Amy demonstrates a promotional give-away, the pack-of-6 SONIC® Wacky Pack® Kids’ Meal toy that was distributed through SONIC® Drive-In Restaurants in 2006.

You may wonder what is SONIC®? SONIC® Drive-In Restaurants, which is the nation’s largest drive-in chain serving hamburgers, sandwiches, Coney dogs, and famous Slushes to customers from coast to coast and in Mexico. Today, SONIC has more than 3,000 Drive-Ins. SONIC® offers Wacky Pack® Kids’ Meal which comes with a meal and free promotional fun ‘toy’.

Here is a pack of 6 SONIC’s® Wacky Pack® Kids’ Meal “Speak in Sign Language” promotional give-way set. Look at these pictures below that explains about American Sign Language, and it is an excellent way to promote ASL!

This set has six card decks, which includes information about American Sign Language, ASL alphabet and signs! Each deck comes with their topics and they are:

Deck #1: Numbers & Colors
Deck #2: Simple Phrases
Deck #3: Animals
Deck #4: People
Deck #5: Food
Deck #6: Feelings & Emotions

What is really surprising to me that this promotion give-way was distributed in 2006, which was so recent. Honestly, I have never heard or read about this. It was only two years ago!

I decided to check online to find out bit more about this SONIC® Wacky Pack® “Speak In Sign Language” promotion, and I came across with a very few links about this wonderful marketing tool.

There is one link from Kansas School for the Deaf’s monthly school newsletter, Kansas Contact published in April 2006. Please go to the link that takes you to the PDF file: Kansas Contact : Volume 5, Issue 3. Go to page 3. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open this file.

In this article, Kansas School for the Deaf was approached by one company called C3: Creative Consumer Concepts, which is an integrated brand marketing agency. C3 works with SONIC® Drive-In Restaurants on their promotional Wacky Pack® give-away. The designers of C3 contacted staff members at KSD because they wanted to be sure that the individual signs they were designing were correct.

Here is another link that I discovered that is related to this promotion, Courtney Campbell who is
lead designer/illustrator on the SONIC/Wacky Pack account, and she has 5+ years of professional experience with graphic design. With this involvement with this promotional project, Ms. Campbell received a national recognition of SONIC Speak in Sign Language premiums within the deaf/education community in 2006. See the link: Courtney Campbell’s resume

I am very IMPRESSED with this amazing partnership between KSD and C3 representing a large restaurant company! Kudos to Kansas School for the Deaf! Hand waves for your successful partnership. Thank you Courtney Campbell and C3 company made a very wise decision to contact KSD for consultation, thus having this successful promotion marketing American Sign Language to the mass audience!

Now, that is one of the successful marketing techniques using American Sign Language.

What’s next? McDonald’s® Happy Meal® promotion or Burger King’s® Kids Meal promotion?

Think about it.

Heavy laden questions asked, were they necessary to ask? These questions can divide ourselves in the community. We need to remind ourselves that we are always the same, DEAF!

4 minutes long.

Play Quicktime version
5:46 minutes long

For people who cannot view this video above, watch YouTube video below:

To be continued…

Links:

Hurricane Katrina: Part 1 - Before & After (Deaf Community) [VLOG]

NAD Conference/ Meeting them?? [BLOG]

It was posted on DeafVideo.TV and that video generated a high number of video comments.

I thought that I’d like to share that on my blog.

3:18 minutes long.

What is your pet peeve?

Best,
Amy Cohen Efron

Amy explains about the importance of having first impression on the first day of the conference. Amy suggests by emphasizing a very positive slogan, “Sign from the Start… Success for a Lifetime” should be presented on the blog at the first day of the conference.

(2:37 minutes)

The link to this article is: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel : AG Bell and deaf coalition conferences differ on cochlear implants

Amy Cohen Efron wrote an e-mail response to Ms. Aquino about this article.

____________________________________

Dear Ms. Aquino,

My name is Amy Cohen Efron, and I live in Tucker, GA. I was given an opportunity to read your article that was linked to DeafRead, the web based aggregator of all kinds of blogs, vlogs (video logs) and articles that focuses on topics about deaf, Deaf Culture and language (emphasizing American Sign Language). The website address is: www.deafread.com

First, I appreciate your time to write up this article and I am very compelled to write my impressions about your article. To be forthright, I am disappointed about your article, since it is unbalanced and slated to one perspective.

This article appeared to be framed at the favor for people who chose to use listening and speaking as the sole approach to teach deaf and hard of hearing children with or without implants. It is very unfortunate to read this way.

First of all, I would like to ask you why did Milwaukee Journal Sentinel used the capitals for AG Bell, and lower case letters for deaf coalition? That appeared as if this article is already biased from the beginning that AG Bell is highly regarded than Deaf Bilingual Coalition. It is unfair to see “deaf coalition” without the key word, Bilingual.

You started with an article by displaying the family of three children who are deaf and using implants as if they are ‘normal’ with playing basketball at their driveway. Where is another example of families of deaf children who wear cochlear implants and using both American Sign Language and Spoken English? That is a very unfair introduction to your article.

Somehow, you may have some kind of assumption that Deaf Bilingual Coalition (DBC) bans spoken language? It is not true. The DBC believes strongly to add American Sign Language as a crucial part of language development for deaf babies who have not received cochlear implants between ages of 6 months to 1 year. This is a crucial language development window that we want to make sure the young infant receives signs, then once they get implanted, continue using signs PLUS spoken language. I don’t see that kind of emphasis on this article. You presented as if there is one option or an another option. Not both.

Why did you use the words, protests? The Deaf Bilingual Coalition is not about protest or demonstration. It is an educational conference with American Sign Language celebration rally. Where did you get an impression that it was a protest? Since 1890’s, The American Association to the Promote the Teaching of Speech of the Deaf was founded by Alexander Graham Bell, which is known as in present, AG Bell, have always hosted their conferences separately from National Association of the Deaf for over 110 years. It is an historical first that Deaf Bilingual Coalition formed a national conference in conjunction with AG Bell International Convention at the same time, to present the families of deaf children with options!

For many years, many parents of deaf child(ren) does not have an access to all of the options available, and unfortunately the vast influence and propaganda of AG Bell with their slogan “Listen and Talk” attracts many families to take this choice without realizing of the long-term consequences.

(Removed one paragraph due to DeafRead’s guidelines)

To learn indepth about Deaf Bilingual Coalition, check www.dbcusa.org

Sincerely yours,
Amy Cohen Efron
Tucker, Georgia

3.36 minutes long.

Amy Cohen Efron releases a very special 21-day free-online-viewing of her award-winning vlog, “The Greatest Irony” for everyone to watch. “The Greatest Irony” is open-captioned and comes with voice-over by a very talented ASL interpreter, Tracie Cascio Snow.

Free online viewing will be available between Sunday, June 22, 2008 and Saturday, July 12, 2008.

This is to let you know that the free online viewing is closed for tonight.

According to the data received from Google Analytics, indicating that there were 1,521 unique pageviews.

Thank you so much for your support and watching my video.

This special limited viewing release is dedicated to two non-profit organizations, Deaf Bilingual Coalition and National Association of the Deaf. These organizations are currently hosting their national conferences in this summer.

Deaf Bilingual Coalition Conference in Milwaukee, WI - June 27-30, 2008.

National Association of the Deaf in New Orleans, LA - July 7-11, 2008.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

To learn bit more about “The Greatest Irony”

When “The Greatest Irony” first was put on the Internet as a four-part series on March 17, 2007, the response from the community was staggering. After receiving messages sent from around the world, Amy Cohen Efron realized that she had touched upon an issue that brought differing, often clashing perspectives. The video, comparing two of the most popular and fastest-growing language programs for hearing babies and Deaf babies, set off heated, passionate discussions among people from all walks of life. It became clear that the majority agreed that it was unfair to deny deaf babies the opportunity to learn sign language, especially with American Sign Language’s proven success rate among babies, hearing or deaf.

On the About.com Deafness forum run by Jamie Berke, “The Greatest Irony” was recognized as the “Blog of the Week.” Berke had this to say about the thought-provoking blog:

“In her signed vlog masterpiece (a transcript is thoughtfully provided), “The Greatest Irony”, Amy Cohen Efron discusses and contrasts the benefits of baby sign language for hearing babies with the auditory verbal training given to deaf babies. For example, she notes that one of the objectives of baby sign language for hearing children is that it reduces frustration; auditory verbal therapy does not have the same objective. The irony is that while the hearing babies are encouraged to sign, the deaf babies have to use whatever hearing they have, without sign language. This vlog is a must viewing.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer:

The entire contents of The Greatest Irony video are protected by copyright law. The owner of the copyright is Amy Cohen Efron. YOU MAY NOT MODIFY, COPY, REPRODUCE, REPUBLISH, UPLOAD, POST, TRANSMIT, OR DISTRIBUTE, IN ANY MANNER, THE MATERIAL ON THE SITE, INCLUDING TEXT, GRAPHICS, CODE AND/OR SOFTWARE.

The question remains, who may have the MOST influence over Gallaudet University?

Thank you Allison, the commenter, who pinpointed an error and this video is revised.

Play Quicktime version
3.42 minutes long

For whom who cannot view this video above, here’s the *REVISED* YouTube video available.

Source: Gallaudet University’s Board of Trustees website.

Names and their affiliations:

* Dr. Cynthia W. Ashby, Georgia (Georgia Department of Education)
* Dr. Jorge L. Díaz -Herrera, New York (Rochester Institute of Technology)
* Dr. Lawrence R. Fleischer , ‘67, California (California State University at Northridge)
* Dr. Harvey Goodstein, ‘65, Arizona (GUAA)
* Cheryl A. Heppner, Virginia (Northern Virginia Resource Center)
* Jeffrey L. Humber, Jr., District of Columbia (Delon Hampton and Associates)
* Dr. Tom Humphries, ‘68 & G-’72, Secretary, California (University of California, San Diego)
* Nancy Kelly-Jones, ‘72 & G-’75, Illinois (Illinois School for the Deaf / CAEBER)
* L. Richard Kinney, Wisconsin - (Legacy Wealth Management, LLC - couldn’t find the icon/logo)
* Dr. Richard Ladner, Washington (Boeing and University of Washington)
* Pamela Lloyd-Ogoke, North Carolina (NC Division of Services for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing)
* James R. Macfadden, ‘62, Maryland (JR Mac, Inc. - couldn’t find the icon/logo)
* Marlee Matlin, H-’87, California (Hollywood)
* James Lee Sorenson, Utah (Sorenson Companies : Sorenson Development)
* Dr. Benjamin J. Soukup, Jr., E-’74 & H-’00, Chair, South Dakota (Communication Services for the Deaf)
* Tiffany Williams-Granfors, ‘89, Maryland (International Committee of Sports for the Deaf - CISS)
* Frank H. Wu, Vice Chair, District of Columbia (University of Maryland and George Washington University)

Voting Trustees Public Members

* The Honorable Ray LaHood, Illinois (House of Representatives)
* The Honorable Lynn Woolsey, California (House of Representatives)
* U.S Senator - vacancy

From YouTube.com

2.25 minutes long. This video got stuck at the beginning, please move the cursor to play.

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It was the NXi’s Nexcom 300 Modem A vintage piece of engineering marvel. Believe it or not, it was only 14 years old.

See pictures:

This device was created by this company, called Nexus Engineering, established in 1990 (only 18 years ago, imagine!), which was renamed to NXi Communications, Inc. in 1995. This company tried to develop a software called Nextalk that was used to replace standalone TTYs with a computer-based communication software. At the end of 1994, NXi released the NexCom 300 modem, and this modem is capable of connecting speeds from TTY (baudot) to 19200 bps. I have an external NexCom300 with power adapter and software with it. See link about this company’s background history.

Fast forward - 14 years later…

Right now, I have videophones (a collection of ‘em - Sorenson’s VP200, DLink’s DVC-1000, SnapVRS!’s Ojo and Viable’s VPAD), along with my trusty Sidekick3 pager. I also have a vintage AT&T TTY sitting on my kitchen counter connected directly to my landline phone. I own 20-inch iMac computer, that comes with iSight along with the HOVRS’s widget and iChat program.

My, how the time flies within 14 years, enough to make my head spin!

Now, scratching my head… what am I gonna to do with this thing? Toss it out or sell? Any takers?

Jerome Cain brought this attention on DeafVideo.TV about Gallaudet’s Theatre Department Official Statement, and three individual’s responses. He created video ASL versions of these statements. I would like to host them on my blog. Thank you for all of your work, Jerome!

To support Jerome’s work, please visit his website about his film:Unity for Gallaudet

Now… here are the statements below: Go to Gallaudet’s Theatre Arts Department website

The statement was written by:
Angela V. Farrand, M.F.A. Acting Chair of Theatre Arts
(* MFA, Arizona State University)

May 8, 2008

We will no longer hold the auditions here this coming Monday (May 12, 2008), This is because we at Theatre Arts are committed to the cultivation and empowerment of our majors as the next generation of Deaf theatre artists, educators, and leaders with the paramount expectation of equality.

Casting Deaf actors for a film where a hearing actor has already been cast in the (not “a”) lead Deaf role runs the risk of creating 2 negative perceptions: 1) that Deaf actors are somehow unequal and secondary now that the main Deaf role has already been filled by a non-Deaf actor, and 2) that Deaf actors cannot be entrusted with the lead role of a mainstream film, even if the lead role happens to be a Deaf character. Marginalization is not a value supported by the Theatre Arts Department, nor can it ever be justified.

Holding auditions here on Monday the 12th as scheduled would only reinforce and enable those 2 perceptions. We cannot, and will not, in good conscience do that to our students, and contradict the spirit of our commitment.

Angela V. Farrand, Acting Chair - The Theatre Arts Department

Watch Cain’s ASL version of this statement:

This statement comes with separate links of individual responses from three different people:

Monique Holt, B.F.A.
Presidential Fellow; Adjunct Professor
(* B.F.A, New York University Tisch School for the Arts)

Watch Cain’s ASL version of Monique Holt’s response:

To read her response: Monique Holt’s official statement (5/8/08)

Ethan Sinnott, M.F.A.
Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts; Production Manager
(* MFA, Boston University)

Watch Cain’s ASL version of Ethan Sinnott’s response:

To read his response: Ethan Sinnott’s official statement (5/8/08)

Gerald Williams, B.A.
Technical Director
(* BA, George Washington University)

Watch Cain’s ASL version of Gerald Williams’ response:

To read his response: Gerard Williams’ official statement (5/8/08)

_________________________________________

Amy Cohen Efron : I am presenting this information as it was published on Gallaudet’s Theatre Department website. These four individuals (Farrand, Holt, Sinnott and Williams) presented their opinions about the controversy. Please pay close attention to their credentials, as they earned their degrees from various places (Arizona State University, New York University’s famed Tisch School of the Arts, Boston University and George Washington University). These people are professional and they are attuned with the entertainment industry.

These statements were to let K’Dee Productions to understand about what they did was not helpful, especially these two points as Ms. Farrand outlined:

1) Deaf actors are somehow unequal and secondary since the main Deaf role has already been filled by a non-Deaf actor.

2) Deaf actors cannot be entrusted with the lead role of a mainstream film, even if the lead role happens to be a Deaf character.

Remember, it is Theater Arts’ Department position. I know that many of you support and oppose the decision. What I am seeing is that it is good for the academic institution, like Gallaudet University took the stand and made their position known. Controversial or not, it is the marginalization that is not a value supported by the Theatre Arts Department, and this cannot be ever be justified.

I, myself, do respect the individual’s right to decide whatever he/she choose to do that is ‘appropriate’; AND I do respect the decision that is well thought-out considering all of the ramifications that comes with the decision. Now, Matt, how can we be inspired with your decision? Remember, the key word, INSPIRED.