News and Events for the Deaf, Interpreting, and VRS Communities

Come See Gracias VRS at the DeafNation Expo in Phoenix

 
Posted: March 4th, 2010

Come visit us at the DeafNation Expo in Phoenix this weekend!

Saturday, March 6, 2010 @ Phoenix Convention Center – Hall F100
North Third street Phoenix, AZ 85004
COST: FREE ADMISSION
HOURS: 9:00AM-5:00PM

View Our Flyer for our special presentation!

Gracias VRS presents: It’s a Matter of Life and Deaf

Come visit GraciasVRS Booth and Stage presentation:

“It’s a Matter of Life and Deaf”

Stage presentation at 2:30-3:00pm
DeafNation Expo Phoenix
Saturday, March 6, 2010

Phoenix Convention Center – Hall F
100 North Third street
Phoenix, AZ 85004
COST: FREE ADMISSION
HOURS: 9:00AM-5:00PM
FREE CHILDREN ACTIVITIES

 

FCC Reaffirms Rules and Policies of Video Relay Service

 
Posted: February 28th, 2010

For Immediate Release:
February 25, 2010

Washington, D.C. — Today, as a step toward comprehensive reform of Video Relay Service (VRS), the Commission’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau issued a Declaratory Ruling to reaffirm the FCC’s rules and policies concerning VRS reimbursement and calling practices, and maximize efficiency and effectiveness of this program to ensure that the communications needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing consumers are met.

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Mr Rogelio Figueroa visits Gracias VRS Hatillo Call Center

 
Posted: February 10th, 2010

SDC11744SDC11740 On February 5th, 2010 Mr. Rogelio Figueroa, Environmental Activist and Governor Candidate for the PPR Party (Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico) arrived to the Gracias VRS Hatillo Call Center. As he toured the premises, he admired the building and its presentation. He recognized the significance of our competent and professional interpreters for the Deaf Community. Mr. Figueroa expressed that Gracias VRS and ASL Latino “are opening doors for the communication and education of the Deaf Community”.

Company Director and Call Center representatives answered his questions about the interpreting field, ASL Services: Latino, and shared our company’s history as well the achievements of it’s president and CEO Angela Roth.

Mr. Figueroa also had the opportunity to experience a VRS call from one of PR’s Deaf leaders.

Mr. Figueroa commended Gracias VRS and ASL Services: Latino for the educational and informative role to hearing society. His general impression was, that we are fulfilling our purpose, as we become the access point for the “voice” of the Deaf Community, so they can be heard through us.

 

Give Equal Telephone Access to the Deaf

 
Posted: February 2nd, 2010

Gracias VRS Supports the NAD Request to the FCC to Give Equal Telephone Access to the Deaf

Gracias VRS is a provider of VRS, giving equal communication opportunity to the deaf community. This federally funded service (through FCC and NECA) may be in jeopardy without your support. Gracias VRS service is here to stay, however, new restrictions may limit VRS calls that are important to the deaf community.

Excerpt from the NAD Website: The NAD learned that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has not paid Video Relay Service (VRS) providers for certain types of VRS calls since July 2009. As a result, some VRS providers are not connecting or may stop connecting some VRS calls. This is not functionally equivalent to the communication access that hearing telephone users enjoy.
…
The NAD looks forward to working with the FCC, NECA, VRS providers, and other stakeholders in the development of rules and appropriate procedures to ensure the integrity of the TRS Fund and achieve functional equivalency for all deaf and hard of hearing consumers.

To read the rest of the article and to leave a comment with the FCC please visit the NAD website on the subject here.

 

Bridging Deaf Cultures in Puerto Rico

 
Posted: January 29th, 2010


On Saturday, February 6, 2010, from one to four PM, the Deaf Library Friends: Puerto Rico will present a deaf cultural program in American Sign Language (ASL), “Bridging Deaf Cultures in Puerto Rico.” ASL/Spanish Interpreters will be provided.

Co-sponsored by the St. Gabriel School for the Deaf and Gracias VRS (Video Relay Service), the program will be held in the auditorium of the St. Gabriel School for the Deaf. The address is Prolongación Calle 19 N.E. Puerto Nuevo, Puerto Rico 00920.

Jose Carrasquillo, the school principal, will greet the audience. Three guest speakers will give a brief history about these two American schools for the deaf.

2010-feb-Deaf-Library-event-rev3

Edgardo Figueroa, Vice President, SOS Inc, will narrate Laurent Clerc and Thomas H. Gallaudet’s 52-day ocean voyage from France to America. Clerc and Gallaudet, along with Dr. Mason F. Cogswell, co-founded the American School for the Deaf in 1817. This was the first permanent school for the deaf in the West Hemisphere.

Alice L. Hagemeyer, President of the Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action (FOLDA), will invite deaf audience members to share their cultural experiences, describing what happened when they first learned ASL. Alice Cogswell, daughter of Dr. Cogswell, first learned signs from Laurent Clerc. Alice wrote later about this thrilling moment. She said, “My heart glow”.

Juan A. Lopez, School Librarian, will display pictures on the history of the first school for the deaf in Puerto Rico – San Gabriel School for the Deaf, founded in 1904. Lopez believes that if the deaf community does not know its own history, there can be “no school future”. Libraries in Puerto Rico can make a difference.

In closing, there will be a special workshop. Anthony “Tony” Eaddy, a deaf library friend, will share his experience with computers. He and Alec McFarlane will discuss technologies used in communication among deaf and hearing people. Gracias VRS will also explain how the technology works and available services.

Deaf Library Friends’ mission is to promote library access and quality deaf resources in local Puerto Rican communities. The program has been developed to facilitate cultural exchange and to raise appreciation for the deaf cultures and libraries that make America great.

Contact
Alec McFarlane, President
Deaf Library Friends: Puerto Rico
Phone: 866-791-8535

Submitted by Alice L. Hagemeyer
E-newsletter: Deaf Community and Library News
www.folda.net

 

IRS Videos in ASL Available on YouTube

 
Posted: January 24th, 2010

With tax season in full swing, did you know that deaf and hard of hearing consumers can find answers to their tax questions directly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in American Sign Language (ASL)?

The IRS has built a YouTube channel complete with a series of ASL videos-that are also voiced and captioned-on a myriad of tax topics, including e-File and Direct Deposit, Free File and Fillable Forms, Education Tax Credits, Unemployment Compensation and Home Energy Credits. ASL videos on many more important subjects for taxpayers will be added as they become available.

Just go to the IRS YouTube channel here to see ASL videos that will help you complete your taxes this year. You can post and share these videos through your websites, vlogs or other social network venues. Click on the subscriptions button at the top of the YouTube page and you can find out right away when future videos become available.

http://www.youtube.com/user/IRSvideosASL

A wide range of helpful IRS videos in ASL, voice and captions are available on the IRS YouTube channel.

 

New Photos up on Facebook

 
Posted: January 12th, 2010

We’re a little late but wanted to share some great candid photos of the Gracias VRS team from the FRID 2009 Conference in Orlando. Check them out and leave us some comments!

 

Google Adds Captions for Deaf to YouTube Videos

 
Posted: December 31st, 2009

The deaf and hard-of-hearing Internet users now have a way to watch free videos on YouTube. Google announced earlier this year that it has added automatic caption capability to videos on YouTube.

The change has been lauded by advocates for the hearing impaired, such as the Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Milwaukee. The center called it “great news for deaf and hard-of-hearing Internet users” in a press release.

Machine-generated captions on videos from 13 YouTube “partner channels” will initially be available only in English, with plans to expand the feature to include more languages in the future. YouTube users have had a manual version of the service since last year, but it has not been broadly used and does not include most of the site’s content.

The caption project was led by Ken Harrenstein, a deaf Google software engineer.

“In some ways this reminds me of when closed-captioning (CC) was first introduced,” said Mr. Harrenstein in a Google news release. “Before that, little on TV made sense, and the only movies worth paying for were foreign films, because those were the only ones with subtitles! I now have the same sense of hope that I did then.”

Full Article at Epoch Times

 

About: The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology

 
Posted: December 10th, 2009

Many federal laws have been enacted to require greater access to telecommunications. There is only one problem – the federal laws that we worked so hard to enact over the past 20 years have not kept pace with many new technologies. For instance, television shows that are re-shown over the Internet are under no requirement to be captioned – even if they had captions when they were shown on TV! Also, small TVs, cell phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices are not required to display captions, even though they are now capable of showing TV shows. Also, for now, 9-1-1 emergency call centers cannot accept calls from people who need to communicate in video or via pagers.

During the spring of 2007, a new coalition, the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), was established to try to fix these problems. Founding organizations include Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD), the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), and the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). As of April 10, 2009, over 230 national, regional, state or local organizations are members of the COAT.

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Youtube’s New Technology Brings Captions to the Deaf Community

 
Posted: December 2nd, 2009

By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: November 19, 2009

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In the first major step toward making millions of videos on YouTube accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired people, Google unveiled new technologies on Thursday that will automatically bring text captions to many videos on the site.

The technology will also open YouTube videos to a wider foreign market and make them more searchable, which will make it easier for Google to profit from them.

While the technology can insert captions only on English-language speech, Google is giving users the choice of using its automatic translation system to read the captions in 51 languages. That could broaden the appeal of YouTube videos to millions of other people who do not speak English but could use the captioning technology to read subtitles in their native language.

The speech recognition technology that Google uses to turn speech into text is not new; Google currently uses it to transcribe voice mail messages for users of its Google Voice service. But Ken Harrenstien, a deaf engineer who helped develop the automatic captioning system, said the technology had never been applied on such a large scale.

“This is something that I have dreamt of for many years,” Mr. Harrenstien said, speaking through an interpreter. “To see it happen is amazing.”

Full Article here