Folks: As I continue to meander along the employment search highway, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend…One that I thought had begun to turn a corner, but now am not so sure of. I’m not unrealistic, I know what the job market is like; it is a rough and tumble world right now Read More
Author Archive
Has The ADA Really Helped Change Attitudes Towards Deaf Employment?
July 29th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Posted in Deaf |
2012 NAD Conference in Louisville, Ky!
July 11th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: A hearty congratulations to the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which announced at this year’s NAD conference in Philidelphia, Pa., that Kentucky will be hosting the 2012 NAD conference! I’m sure more details will follow soon, although it was noted that Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Finally, A Step Forward for Deaf Access
July 9th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Wednesday night, July 7th, 2010, marked a turning point in access to theaters for the deaf and hard of hearing in Eastern Kentucky. The Riverfill 10 Theater in Pikeville, Ky. had it’s first showing of a captioned movie specifically catered towards increasing access for the deaf and Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Captioned Movie History Will Be Made Wednesday
July 5th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010 will go down as the date of the first captioned movie showing in Pikeville’s history for the deaf and hard of hearing. The Riverfill 10 Theater will be showing The Karate Kid (2010) in open caption format utilizing their new DTS system. It looks to be a Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Captioned Movies Coming To Pikeville!!
June 11th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: As many of you readers of my blog know, I’ve been actively campaigning for greater access to captioned movies throughout Kentucky for the past 2 years. Today, I have some good news… My local theater has relented and now has a DTS system capable of showing Open Captioned Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Deaf Man Shot and Killed in Kentucky
June 5th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Breaking news into a murder investigation in rural Breathitt County, Kentucky, where police are investigating a murder. They released information last night that indicates that the victim was deaf. No further details are available at this time, but my heart goes out to the family of Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Deaf and Unemployed
May 19th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Well, for the first time in my 24 plus years in the job force, I’m unemployed. As I’ve begun my job search, I’ve noted a marked difference from the last time I was actively seeking a job. Employers seem more aware and more accepting of a candidate who is deaf or has Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Clueless In Kentucky
May 6th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Hi all: I realize it’s been a while, and I haven’t been posting as regularly as even I would like to, but there are reasons, and I hope to be able to reveal them soon. I don’t want to jeapordize a couple of things that are in the works… But I just had to point out the Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Kentucky DeaFestival 2010
April 30th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: The time is drawing near for the Kentucky DeaFestival 2010!!! Soon, visitors from all over will come to Kentucky, and this year’s festival is in Horse Cave, Ky. Quite a change from the previous years when the event has commonly been held in Louisville (most recently). The KCDHH Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Captioned Movie Access Bill In Limbo In Kentucky
April 4th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
No Man’s Land….That’s the most adequate way to explain where HB 439 (with amendment) resides currently…With only 2 legislative days left in session. The State legislature will reconvene on April 14 and 15 after the 10 day veto session for the Governor. But Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Hearing Held on Movie Captioning Bill!
March 15th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
All: Sorry for the delay in posting this, but to update you, a hearing was held last week on 3/10/10 for House Bill #439 in Frankfort, Ky. The bill came close to dying in the committee again, before a compromise was reached, and the bill was amended to require an official study and report Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Second Captioned Movie Access Bill Introduced in Kentucky!
February 18th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Hello All: A companion bill to Senate Bill 102 in Kentucky has been introduced in the House by State Representative Leslie Combs. It is House Bill #439. Kentucky residents and other supporters can email legislators to ask that these bills be supported by going to this Read More
Posted in Deaf |
How the Kentucky Deaf/Hard of Hearing Can Contact Their State Officials
February 15th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: After a couple of conversations recently with people, I’ve been somewhat distressed about the lack of knowledge among some of the deaf and hard of hearing here about how they can contact their elected officials to voice support for SB 102 here in Kentucky for more captioned movie Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Supporters Of Captioned Movies In Theaters
February 14th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Hello everyone, Just taking a few minutes to update everyone here. I have emailed EVERY single member of the Senate Judiciary committee in the Kentucky Senate, asking them to please support bringing Senate Bill 102 to the agenda so that we can have hearings on this bill and attempt to get it out Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Wake Up, Kentucky! Rally’Round the Cause!
February 10th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Friends: The time is now. Senate Bill #102 (sponsored by State Senator Ray Jones) has been introduced in the state legislature for more access to captioned movies in Kentucky, with a state House version (sponsored by State Representative Leslie Combs) to follow hopefully this week….. And Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Deaf |
More Proof That HR 3101 is NEEDED!
February 8th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks, Like millions of Americans tonight, I settled in to watch the Super Bowl, along with my daughter (who loves football). I didn’t have a “dog in this fight” so to speak, being a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals, but I decided to take part in the NVRC Super Bowl ads survey, for Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Deaf |
A Plan For HR 3101’s Success
January 28th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Other people have blogged far more eloquently than I about HR 3101’s chances for success (or lack thereof), as well as the attempts to get Rep. Boucher to allow the bill to move in his subcommittee and other subcommittee member’s lack of backbone in standing up to him and demanding Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Has Money Decided The Fate of HR 3101 For The Hearing Loss Community?
January 23rd, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: Those fine people over at Caption Action 2 caught my eye with this interesting blog post: http://captionaction2.blogspot.com/2010/01/now-caption-action-2-is-upset-boucher.html While reading through it, I wondered WHY would a Congressman be so willing to sign on as a co-sponsor to two other Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Kentucky Addressing Lack of Interpreters
January 20th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Kentucky is attempting to jump to the forefront of filling the growing need for certified interpreters not only in-state, but nationally as well, as demonstrated in this article from the Louisville Courier-Journal that discusses the University of Louisville and their interpreter program they are Read More
Posted in Deaf |
The Movie Industry’s Jericho Moment?
January 17th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
This past week had a moment that, in deaf and hard of hearing circles, should result in rejoicing. On January 13th, the first hearing in the Arizona vs. Harkins Theaters case before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was heard. And it was a doozy…. With a judge telling the theater attorneys Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Winter Weather Safety Tips for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
January 7th, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks, As a courtesy to my friends at the Pike County Emergency Management office, I’m re-posting all of this information regarding Winter Weather Safety tips. Eastern Kentucky is preparing to receive yet more snow and severe cold weather, and these are all very good safety tips that Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Northern Kentucky Services for the Deaf = A Winning Combination
January 1st, 2010 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: I’ve written before about my positive experience with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital before, and I just had another visit up there with my son yesterday. Once again, the hospital and NKSD interpreters teamed up to make what is usually a stressful experience for any parent a Read More
Posted in ASL, Advocacy, Deaf |
Winter Storm Preparedness for the Disabled
December 17th, 2009 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: Kentucky (particularly SouthEastern Kentucky) is poised to be the recepient of a very good snowstorm. For those of you not from Kentucky, due to the very rural nature of many portions of Eastern Kentucky, and somewhat questionable roadways, winter storms with only a couple of inches of Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Up! Captioning Issue Update
December 9th, 2009 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: Just an FYI, Here is the email I received from WDHE, who is apparently handling the matter pertaining to Disney’s failure to include captions on rental versions of their Pixar movie, Up! No changes made to the email other than redacting my personal email address from it. Up Read More
Posted in Advocacy, Deaf |
Oh My..The Deaf and Other Consumers Get Bent Over Again by Hollywood..
November 25th, 2009 by Smashing Down The Door
Well folks, you knew it was bound to happen somehow, someway… The Hollywood studios, in an effort to maximize their profits yearly, have always advocated a quicker release to DVD for sale of their movies. Theaters, in an effort to protect THEIR businesses (at least in the past before flat Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Supporting HR 3101
November 21st, 2009 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks: As many of you may guess, I’m a supporter of HR 3101, the bill that would open access to the video content on the internet via captions (user-generated video is NOT impacted by this, such as Google, etc.). About 3 weeks ago, I fired off an email to my congressman, Harold Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Disney’s “Marketing Decision” Already Being Regretted
November 16th, 2009 by Smashing Down The Door
Hello Everyone: I decided to do a little follow-up work on the “Up” clusterflop since hearing about the lack of captions being available on rental versions versus retail versions. I first called the studio number that I was able to obtain thru WhitePages for the Burbank offices Read More
Posted in Deaf |
DVD Captioning and the MPAA’s Lying, Cheating, Big-Brother Hearts?
November 15th, 2009 by Smashing Down The Door
Hey Folks: Hope all is well with everyone…While catching up on some reading on DeafRead, I came across Jamie Berke’s blog about a person who tweeted that the rental version (bare-bones) of the Pixar/Disney movie “Up” is not captioned. I found this very interesting, Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Interpreted Live Theater Performance
November 6th, 2009 by Smashing Down The Door
Folks, The hard-working deaf and hard of hearing community and their advocates in the Northern Kentucky area have done it again! They are bringing a wonderful Christmas classic to the area, and it will be ASL interpreted AND CART captioned!! This is a wonderful opportunity, and if you live in Read More
Posted in Deaf |
Kentucky Deaf Activism
October 30th, 2009 by Smashing Down The Door
Hello Folks: I know I’ve been quiet for a while, but I had my personal reasons. Hopefully everyone is gearing up to have a happy and safe Halloween! I’m writing this post tonight to talk about an issue that is near and dear to me, namely, the deaf and hard of hearing community Read More
