Shanna Groves, author of Confessions of a Lipreading Mom and Lip Reader, who is also a speaker and hearing loss advocate, is hosting an exciting course called Lipreading Class at the Deaf Cultural Center, which will cover the basics of lipreading, lipreading practice activities, communication tips with loved ones, and other information.  The class will be held at the Deaf Cultural Center, located at 455 E. Park Street, Olathe, KS 66061.

The class will be held for three Saturdays this summer, on May 17 (1 p.m. to 3 p.m.). June 1 (1 p.m. – 2 p.m.) and June 15 (1 p.m. – 2 p.m.).  The fee is $100 for the class and a maximum of 6 students are accepted.  Please make your payments out to the Deaf Cultural Center by check.  

For more information regarding the class, go to

http://www.kefdcc.org/education/lipreading-classes.

It’s a Friday night and you are in the mood for a movie alone or with friends and family.  You stop at a Redbox and pick out the movies you want, making sure as you read the movie description that captions are provided as stated.

You head home, relax on the couch with your popcorn and soda, and get comfortable as you watch the previews.  As the menu comes on, you go to “Set Up” and you find…..that no captions exist. – all that’s listed is Audio and Commentary, which certainly do not relate  Frustrated, you try to put on the captions from the remote menu, only to have caption settings not work on that either.  

Your next resort is to turn up the volume, and as you do so, the voices become louder, more distorted and certainly not more understandable than before.  You watch for a few minutes, but you can tell you won’t be able to catch most of what is being said in the movie,  Finally, you sigh and take out the movie from the DVD player  Enough is enough. The movie doesn’t have captions even if the movie description mentions captions as included.  Wasted money, wasted time, loss of enjoyment of seeing a movie.  Feeling ripped off and seeing your relaxing movie night go to waste, you return the movie and hope that the next movie won’t have the same problem.

Unfortunately, it is a continuous problem.  Having rented several movies from Redbox with the movie description stating clearly that captioning is provided, I have had to return them later that night simply because they didn’t have the captions on the menu as it said.  This seems to happen with less popularized movies or ones that are not playing in theater “claiming” to have captions for viewers. There is no way to verify that these movies have captions until you actually  rent it, play it and see for yourself.   

If you have a complaint about a movie not having captions as it said in the movie description on Redbox, you can contact the company. 

https://redbox.custhelp.com/app/ask - this is the link to contact customer service via internet.  There is also a phone number to call is 1.866.733.2693 (customer service). The hours to call are between 7 am-3 am 7 days a week.  

Perhaps with enough people with hearing loss taking a stand for their rights for captions on Redbox movies, the company will change their policy and be accommodating.  Until that happens, they will never take us seriously and we will continue to experience the woes of uncaptioned movies that claim to be captioned.  

Deaf International Community Church (DICC)

Meets at Center of Grace

520 S. Harrison

Olathe, KS 66061

 Dates:

December 23 – 10 AM

-          Christmas program with ASL poetry, storytelling, and songs

(Service is in ASL with English voice interpreting)

December 24 – 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM

-          Christmas Eve service

(Service is in ASL with English voice interpreting)

Olathe Bible Church
13700 W 151st Street
Olathe, KS 66062

Dates:

December 23 – 10:30 AM

-          Holiday Worship service

(Service is captioned live, with a sign language rendition of “O Holy Night” that includes a band, vocalists, and sign performers)

Northland Deaf Church

101 NE 70th Terr

Gladstone, MO 64118

 Dates:

December 23 – 11:00 AM

-           Christmas Service

(Service is in ASL with English voice interpreting)

Park Hill Baptist Church

7609 NW Highway 9

Kansas City, MO 64152

Dates:

December 24 – 6:00 PM

-          Christmas Eve Service

(Service has a sign language interpreter provided)

St. Joseph Church

11311 Johnson Drive

Shawnee, KS  66203

 Dates:

December 24 – 6:00 PM

-          Christmas Eve Mass

(Service has sign language interpreter provided)

St. Paul Church

900 S Honeysuckle

Olathe KS  66061

Dates:

December 25 – 12 AM

-          Christmas Mass

(Service has sign language interpreter provided)

Deaf Cultural Center Begins Sign Language Classes This September

The  Deaf Cultural Center, a museum that showcases the history of Deaf culture, technology, and the history of Kansas School for the Deaf, is starting several sign language classes this September at its location in Olathe, KS, across from the Kansas School for the Deaf.  The Deaf Cultural Center building was completed in 2001, with the museum being finished in 2005. 

Introduction to Sign Language and Continuing Sign Language Courses

Introduction to Sign Language Class and Continuing Sign Language Class are two sign language classes that begin this September 11, 2012 and ends November 1, 2012.  The classes are held every Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. 

Anyone 14 and older can register – the deadline is September 7.  The class fee is $85 and the ABC course book is required for each class, which is a one-time $55 purchase and can be used for both the beginner and continuing sign language class.

Business Sign Language Courses

Businesses interested in learning sign language for the purpose of communicating with Deaf employees and customers will learn sign language based on their business needs.  If interested, use contact information to find out more.

One on One ASL Courses   

For those who cannot attend the Tuesday or Thursday evening classes due to schedule conflicts, or for those who would like to work on their ASL individually, personalized one-on-one individual classes are offered.  If interested, use contact information to find out more.

 

For more information, go to the website, www.deafculturalcenter.org or email deafcc@att.net.  The address is 455 E. Park Street, Olathe, KS 66061.  Phone number listing are 913-782-5808 (Voice) and 913-324-5348 (Video Phone). 

There is a new blog website link that is specifically geared towards senior citizens with hearing loss in the United States.  The link is http://www.deafseniorsusa.blogspot.com/.  The blog lists resources for senior deaf clubs, health and senior resources, events, jokes page and other information.

There’s a new technology called Enable Talk that could potentially revolutionize the translation of sign language across the world.

At the Microsoft Imagine Cup, an event where students compete to showcase their best technological innovation, a group called QuadSquad placed first in the Software Design category.  .

Enable Talk is a special system which utlilizes gloves to translate sign language into text, which is then converted from text into spoken English.  The battery-powered gloves have sensors that detect what is being signed.  It is connected to a smartphone via a Bluetooth.

The product was tested with sign language users in Ukraine.  Some more links about Enable Talk are below:

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/item/28220-enable-talk-communication/
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/09/enable-talk-imagine-cup/