This week I have been made aware of the fact that the movie "Up" is out on DVD - but not all formats are captioned. According to Codeman38 on Twitter, the bare bones (no bonus features) rental version of "Up" does not have captions or subtitles.

Once again, I must remind my readers that captions on DVDs are voluntary. The laws we have for captioning DO NOT address dvds. So we are at the mercy of home video companies. If a company like Disney chooses not to caption one of their DVD formats, it is because they can legally do so without any penalty! The only "penalty" Disney can suffer is embarrassment if enough people complain and get the message across that ALL DVD formats must be captioned, including the rental version.

So if I want to see "Up," I have no choice but to buy it. No renting.

Over the years, I've seen a variety of reasons that a cochlear implant sometimes gets denied. This one takes the cake: good speech. Since when does the quality of one's speech have anything to do with the level of one's hearing and need for a cochlear implant?? Based on the reasoning for denial cited in CD's Ear Blog, I should have been denied for a cochlear implant by my own insurance company.

Has anyone else ever been denied a cochlear implant for merely having good speech? Any other stupid, indefensible reasons?

No, I'm not talking about my own love life. I'm referring to what a young deaf girl asked her parents. In her disability column, Jennifer Amy Rose writes that her deaf daughter asked her parents, "do you think anyone will love me - I mean - with my hearing aids?" Even today with much acceptance of hearing loss and even pride in their hearing aids, deaf kids can still struggle with issues of self.

Related on About.com: Growing Up Deaf - Rude Awakening

Today's hot news is that the cochlear implant manufacturer Advanced Bionics has been bought by a hearing aid manufacturer, Sonova. Abledbody.com notes that Sonova bought Advanced Bionics because the market is estimated to be as much as $800 million. I'm not surprised a hearing aid manufacturer is buying a cochlear implant manufacturer. As cochlear implants grow in popularity and people with less severe hearing losses are able to get them, it is inevitable that cochlear implants will take market share from hearing aids.

Because of her performance tonight on Family Guy Presents Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show, Marlee Matlin was #1 on Google Trends as of 11 pm EST. I captured a screenshot to share with About.com readers to mark this "historic" moment - a deaf actress, Marlee Matlin, is #1 on Google Trends.

Click for Larger Screenshot

This much publicity for Marlee Matlin could help the deaf and hard of hearing community in the effort to get HR 3101 passed in Congress, because she is now the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) spokesperson for accessible broadband services and Internet media.

Before you read what "Shocked Interpreter" has to say on the forum, don't assume that this is always the case for deaf students. However, "Shocked Interpreter" claims that deaf students she tutors have much difficulty in reading, writing, and comprehension. One student in particular is "illiterate" despite having made it all the way to college. That student can not write a sentence, and did not even know that many words have the same meaning.

Reply to Shocked Interpreter on the forum.

The Los Angeles Times has a nice story about three former temporary workers who became very invested in the work that they were doing at an educational center for deaf people from other countries. They became so invested in it that they chose to stay on even without pay when the center was unable to pay their temp agency. The founder of the center happens to be Virginia McKinney, who created The Picture Plus Dictionary, a sign language dictionary.

The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association has an interesting article on three deaf veterinarians. I even learned a new word, "auscultate," which seems to mean "listen to the animal's heart." All three developed techniques to substitute for hearing, and use modern technology and communications to enable them to do their jobs. One of them is from Rochester, New York. Now if only I could get one of them to move here to help take care of my cat.

auscultate

Related at About.com: Veterinary Medicine

The Boston Herald reports on an effort to get insurance companies in Massachusetts to cover hearing aids for children. Massachusetts House Bill 910 (see Adobe PDF file) which would require insurance companies to pay for a good chunk of the cost of hearing aids, is opposed by the insurance companies. The insurance companies are using the standard argument that adding coverage for hearing aids will raise the cost of insurance for all.

A deaf couple was forced to live on Social Security for two years because employers would not give either one of them a chance. Nothing unusual about that. What is unusual is how blatant the discrimination was. At one job interview where both husband and wife went, the interviewer actually left the room to go talk to coworkers, AND his wife lipread the interviewer saying bad things about her husband.

After two years of discrimination the husband finally turned to a state government program for help and training. At last he got a job, and was nominated for the state work program award - which he won.

Source: Pioneerlocal.com