Vlog: OK To Discriminate Us???
http://www.tdi-online.org/FCC/FCC-CC100406_OC%2BAD.mov (http://www.tdi-online.org/)
Hell, NO!
Please contact the FCC and inform them that we object to their new trend of waiving the requirement for closed captions for programs.  Closed captioning not only benefits deaf and hard of hearing people, but also children mastering literacy skills, immigrants learning English, and viewers in noisy environments, i.e, bar settings. Even some parents are using closed captioning to maintain a quiet environment so their colicky babies can sleep.
We have made so much progress over the years. What happened? Already 300 permanent waivers from closed captioning were granted last week! Two hundred are pending. If this trend continues, eventually we will start seeing more waivers being submitted and we will be back to being second-class citizens again!
Let them hear you!
hat tip to Jim C  for the videoclip
http://www.tdi-online.org/FCC/FCC-CC100406_OC%2BAD.mov (http://www.tdi-online.org/)
Hell, NO!
Please contact the FCC and inform them that we object to their new trend of waiving the requirement for closed captions for programs.  Closed captioning not only benefits deaf and hard of hearing people, but also children mastering literacy skills, immigrants learning English, and viewers in noisy environments, i.e, bar settings. Even some parents are using closed captioning to maintain a quiet environment so their colicky babies can sleep.
We have made so much progress over the years. What happened? Already 300 permanent waivers from closed captioning were granted last week! Two hundred are pending. If this trend continues, eventually we will start seeing more waivers being submitted and we will be back to being second-class citizens again!
Let them hear you!
hat tip to Jim C  for the videoclip
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
i’m agree with you wat did u say at all, im so glad that did u a support for Closed Captional. keep it up!!! don’t give up!
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:24 pm
FYI, I could not access to the “Quick Time” video enclosure on your blog or TDI website regarding the alarming rate of captions waivers!
I used two computers - MAC Pro 2.66 Hz Dua-Core Intel Xeon plus 16x Superdrive and PC’s AMD -2.0 GB which still could not possibly open the video enclosure.
I personally know Jim House of TDI.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
February 2nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I checked and the vlog works fine for me. I am not sure what the problem is. Do you have the program for Quick Time?
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I love the tie
I don’t understand the FCC’s decision. Doesn’t it have to abide by ADA? Couldn’t every one of those applying for exemptions be hit with a complaint filed with the ADA for non compliance and inaccessibility?
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
I was able to see the video and captions. Make sure your QuickTime install is up to date with the latest updates and fixes. Same with other things like Flash. Just head to the website or start the program and go from there.
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:34 pm
BEG, I was wondering the same thing two hours ago and asked another advocate. When I hear from her, I’ll update y’all.
 I never noticed the tie until you mentioned it. It is definitely unusual! lol
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Yeah, also ask that FCC head, Martin how he would like it if all tv programs had no sound! Maybe a light will turn on in that noggin of his!
February 2nd, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Oh man!! Now I get busy and make many many calls to Kevin Martin. I hope you all do the same thing.. Maybe we should go down to DC and we protest there. There is no excuse, i mean ZERO excuse for FCC to reverse the decision.
Please do not expect other to do all the work because if we expect other to work for us then who will do the work?
We NEED YOU to get involved.
Jim-Thank you and I will be happy to make a call now. By the way, I liked your tie..
MZ- thank you so much for making many many wonderful posts. You are a great advocator! I was hoping you would be in Vlog. I would love to see you in it.
Thank you,
Aidan
February 2nd, 2007 at 5:10 pm
MZ, you are doing a great service in encouraging others to get involved.
If anyone thinks the programs that were granted freedom from having to caption their programs were small-potatoes religious groups of no consequence, think again:
If these groups were granted permission, what is to stop innovative educational programs from applying likewise? What about political commentary programs that we need to see to understand the issues of the day? What about small movie producers trying to save money and get away without captioning? Eventually we will see a long slippery slope and many producers sliding merrily out of our reach.
Get involved and tell FCC we are consumers, too. And we vote.
February 2nd, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Thanks
Aidan, I do plan to do vlogs eventually. It just looks so complicated. lol
Dianrez, the slippery slope had already begun. I’ve seen requests for waivers from universities and school districts, including the whole Los Angeles School District! Imagine that?? Totally unacceptable!
Even worse, many of these crying poverty hire high-priced lawyers to file these claims. Poor? Come on!
February 2nd, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Oh boy! It sounds like they were “moving quietly” from our sight and then for us to find out, makes it harder which is not fair. Just like the ADA, we were the “last ones” to find out and had to rush to make some modifications before it was passed. We need to receive those public notices to see which tv programs are approved for providing no captions — where can we get them? Also is it possible for us to take FCC to court because they did not consult it with the deaf advocacy groups?
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Michele,
You can see the requests for captioning exemptions here:
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/comsrch_v2.cgi and enter 06-181 in the first box labeled Proceeding
February 2nd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
MZ and Aidan:
I appreciate your alert. Yes,
I agree that we should go and protest there. Is Lawyer Greg Hlibok still with the FCC?
A massive protest from all states would be heard.
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I am not sure what you mean…I looked at the FCC and on Feb 2, there are tips on filing closed captioning complaints. Yes, there is something about not wanting to have CC due to hardship…and yes, they can filed and not have CC but many were denied…and most of them are Christian Broadcasting…go figure.
February 3rd, 2007 at 12:35 am
Unfortunately, the current administration (trying not to get too political) I don’t think is going to respond to pressure. They want to gut regulation and let “the Market” speak for itself.
So USE the Market!!!
Whenever you see a program that isn’t captioned, write the BROADCASTER, telling them that you WANTED to watch their show, but couldn’t because it wasn’t captioned. Point out a RIVAL’S show that IS captioned and how much you enjoy it. (LIE if you have to.)
Broadcasters apply for exemption from captioning because they think NO ONE IS OUT THERE and captions are a useless expense. If you SHOW THEM, “Hey, we are out here! We WANT to watch your show,” chances are they will gladly do it. Maybe even if they get one request.
But if they get DOZENS, even hundreds, there’s no way they will not caption. So set up an e-mail chain so that every time you see a show that isn’t captioned, they get a big old stack of letters and e-mails.
And the same thing goes for CRAPPY CAPTIONING. You shouldn’t stand for it!
I’m Hearing and I’ve been monitoring Closed Captions. One of the WORST offenders is COMEDY CENTRAL.
They have been making a common and offensive error in captioning. They do LIVE captioning to a pre-taped show. They have the captioner sit and type out the show AS it broadcasts, instead of monitoring the tape, being able to back it up and correct errors.
The Daily Show tapes four hours in advance, yet uses live captioning, riddled with horrible errors. They even misspelled the NAME OF THE SHOW as well as the name of regular correspondents and guests whose names APPEAR ON SCREEN.
Meanwhile, NBC Late Night shows, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, have much better captioning, which come up in real time as the person is speaking. They obviously have a captioner working off the tape, correcting the captions which are added to the sattelite feed before the show airs. And they REBROADCAST with the same awful captioning.
SO. Here you go. Here’s a link to the comment line at Comedy Central.
http://www.comedycentral.com/help/questionsCC.jhtml
Keep the comments positive. Tell them about how you want to enjoy their show but can’t due to it’s crappy captioning.
If they get enough comments, I guarantee, they will fix it.
February 3rd, 2007 at 7:06 am
Thank You for telling us abt FCC. We agree with you in 100% & go there. To protest all the way. We need to have captioned closed always.
February 3rd, 2007 at 7:10 am
The video worked fine for me…
Thanks, BEG - I noticed his tie the 2nd time when I saw your comment!! LOL!!!
“Hands off!!!”
MZ - When I saw your comment, “Hell, NO!”, I spit my coffee!!! You gonna cover for my laptop repairs, MZ??
I don’t watch Church shows, but that’s NOT the point. There are deaf/hard of hearing who rely on those shows for different reasons. They may not wish to attend a church due to lack or quality of interpreting. Old people who can’t bring themselves to church.
We can’t allow this to be domino effect for others to follow.
If there’s such a GOD, shouldn’t those churches follow as examples to service all people?
Silly…
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:15 am
The market has nothing to do with closed captions.
TV and Movie industry hate closed captions because it costs them about $10,000 a per show for a person to do the closed captions.
Putting subtitles and closed captions on the shows or movies eat too much of their times. They want to rush and to release their shows before other show releases. That’s why there are no closed captions on the trailers because they want to get them out as fast as it can be in order to beat other competitors.
We need to think twice about film schools. They don’t tell the students to think about Deaf community.
One of my classes at my school, my professor lowered my grade because because I didn’t add the closed captions or voice over on my movies. I wanted hearing people to understand what is like to be not being able to understand the movie without sound and subtitle. My class was upset with me… But the irony is my professors didn’t lower the hearing students’ grade for not putting subtitles on their movies for me.
It’s good thing that I won the case. I have a great ADA advocator at my school. He is being hired because of me.
FCC is regulated under government; there is no excuse for them to decline the closed captions. FCC was supposed to protect people.
FCC had fined the Super bowl and CBS for exposing Janet’s breast on TV, not because they wanted to protect the children. They had to fine SB and CBS because thousands and thousands parents wrote letters to FCC so FCC had to fine CBS and SB.
Why can’t FCC protect Deaf people? It is just because we are quiet people and we are very minority group.
FCC hates loud people, they would do anything to keep their image look good.
We need to expose ourselves to the world and let them know we are here and we have right to access to alllllllll the TV programs.
Aidan
February 3rd, 2007 at 9:55 pm
To Aidan in #18:
Oh, dear. How insensitive!Tell your professor to tell your fellow students to turn their voice off. They have no senso comune!
Jean Boutcher
February 4th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I found it strange Mishka complained about caption opt outs, while at the same time actively supporting the recent ASL vlog conference, and other blogs, that had …. none.
February 4th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
MM - what, are you extra deaf, or blind? (just making a crack joke here)
Jill has explained over and over that she tried to get funding for that. Read her comments, not her intention to leave anyone out like that.
It’s not some corportation trying to get away with making profit, MM.
Leave MZ alone, MM.
February 4th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Please continue CC as a part of our Deaf culture. Why erase it?
Long live C. C.!!!
February 5th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
More data points on the captioning: I get both the video and the CC on my windows (at work) setup; but on my Firefox in Linux (edgy) with the latest shockwave installed, I get the video but no captions — not *precisely* sure why, but all the variations may have to do with which exact version of flash one has installed…
Let’s see: my windows has:
Shockwave Flash 9.0 r28
and my Linux has:
Shockwave Flash 9.0.r31
(hmm, I may need to update my windows!)
Perhaps there’s a third application needed for the captions part…
*confuzzled*
February 5th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
YAAA! It’s got audio! (My third computer doesn’t have it turned off and it surprised me after watching it a half dozen times w/o audio…ha!)
February 5th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Isn’t this videoclip a bit old? When was it created?
February 6th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I am wondering if FCC is keeping Spanish language closed captioning on some of the tv programs??