WASHINGTON, Oct 31, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — The National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) pushed back today against the McCain-Palin campaign for ridiculing the legal rights of people with disabilities. News reports describe McCain-Palin campaign representative Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), joining Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin at a rally in Rush Limbaugh’s hometown of Cape Girardeau, mocking Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama for stating that he’s looking to nominate judges who empathize with “the disabled.”

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Harpo has set a wonderful precedent for including captioning with their online content, but there’s still a way to go.  During a half-hour perusal of her site, I found several videos without captioning, right along side several videos with it.  Either way, I want to thank Oprah and her staff for including captioning in some of her efforts and encourage her to make it a regular part of posting video content on the web.

Here is what I wrote: (more…)

1. Make ear plugs a new accessory and a basic part of your wardrobe, like socks or sun protection. Stash them all over your house, your car, your work. Wear them while mowing the lawn or practicing at the shooting range or snow mobiling or at a concert or…you get the picture.

2. Use keep your windows rolled up while on the highway, or if you love the wind blowing through your hair, wear ear plugs! 70 mph passing tractor trailers are seriously loud.

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You know what to do:  Go to AOL’s support central, click on Rate This Site, and tell them:

I love closed captioned videos!  Please expand this feature from a few CNN videos to all your video content.  I thank you and so do the other 31 million hard-of-hearing people in the US.   Thank you, AOL!

You’ll need an AOL account to do so, but it’s free.

Let me know how it goes! 

Laura McCullough-DeLorme is 38, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and is an aspiring playwright.  Her blog is Little Orange Kitchen.

My hearing loss was gradual at first and I chalked it off to people mumbling. Eventually my husband noticed that I was constantly asking him to repeat himself and that I didn’t pick up noises like loud birds outside our window or even the cat meowing in the next room.  I finally went to an audiologist.  I have sixty percent loss in both ears.  To discover the loss was equal in both ears scared me. The doctor suggested hearing aids.   I started to cry and left the office.   I continued to avoid the topic, but when my husband and I went to a play, I realized that I was missing most of the dialog and blinked back tears for the entire performance. I sat there thinking that all I wanted was to have my own plays produced and that by the time that happened I might not be able to hear them. It was overwhelmingly depressing.

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This week, Line1 Communications announced new service called Spinvox.  Spinvox transcribes your voicemail to your email.  Now, if you get a voicemail you can’t understand, you can log onto your email and read it. (more…)

But, once my hearing deteriorated to the point I couldn’t follow the dialogue anymore, I stopped going.   I started renting movies instead, going as far as popping corn, getting the big drink, turning off the cellphone and the whole thing.  I turn on the captioning and do my best.   But….it isn’t the same. (more…)

But guess what?  Closed captioning isn’t included in the download.  My first movie, About a Boy, is full of Hugh Grant voiceovers.  I missed every word.  I called TiVo, they double checked that my TV captioning was on (uh, yes, all the time) and then said to call Amazon, because they are the ones with the product.   Here’s what Amazon said:

Greetings from Amazon.com.

Thank you for writing to us about closed captioning and Amazon Unbox
videos.

Unfortunately we do not offer closed captioning at this time. The
availability of content through our Amazon Unbox service depends on
our agreements and arrangements with various content owners. We are
constantly working to establish and improve these agreements so we can
offer the largest range of content possible.

It is always important for us to hear how customers react to all
aspects of shopping at Amazon.com.  Strong customer feedback like
yours helps us continue to improve the selection and service we
provide, and we appreciate the time you took to write to us.

Thank you for your interest in Amazon Unbox video downloads on Amazon.com.

Bummer.

Join me in telling Amazon that their agreements with their content owners need to include closed captioning.  Go to Amazon.com, find the Unbox area, and look for customer service.  It’s a tricky navigation, and one that I can’t post.  Surely 31 million people deserve this support!
 

But, each of us are far from alone in this challenge, as hearing loss is the number one disability in the world.  More than 25 million people need hearing aids, though only five million currently own them.  Here are a few statistics to give you a idea of the size of the demographic you are part of: (more…)

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do things we want to do.  Go ahead and take that safari across Namibia’s Wild Skeleton Coast or that sea kayaking trip through Micronesia (or, for that matter, a trip down your local slip and slide).  Just protect your aids.  Here’s what you do: (more…)

Here are 9 questions that can help you determine if you need to see a Ear, Nose and Throat doctor:

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