

Jiro

Yes we can do that but I want to know what's going on in order to make a "tactical decision" for myself. Look at what happened to people at WTC... they were told to stay but boy were they wrong... The only people who ignored the instruction and ran out were the one who had been there at first WTC bombing.

about NYC - I suppose the reason why they didn't put captioning in the subways is because there are names of destinations outside on pillars and walls.

Rainshower77

accurate captioning... I have a hearing son.. because if a show look decent (There are several adult cartoons I came across that I would never let my son watch), I would never know they are saying all those disrespectful or inapprociate conversations

And they don't need to shield bad words from deaf people if hearing people can hear it

jillio

That's a good point. I had not considered that. But innaccurrate captioning on a T.V. program would definately interfere with a parent's ability to supervise their child.

jillio

There you go. They are already providing a visual element.

dreamchaser

This is a great start to some solutions. But, instead of aruging over one thing, let's bring all of the problems to the table, and then stand back and look at them. Then, we can prioritize 3 or so.... what is up with the relay services? and, there are many others on the list that need to be looked at too. What is the depth of the problem, and what do you think could reasonably be done about it? Thefirst step is to look at all of that we can think of, and then prioritize according to imporatance, and of course, feasability. then decide. Education has to be a priority, but safety is also a priority. We don't want to limit to just one subject. Let's explore all of the needs and possible solutions.

jillio

Agreed. JMO, but I personally believe a politician is more inclined to listen when the issues surround educational policy and employment issues. These two issues impact hearing taxpayers more than any other, even though they are deaf issues. Therefore, they will listen to issues that will have some bearing on all constituents before giving a lot of credence to special interest topics. Deaf education and deaf employment can be viewed from a more global perspective, and as issues that affect all of society in one way or another.

Cheri

dreamchaser, But we only had one choice to choose from the poll, So I choose closed caption, while someone else already chosen education.

__________________

dreamchaser

I see that Cher, but you can give your opinion in your reply on the other things. What do you know alot about? Which one of those problems are close to your heart? Tell me what you know about it, and then how you think we might fix it. Will it take money? A lot or maybe a little? I mean give me a clue how to fame these problems to a politician. I bet you are affected by many things on that list.

Tell me something about everything on the list that you can think of. After we look at is from all sides, we will know more about what can be done.

dreamchaser

Jillio, you are very right, and we will whittle the list down to the first priorities. But, while we are at it, maybe some things can be done about the other issues on the list, without going through a politician perse. ;0 At least we can look at them, and table them for a later day, or maybe find a new way to approach them.. I have a few ideas on dealing with the captioning on movies and such.. Not necessarily about educational captioning, cuz the government should do that,, but the commercial things might be dealt with in a differnt way.

For sure, the first priorities need to be education, jobs and safety related issues,,, and we can hope for the other things to fall in line one day after that.

Rainshower77

yep, and if they can't do it on TV (as I know it has limit what it can do), at least force the media to have a transcript on the internet.

Jiro

they usually do for interviews and speeches

jillio