Jury Decision on Job Suit

A mining company did not discriminate against a deaf job applicant, according to a Minneapolis jury. James Edstrom had sued Hibbing Taconite Co. fir rufusing to hire him to drive trucks or as a heavy equipment operator. The company claimed Edstrom was a safety threat because of his hearing loss.

Suit Over Nashville Terps at Hospital

Five deaf patients in Nashville have filed lawsuits against a Hospital and group of doctors, claiming discrimination for not providing sign language interpreters. One of the plantiffs, William Amonett, was discharged by Dr. Edward L. King because the patient asked for an interpreter. The hospital, Summit Medical Center, is owned by the HCA hospital chain and has not responded to the suit.

Deal Cut in Screaming Child Suit

A woman who says a screaming child on a plane left her partially deaf last year has settled her lawsuit with Qantas. Jean Barnard claims the 3-year-old left her in such pain that her ears bled and she had to be taken to the hospital even though no other passengers were harmed. Qantas Airlines denied any responsibility.

Hearing Loss Bucket List

A young woman suffering from a degenerative hearing problem has a list of sounds she wishes to hear before she goes completely deaf. Watch the video here.

Helping the Hard of Hearing

A video on How To Help Someone Who's Hard Of Hearing.

How To Help Someone Who's Hard Of Hearing on Howcast

X Games Victory!

Motorcyle racer Ashley Fiolek won X Games gold yesterday in Los Angeles. The 19-year-old Floridian took the lead going through the megaramp tunnel on the first lap of the 15 minute ride and never looked back. She made competition history as the first deaf winner of the Moto X Super X Women's Final last year. Fiolek tells about her journey from deafness at birth to becoming a championship rider in the autobiography Kicking Up Dirt.

Theater Captioning in Massachusetts

Three of Massachusetts big movie theater companies has agreed to add more closed-captioning. The settlement with the state's attorney general avoids a court battle for Regal Entertainment Group, National Amusements, and AMC. By November, the companies have agreed to put the technology in at least 34 theaters. This includes equipment that projects text and provides narration for the blind. A similar agreement was made in New Jersey during 2004. About 400 theaters are equip ed with this technology.

Free Implants

Cochlear Americas says it will replace a cochlear implant free of charge that was stolen from 12-year-old Daniele Marrufo at a recreation center in Denver. The company plans to send two of the devices, valued at $10,000 apiece. The left one was stolen and the right one was broken and needed replacing. Daniele had left his implant inside one of his shoes while swimming atthe Link Recreation Center.

Fight Set for Oct

Deaf Ultimate Fighter Matt Hamill will take on former mentor Tito “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” Ortiz on October 23. Hamill has a four win streak and a record of 8-2 since signing with the UFC. His last fight saw him take a decision win over Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine, after which Jardine was cut from the UFC. Hamill has strong wrestling credintials, holding a gold medal from the 2001 Deaflympics in freestyle wrestling and a silver medal from the same competition in Greco-Roman wrestling. Hamill hold six out of his nine wins by knockout.

Texas Docs Avoiding Terps

There is a video report from KGBT-TV on the failure of doctors to provide sign interpreters in Harlingen, Texas is here. There is text and closed captioning as well.

Prof Profile

A Gallaudet professor is profiled in the summer edition of the NCAA's Champion magazine. Kitty’ Baldridge's profile is titled “The consummate teammate." Baldridge is the Director of General Studies Program and Associate Professor of Physical Education at Gallaudet. She coached women’s basketball at Gallaudet for 29 years. Read more here.

Implants & Infections

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says children considered for cochlear implants should have up-to-date vaccinations at least 2 weeks before surgery. The medical association points to the increased risk for infections from the surgery, especially otitis media and meningitis. After the device is implanted, the AAP says children should be monitored carefully and treated promptly at the first sign of infection. There are an estimated 1 million Americans who are potential candidates for cochlear implants. The FDA has set a one year minimum age for receptients, even though devices have been successfully placed in younger infants. Details of the new policy recommendation are in the August issue of Pediatrics.

More About the Video Captioning Law

The House-passed version of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act has a provision that would give the FCC up to $10 million a year for its Telecommunications Relay Fund. The money would go toward specialized equipment that low-income deaf-blind Americans need to access the Internet. The bill's focus is ensuring closed-captioning for video on the Internet. The measure would establish an FCC advisory committee to examine closed captioning, video description; and access to emergency information, programming guides, menus and user interfaces. It will require most video devices to include the capacity for audio descriptions of video content and for closed captioning of audio content. Consumer-generated content would be exempted from the law while government-made video is already covered by a previous presidential order. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

ADA Remarks

President Obama spoke about the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act on the south lawn of the White House yesterday. Here are some exerpts from his speech:

Today, as we commemorate what the ADA accomplished, we celebrate who the ADA was all about. (A movement) began when Americans no longer saw their own disabilities as a barrier to their success, and set out to tear down the physical and social barriers that were. It grew when you realized you weren’t alone. It became a massive wave of bottom-up change that swept across the country as you refused to accept the world as it was. Sit-ins in San Francisco. Demonstrations in Denver. Protests in Washington, D.C., at Gallaudet, and before Congress. People marched, and organized, and testified. And laws changed, and minds changed, and progress was won. Equal access -- to the classroom, the workplace, and the transportation required to get there. Equal opportunity -- to live full and independent lives the way we choose. Not dependence -- but independence. That’s what the ADA was all about. (Applause.)

But while it was a historic milestone in the journey to equality, it wasn’t the end. here was, and is, more to do. We’re expanding broadband Internet access to Americans who are deaf and hard of hearing. And to promote equal rights across the globe, the United States of America joined 140 other nations in signing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities -- the first new human rights convention of the 21st century.

Read more here.

Implant Stolen

The cochlear implant of a 12-year-old boy was stolen from the Link Recreation Center in Denver. Daniele Marrufo left his implant inside one of his shoes while swimming. The device is worth nearly $10,000. The thief may have thought it was a Bluetooth device. The boy's parents are offering a $100 reward for the cochlear implant, made by Cochlear America.

Internet Video Bill

The House has passeed a bill to make the Internet and mobile phones more accessible. The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act requires captioning of online video. The vote was 348 to 23. A similar bill is working its way through the Senate.

Suit over Terps

A deaf man in Brownsville has filed a lawsuit against a Texas state agency. Sergio Ayala says the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for failing to provide him with interpreters during his periodic food stamp eligibility interviews. The commission had taken away those benefits and Ayala says his family had to go hungry. Officials at the agency had no immediate comment on the suit. He is also suing two Rio Grande Valley doctors. Ayala says he was told during a visit that an interpreter was coming but waited for hours at the doctor's offices and no one arrived. He eventually returned with a friend who interpreted for him.

Sign in Space

A space station astronaut has given the first sign language address from space. Tracy Caldwell Dyson recorded a six-minute video for deaf children from the International Space Station. She spoke of about life as an astronaut. This is the first time ASL has been used on the space station, according to NASA. Dyson says she was on the track team with a deaf college student who taught her to sign. Watch her video from space below.

WFD

The first World Congress of the Deaf was held in 1951. It later became the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) and now has about 130 member countries representing 70 million deaf people internationally.

Matlin Called a "Diva"

Marlee Matlin is accused of acting like a "diva" at the World Deaf Expo this past week by a local paper. The Las Vegas Review-Journal says Matlin refused to have her photo taken with Bonita Leek who is with Miss Deaf International. Leek is quoted as saying Matlin "doesn't have the greatest reputation" in the deaf community. Later, Matlin tweeted, "Just had lovely talk with the CEO of Miss Deaf International. glad we cleared the air. And thanks to their hard working staff." Read the story here and see the tweet here.