Somewhat Silent

People!
For those of you who live in the States and want to advocate for nation-wide CapTel services, or just advocate for deaf people rights in general, read below and write, Write, and WRITE!!!
thnx & Happy Holidays!

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As a person who has expressed interest in CapTel, yet found it not available in your state, you may be interested in knowing that the FCC is now considering whether to require captioned telephone service throughout the United States.

On October 31, 2005, 13 national consumer organizations petitioned the FCC, asking the FCC to make captioned telephone service available to any person in any state. The FCC is now seeking the public’s thoughts on this petition. The Commission wants to hear from consumers like you to know whether this is something that you want.

If you are you interested in seeing captioned telephone service become a permanent, full time service in all states in the U.S., you now have the opportunity to share your views with the FCC. It would be best to send in your comments by December 30, 2005, when the first round of comments are due. If you wish to read a copy of the consumer coalition petition, it is available on Self Help for Hard of Hearing’s website at http://www.hearingloss.org/html/fccpetition.html

E-filing Instructions

There are three ways to file a comment with the FCC.

The easiest way is to file comments that are brief (under a page):

1. Go to: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/ecfs/Upload/. When you get to that page, scroll down and click the circle next to
“Telecommunications Relay Service Docket 03-123.”
2. Then scroll down again and click “continue.” You will be brought to a page to fill in brief comments.
3. Type in your name, and address in the form provided.
4. In the section marked “Send a brief comment to FCC,” tell the FCC whether you believe that captioned telephone service
should be mandated. If you do believe it should be required in all states, briefly explain why. If you are in a state that
presently does not have this service, you can note that as well.

The second way to file comments that are longer (more than a page):

1. Go to: http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/ecfs/Upload/. On the left hand side, under “other comments,” you will see the option
to use “the expert version” to file comments for proceedings not listed on ECFS Express. Click that, which will take you
to the main ECFS page.
2. On the right side of the screen, under ECFS Main Links, you will see an option that says “Submit a Filing.” Click that.
3. Fill out the form, putting 03-123 as the proceeding (line #1). Note that while your name and address are required,
having an attorney or law firm is not.
4. At the bottom, there is another box entitled “Send Comment Files to the FCC (Attachments)” To the right of that is a
box entitled “browse.” Browse to your computer files.
5. Click on the proper document, select a file type (e.g. Microsoft WORD) in the middle box, and click “Send Attached File.”
6. If you have a second document to send, on the next page, you will be prompted to send additional documents or finish
the transaction.

The third way to send comments to the FCC is by mail. You can mail your comments to Office of the Secretary, Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20554. Please refer to CG Docket No. 03-123 on your comments if you send them in by paper. Because of mail delays, you may want to send your comments in around 2 weeks before the deadline.

If you miss the deadline of December 30, 2005, don’t worry. The FCC will be accepting a second round of comments that are due by January 17, 2006. (Note that you can even submit comments if you miss that deadline, only you would need to write down “ex parte letter” on your filing if you file after January 17th.)

Thanks for being a concerned citizen and sharing your views with your public officials.

Slooooow day at the office over here

Do you guys ever wonder what _______ really sounds like? I thought it’d be interesting to see what everyone wonders about - for instance, I always wondered what water sounds like when I swim/shower. What’s yours?

I love going on roadtrips to here, there, anywhere. Just the notion of getting the heck outta dodge gives me a sense of refreshment and adventure, even if it’s only for a weekend jaunt to the next nearest city (mostly Chicago). But there’s one painfully frustrating aspect that kills me every time.

Usually, I’m with my old college group on these trips. At some ungodly hour of the morning, 4-5 of my friends pick me up and off we go, armed with Starbucks, iPods, and bagels. As the city traffic melts away behind us, I promptly shift my pillow against the car window and go fast asleep. The indistinguishable group banter of my friends against the noise of expressways and freighter trucks is too painful for my deaf heart to hear (or rather, NOT hear). My friends will talk, laugh, and tell stories for hours on end - and I sit in silence, patiently waiting for the next pitstop to initiate any kind of conversation. Sometimes, for entertainment purposes, I’ll watch my friends lips move and fabricate a dialogue of what they might be saying - kind of like that improv game “scripts”. But for the most part - I’m just drenched in jealousy and resentment that I cannot partake in this rite of passage - this social interaction that others take for granted with ease.

When we finally reach our destination - everyone gets out of the car, bright-eyed and good-natured with having that 5 hour verbal bonding experience (kind of like the ending of “the Breakfast Club”). Me, I feel mostly out-of-whack and completely disconnected from the group - full of bitter wonderment of just what did I miss out on? What shared stories about my friends will I never know because it will never be mentioned again - them assuming that I had heard it the first time around? What jokes did my mouth did not bust out laughing at? What revealed secrets was I not privy to? It hurts and it sucks to not have the same experience as the five people sitting next to you. Deafness sucks.

Guys, I have to tell you a story about probably my worst forehead-slappin’ experience with deafness…

I was 19, and driving an hour-long commute home from the bars in Detroit (they never card you there) at 3am in my old ‘86 Grand Am. Here I am, slightly buzzed, cruising along the highway - hoping to god that the parents weren’t up waiting for me. At a red light, I happened to glance to my right, and found myself looking straight into the eyes of a cop. My heart skips a beat, and as the light turns green I drive away, only to notice the cruiser following me closely (sh*t!). Sure enough, the dreaded lights and siren go on - I get pulled over.

Two cops climb out of the cruiser and walk over. At this point, I’m VERY nervous because if you get caught underaged drinking in MI, they impound your car and throw you in jail for 90 days. Turns out, that was the least of my problems. As one of the cops proceeded to shine a flashlight into my car, the other approached my window.

“Hi officer, just so you know, I am hearing-impaired and cannot hear well so I might ask you to repeat yourself often, and I have to see your face for lipreading…” (sweet as pie)

“You have a burnt-out headlight. License and registration.”

So I hand over my stuff, and the two cops walk back to their car. Ten minutes go by and I’m sitting there wondering why is this taking so long?

Suddenly, I’m hearing a voice in the open air - confused I look out the window but no one’s there. A mini-second later, it dawned upon me that the cop was speaking to me thru his loudspeaker from his cruiser! As if I was going to hear that? Shock gave way to anger as I sat there and debated how to handle this situation. Images from the show “Cops” flashed thru my mind as I considered my options, fearing that any unexpected moves on my part would result in being body-tackled and handcuffed. What the heck was he saying to me anyways?

So I just sat there - hoping that the ignorant cops would finally get a clue. More minutes go by, and he’s STILL trying to tell me something. Anger gave in to ragin’-pissed-off-indignity; all that pent-up anger of being deaf was surging up - so I blew out of my car, furiously marched over to the cop car in my vinyl club pants and stillettos - and started screaming at the cops for their lack of brains and haven’t they gotten any training in how to handle deaf people. Here I was, a little 19 yr-old, hopping up and down in a screaming tantrum at the police at 3:30am - who knows what the passerbys were thinking - it was exactly a scene straight out of “Cops”.

And you know what they did? After I said my piece of the century - they simply handed over a ticket and drove off, leaving me standing in bewilderment on the side of the highway.

I think that was the only time I really blew up in frustration at someone for not being considerate. The fact that a COP couldn’t even be considerate blew my mind.

Oy, so that’s the story. Anyone else have one to share?

Well, I’m happy to report that I finally visited NYC for the first time last weekend - stayed with a friend in Brooklyn for three days and three incredibly late nights (hehe). Absolutely LOVED it - what a great place to SEE, but not HEAR.

I was completely audiologically useless in the chaos of city noise - to the point where it was amusing:

Chinatown was a challenge (I was shopping for back-room black market purses) the vendors and I had to resort to using hand signals to get any communication across. On the Astroland pirate ship ride in Coney Island - the ride operator was trying to tell me something via loudspeaker. Turns out he was suggesting that I sit closer to the end of the ship for a better ride. Numerous people passing me on the sidewalks were asking for cigarettes unbeknownst to me. I got yelled at in the Subway station by the ticket attendent - she hadn’t realized that I was deaf and thought I was trying to jump the gate. Grand Central Station - some man approached me and was trying to initiate a conversation in which he wanted me to model for him (uh, no). Oh, that’s only the tip of the iceberg!

Overall, it was a great experience, but I wonder if I’d really be able to handle all that confusion and noise full-time? It feels like everyone in NYC needs to be communicating 24-7!