Archives for June 2001

Originally appeared in Silent News, June 2001.

A little boy surprised by a kiss from a little girl. A woman signing “eat” to a white cat. Kids talking at lunch at school.

All these photographs appear in the much-awaited release of ONE DAY: Our View. Missy Keast, the creator of the project, says, “ONE DAY: Our View combines history and photography to document the deaf culture around the world in a single 24-hour period on May 1, 1997. This unique project consists of more than ten thousand pictures by over 300 amateur and professional photographers from five continents and thirty countries.”

This results in a unique thread of photographs. “The vision and observation skills of the deaf are highly developed, as they rely primarily on sight for communication, and the creative effort of ONE DAY showcases their unique perspectives,” Keast adds. “Through a wide-ranging array of photos, the book emphasizes the common threads that bind deaf people together, from Ethiopian schoolchildren to revered Australian nonagenarians, and gives a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the deaf worldwide.”

Keast had difficulty finding a publisher that would print the book. “I finally found an independent publisher who truly believed in my work and they know that my book is going to be very unique one,” she says. Many publishers mistakenly thought the deaf and hard of hearing market was small and did not see the financial worth. Keast says in an e-mail, “They were surprised when I said there are 28 million deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. Amazing!”

With the publication of the book finally underway, Keast is hoping this book will bring a simple message: that the deaf community is global, unique and has an innate unity. Her goal of making this book available is “to open the eyes of the world. It is a very powerful book because it is of a global-deaf community, which is rare because not many books have the global information or community in the photography book. Only newspapers try to have that every morning to touch the base of each important highlight of other countries: unfortunate wars or bad news. My book is not going to carry any bad news, only good and powerful information.”

Keast is a Los Angeles resident who is currently working on a one-woman show and does storytelling mainly at schools for deaf and hard of hearing children. She also says that she hopes to make an impact on these children with this book, in making them see that they are not the only deaf children in the whole world.

This book provides a powerful narration through pictures. As Keast says, “Take a look through the camera lens at this spellbinding view of our lives, through our eyes.”

ONE DAY is available for purchase from DeafBuy at www.deafbuy.com. A portion of the proceeds from this book will be directed towards the World Federation of the Deaf, headquartered in Finland.

Copyrighted material. This article may not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

Originally appeared in Silent News, June 2001.

Just months after promising to have construction start in January 2001, Wyndholme Village has filed bankruptcy, and construction plans have completely fallen through. The property on which Wyndholme was to be built was bought by Stuart C. Fisher for $4.6 million at a recent auction.

Fisher, who had $2.4 million invested in the bankrupt property, said he wanted to protect his money already tied up in the 46-acre project.

Last November, Silent News reported that Jim Lancelotta, managing member and developer of Wyndholme Village, had come to an agreement with creditors regarding construction of the community. Lancelotta attributed the troubles to a troubled lender who is currently incarcerated for financial improprieties. Scott Macdonald, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Wyndholme, also said that Lancelotta was “sure” that Wyndholme Village was going to be a reality.

Wyndholme had 28 signed contracts of individuals ready to move into their units by November, and did not actively try to sell any units since February 2000.

Wyndholme Village’s website posts a May 2 news article written by Alison Klein of the Baltimore Sun, stating that Fisher wanted to use the property for a similar project. Earlier, it was reported that Fisher had no plans to continue the Wyndholme Village project.

Wyndholme did not return phone or e-mail inquires made by Silent News.

Copyrighted material. This article may not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

Originally appeared in Silent News, June 2001.

Representatives of various deaf and hard of hearing communities have recently achieved a victory in their battle with senators over amendments to Oregon’s HB2105. HB2105, which proposes to extend the sunset date for telecommunication assistance programs for disabled and low-income Oregonians to January 1, 2010, was filed upon the request of Gov. John Kitzhaber preceding the legislative session. Two amendments threatened to cap the funding and cut one of the programs.

The telecommunication assistance program, coordinated by the Public Utility Commission (PUC), consists of three programs: the relay service, assistive telecommunication devices loaner distribution to Oregonians who are disabled and unable to access standard phones, and telephone assistance for low-income citizens. Funds for the three programs are collected through a monthly surcharge on each telephone line. While the maximum allowance is 35 cents per line, the current surcharge is 10 cents.

Damara Goff Paris, who heads the PUC program, said, “At the [Senate Business, Labor and Economic Development sub-committee] hearing, Sen. Mae Yih proposed HB2105-1, which amended the bill to reduce the statutory authority to collect a surcharge on each telephone line in Oregon from 35 cents to 7 cents, called for a task force to study moving the equipment distribution program to Senior and Disabled Services Division (SDSD) and eliminating the Oregon support for the telephone subsidy program. The chair of the subcommittee, Sen. Roger Beyer, later submitted subsequent amendments that increased the cap to 13 cents, but shortened the sunset to 2004.”

A press release from the Oregon Association of the Deaf, which was in favor of HB2105 but not Yih’s or Beyer’s amendments, said, “PUC has effectively and successfully managed to oversee the three programs at 10 cents per line access, which is below the current cap of 35 cents. However, there are some [Federal Communications Commission] mandates rulings such as cost recovery for 711, which may increase the rate per minute. Once [Oregon Telecommunication Relay Service] complies with all of the FCC rulings, the surcharge rate will most likely increase. Also there is a need for a safety net in event of any future FCC mandates rulings in the next 2 years.”

Paris also pointed out that if the amendments had passed, then more than likely there would not have been enough money to cover the subsidy program by the middle of the next biennium. “In the past four months alone, there has been an 8% increase in OTAP recipients, which exceeds our projections.”

After several months of consumer rallying, phone calls and letters to senators on the subcommittee, the decision to pass HB2105 without the crippling amendments was made on May 11, 2001, with a four-to-one vote for a recommendation to pass the bill with only a minor amendment (to clarify that the surcharge collected on wireless instruments must be made only if the primary use is in Oregon) to the Senate floor for approval by the Senate. Sen. Corcoran was cited as one of the major reasons the bill passed without the additional amendments. Corcoran, who publicly admonished Beyer and Yih on the lack of merit for their amendments, states, “I am a strong supporter of the unamended bill.”

While a major hurdle was overcome, the slightly amended bill must still pass the Senate and go back to the original House committee that passed the bill last February. Paris remains optimistic, however. “It was amazing to see so many consumers rally for the program. The end result proves that if the consumer voice is loud and persistent enough, anything can be accomplished.”

Copyrighted material. This article may not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

Originally appeared in Silent News, June 2001.

This month, I’m going to write about how things work at Silent News. This, hopefully, will offer you, the reader, a better idea of how the newspaper is operated, and help clear up some misconceptions.

We are located in an office park in Mount Laurel, N.J., about 10 minutes from the city of Philadelphia. We do not have any printing facilities in our building; rather, we send CDs with the issues to printers. Many students and visitors who come to our offices are shocked at either how big the offices are, or how small they are. I guess it’s all a matter of perception.

Our staff is small. We have less than 10 employees who work here in the office, and then many employees who work from home, such as our sports editor, marketing person, web designer/layout editor, and even myself. All of the employees, including me, directly report to our executive director, Adele Wiggins. I oversee the writers, photographers, and columnists who contribute to this newspaper. We do not have an advisory board yet, though I am working on getting one re-established – watch for announcements in upcoming issues of Silent News.

With that background in mind, here are some frequently asked questions, and answers.

I’ve got an idea for a story, or I’d like to send in a story for publication. What do I do?

Send an e-mail to our editor at editor@silentnews.com, and you will be contacted with further instructions and/or information.

I send in clippings, stories, or press releases. Yet I don’t see them printed. Why?

We get hundreds of these at the newspaper. If we printed them all, our newspaper would become 80 pages long and your subscription rates would double! Seriously, we wish we could reprint and print all the submissions we can. However, because we get so many, we must decide which is of highest priority or highest interest to our international audience. However, we ask that you continue to send the clippings, stories and/or releases to us. These clippings are how we find story ideas, people, and news.

When I send something in, I sometimes don’t see it printed until a month or two later. What’s the deal with this?

We print issues a month before the “real” month. For instance, we dropped off the June issue at the printer on May 17. Because of this, I accept stories up to three days prior to the drop-off date. My writers have a deadline of seven days before the printer date, so that we have that time to edit and fact-check. We often start working on the next issue two months prior; for example, we started working on the June issue in mid-April. To help you get a better idea of our schedule, we tend to go to the printer every third Wednesday of the month.

I’d like to share a wedding, a birth or an obituary. What do I do?

Our Milestones section, where all weddings, engagements, births and deaths are announced, is free of charge to subscribers. All photographs will be returned upon request (we prefer to have actual photographs than e-mailed photographs).

I have an old story or issue I’d like to look up. Where can I go to find archived issues?

We do not have our issues archived yet. If you would like to look for an old story, please contact us and we will look for the story. Please understand that when we say “look for the story,” we mean literally look for the story. We have copies of every issue dating back to 1969 in a storage room in the back, so we will go into that room and sit and thumb through old issues to find your story.

We are working on archiving issues on CD in .pdf format for our website, and hope to have this completed sometime in 2001. We also have issues on microfiche from 1969 to 1994. However, we are now exploring options of how to better archive and organize our stories. If you’ve got suggestions, or resources, let us know.

I’d like to order back issues or reprint a story. How?

To order back issues, contact us and we will give you rates. To reprint a story, you should e-mail us at editor@silentnews.com and request permission to reprint. Be sure to include where the story will be reprinted, and why. The editor will then send you the wording of how to list the permission, and/or approval of your request. You may also call us at (856) 802-1978 TTY.

I sometimes am frustrated with the late arrival of issues. Why does this happen?

The mailing house at the printer handles all our mailing. Our circulation manager e-mails a list of addresses and names to the mailing house in advance, then the mailing house takes care of the labeling, mailing, and postage. If you experience problems, be sure to check with your post office first. If you do not get your issue by the 15th of that month (i.e. June 15th), let us know.

We take our mailing very seriously; in fact, we changed our printer this month due to the poor mailing service of our previous mailing service – we received a huge pile of issues returned to us, because the labels had fallen off! We were upset, because we had specifically asked for ink-printed addresses, rather than label-printed addresses. For this reason alone, we decided to switch printers. We want to provide  readers with the best service possible.

I want to become a writer for Silent News. How can I?

Contact our editor at editor@silentnews.com, and you will be sent a copy of the Silent News writer guidelines. The guidelines describe our policies, how to write for us, and other important information. We are currently looking for writers of all walks of life, but especially need those who are hard of hearing, late-deafened, and of color. We also need writers from the southeast region and the Midwest, but again, we need as many writers as we can get.

Why are there so many advertisements in Silent News?

Actually, our newspaper is very ‘normal’ for advertisements. A general rule of thumb is to have 60% stories and 40% advertisements in the newspaper business. As is true for any magazine, newspaper, or newsletter, advertisements help pay for the running of our newspaper. With that, it’s important to have more people subscribe. With more subscriptions, we have less of a need for advertisements. So get your friends, family and coworkers to subscribe!

Our organization is holding a conference/event. I’d like to have Silent News sponsor it, or place an ad in our program book.

Contact our marketing representative at marketing@silentnews.com. We often are unable to provide sponsorship, because we are a very small organization with very limited resources. However, we are open to suggestions, and usually provide sponsorship in different methods.

I’d like to have someone from Silent News to come and give a presentation or workshop. Is this possible?

Absolutely! Contact either the executive director, Adele Wiggins, at adele@silentnews.com or the editor at editor@silentnews.com. We may also be contacted at (856) 802-1978 TTY or (856) 802-1977 voice.

Got more questions? E-mail or call us!

Copyrighted material. This article may not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

Originally appeared in Silent News, June 2001.

Yet another retailer is facing a lawsuit claiming discrimination. This time it’s Wal-Mart facing the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the case of Ruthie Gilmore, a deaf woman from Circleville, Ohio.

John Sargent, supervisory trial attorney for EEOC, said, “Ruthie Gilmore filed a charge with the EEOC in 1996 complaining that she was denied an accommodation in the form of a qualified interpreter for meetings at work after she was hired in that year.”

The EEOC investigated the complaint, and found that indeed discrimination existed. “The EEOC and Wal-Mart attempted to conciliate the charge and that was unsuccessful. The file was referred to the EEOC Commissioner in Washington for further review, and they authorized litigation,” Sargent said.

Todd Higgins, a community service advocate for the Deaf Services Center in Worthington working with Gilmore, said in an e-mail, “Ms. Gilmore has repeatedly requested the services of a ‘qualified’ sign language interpreter for departmental meetings, one-on-one meetings with her supervisors, and staff-development sessions, but the management will not furnish her with such services, as they have deemed written notes to be adequate for Ms. Gilmore and other Deaf and hard of hearing employees.”

Other deaf employees and Gilmore were given outlines of general meeting proceedings, but felt the outlines were inadequate in terms of including new information or details discussed at meetings. Gilmore also claims that on several occasions, hearing children and hard of hearing spouses of the deaf employees were utilized as interpreters”for interactions with administration. “From time to time, a hard of hearing employee was also utilized as a ‘signer,’ but given his inability to hear ‘every’ word that was being uttered, he could not effectively serve as an interpreter,” wrote Higgins.

Gilmore, who graduated from the Ohio School for the Deaf and uses American Sign Language as her mode of communication, is employed as a packer at a distribution center, though she is currently on disability leave.

The Wal-Mart Distribution Center did not return phone or e-mail inquiries for comment. There are several other lawsuits against Wal-Mart filed by deaf individuals, including one in Utah.

Copyrighted material. This article can not be copied, reproduced, or distributed without the written consent of the author.

Originally appeared in Silent News, June 2001.

While it’s true that a high percentage of deaf and hard of hearing employees work for the government, it’s not always true that they have the networking and training opportunities that hearing federal workers have. The National Training Conference (NTC) is held biannually to provide deaf government workers with such opportunities.

“The well-organized workshops provided vital information to deaf and hard of hearing government workers not always available in the workplace. The conference was a breath of fresh air to federal workers such as myself who often work in isolation,” said Betty Dodds, who works at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This year’s NTC was sponsored by the Deaf and Hard of Hearing In Government (DHHIG) organization. The conference, held at the National Institute of Health in Bethedsa, Md., on April 9-11 had over 500 registrants, in addition to exhibitors, job seekers, presenters, and agency representatives. DHHIG Executive Director Robert Dwier said, “The NTC is a three-day conference and focuses on issues related to employment, advancement, retention and the culture of government employees who are deaf or hard of hearing. It provides an opportunity to hear from nationally recognized speakers and trainers about current realities, future trends, and the assessment of and the use of information technology.” The NTC was first hosted by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1994, held at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

The conference, chaired by Shelly Franks and Tina Joyner, focused on changes and trends in the workplace. Workshops were well- planned and diversified. Topics included self-empowerment, human resources, gender issues, employer-employee relationships, addiction and co-dependency, cultural issues and many others. There were even self-defense workshops and image consulting.

Dunbar, who was one of the first members of DHHIG, said he would like to see more people become aware of the NTC. “In the past, participants have come from as far away as Hawaii and we have had inquiries from Europe and Canada.” He also mentioned that there was an increase in diversity among attendees of the conference. “During the 2001 NTC, we had deaf, hard of hearing and late-deafened adults. We also had hearing people come to this conference…because of the training opportunities, plus the fact that [real-time captioning] and voice interpreting were provided.”

Dodds, who is slowly losing her hearing and is hard of hearing, agreed, saying, “The conference provided assistive listening devices and many captioned workshops, enabling my full participation.”

The DHHIG was formed in 1998, and currently has more than 1,000 members.

For more information on DHHIG or NTC, visit their website at www.dhhig.org

Copyrighted material. This article may not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.

Originally appeared in Silent News, June 2001.

There were four deaf survivors of the Holocaust present at the “Remembering Deaf Persons in the Holocaust” forum, held in New York City on April 26. Coordinated by Dr. Oscar Cohen, the retiring superintendent of the Lexington School for the Deaf, the standing-room-only forum of over 300 attendees was filled with hope, remembrance and inspiration.

The forum opened with John Schuchman, a professor of history at Gallaudet University and author of two books, describing the history of how deaf Jews were treated in Nazi Germany. Schuchman, who is a child of deaf adults, showed various photographs, including one of a deaf school in Berlin that some of the survivors in attendance at the forum had been schooled at, and one of groups of Jews that were supportive of the Nazi movement.

After Schuchman’s detailed and moving account of the historical perspective of Berlin Jews, Rabbi Irving Greenberg, president of Jewish Life Network and chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, spoke about ethnical and moral implications of dehumanizing or diminishing any group of people. Rabbi Greenberg, who is hearing, likened the struggles of deaf people to the struggles of Jewish dignity and said that nobody deserved to have their dignity undermined, regardless of who they were.

Upon the conclusion of the inspirational speech by Rabbi Greenberg, the student body president of Lexington, Jason Wagner, thanked the survivors for their presence. “We will remember,” he said, inviting Lexington students and the survivors to come together to light candles in remembrance of the Holocaust. After the inspiring speeches, attendees were treated to refreshments and social time.

According to Cohen, Lexington’s ties to the Jewish community began in the 1860s, when Isaac and Hannah Rosenfeld, a German Jewish family, established the school for their deaf daughter Carrie.

Copyrighted material. This article may not be copied, reproduced, or redistributed without the written consent of the author.