Deaf TikToker Uses App To Raise Awareness

This viral TikTok from a Deaf creator is moving hearing people to learn American Sign Language.

LOS ANGELES, California -- Deaf activist and TikToker, Chrissy Marshall's blog "The Essential Sign" shares experience on social media, she is raising awareness about the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community and teaching hearing people sign language, one viral video at a time.

If you don't live with a disability, you may not appreciate how crucial and meaningful community and accessibility are - but one viral TikTok is demonstrating it perfectly.

Chrissy Marshall, a 19-year-old content creator in Los Angeles, was born hard of hearing and became profoundly Deaf in high school. Now, she makes content on YouTube and TikTok about her disability and American Sign Language.

One of those videos captures a "special" day she had recently. In the TikTok video, Marshall, looking happy and excited, recounts her day of encountering three people who signed to her in American Sign Language.

"The sun was shining, people were signing, and everything felt so fluid," Marshall told BuzzFeed News in an interview. "I thought I was being pranked or something, like cameras were going to pop out and ask about my day."

"The area has a big Deaf community," she added, "and I’m glad and inspired to see the impact it’s had on the greater community as a whole."

The video is making other people happy too, and it's encouraging them to learn American Sign Language.

"Oh my god. Today has been crazy," she says and signs in the video. "Today I went to three places and all three people signed."

She describes stopping at the bank, where a teller signed with her, then at Starbucks, where a Deaf barista signed, and then she grabbed a pretzel, where the worker also signed.

"Everyone signed! It was like a perfect world. It's like a utopia."

The TikTok was reuploaded to Twitter, where it went viral.

Marshall said her online platform has given her the opportunity to spread awareness about disability rights, American Sign Language, and deafness.

Her other videos cover what it's like to be Deaf. She also posts fun ones like American Sign Language versions of songs.

"I’m so glad it’s just more people I get the opportunity to educate and inspire to be part of the community," said Marshall. "I am a huge advocate for people learning American Sign Language, and I’m happy and grateful so many people were inspired to do so."

Source: BuzzFeedNews
Video Credit: NowThisNews

She hope after this video you have a new perspective on how you interact with Deaf people. Like, share, subscribe​ The Essential Sign Channel on YouTube.

Follow @TheEssentialSign:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/theessentialsign
Instagram: https://instagram.com/chrissym23
Twitter: https://twitter.com/life_laughter_
YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/theessentialsign
BlogTag: #ChrissyMarshall

Related Chrissy Marshall:
Things NOT To Say To Deaf People
Deaf TikToker Uses App To Raise Awareness

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Related Posts:
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Google Supporting The Deaf Community

Supporting the Deaf and HoH community: contact an ASL agent today.

Starting today, there will be American Sign Language (ASL) specialists to help people who are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing through video chat on the Google Disability Support team at Google's services online.

Please visit for more details at https://support.google.com/accessibility/answer.

Follow @Google:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/google
Instagram: https://instagram.com/google
Twitter: https://twitter.com/google
YouTube: https://youtube.com/google

Related Posts: #DeafCommunity - #DeafPeople - #Google - #Technology

Deaf Man Finds Friendship In Deaf Dog

Deaf Floridian man adopts dog with disability, teaches pup american sign language getting the media's attention.

LAKE CITY, FL -- A Deaf man found a perfect companion when he adopted his Deaf dog. Nick Abbott first saw Emerson, a cute Black Labrador, on his Facebook News Feed when the North Florida Rescue of Maine posted the dog's picture.

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Emerson was looking for a loving home. "I was drawn to him right away because we have similarities. I felt like because I know what it's like to be Deaf, I could understand him,"

Emerson was a part of a litter and all of his siblings had already been adopted.

“He is left wondering why no one wants to give him a forever home,” NFR posted alongside his picture prior to his adoption. “He wants everyone to know that even though he may be deaf, he is still an amazing little pup with SOO much love to give!” Abbott said he initially wasn’t sure if he could handle the responsibility of another dog as he already had a 7-year-old yellow Lab, but he couldn’t get Emerson out of his mind.

“I decided I should at least go meet him and see,” Abbott said. “I walked in and he came right to me and sat on my foot. It was like he already knew me…. That’s the moment that I knew.” Their bond thus far has been “awesome,” Abbott explained. Wherever he is, Emerson is nearby.

Now, Abbott is actively training Emerson. The pup is already learning commands in sign language and has been fast at picking it up.

“I didn’t know what it would be like to have a Deaf dog. I’ve never been around a Deaf dog before,” Abbott said. “I think we have been learning together as we go.”

SOURCE - Inside Edition

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Making Video Games Better For The Deaf

Designing for Disability: Making games better for the Deaf.

Game Maker's Toolki, hosted by Mark Brown, a series about video game design on YouTube channel. Video games are for everyone. But disabled people can be left out if developers don’t consider their needs.

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In this series of videos, Mark Brown will be sharing guidelines and best practices for making games more accessible to a wide range of disabilities. Starting with auditory options, for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Sources:
How Ubisoft is Putting the Spotlight on Accessibility-Bungie https://news.ubisoft.com/article/how-ubisoft-is-putting-the-spotlight-on-accessibility

Resources:
Game accessibility guidelines http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com
BBC Subtitle Guidelines http://bbc.github.io/subtitle-guidelines
Netflix Subtitle Guidelines https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/215758617-Timed-Text-Style-Guide-General-Requirements
Deaf Game Reviews http://oneoddgamergirl.net
AbleGamers http://www.ablegamers.org
 What Video Game Subtitling Got Wrong In 2017:
Max Deryagin https://www.md-subs.com/what-game-subs-got-wrong-in-2017

SOURCE

Deaf Japanese Tourist Denied Terp at Airport

Discrimination complaint filed after Deaf Japanese woman detained at Honolulu airport by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

HONOLULU, Hawaii -- An incident at the airport has the American Civil Liberties Union filing a discrimination complaint against a government agency.

The ACLU says a Deaf woman from Japan, who asked to remain anonymous, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Jan. 31 shortly after landing in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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The ACLU says during that time, she repeatedly asked for an American Sign Language interpreter, but was instead forced to communicate by reading lips and writing.

During her overnight detention, the ACLU says she was handcuffed with her hands behind her back, which took away her ability to communicate.

“I was so scared and felt alone,” she said. “For people with deafness, being cut off from our ways of communicating is terrifying. I have traveled a lot, but have never experienced anything like this at any airport ever. With this complaint, I just want to make sure that other Deaf people coming through Hawaii’s airports are treated with basic respect and dignity, and that disabilities are accommodated.”

“The minimum dignity that you can afford someone is just the ability for them to communicate with you, and instead of doing that, they just denied her that right,” said ACLU legal director Mateo Caballero. “The ACLU’s complaint demands a full investigation and the training of custom and border agents so that other Deaf individuals do not experience the same traumatic detention practices as our client did.”

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman released the following statement in response:

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has received the complaint and will address these accusations once our investigation is completed. CBP takes accusations of mistreatment against travelers with disabilities very seriously. CBP officers receive extensive training in disability awareness and treat all travelers with disabilities with dignity, respect and professionalism.”

SOURCE - KHON2

Canada Ban Disabled People From Immigrating

Canada is a progressive immigration policy dream - unless you have a disability - Trudeau signed to ban immigrants with disabilities, how to build a disability-free country.

OTTAWA -- National Post: It’s no secret that many progressive Americans fetishize Canada as a northern utopia: It has universal health care, it legalized same-sex marriage a decade before the United States did, and it has a cute, lefty prime minister (complete with a tattoo and a literature degree). After President Trump restricted refugees, immigrants and travellers from seven majority-Muslim countries, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted: “To those fleeing persecution, terror and war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada.” Cue collective liberal swoon.

The problem is that Canada’s immigrant policy isn’t quite as dreamy as Americans might imagine. It includes a virtual ban on disabled immigrants that goes back decades: Under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, foreigners can be turned away if they “might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demands on health or social services.” What this means is families rejected for having Deaf children and spouses denied because they use a wheelchair, a practice too harsh for even the United States’ difficult immigration system.

Young citizen Ella questions PM Trudeau about Disability and Immigration.

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Ella who took the stage - wise beyond her years, she channeled her experiences with her sister Maggie into a great question that gets to the heart of what we choose to value in Canadian society. If we continue to treat children of immigrants with disabilities as unwelcome, there is little doubt that the values associated with that thinking reflect on how we treat Canadian-born citizens with disabilities. If we truly believe that people with disabilities are important and valued contributors to the human family, then we must learn to think and act differently.

The number of disabled immigrants rejected by Canada is not known. Most of those turned away do not have the financial means to appeal, and few cases get media coverage. But the cases that are brought to the public’s attention are eye-opening.

In 2000, multimillionaire David Hilewitz and his son, Gavin, were denied immigration from South Africa to Canada because Gavin has a mild developmental disability. Angela Chesters, a German woman who married a Canadian man abroad, was denied permanent residency after the couple moved to Canada because she has multiple sclerosis. The Chapman family was stopped at a Canadian airport when attempting to emigrate from Britain in 2008 because their daughter has a genetic abnormality. The Dutch DeJong family was turned down for immigration because one of their daughters has a mild intellectual disability.” Felipe Montoya, recruited from Costa Rica to teach at a Toronto university, and his family couldn’t get residency because his son has Down syndrome. In 2015, Canada denied Maria Victoria Venancio health care and attempted to deport her after she became a paraplegic.

According to Roy Hanes, a Canadian social-work scholar and disability advocate, even though Canadian law does not explicitly state that disabled people are banned, the notion of “excessive demands” still guides the immigration process. Potential immigrants must undergo physical and mental health exams to prove that their bodies and minds will not be a burden on Canada’s socioeconomic structure. The policy, Hanes wrote in a history of Canadian immigration law, makes it “extremely difficult for people with disabilities to become citizens.”

Hanes explains that this exclusionary policy arose from the outdated concept that people with disabilities are not useful members of an economy because they supposedly use too many resources. “The long-held concern of social dependence remained as a major obstacle for people with disabilities and it appears that people with disabilities were continuously evaluated for what they might not be able to do and not what they could do,” he wrote. “In this regard, immigration legislation was based on economic ‘utilitarianism’ and people with disabilities ranked very low when considering their abilities in terms of economic productivity.”

According to some scholars, this anti-disability immigration policy might violate Canada’s constitution, not to mention the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. Despite the possibility of future reform - a piece of federal accessibility legislation that could have implications for immigration is in the works - Canada’s discriminatory policies are “entrenched,” according to Global Disability Watch, and “show no signs of abatement.” The group added that Canada’s practices show “how to build a disability-free country.”

Underlying this policy is the assumption, borne straight from the West’s nasty marriage of eugenics and capitalism, that a person ceases to matter if they cannot be a “productive” member of society. Worth is determined by contribution to a profit, by independence and by the ability to pull one’s own weight. Of course the idea that anyone is ever truly independent, or that we could possibly survive without one another, is a complete myth. But it’s one of the central pillars of the Western capitalist story - and one that Canada has embraced when it comes to immigration.

In the United States, would-be immigrants must undergo physical and mental examinations, mostly to prove that they will not cause harm to others or commit crimes. The American system deserves plenty of criticism, but disability advocates on both sides of the border tend to see Canada’s policy as considerably more strict in this regard. Yes, Trump is attempting new restrictions on immigration, while Canada advertises its openness. But how many immigrants being rerouted from the United States will be turned away because of disability in Canada, a supposed sanctuary? Let’s not idealize a country that adheres to the ableist idea, rooted in eugenics, that any human being poses “excessive demands.”

SOURCE - National Post

NOTE: Canadian Association of the Deaf (CAD) does not do anything with this sitaution nor fight for the people with disabilities to become citizens in Canada.

Deaf Woman Fights Miami Hospital For Terp

Deaf News: Deaf woman fights Miami Hospital for interpreter in Florida.

MIAMI, FL -- Next week, next month or maybe next year -- she does not know exactly when -- Cheylla Silva will need to visit her local hospital again. And when that happens, Silva, who is Deaf, doesn't want to struggle just to communicate with doctors and nurses as she has the last two dozen times.

Silva communicates in American Sign Language, and she says she has labored to convey and comprehend the most basic information at Baptist Hospital Miami because the hospital has refused to provide an interpreter.

Instead, she has been directed to a Video Remote Interpreting system or VRI for communication. But the remote video service crashes, the feed can be choppy and it's hard to see when she's lying in a hospital bed with tubes in her arms or when a medical team has crowded into her room.

"Why does everything have to be a struggle?" Silva, 34, asked through an interpreter. "I just want to be able to communicate like anybody else."

On Wednesday, Silva was in federal court in Miami to argue that Baptist Hospital's refusal to provide a live interpreter violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. She filed the case against Baptist in 2014 along with John Paul Jebian, a Miami man who also is Deaf. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the case a year later but Silva and Jebian are appealing.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division also weighed in on the case, filing a brief in support of Silva and Jebian's claims, and urging the federal appeals court to reverse the dismissal by U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams.

The appeal centers on whether the remote video service -- which allows an interpreter to translate via video screen -- provides equal access and effective communication for a deaf patient as required by the ADA, said Matthew Dietz, an attorney with the Disability Independence Group, a nonprofit advocate for the disabled representing Silva and Jebian.

Dietz argued that system may work in some hospital settings, such as one-on-one meeting with a nurse or doctor, but it is ineffective and inadequate in others, such as during an MRI or X-ray, or during child birth or group therapy sessions.

He said Baptist's refusal to dedicate a high-speed, wide bandwidth Internet connection for the service also means blurry and choppy images, and repeated disconnections.

Deaf patients, Dietz said, "deserve to know what's happening to them."

SOURCE - EMSWorld

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The Deaf Decry Discrimination In Employment

Profoundly Deaf people and Hearing Impaired persons are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired.

New Vision share an article by Cecilia Okoth: "We are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired, potential employers consider our disability over our qualifications and ability to deliver on jobs." The Deaf are concerned that the job market is not fair to them a move they say has worsened their predicament.

"We are often the last to be hired and the first to be fired. Potential employers consider our disability over our qualifications and ability to deliver on jobs," Ambrose Murangira, Uganda National Association of the Deaf (UNAD) executive director, said.

According to Murangira, the lack of a policy by public service ministry to promote employment for marginalized groups makes it worse for people living with disabilities (PWDs) to get and retain any form of employment.

"We have been relegated to working in Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs) and in the informal sector because the chances of getting employed in the public service and mainstream organisations are very limited," he added.

Murangira, also a Deaf and Disability scholar was speaking at a press briefing that was attended by 20 representatives of Deaf graduates sponsored by UNAD at National Theatre early this week.

"This is double jeopardy for us because to study and graduate as a Deaf person means overcoming great odds only to be shunned by the job market," said Rogers Kadoma, one of the graduates.

According to the 2014 census, there are 1.083,456 Deaf persons in the country. However scanty information shows that around 1% are in formal employment.

Doreen Sandra Kauma the gender and vulnerable groups' coordinator at UNAD said without affirmative action, more employers will not feel a sense of obligation to employ the deaf and PWDs as a whole.

A recent Disability Rights Coalition report suggests that employees with disabilities should at all times not be less than 5% for private employers and 10% for the public service.

However the labour market in Uganda presents multiple hurdles for the deaf and PWDs to overcome if they are to be absorbed in the job market. These range from physical access, access to information about vacancies, and self-confidence of PWDs to seek out opportunities because of the unique challenges and what society perceives them as... Read More at New Vision.

SOURCE - News Vision

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Blind Talks To The Deaf ?

How do a Blind person and a Deaf person communicate?

'The Tommy Edison Experience', who’s been blind since birth, teams up with Deaf YouTuber Rikki Poynter to answer to the popular question “how does a Blind person and a Deaf person communicate with each other?”.

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Watch Tommy on Rikki’s channel in a video where they discuss how people mistaken their disabilities for other disabilities: When People Mix Up Being Deaf And Blind | ft. Tommy Edison.

Thanks to Andrea Lausell for being our interpreter.
Subscribe to Andrea’s channel: https://youtube.com/andrealausell

Special thanks to Abby Sams for helping out with the shoot.
Subscribe to Abby’s channel: https://youtube.com/abbysams/channel

Directed/Edited by Ben Churchill
Subscribe to Ben’s channel: http://youtube.com/radiotrippictures

Follow @TommyEdison:
http://facebook.com/tommyedison
http://twitter.com/blindfilmcritic
http://instagram.com/blindfilmcritic
http://blindfilmcritic.tumblr.com
http://tommyedison.com
https://youtube.com/tommyedisonxp

Follow @RikkiPoynter:
http://twitter.com/rikkipoynter
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https://youtube.com/rikkipoynter

Related Tommy Edison:
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Rikki Poynter is a Deaf vlogger on YouTube. She makes content about Deaf awareness, accessibility/closed captioning awareness, mental health, feminism, and more, subscribe to Rikki Poynter Channel on YouTube.

Follow @RikkiPoynter:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/rikkipoynteryt
Instagram: https://instagram.com/rikkipoynter
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/rikkipoynterplays
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rikkipoynter
YouTube: https://youtube.com/rikkipoynter
Website: https://rikkipoynter.com

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Debunking Myths About Deaf People
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Why Deaf Americans Fear President Trump

VICE shares article by Deaf novelist Sara Nović explains why thousands of the Deaf community fears US President Donald J. Trump.

WASHINGTON DC -- "'All men are created equal.' Well, it's not true." That's President-elect Donald Trump, a clip unearthed for a PBS documentary that shone a light on, among other things, Trump's apparent belief that some people are born smart, born to be successful, born with what he has called "the winning gene."

"The [Trump] family subscribes to a racehorse theory of human development," Trump biographer Michael D'Antonio told the team behind the Frontline documentary The Choice. "They believe that there are superior people, and that if you put together the genes of a superior woman and a superior man, you get a superior offspring."

This belief, that certain genes make better people, is an echo of eugenics, a racist, pseudoscientific philosophy that aims to "improve" the human race by breeding out supposedly bad characteristics. When it became popular in the late 19th century, eugenics became the driving force behind a number of atrocities against many minority groups, including the Deaf community. The Nazis were the most infamous eugenicists, but there were many other believers. Alexander Graham Bell used eugenics to propose a ban on sign language and deaf intramarriage in his 1884 paper, Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race." Deaf people were institutionalized and some forcibly sterilized for years afterward; Deaf education was upended and students' hands were literally tied down to prevent them from signing. Bell's ideas about the superiority of oralism over bilingual schooling remain embedded in our education and legislative systems, despite having been scientifically debunked.

Today, many groups are worried about how a Trump presidency will affect them. But though the Deaf and Disabled communities were not the focus of much campaign rhetoric, it seems clear that Trump has contempt for people like me. Trump has publicly mocked a journalist with a joint condition, reportedly called Deaf actress and Celebrity Apprentice contestant Marlee Matlin "retarded," and perpetuated the false notion that vaccines cause autism. There have been multiple lawsuits against his properties for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Writing for the LA Times in October, disability advocate David Perry called Trump the "most ableist presidential nominee in modern American political history."

Policy-wise, the future for deaf people is as murky as it is for everyone else, as Trump constantly introduces and walks back proposals varying in levels of moral reprehensibility, legality, and feasibility. According to his most recent statements, his plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and "re-establish high-risk pools" (as his website puts it) would result in loss of healthcare coverage for many Deaf and Disabled people whose conditions can be classified as preexisting. Deaf and Disabled people who depend on Medicaid for insurance or medical devices not covered by traditional health insurance are also fearful, as Trump's rollback of ACA's Medicaid expansion could affect the approximately 7 million people who have gained coverage under it.

Deaf and disabled people have also voiced concern about a potentially weaker ADA under Trump. The ADA is enforced by the Department of Justice's civil rights division, and given Trump's properties' alleged ADA violations and the traditional conservative stance against government spending and oversight, cuts seem likely, leaving us at the whim of private companies' bottom lines.

The ADA bars employers from discriminatory hiring practices and protects our rights to "reasonable accommodations" like closed captions and sign language interpreters at work and school. For the wider disability community, the ADA ensures things like wheelchair ramps, elevators, and handicapped parking and bathrooms. An ADA weakened by lack of oversight and money could well mean continued police brutality against people with disabilities. In the case of Deaf people specifically, law enforcement already has troubling record of arresting and detaining people without providing interpreters, or even a pen and paper, to explain the reason for arrest or Mirandize them. Unarmed Deaf people, whom police misinterpret to be aggressive or using gang signs, have been killed with impunity—Daniel Harris, Edward P. Miller, and John T. Williams are among the more famous cases.

Questions of discrimination and accessibility if the ADA becomes less of priority in a Trump DOJ also extend to the education sector. Schools for the Deaf, branches of their state public school systems, are likely to be endangered by budget cuts and funding shifts from the public sector to charter and voucher systems, which Trump endorses. Deaf schools are often among the first to be cut from struggling districts, with Deaf students instead sent to mainstream schools where they are unable to communicate directly with their teachers and peers. Further, Deaf schools traditionally serve as hubs for Deaf culture, providing independent living and job training for post-grads, offering (often free) American Sign Language (ASL) classes to interested locals, leading research in linguistics and special education, and hosting social and cultural events—all resources left defunct upon the closure of a Deaf school.

And where fears of budget cuts and eugenics intersect, some worry about the threat of mandatory cochlear implantation, via which Deaf students could theoretically be integrated into hearing schools at a lower cost. Though it sounds extreme, it's not any larger a violation of one's individual medical choices than Trump and Pence's assault on women's reproductive rights. (The idea that the decision not to implant one's child is evidence of neglect has already surfaced in family court, though so far the argument hasn't been successful.)

Finally, as hate speech against racial and religious minorities spikes across the country, Deaf and disabled people have also experienced post-election hate speech in the name of the president-elect. In one example, Lena Van Manen, a CODA (child of Deaf adults who is a native sign language user) and a coordinator at the Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education in Indiana, wrote on Facebook about being confronted while facetiming with a Deaf friend in Starbucks. Used to people staring while she signed, she ignored the glare from a man across the store until he got in her face and screamed, "This is white America now. Take your retarded self and go somewhere else."

We can't know for sure what Trump will do, but if he does what he says he wants to do, it will hurt us. His words already have.

SOURCE

Related Politics:
Dems Spurn Deaf Candidate Over Allegations
Why Deaf People Will Be Voting For Trump
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Why Deaf Americans Fear President Trump
Why Do Deaf People Fall For 'Fake News'
Marlee Matlin Slams Donald Trump ‘Retarded’
Deaf Voters: ‘Retarded & White America’ Rigged
The Ugly Truth About The Democratic Party
Deaf Voters: Why Trump Won
Deaf Voters: Capitalism Versus Socialism

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Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton Parodies

Director Rob Savage Talks 'Dawn of the Deaf'

WATCH: Exclusive interview with director of 'Dawn of the Deaf' Rob Savage, talks the Deaf role in short horror film.

LONDON, UK -- ComingSoon: Director Rob Savage discusses his innovative new apocalyptic short horror film Dawn of the Deaf. Fresh off a triumphant, head-turning premiere at Fantastic Fest, the spectacularly inventive, gorgeously executed Dawn of the Deaf logline.

“When a strange sound wipes out the Hearing population, a small group of Deaf people must band together to survive” threatens to go ultra-viral via upcoming screenings at BFI London Film Festival, London Fright Fest, Sitges Film Festival, Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, Uppsala International Short Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival and several others.

“Our aim was to create a genre film that would connect Deaf and hearing audiences in an engaging, thrilling way,” director Rob Savage tells ComingSoon.net of his apocalyptic horror short made with a cast drawn from the London Deaf community. “Rather than retread the same narratives usually seen when dealing with disability, we wanted to create a tense story in which the characters’ ‘disability’ becomes their ultimate advantage over the hearing population.”

Savage was gracious enough to speak with ComingSoon.net at length about the joys and challenges of leading that charge… Read More The Full Interview.

Follow @DawnoftheDeaf:
Facebook - https://facebook.com/dawnofthedeafshort
Twitter - https://twitter.com/dotdmovie
Official Website - http://www.dawnofthedeafmovie.com

Related:
'Dawn of the Deaf' (2016) - Short Horror Film
#Deaf Film - #Deaf Movie - #ASL Film - #Deaf Movie Trailer

Deaf Couple Face Eviction Over Son's Debt

The proposed eviction of an elderly couple who are Deaf and can’t read or write because they unwittingly acted as guarantors for their son’s bank loan has sparked public outcry in Spain.

MADRID, Spain -- Bankia made the decision on Monday to cancel the eviction of an elderly couple who are disabled and illiterate after bowing to public pressure and a change.org petition that collected 220,000 signatures in just 48 hours.

Last month Maria del Carmen Lebron, 81, and Antonio Pleguezuelos, 76 who have lived in their home in the Madrid suburb of Pinto since 1970 were given an eviction notice as Bankia called in an outstanding debt owed by their son Gregorio.

It was only then that they learnt that in 2005 they had signed documents acting as guarantors for a €219,500 mortgage for their son, even though they hadn’t understood what they were signing.

In fact the mortgage agreement states that the contract was read out to the couple by a notary and that they had fully understood and agreed the terms. Their lawyers now argue that the agreement was invalid as both are completely Deaf - Antonio lost his hearing when he was four years old after falling ill with meningitis and Maria del Carmen was Deaf since birth.

When their son lost his job in the crisis and fell behind on mortgage payments the bank called in the debt and demanded they leave their house by January 30th 2017.

Their eldest son Benjamin made the case public starting a petition on change.org which garnered more than 200,000 signatures in just 48 hours and made headlines across Spain.

On Monday, Bankia announced that it had stopped the eviction order and would cancel the debt “given the particular vulnerability observed in this case”.

The case highlights the still ongoing plight of indebted homeowners suffering years of unemployment as a result of Spain’s economic crisis.

During the peak of the eviction crisis as banks called in loans, hundreds of families were evicted each day. In 2013, some 50,000 families were turfed out of their homes.

SOURCE - TheLocal

Ignoring Deaf Customer Cost Cab Company $42K

Deaf News: New Jersey's Passaic Cab Company accused of ignoring Deaf customer must pay $42K.



PATERSON, NJ -- Patch: Nicole Perkins contacted the company 3 times while waiting in heavy snow but was hung up and told to stop calling, officials said.

A Passaic County company who ignored and hung up on a Deaf woman's attempts to get cab during a snowstorm in 2014 was hit with a $42,000 judgement, state Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced Monday.

Superior Court Judge Thomas J. LaConte ruled that Clifton Taxi and Limousine Inc. violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and unlawfully denied service to Nicole Perkins, who is Deaf.

Perkins, of Jamaica, New York, contacted the company three times through a telecommunications relay service during a state of emergency and snowstorm in January 2014. Perkins was waiting for a bus that was delayed in Clifton and called the company, according to the complaint the state Division of Civil Rights filed against Clifton Taxi.

The relay service allows Perkins to make calls by sending text messages from her cell phone to a relay operator.

An operator called the company, advising them that she was assisting a Deaf Caller, but was hung up on twice. On the third call, someone at Clifton Taxi picked up and allegedly responded, "Please stop calling" and then hung up, the complaint said.

The company must pay Perkins $6,000 for emotional distress, $20,000 in penalties, and $16,000 in attorney fees.

Under federal law, all telecommunications providers are required to provide telecommunications relay services. Through these services, an individual who is Deaf, Hard of Hearing or has a speech disability can communicate in real time by telephone.

“Setting aside for a moment the egregious nature of the circumstances - a deaf woman being hung up on three times as she sought a ride to escape an oncoming blizzard - the fact is that businesses and other places of public accommodation can’t simply ignore a Deaf or Hard of Hearing person trying to communicate through a relay service,” Attorney General Porrino said in a statement. "This is an important outcome, because it puts service providers and other businesses on notice that we’re serious about protecting the rights of persons with hearing and other disabilities, and that we will hold accountable anyone who fails to follow the law.”

SOURCE - Patch

CRTC Launches Canada Video Relay Service

Deaf News: CRTC press releases "Video Relay Service: A new communications era in Canada."

OTTAWA - GATINEAU -- Today on September, 28, 2016 the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) joins the Canadian Administrator of the Video Relay Service (VRS) to launch this service during an event at the Museum of History, in the National Capital Region, along with the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities.

The launch of the VRS opens a new communications era in Canada that will simplify communications between Canadians who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing or Speech Impaired and other Canadians, and vice versa.

This made-for-Canada service enhances the ability of Canadian’s whose first language is American Sign Language (ASL) or Langue des Signes Québécoise (LSQ) to participate fully in Canada’s communication system, and in Canadian society more broadly.

In October 2013, the CRTC held one of the most accessible public hearings in its history, during which Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing and Speech-Impaired Canadians spoke about how video relay service would make an important difference in their lives - as seen on this video in ASL with closed captions.

Quick Facts - It is estimated that there will be some 20,000 users of the Video Relay Service.

There is no charge to use the Video Relay Service. However, the service requires high-speed Internet access and an Internet-enabled device (e.g. a computer, smartphone, or tablet) that supports videoconferencing.

People who want to use the service can contact SRV Canada VRS to register.

The administrator, who is independent of the CRTC, manages the Video Relay Service and ensures its proper operation.

More details, please visit the CAV website: http://cav-acs.ca

“We believe people with disabilities should be able to fully participate in Canadian life as easily as anyone else. I understand what a difference it makes in a person’s life when they have the tools they need to succeed. So I am very pleased to see the launch of Canada’s Video Relay Service. This is a big step in the right direction.” - Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities

“The implementation of the Video Relay Service will have a concrete and positive impact on the lives of Canadians who are Deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired. The CRTC appreciates all the efforts put forth to ensure the success of this new service. This initiative illustrates strongly Canada’s vision for an inclusive society which values equality of opportunity.” - Jean-Pierre Blais, Chairman of the CRTC.

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SOURCE

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The Deaf Body in Public Space - NY Times

Deaf News: The Deaf Body in Public Space from New York Times.

NEW YORK CITY -- “It’s rude to point,” my friend told me from across the elementary-school cafeteria table. I grasped her words as I read them off her lips. She stared at my index finger, which I held raised in midair, gesturing toward a mutual classmate. “My mom said so.”

I was 6 or 7 years old, but I remember stopping with a jolt. Something inside me froze, too, went suddenly cold.

“I’m signing,” I said out loud. “That’s not rude.”

As the only Deaf student in my elementary school, I had already stumbled across the challenges of straddling two languages and two modes of communication. My family was hearing, but they still empowered me by using both English and sign language at home.

A sign language interpreter accompanied me throughout the day at school, and my teachers created a welcoming environment for me to learn, but finding a place to belong with kids my own age often felt more difficult. I tried to speak to them, and occasionally they reciprocated the effort by learning some basic signs. But usually I felt separate.

I went home that day and asked my mother about what my friend had said. “Don’t worry,” my mother said, “she doesn’t know the social rules are different with signing. You aren’t being rude.” With that, matter-of-fact as always, she brought the conversation to an end. But I still felt a lingering self-consciousness, entirely novel and difficult to shake.

This was perhaps the first time I realized that other people could see me as obtrusive, as taking up too much space, when I was simply communicating just as I was.

When I reflect on this memory two decades later, I recognize how my childhood friend, whom at the time I had found to be so accusatory, had really gaped at me with a sort of wonder. My signing challenged the rules of social conduct she’d absorbed from adults, and to her I must have seemed ignorant or radically rebellious, or perhaps both. But pointing was a truly fundamental act for me; it was how I expressed what my grown-up scholarly self would call relationality - the idea of being in the world in relation to others. Through sign language, a properly poised finger allowed me to say you and me and he and she and they. If I did not point, how could I make a human connection? ... Read More at New York Times.

Deaf White House Receptionist Gives Tour

WATCH [CC] - The White House released video of first Deaf White House receptionist giving a tour of the residence.

WASHINGTON -- In celebration of the 26th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the White House released a video of the first Deaf White House receptionist giving a tour of the residence.

Leah Katz-Hernandez first interned at the White House in 2010 and President Obama talked about her at the 25th anniversary last year of the ADA, a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, service, transportation and more against people who have disabilities.

“We call her ROTUS,” the president explained. “I’m POTUS, this is VPOTUS and that’s ROTUS. And ROTUS is the first Deaf American to hold that job. She is poised, she is talented -- and, as she puts it, a lot of her accomplishments may not have been possible without the ADA."

SOURCE- ABCNEWS

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Deaf Woman Sues Taco Bell Over Drive-Thru

Deaf New Jersey woman sues Taco Bell over drive-thru orders.

TRENTON, NJ -- A Deaf Atlantic City woman who primarily communicates in sign language is suing Taco Bell, saying she found it difficult, if not impossible, to order two tacos at the fast-food chain's drive-thru window.

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Gina Cirrincione said in her federal lawsuit that on Jan. 11, she wrote her order on a slip of paper and handed it to an employee at the drive-thru pickup window at a Taco Bell in Pleasantville, New Jersey.

Her video of the exchange, provided to The Associated Press by her lawyer, showed an employee trying to explain that orders are placed at the start of the drive-thru.

"I will do it this one time," he then said. "I want you to understand me, one time. After that, no more. After that, no more. Come inside. OK, is that fair?"

On March 15, Cirrincione said, she wrote her order on a slip of paper and handed it to a drive-thru employee at a Taco Bell in Atlantic City. The note was returned and the window was shut without the order or an explanation, she said. She said she entered the store and was ignored.

Taco Bell's drive-thru system requires a customer to hear and speak, making it inaccessible to the Deaf in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, the lawsuit claims.

Taco Bell spokeswoman Laura Nedbal said in a statement Friday to the AP that the California-based company had not yet received the lawsuit so could not comment on it. However, she added, "Taco Bell has a fundamental policy to respect all of our customers and employees, and we are committed to maintaining an environment free of discrimination or harassment."

Cirrincione wants Taco Bell to develop a policy to consider the needs of Deaf customers and to train employees about their rights. She also is seeking punitive and compensatory damages.

"With today's technology and the sophistication of Taco Bell, there is no excuse that their drive-thrus cannot be accessible," said attorney Eric Baum of The Eisenberg & Baum Law Center For The Deaf and Hard of Hearing, who is representing Cirrincione.

SOURCE - BigStory

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Deaf/Blind Teen Brutally Beaten By TSA Agents

TSA sued for brutal beating Deaf, partially blind teen girl recovering from brain surgery at Memphis Airport.

MEMPHIS, TN -- A teen just released from brain surgery was beaten by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents inside the Memphis International Airport last year, a recent lawsuit alleges.

The TSA is listed as a defendant in a suit accusing them of injuring a mentally disabled teen after she was unable to understand or comply with orders at a security checkpoint.

Newly surfaced photos show the aftermath of the June 30, 2015 incident, in which agents roughed up 19-year-old Hannah Cohen leaving her bloodied and bruised.

“They wanted to do further scanning; she was reluctant. She didn’t understand what they were about to do,” her mother Shirley Cohen told WREG.

The lawsuit claims before Hannah had brain tumor surgery at St. Jude’s hospital, she already had “a physical and mental impairment that substantially limit one or more of her life activities.”

“More particularly,” the lawsuit continues, “Hannah has damage from radiation and removal of a brain tumor that substantially limits her ability to speak, walk, stand, see, hear, care for herself, learn and work, think, concentrate, and interact with others.”

“This substantial limitation is obvious upon sight and was obvious” on the day of the incident, the lawsuit filed in US District Court states.

“She’s trying to get away from them,” Hannah’s mother described, “but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. And I looked and there’s blood everywhere.”

All the while Shirley was kept from being able to help her daughter, causing her “extreme emotional injury as she watched the personnel assault her daughter,” according to court documents obtained by Infowars.

The Memphis International Airport Police Department is also included as a defendant in the suit for “arresting her for no cause.”

“Hannah was arrested, booked and on the night she should have been celebrating the end of her treatment, she was locked up in Jail East,” reports WREG.

“Here we were with nowhere to go, not even a toothbrush, our bags had gone to Chattanooga,” Shirley said.

TSA did not comment on the case, but referred travelers with special accommodations to call their TSA Cares hotline. The Cohens’ are asking for $100,000 in damages.

SOURCE - WREG

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Infighting In Deaf Communities Over Identities

WATCH [CC] - Artie Mack's thoughts and feelings about infighting in Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities over identities.

Artie Mack share his thoughts and feelings toward people dictating the use of the word "disability" and the supposed negative connotations associated with the word, as well as infighting in Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities regarding who gets to be considered "Deaf" and problems with ignoring the hearing spectrum.

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Artie Mack on YouTube - https://youtube.com/channel/artiemack

Related: #DeafLivesMatter

#NoGoBritain - Failing The Deaf ?

WATCH [CC] - Deaf News: No Go Britain: Failing the Deaf in the UK?

LONDON, UK -- A new report from the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) says that, ten years on from the introduction of hearing screening for new-born babies, the benefits are being undermined by lack of support for Deaf children and their families. Three quarters of such children arrive in school lagging behind their peers in terms of development and, by their teens, they are almost twice as likely to fail to achieve five good GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education).

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In the third report of our series on the challenges faced by disabled people in Britain, Jackie Long has been finding out how some families cope.

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Challenges for disabled people: welcome to No Go Britain - Disabled filmmaker Kate Ansell went to meet some of the people who are finding their ambitions thwarted, and have resolved to make 2016 the year they start breaking down the barriers.

SOURCE - Channel4News.

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