S.O.S...S.O.S....
Many of you know that in my family there are a few who are deaf (yeah, thats "deaf", not "death"- I hate it when people say like that). My older sister Jen got spinal meningitis when she wa 18 mo. old and the fever burned her ears and scarred important working parts. She has really good speech, and you would hardly know she was deaf because she lip reads really well. My younger brother Alex is deaf from birth and was adopted by our family when he was 3 years old. And despite great speech teachers and hard work when he was young, he unfortunately relies on interpreters so much more. My father has hearing loss in one ear so severly (ear infections when he was a baby) that we would want to sit on his bad ear side in church so he could not hear us talking during sac. meeting. And lastly my husband has pretty bad hearing loss also. We all (6 kids) learned sign language and interpreted all growing up, so my siblings could be in a most mainstreemed situation as possible. So this issue is a pretty important one in my family.
On your phone bill each month, you pay pennies to keep our telephone system up and running. My family communicates on what we call a VRS system. Video Relay is the updated TTY. We use a tv monitor and "talk" back and forth using sign and we can directly watch my sister sign back. Kinda like a web cam except WAY faster and better. She uses this VRS to do everyday things like call about her cable, check on the pass weather, and order pizza. What we would consider mundane tasks, takes her no time at all because of you. Another thing is that my sister and her husband actually work for the company who supplies these "phones" to the public.
The FCC is now cutting the budget and the "phones" will no longer be available. Somehow the interpreters, tech support, and costs of the equipment must be paid. Please help my family keep in touch. I know, I'm one of those people who delete those stupid emails people forward around saying, "help the people of darfur", or "save gas". But this one is close to home and needs mega attention. Please go to this website VRSCA.org, click on the lady who is signing (you'll know when you get there) and email the government to keep funding to this important cause. I thank you and my family thanks you!
5 Comments:
I know how important this is to your family, it's vital to be able to keep in touch when they're far away. I'll be sure to check out that website. Hope everything went well last night, we ended up leaving the movie early because I was having some back pains. Poor Riley will never get to see or finish that movie I'm afraid. Good post!
Nancie, I had no idea you knew sign language or had people in your family who were deaf. And I never knew these types of phones existed. I will look at the website too. Thanks for the info!
That's horrible! I've never heard of this new high-tech way of "talking" on the phone! When I had a deaf friend in Richland we did the TTY thing and it was always a little weird for me. I will definitely do my part to keep the new way up and running!
Thanks for the info. I got your email and I will click on the link to send them an email! I love being able to help whenever I can. Thanks for letting us all know. This is a great post!!
Thanks for the e-mail Nan. I did the e-mail thing, I really hope something is done. Can you imagine taking funding away from the deaf? That is just wrong.
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