KISS member born deaf in one ear

Paul Stanley, singer in the rock band KISS, says "I'm virtually deaf on my right side" because he was "born without an ear canal..I've had an implanted hearing aid for years now." Watch the CNN video interview with him below on DeafNewsToday.com (with captions).

This Day in History: Broadway

Today (March 30) in 1980 the Broadway production of Children of a Lesser God opened in New York.

Live Stream Captioning

Live Streaming with HD Closed Captioning will be demonstrated at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas next weekend. The ViewCast Corporation plans to show off its Niagara 9100-4D streaming system. The digital high-density encoder platform handles up to four HD SDI inputs at the same time making it an attractive multi-channel stream option for television. There's more information here.

Deaf-Blind Man Killed in Accident

Randy Pease was struck by a car on Saint Patrick's Day and killed. Local media reports the deaf-blind man was forced to live in a home 100 miles away from his Virginia Beach home because mental health officials told his family there was no room for him closer to where he lived. WWBT-TV in Richmond, Virginia has a video report (with captioning). The Richmond Times-Dispatch offers a written story here.

NBC12.com - Richmond, VA News

No Terp for nearly two week hospital stay

A UK hospital is being accused of failing to provide an interpreter for a deaf patient--and possibly performing surgery without her consent. Scotland’s Public Services Ombudsman, Jim Martin, says the woman was unable to communicate with the staff of Ninewells Hospital located in Dundee for 12 days. During her hospital stay, the unnamed patient had her appendix removed. Martin is accusing the hospital of not putting enough effort into finding an interpreter. The patient used BLS (British Sign Language) and had little lip-reading ability.  She handed staff members interpreter cards and even pointed at a poster on the wall repeatedly. It said the hospital would provide an interpreter when needed. But it turns out the outdated poster included the wrong contact information. Martin says Section 20 of the Equality Act of 2010 clearly says that when the staff was first alerted to the need, there needed to be a plan put in place to provide the patient with the means necessary to communicate with the staff. In this case, a sign language interpreter.  The hospital eventually did make two calls to a terp service over the weekend, but without success. Hospital officials complain there is a shortage of interpreters in the UK but agreed to change their procedures--including allowing patients to schedule an interpreter themselves and training staff on the use of basic sign language. Read the PDF report here.

Teaching Fellow Employees Sign Language For School Project

Watch the video report from KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh in the video below on DeafNewsToday.com (captions available).

Canadian VRS

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is asking the public for comment on establishing a video relay service. Public hearings will be held this fall, starting in Gatineau. Canadians who are deaf have access to TTY and Internet Protocol relay. Initial comments can be submitted to the CRTC by regular mail at Secretary General, CRTC, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0N2. There is more info in the video posted below:

Academic Bowl Winner

It won't come as a surprise to find out that the Maryland School for the Deaf Academic Team beat out 20 teams to win Gallaudet's 17th annual National Academic Bowl. This is the 4th straight victory for the Orioles. Senior Ethan Sonnenstrahl was named the most outstanding player. Irvine, California's University High School won second place, while the Public Schools from Tucson, Arizona took home third place. The Indiana School for the Deaf of Indianapolis placed fourth.

More on lawsuit against special needs agency

We told you yesterday about a lawsuit filed against a California nonprofit for allegedly failing to provide interpreters. KOVR-TV has this video report (with captioning).

Top Gally Player

A Gallaudet baseball star is making the most of his senior shortstop for the Bison. Read the story here.

Gally Gets Computer Lab of the Future

Find out about the redesign of the old Harkin Computer Lab at Gallaudet University. Read the story here.

Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Circus

Denver pre-schoolers show off their circus skills as part of a showcase to promote their school's deaf and hard-of-hearing program. Watch the video below or read the story here.

Helping children reach their potential

A look at some of the program's available to parents in eastern Tennessee from the Chattanooga Times Free Press here.

Suit over Terps at Work

The EEOC is going after a nonprofit near Sacramento for failing to provide interpreters for one of it's employees. Homeyra Kazerounian is deaf and works as an instructional aid at Placer ARC, which ironically provides independent living services for people in Placer County, California. Kazerounian had a good record at the organization's Auburn facility but was transferred to the Placer office in 2008. Her supervisors refused to provide interpreters for her training sessions or their and mandatory staff meetings. The Iranian-born Kazerounian eventually resigned because she couldn't do her job. The EEOC says it attempted to come to an agreement with Placer ARC before filing the lawsuit. There are more than 700 chapters of The Arc around the country.

Improving Hearing Aids

Even though other noises can reach up to 20kHz (kilohertz) in range, most hearing aids only pick up sounds up to 5-6kHz. That leaves out some of the higher frequencies used in speech. Cut off the higher frequencies, words like "finding" and "signing" are nearly identical. Phones compound the problem by compressing the range further. Brian Moore of the University of Cambridge say they've come up with a way to boost the upper range of hearing aids. Find out more at the Economist here.

Deaf hockey players compete on world stage for Canada

Deaf hockey players must have a hearing loss of 55 decibels or worse to participate and cannot wear hearing aids on ice. Read the story here.

RIT Science Fair

WHEC-TV reports on the science fair that took place today in Rochester for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. Watch the video below or read the story here.

ADA law and the Internet

The Justice Dept. is expected to issue new regulations on website accessibility later this year that could take a broad view of the ADA's jurisdiction over websites. Read it in the Wall Street Journal here.

Colorado Settlement

Arapahoe County and the city of Englewood, a Denver suburb will pay $35,000 to William Lawrence and the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition who sued for failing to provide them qualified interpreters. The agreement with the Justice department includes staff training on ADA law and posted signs about the availability of services for the hard of hearing. Arapahoe County and Englewood also agreed to use modified handcuffing when dealing with anyone who uses sign language to communicate. Lawrence was arrested in 2011. Englewood officers did not provide him with an interpreter during questioning and he was kept handcuffed, leaving him unable to communicate.

Arrest in NY murder

A man is in police custody for killing a former Rhode Island School for the Deaf. Her body was found inside a 55-gallon drum at a Harlem apartment. Bismark Lithgow of Manhattan is charged with killing 19-year-old Francis Angelica Alfonso Pellerano. The deaf woman suffered multiple stab wounds to the body. They had apparently been dating after meting on the internet, but she planned to leave him to move to the Dominican Republic.