Deaf Movie Fans Sues Celebration! Cinemas

VIDEO: Deaf News - Celebration! Cinemas sued for failing to accommodate Deaf, Hard of Hearing in Michigan.



BENTON HARBOR, MI -- FOX News: West Michigan movie fans who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing are suing Celebration! Cinemas for discrimination, alleging their Benton Harbor theater fails to provide widely available captioning accommodations.



Graham Forsey, 23, a St. Joseph resident who is Deaf, alongside the National Association of the Deaf filed a lawsuit Monday against Loeks Theatres, Inc., also known as Celebration! Cinemas. Forsey says he asked the Benton Harbor theater multiple times in writing to provide captioning and Celebration! Cinemas failed to accommodate, according to the lawsuit.

Read the full lawsuit here.



“It’s about access," said Mary Vargas, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. "It’s about Mr. Forsey and members of the National Association of the Deaf being able to go to the movies.”



A non-profit representing more than 137,000 Michiganders who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, the NAD is suing Celebration! Cinemas with Forsey stating this failure to provide captioning technology violates a basic civil right as specified under the Americans with Disabilities Act among other laws. Meanwhile, Forsey says he is forced to drive about an hour to another movie theater which accommodates him.



Celebration! Cinemas responded to FOX 17 Monday and confirmed their Benton Harbor theater does not have any captioning accommodations, releasing this statement:



"We’re fully aware of the issues surrounding this complaint and new technologies will help resolve it very soon.



The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) has been working actively with advocacy groups to clarify updated standards for supporting the Deaf community. These standards are currently being reviewed by the Department of Justice, and we expect a ruling from them in the very near future.



Celebration! Cinema is committed to continuing to improve services for all of our guests, and we are looking forward to the approval of these standards so we can continue to invest in closed captioning technology. Currently, we have assisted listening devices in all locations and closed captioning in our Grand Rapids and Lansing, MI markets. Benton Harbor and other locations will receive captioning equipment in the coming months upon the adoption of the new standards.



Technological solutions for visually and hearing impaired guests are evolving at a rapid rate. We look forward to working collaboratively with NATO and advocacy groups both locally and nationally on this topic.



Steve VanWagoner, VP of Marketing & Public Relations, Celebration! Cinema"



Closed captioning technology is readily available at other movie theaters. It ranges from open captioning an entire audience would see, to captioning glasses, or individual devices that fit onto a theater seat.



"It's frustrating because it’s been so many years since this was a legal requirement for theaters," said Vargas. "There are roughly 137,000 people in the state of Michigan who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and guess what? They’re just like everybody else. They like to go to the movies.”



SOURCE

Petition | 'I Love You' ASL Handshape Emoji

VIDEO [CC] - Campaign: Deaf community want the "I Love You" American Sign Language handshape emoji!

Not the actual picture of ILY emoji.

We learned from the recent campaign to add the taco emoji to appeal to Unicode Consortium, a non-profit that regulates the coding standards for written computer text that includes emojis - Sign Up Petition ILY Handshape Emoji.

To activate this feature, press the "CC" button.

Transcript - Dear friends at Unicode: We are asking for the “I Love You” handshape to be available in text applications.



Presently there are several handshapes that we use to articulate our feelings by text, including: “peace”, “thumbs up”, “thumbs down”, “face palm”, “fist bump," "a-okay" and several others.



“I Love You” is one sign expressed in American Sign Language (ASL) and it has moved into the mainstream with wider universal understanding and acceptance among those who sign and those who do not (yet). Up until now, the best folks can do to recreate it by symbol is _\,,/ and that really doesn't do the meaning justice.



The "I Love You" sign is an informal way of expressing a number of positive emotions, ranging from general esteem and admiration to love for the recipient of the sign. Source: Wiki



Of course, the “I Love You” handshape emoji would be available in all skin tones.



Help us. Let’s make the “I Love You” in ASL emoji official!



With Gratitude and Love, CM Hall and Chad A. Ludwig from Portland, Oregon.



Please visit and learn more at change.org and to sign up and share your support: https://change.org/p/unicode-consortium-we-want-the-i-love-you-asl-handshape-emoji

Melow Meldrew & George Bush On Deaf.Read

A hearing blogger Melow Meldrew's video "George Bush on Deaf" is a sick joke and disgusting.



The story covers for all information events which recent reports made by public to the communities. The video is a sick joke and plain stupid, we ever seen on the social media in the Deaf community. The video shows of George Bush's speech with subtitling which been added by Melow Meldrew also known as deaf-hater blogger attherimmm (ATR) from Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.



Note: cannot embed youtube video that is disabled to this site. Pretty sure he made it look like shit on purpose to add to the comedy-humor subtitling called "George Bush on Deaf.read" who served as the 43rd President of the United States speeches all about deaf-bashing and support the AG Bell association. However, Deaf community does not find a funny but just plain stupid. Guess this old Brit man is simply ignorant and made bad substiting as well.

Deaf Parents Struggle With Kids - Supernanny

VIDEO [CC] - The documentary episode of Supernanny TV show - Deaf parents struggle with disrespectful CODA kids.



Supernanny has a different task with this family as both parents are Deaf in the United States.



The 3 younger child of Deaf adult kids don't know American Sign Language properly which makes it difficult for the family to communicate.



Supernanny communicates with this family through an interpreter and tells them what they must do to improve with the CODA kids.



Deaf Parents Struggle With Disrespectful Kids - Supernanny US. S4 - EP22:

CODA Melissa, 18, is more often that not, left to look after the three younger children and communicate. This has left her feeling overwhelmed.

Bedtime is extra stressful in this household as both parents are Deaf. The kids don't practice American sign language and use this to their advantage when running wild before bedtime.

Supernanny communicates with this family through an interpreter and tells them what they must do to improve.

Emotions run high when 18 year old Melissa storms out when trying to communicate with her Deaf parents.

Supernanny provides video monitors for these Deaf parents so they can watch the activity of their kids. This will help them manage bedtime better.

How do you think these parents have progressed?

Supernanny Deaf parent with CODA kids documentary episodes: http://www.supernanny.co.uk/TV-Show



Meet Jo Frost, aka "Supernanny" a modern day Mary Poppins, who can transform the wild ways of children. She's able to solve problems with behaviour, sleep, mealtime, potty training and other challenges that have vexed parents around the world for centuries. With just a spoonful of sugar and a practical, no-nonsense style of parenting, Jo Frost has taken North America by storm.



Follow Supernanny TV Show:

Subscribe - http://youtube.com/officialsupernanny

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SupernannyUK

Official Site: http://www.supernanny.co.uk/



Related CODA: #CODA

Child of Deaf Parent - My Family Culture

CODA Pride - Documentary Film

CODA Brothers: Deaf Mother's Intuition

CODA - Growing Up With Deaf Parents

CODA Kambri Crews and Burn Down The Ground

CODA Nate Tao - American Idol Season 12

CODA Tried To Kill Deaf Parents In House Fire

Deaf Parents Voice With CODAs ?

Deaf Parents Struggle With Kids - Supernanny

Dutch Boy Trolls Deaf Mother

Kambri Crews: Songs in American Sign Language

Korean CODA Sings For Parents Goes Viral

Sign Language With Cats Video Goes Viral

VIDEO [CC] - Kim Silva teaches Deaf cat and two others in sign language has gone viral on the social media.



TECH TIMES - In the cats vs. dog debate, many pet owners believe dogs are superior because they know how to perform tricks. But never let it be said that cats can't learn a thing or two.



Take for example this one woman who taught her cats how to communicate by using sign language. Signing cats? Yep, this is probably one of the best cat videos we've seen in a while.



Kim Silva, a retired teacher from the American School for the Deaf, wanted to adopt a cat after losing her feline friend in 2009. Silva and her husband John fell in love with a white Siamese cat named Bambi on Petfinder who was Deaf.

Since the couple, who are both hard of hearing themselves, already have two cats, Silva decided to teach her pets sign language so that they all would be able to communicate with her when Bambi would arrive at her Connecticut home from a rescue shelter in Texas.



"Guess I missed the kiddies so I began teaching the kitties," Silva says.



Silva started teaching her two cats named Bobcat and Bear sign language, which resulted in opposite outcomes. Bobcat learned the language quickly, going from a cat who only communicated with other cats to becoming an extrovert who loves showing off his skills. Bear, on the other hand, was older and since you can't teach an old dog new tricks, he did not pick up the skills at all... Read more: techtimes.com/articles/woman-teaches-cats-speak-through-sign-language.htm



Related Post:

Cat Saying 'Feed Me' In Sign Language

Sign Language With Cats Video Goes Viral

Sign Language Telephone - Documentary Film

VIDEO [CC] - 1979 Bell Labs project for the Deaf to communicate over telephone lines using American Sign Language.



This 1979 film examines a Bell Laboratory research project conducted by Kenneth Knowlton and Vivien Tartter. The team devised a way of using 27 points of light placed on an individual’s hands and face to allow the hearing impaired to use American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate remotely. The goal was to find a way to take images of the points of light at each end of a conversation so the images “could be coded to the capacity of one telephone line.” Thus ASL, the primary language for most Deaf people, could be used to conduct conversations over standard telephone lines, without requiring any greater capacity than a regular phone call.

Turn On "CC"

Knowlton was a prominent figure at Bell Labs for many years and is well represented in other videos on the AT&T Archive Channel. At the time this film was made Tartter was a linguist at Rutgers University and continues today as a professor at City College in New York.



In 1981, two years after this video, Tartter and Knowlton published a paper in the scientific journal Nature detailing their work and findings at Bell Labs. The article, “Perception of Sign-Language from an Array of 27 Moving Spots.” details the methods and results of the project, including a transcript of a sign language conversation conducted via television using their method. The paper concludes that the “demonstration suggests the possibility of developing a sign language telephone.” A New York Times article about the published piece soon followed and the subject drew attention in newspapers across the country.



While the system the team conceived was never developed into a final, usable technology, it is a fascinating step in the long procession of efforts to find ways for the Deaf to use the telephone for communicating, as in 2009 when AT&T received the TDI James C. Masters Promotion Award “for providing innovative products and services that address the needs of people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.“

SOURCE

Girl & Deaf Grandparents Killed In House Fire

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO [CC] - Girl and Deaf grandparents killed in house fire hours before rape trial in the small town of Ohio.



YOUNGSTOWN, OH - A northeast Ohio prosecutor says a 10-year-old girl died in a house fire early Monday morning, hours before a man suspected of raping her was scheduled to go on trial.



A total of three people were reported dead by the Youngstown Fire Department after the blaze on the city’s south side.



Neighbors in the 3600-block of Powers Way say they heard a loud explosion around 3:30 a.m.; moments later, they saw flames rip through the two-story home. “I looked out the window and the fire broke out from the bottom of the basement, just whoosh. And it was totally on fire.”



Dozens of firefighters were needed to control the flames. When it was out, firefighters found the bodies of two adults and their 10-year-old granddaughter. The adults are identified as Billy and Judy Schmidt, both in their 60s.







“Everybody who knew Billy loved him. He had friends all over the United States, he could probably go anywhere in the country and probably run into somebody that he knew,” said Connie Glozier, the victim’s sister.



The Schmidts, who were both Deaf, were raising their granddaughter. Neighbor Pamela Jones says the girl played with her grandchildren.



“I just can’t believe that something like this would happen,” said Jones. “I’ve been crying all day.”



Adding to the tragedy of this fire, the 10-year-old girl was the victim of an alleged sexual assault. The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Robert Seman, appeared in court this morning.



“On literally the eve of trial, hours before this trial was supposed to begin, this victim dies in a fire under suspicious circumstances, at the very least,” said Mahoning County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie McLaughlin. “Only 10 years old, somebody who did not deserve these things that happened to her.”



Seman has not been charged in connection with the fire, but his bond was revoked and he was taken to jail. If convicted on the rape charges, he could face a maximum sentence of life in prison... Read more: pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2015/03/30/fire-officials-3-dead-in-youngstown-house-fire/

Deaf Gay Man's Video Project 'I’m From Driftwood'

VIDEO [CC] - A Deaf man has shared his story of learning to embrace his identity, to encourage others to come forward.



Richard Mesich, from Portage, Indiana, shared his story via American Sign Language for LGBTQ video project "I’m From Driftwood"



Mr Mesich explained how he “felt like the only Deaf Gay in the world” after coming out and struggled to find a place where he could fit in.



He explained how he came out to his mother over instant messanger, saying: “Before my 21st birthday, I was talking to my mum on AOL instant messenger. We were talking and my mum asked me, ‘Are you gay? Are you interested in boys?’

“I was thinking and realized it is time for me to open up, so I told my mom, ‘Yes, I am gay.’



“She said, ‘Okay, that’s good I am happy to hear that from you. I knew you were gay since you were a little kid’.



He continued: “Years later, after college, I started dating. I dated a few guys on and off. It was good and enjoyable.



“I met this one person and he was hearing. We went out for dinner, and we could communicate a little but sometimes it’s hard with a hearing person. Mostly I would text on my phone to communicate.



“It was a very nice time, as he was very patient and understanding. But I realized that being Deaf and gay can be difficult with gay hearing people that I had dated.



“Sometimes they don’t understand about Deaf Culture or know about Deaf Culture. Also they don’t know that sign language is my first language. Some of them understood, but some of them didn’t fit in with Deaf culture.



“Comparing high school to where I am now, I used to feel lost and isolated. I didn’t know who I was.



“Now I feel confident, happy and know who I am. I’m comfortable with hearing and Deaf people, it doesn’t matter to me.



“Now I know who I am but I am not in a rush to look for love. All that matters are my family and friends who I enjoy being with.



“Whoever is out there will be very supportive and love who I am. I want it to be something that lasts.”



He added: “That’s the reason why I want to tell my story. If someone out there is Deaf and gay, I want them to know that there are other people who are Deaf and gay... Read more: pinknews.co.uk/2015/03/29/watch-deaf-gay-man-shares-his-journey-to-find-acceptance/