somedeafdudefromPNW
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Access ramps, wide-door bathrooms, are one time costs, not recurring expenses.
Not if it's tax-deductible.
Too bad many forget that though.
Access ramps, wide-door bathrooms, are one time costs, not recurring expenses.
Right. Then again we have to look from the perspective of businesses when it comes to paying for interpreters such as the deaf bankruptcy case I outlined in my blog. Should businesses be forced to pay for interpreters even if it means cutting into their profits? This is becoming a conundrum.
Wud join you guys in the corner but I never belong anywhere so isolated....
*Standing awkwardly on my own*
I am a great believer that truth can often be found by looking at different points of view.
There are four here:
The government says the D/deaf person has a right to equal access to the legal system, the medical system, the educational, etc through an interpreter or other accommodation regardless of their ability to pay for these services.
The business serving the D/deaf client deserves a reasonable profit for their services. Paying for an interpreter reduces the profits they make. In the cited case a law firm.
The interpreter needs to make a reasonable wage from the services they perform -- after their own business expenses. For example while traveling time may be paid for by the client billing time is not. So if it takes two hours to get a reluctant payee to pay for a two hour job the terps wages are cut in half. They spent four hours work and get paid for two. They also have to pay their own health insurance premiums and other insurance needs SS benefits, just as all other self employed people do.
The D/deaf client deserves and has a legal right to access to these everyday services through a decent interpreter. As so many D/deaf people do not have access to the jobs their skills and intelligence allow them to do due to prejudice many if not most cannot afford an interpreter every time they need one.
Some businesses, including law firms, will take a certain amount of low or no profit clients as part of their service to the community.
Some interpreters will work with a client, especially one whom the interpreter has worked with in the past, when there is an emergency situation or extenuating circumstances. This is particularly true of those interpreters who feel they are a part of the Deaf community they serve.
If the entire signing community hearing and Deaf alike, rewarded those people who aided the Deaf by sending business their way perhaps they would be more inclined to continue.
Also I notice someone on your blog mentioned a "fund" such as the VRS fund. That struck me as not such a bad idea.
You are a writer. Writers are always alone a large chunk of the time, and need to be comfy, not awkward in that position. Writers also need to roleplay in order to understand different positions other than the ones they are in most of the time.
Writers need to stand outside and observe others so they can put those things down on paper later.
Writers are never quite outsiders, and they are never quite insiders. Writers just are. Writers and artists share this quality. So grab a notebook and pen or pencil and create a world.
You are at home.
Milli
here is some dessert from Mother's Day dinner last night that we could share
*cuts up and passes around some key lime cheesecake, tiramasu and fruit*
Problem is that no two businesses are alike whether it's the small size like a Mom and Pop operation to a large corporation. Also location of a business is another consideration when you're in an area with greater number of deaf people versus elsewhere where one would rarely see a Deaf customer or client.
As for the VRS fund type idea, I think it has merits.
Also, I believe technology is the one big key in all this. It continues to evolve and develop.
I know the feeling all too well. How many times have I gone someplace only to be told, I do not belong or at least I get the vibe that I do not belong there. I just consider myself the lone wolf and just do my thing and let everyone else do theirs. Because I am not a skilled signer I may not belong at an ASL convention, because I don't hear well I probably don't belong in a hearing convention. Oh well.
Problem is what the the users of technology want to do is destroy everything of value developed by the Deaf Community, including values, philosophy and reasoning (Hearing English is a low context culture: Signing Deaf is high context), and all signed languages with all of their beauty and strengths.
All solutions bring their own problems, in this case the savior you look forward too is also the destroyer of many things I and others, both hearing and Deaf, love.
Video phone, VRS, texting and such are also important technology being used as part of the continuing outreach and communication to other deaf/hh people new to sign language and Deaf people who use sign language in everyday communication. This is true especially for video phone users who live in more remote places, for example, to communicate with their Deaf friends and families. This actually helps strengthen the Deaf community, their values and philosophy, and are able to propagate the use of ASL by bringing people together when they cannot meet in person. Technology is actually serving a purpose to advantage of the Deaf community and culture, believe it or not.
So, you actually thought I wasn't thinking of that, did you?
You jumped all over me. Am the biggest advocate on the use of technology for any communication means that can help level the playing field for deaf and hard of hearing people whether they know sign language or not.I may have done you an injustice here. I do tend to think of you in terms of wishing for "a cure for deafness" technology.
You jumped all over me. Am the biggest advocate on the use of technology for any communication means that can help level the playing field for deaf and hard of hearing people whether they know sign language or not.
Kokonut Pundit: C2I Conference - why did I use my voice?
Yay. Technology also levels the playing field for people who do know sign language!
Video phone, VRS, texting and such are also important technology being used as part of the continuing outreach and communication to other deaf/hh people new to sign language and Deaf people who use sign language in everyday communication. This is true especially for video phone users who live in more remote places, for example, to communicate with their Deaf friends and families. This actually helps strengthen the Deaf community, their values and philosophy, and are able to propagate the use of ASL by bringing people together when they cannot meet in person. Technology is actually serving a purpose to advantage of the Deaf community and culture, believe it or not.
So, you actually thought I wasn't thinking of that, did you?
:jaw: kokonut and I agree on something! Quick, alert the media.
That aside, technology is a godsend for a lot of communities. Blind and Deaf/Blind people are all over technology too, with technologies like the KNFB Reader (which can scan any print document and read it to you) or the BrailleNote which can connect any blind or DB person to the Internet, email, and can act as a Telebraille (braille TTY).
Technology is our information highway and gateway to the world. We should embrace it!
You jumped all over me. Am the biggest advocate on the use of technology for any communication means that can help level the playing field for deaf and hard of hearing people whether they know sign language or not.
Kokonut Pundit: C2I Conference - why did I use my voice?
Millifor hot cocoa!
technology can be hurtful as well as helpful....consequences must always be considered...