Uber offers ASL app to help hearing riders

Uber is offering a new way to connect deaf and hard of hearing drivers to hearing passengers. The company launched ubersignlanguage.com this week to show users a few simple ASL signs when they are matched with deaf drivers. Just little things like hello, thank you, turn left, and turn right. At the same time, Lyft has updated its dashboard display to enhance assessability. Uber explains how the new tool works:

Riders will see a special card in the Uber feed. Once they tap it, they’ll be taken to a page where they can select the basics, like “Hello” and “Thank You,” or spell out their name. They’ll then be given a GIF with the word(s) in ASL. That way, they can better communicate with their Deaf or Hard of Hearing driver, because signing “Thank You” or “Hello” in ASL can go a long way.

Read more about the Uber effort here.

Report: Many Police Officers are Ignorant of ADA law

"In many jurisdictions, cops’ noncompliance with the law has led to strain and miscommunication with the deaf community," reports Amiel Fields-Meyer in the The Atlantic.

“Police compliance with ADA provisions is pretty poor across the board,” said Alex Vitale, a sociology professor at Brooklyn College whose research focuses on community policing. “It’s clearly not a priority for a lot of police leaders.” For the deaf, police compliance with the ADA translates to employing or contracting with qualified American Sign Language interpreters and making available remote interpreting services, among other measures.

Read the full article "When Police Officers Don't Know About the ADA" here.

Nyle DiMarco on OK shooting

Nyle DiMarco, the first deaf winner of America’s Next Top Model and a Dancing with the Stars alum, is speaking out about the police shooting that killed a deaf man in Oklahoma City. He says, “I have no words at all. The neighbors SCREAMED to tell the police that he is Deaf. Police still shoots. And the Deaf guy was innocent."

Deaf stepdad gets emotional over heartfelt surprise

A devoted deaf stepdad is reduced to tears when his step kids surprise him with adoption requests.

More on the Deaf man shot by police this Week

Earlier this week we told you about a deaf man who was shot and killed by police in Oklahoma City. Now there is surveillance video of the car crash that led to the confrontation. You can see the video below. Apparently there is home video of the shooting but the police have possession of it and have not made it public. Read more about what happened in the Daily Mail. The officer who fired the shots is on paid leave.


Here is a report on the story from Oklahoma News 4, which says the man's family has hired an attorney who represented the family of a black man who was killed by a white Tulsa police officer. There is more from the TV station here.



WNYC has an audio report below (no captions).

Flirting in ASL

CUT offers a video showing how to flirt.

Meet Chance the Rapper's Interpreter

image from DEAFinitely Dope YouTube page

"Matt Maxey—who, along with his company, DEAFinitely Dope, is translating the magic of Chance shows for deaf concertgoers, writes Ashley Fetters."Maxey's ASL interpretation is an explosive, code-switching mishmash of textbook American Sign Language, pantomime, and makeshift signs he's cobbled together for slang words native to hip-hop ('molly,' for example, combines gestures for 'pill' and 'sex'); the way he signs is as worldly and wry and improvisational as he is." GQ has her full story here.

Confrontation over Service Dog in Restaurant

A woman gave a profanity-laced lecture to a veteran about his service dog when he brought the animal into a Delaware restaurant. The three minute tyrade was caught on video at Kathy’s Crab House & Family Restaurant in Delaware City. The video is posted below but there are no captions. You can read more about what happened here.

Deaf Man Killed by OK Police

Oklahoma City Police shot and killed a deaf man holding a metal pipe last night. The officers told him to drop the pipe while witnesses say they yelled that the man was deaf. Here is a news conference about the shooting (no captions).



NewsOK has a written story here and interviewed some of the neighbors on the scene and you can see that video below.

Why many Deaf Prisoners can’t Phone Home

If deaf inmates are trying to reach their deaf friends and family, the person receiving the call must also have a TTY to answer. But most deaf individuals have switched to video relay in the last several years, leaving prisoners no way to call, according to a Wired article. The magazine quotes Mary Ann McBride as saying, “I have deaf brothers and some deaf friends and they all use video phones, they no longer use TTY. Relay won’t accept to talk between two deaf people. I really need to talk to my family because I am serving a long indeterminate sentence.” read more here Wired Magazine.

Boy Gets Implant: Parents get Matching Tattoos

Two Kentucky parents got matching tattoos inked on their heads to look like their two-year-old son’s new cochlear implant. They say they didn't want him to feel different. WAVE-TV has a video report.

wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather & Sports

The Man in Yellow

image from video of Sept. 8 
Manatee County news conference

A viral video shows a news conference in Manatee County, Florida as Hurricane Irma approached. What makes the video of interest is the fact that the sign language "interpreter" didn't know how to sign. Tampa's WFLA-TV reports the man, Marshall Greene, is a lifeguard who works in the county's marine rescue unit. Because he had a deaf relative, county officials assumed he could sign adequately. They were wrong. Dressed in a yellow shirt (a no-no for professional interpreters) Greene basically signed gibberish to viewers. A spokesman for the National Association of the Deaf told WFLA, “Everybody was talking about it on social media, everyone was shocked, asking leaders in the deaf community to do something about it.” There are more details of what happened here. Below is a news report from WFLA (the link will take you to a captioned version of the video).

Court: No Website Accessibility an ADA violation

A Florida ruling says Winn-Dixie violated the Americans with Disabilities Act "because its website was inaccessible to a visually-impaired customer." Stephen Stern writes, "the court’s decision is significant because it joined the courts that have found websites can be places of public accommodation that require accessibility for individuals with disabilities" and "companies should be mindful of potential ADA ramifications when constructing their websites." In fact, the court "explained that the ADA does not limit its requirements to physical access, but to the 'full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation.'” Read the details at Lexology and the court's ruling here.

Horrible and embarrassing

The interpreter at an emergency-warning press conference in a Florida County was “horrible and embarrassing” says one certified interpreter. The Bradenton Herald reports here on what happened at the Manatee County Emergency Operations Center updates. Below is a video of his signing.

Journalism & "Inspiration Porn"

"For decades, the media has tended to portray people with disabilities (or those around them) as inspirations or heroes—a genre of reporting known as 'inspiration porn.'” writes Wendy Lu in the Columbia Journalism Review. She says, "This emotion-driven journalism is the hallmark of inspiration porn" which was "popularized in a TED talk that the late Australian activist Stella Young gave in April 2014." She pleads with journalists to "consider where a story’s newsworthiness comes from and how it contributes to overall disability coverage." Read the full article here.