Odhh Monthly Bulletin - February 2014

It's hard to believe we're already at the end of February! We've been so busy here at ODHH since our last monthly bulletin. We finally moved into our new office! We're still unpacking and are settling in nicely. We also just wrapped up our 5th Annual Legislative Awareness Day. It was great to see so many members of the community come out to such an important event in Annapolis. With Spring right around the corner, our calendar is filling up. We have lots of sensitivity and awareness trainings, conferences, and exhibits around the State. We hope to see you at the Brown Bag Lunch this month at the Deaf Shalom Zone. Check out ODHH "On the Move" in our written bulletin for more details. Make sure to stay current with our office by checking our website and our Facebook, Twitter and social media for up to the minute information especially during legislative session. If you are not receiving our emails, please contact our office so we can add you to our listserv. Thank you to everyone for your continued support and have a good month. On Presidents' Day, ODHH hosted our 5th Annual Legislative Awareness Day, which was a huge success! Over 80 people came to Annapolis from all over the state of Maryland to learn about the legislative process. Our highest attendance ever! What did we do all day? We started off with a presentation about advocacy training from ODHH Executive Director Lisa Kornberg. Then we had guest speaker Virginia Marcus, the Executive Director at MDLC, to give a presentation on voting rights. Then it was time for some fun! Our guests chose between a tour of the State House or a Scavenger Hunt with prizes. ODHH recognized Senator Jennie Forehand and Senator Allan Kittleman with a certificate of gratitude for their support of the deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind community. We also presented Julie Anne Schafer, the Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf with the Kelby Brick Community Leadership Award for her tireless efforts and contributions to the community. After a break for dinner, those who requested it met with their legislators. It was great to see so many senators and delegates involved with our event! The day ended with the House General Session, where we watched our state representatives in action. We want to thank everyone for coming to LAD and making it a success! Keep watching this vlog to see footage from the day! Thursday, February 20, was a historic and special day at the Federal Communications Commission. At their open meeting, the FCC took action on TV caption quality issues. First, the FCC is giving local TV stations with news, weather, and sports shows a year's time to substantially improve captioning of these shows via the electronic newsroom technique (ENT). Second, the FCC asks for more information as to whether the TV stations should continue providing captions via ENT or in real-time captions. Third, the FCC made clear that it expects higher quality captions for off-line programming, and as reasonable as possible for live programming. Fourth, the FCC will ask in an upcoming proceeding on whether it should require captioning of all advertisements that are shown on TV, as well as programs having captions 24 hours a day. Right now, advertisements are not required to be captioned, and programs that are aired between two a.m. to six a.m. are usually not captioned. Fifth, the FCC will take action on complaints filed with them for erroneous captioning. This time, there will be enforcement action on the Commission's part, only when there is a recurring violation of any one programmer's responsibility to caption its program. Sixth, the FCC indicated that it intends to review progress in captioning regularly and that it will take follow up action when there is lack of improvement over a reasonable amount of time with any one area of captioning. This is due to the efforts of the new Chairman of the FCC, Mr. Tom Wheeler, and his four Commissioners. It's also because of the efforts of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau members. Kudos to Claude Stout, the Executive Director of Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing on his passionate remarks at this meeting and for encouraging the community to attend this important meeting. Hi! My name is Adriana Featherstone and I am an intern at the Governor's Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I am currently a senior at Towson University, double-majoring in Criminal Justice and Deaf Studies. As an intern I hope to support the executive director and the deputy director in their goal to increase the general welfare of our deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind consumers. Hi, my name is Sam Brooks and I'm a student at Towson University. I'm really excited to be interning here at ODHH. My goal is to learn a lot! I think this internship in the future will help me support the deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind community. Hi, my name is Latoya. I'm a double major in Deaf Studies and Psychology. I'm interested in learning how to better advocate for the deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind community. Hi, my name is Asia Brown. I'm a student at Towson University and majoring in Deaf Studies. I'm happy to be here at ODHH because I enjoy supporting the deaf and hard of hearing communities and enjoy learning about the laws that impact that community. I'm Leah McCloskey and I go to Towson University. I'm majoring in Deaf Studies and minoring in Cultural Studies. I came here because I'm interested in learning how ODHH help the deaf community and how I can contribute working with ODHH on deaf issues.