This and That

"A New Civil Right: Telecommunications Equality for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Americans is hot off the press, and I snapped up a copy by author Karen Peltz Strauss at her book signing on Friday. What a thrill to see NVRC mentioned in the book for its advocacy work, and on the abbreviations list. The foreword by William E. Kennard, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, notes that Karen has had a role in every major breakthrough regarding telecommunications access for more than the past twenty years.

Karen's book ends with a call to all vigilantes to ensure that the growing shift to Internet-based communication does not leave deaf and hard of hearing Americans behind as other telecommunications advances have done. She includes appendixes with simple road maps to achieve legislative and regulatory change, a quick guide to the Federal Communications Commission regulatory process, and her top ten tips for telecommunications advocacy based on lessons learned from the past. This 400+ page book is an outstanding documentation of our historic struggle and a call to learn the lessons of the past.

Virginian Sightings Continue

I was surprised to learn that former Northern Virginia residents Gen and Jim Forceia are now living in Florida. They belong to the Sarasota chapter of HLAA and are serving as volunteers for the Florida Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. That was not my only Florida surprise. Gerry and Sheila Adams also have moved to Florida and are volunteers for Advanced Bionics.

Disney's New Technology

Greg Hale of Disney announced at the opening session that Disney has plans to roll out new technology in response to feedback from deaf and hard of hearing guests. Currently you may need to borrow as many as three different pieces of equipment -- to turn on the TV captioning, make use of the listening system, and view captioning on moving attractions.

Conference attendees were being recruited to test the equipment and give their feedback, with a free ticket to Epcot to try it out. I itched to volunteer but there were too many other things I wanted to do at the conference.

Instead I talked with one of the Disney staff during a break between events on Friday, and got an opportunity to check out the device and see some features in a simulated fashion. It's clear the engineers have really taken consumer feedback into account and put a lot of care into the design.

The handheld device is smaller than Disney's current handheld device for viewing captions on moving attractions and lighter in weight. Someone who is used to working with remote controls for TV technology will find it fairly easy to guess how to use the buttons. The entire device is encased in a rubberized skin which aids the ability to grip it and adds protection in case it's dropped. The font is a good size, very readable, and with good contrast. The device can easily be switched from controls for those who are right handed to those who are left handed.

The only serious complaint I had was that the keys need to be redesigned. On the current prototype they are hard to push, and you cannot easily tell when you press on them if the pressure has been recognized.

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(c)2006 by Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons (NVRC), 3951 Pender Drive, Suite 130, Fairfax, VA 22030; www.nvrc.org Items in this newsletter are provided for information purposes only; NVRC does not endorse products or services. You do not need permission to share this information, but please be sure to credit NVRC.