2009 will be a monumental year for Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center as we have been collaborating with numerous health related organizations to advance our zeal. We have 5 key goals to accomplish in 2009. Most of these goals are similar to our 2008 resolutions. The key goals all fit within our mission and vision statements.



1) Solidifying our leadership direction by adding "more sails to our ship"
a) Increasing the evaluations of irresponsible deaf leadership ( achieved in 2008 )
b) Promoting responsible deaf leadership ( achieved in 2008 )
c) Increasing resources for the Deaf WAI (War Against Indiscipline) program ( exceeded in 2008 )
d) Increasing our resilience to casualty events such as loss of primary youtube outreach account.



2) Focus on deaf evolution
a) Expanding non-confrontational advocacy ( achieved in 2008 )
b) Increasing the support of oral-deaf on staff and board census
c) Increasing the use of technology-based social service concept ( exceeded in 2008 )
d) Expanding our fiscal independence concept ( exceeded in 2008 )



3) Office resources
a) Reduce facilities costs by acquiring additional real estate for the use as office resources ( exceeded in 2008 )
b) Consolidating our expenses to avoid repetition of costs



4) Outreach
a) Participate in deaf events that promote responsible deaf leadeship ( exceeded in 2008 )
b) Focus on events that need exposure to hearing loss outreach ( achieved in 2008 )
c) Develop outreach videos and use the video sharing websites ( achieved in 2008 )
d) Simplify outreach materials for easier transporting, setup, takedown ( exceeded in 2008 )
e) Provide leadership in non-deaf causes (AIDS, Paganism, Medical Innovations, Environmental, etc...) ( achieved in 2008 )



5) Social services
a) Development of web-based social service automation for global access


Find more videos like this on Deaf Paradise


In the past 10 years and continuing beyond 2009, the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center will do what they do better than anything else in the world, ENTERTAIN YOU, with their special brand of deaf advocacy.

Mr. Chico Fashion Show Fundrasiser
Uploaded by Nesmuth

We wish everyone a safe, healthy, and productive 2009!

FROM THE BOARD, THE STAFF, AND THE VOLUNTEERS

Holiday Gift $35+

Here is a small holiday gift to all those who have or had Wachovia credit card and/or banking accounts.

It's at least $35.00! MORE IF YOU QUALIFY!

Download the claim package at http://www.restitutionpayment.com/PDFs/ClaimForm.pdf

Fill the claim form and send it out by March 4, 2009.

Orange County deaf Advocacy Center is a true humanitarian website connecting people, deaf or not, to opportunities for improvement.

Happy Holidays!

Accessibility Anywhere Based Braille Displays Petition to Braille display manufacturers

This is a very important petition that would allow a blind person to buy a braille display and be sure that is works with their computer. Or any other windows based computer.

A petition has been started by George McDermith at http://www.petitiononline.com/brldis/petition.html asking Braille display manufacturers to base their drivers on the human interface protocol, found on all Windows computers. Such a design philosophy will ensure that users can be certain of having support for their Braille display on any computer, not just one which has been custom-configured for such access, and will eliminate the need to depend on specific screen reader drivers.

The text of the petition reads as follows:

"To: Braille display manufacturers

We, the undersigned, who are Braille display users, friends and family of Braille display users, and teachers of the blind,

*: Believe that accessibility to information for the blind on a par with their sighted piers is a right. Believe that due to this right, and due to the cost of Braille displays, accessing Braille through the use of Braille displays should not be limited by the type of screen reading solution used by the blind.

*: Strongly request that all manufacturers of Braille displays cease basing the drivers of their Braille displays off of particular screen reader drivers, but rather base all Braille display drivers off of the Human User Interface Protocol, which can be found on all Windows computers.

*: This will allow true portability and equal access to information for the blind, as they will be able to use their display with any computer. This will create greater competition in the market for the best Braille display to stand out, grant greater literacy in Braille through greater access to electronic Braille books and other materials, and support the right of all blind people to have accessibility anywhere."

To add your support to this worthy cause, visit the petition web page at

http://www.petitiononline.com/brldis/petition.html

The Serotek Team

Beth Koenig
bethko@gmail.com
Director of Deaf Blind Services
Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center
2960 Main Street A100
Irvine, CA 92614
http://www.deafadvocacy.org/dbs

We Have FREE Access To A Multipurpose Hall In Orange

We have free access to this hall in Orange, California not far from the Edison Field ( Los Angeles Angels Stadium ) for any events, meetings, dances, etc... Plenty of tables and chairs are available at the hall. Excellent for fundraisers.

We are willing to share the use of the hall with other deaf and disability organizations at no cost on the condition that we are announced in printed or electronic form, like website or email, that we (Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center) are sponsoring the event.

Let us know about your plans and we'll work it out and enjoy the pictures of the hall below.

Richard Roehm
Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center

Just so you know, a food bank is there to help you in a time of need. You have to provide documentation, ie. pay stubs, rent/mortgage paperwork, utility statements, etc. In addition, you must provide SS cards for everyone in the household that you would like to receive food for (minor children). The food bank is not perfect.

What you can expect:

-A long line of people, mostly who have been laid off recently and cannot buy groceries and basic needs for their families.
-As much stale bread as you can handle
-Rotten produce(ie. blackened bananas, extremely bruised apples, rotten grapes)
-expired canned products, not always, but most of the time!

So, if you are truly in need of food, you will go to a food bank. It is not meant to live off of. Most people would rather work (more than one job, if necessary) in order to make ends meet and buy their own food stuffs.

If you are in a desperate situation, you will do what you have to do, including getting food from a source that is, quite honestly, substandard! You do what you have to do.

Actually, it is much better to take your chances at the local markets with the sales, and quite possibly local farmers' markets if you are able to find them.

Please do not bash people who humble themselves to receive food when they are in dire need. Have you ever been in such a tough spot that old bread actually sounds good?

Probably not.

Richard

Good riddance to a medium thats been a beacon of advanced deaf cyberbullying.

Good riddance to a medium that advanced the scourge of ASL.

Good riddance to a medium that has borne the hatred of the old deaf guards!

Good bye Yahoo Live Chat and dont come back!

Richard Roehm

This is rather a graphic video of a lady who just faced the ugly wrath, disrespect, and the scourge of the ASL extremists in the deafvideotv website. The only thing she did was get a cochlear implant.


My heart goes to her and my respect goes to her too for wanting to hear and for getting the cochlear implant. The video above is her response to the ugly colors of the ASL extremists who dont want deaf people to hear.

Not long afterwards she made another video of her intent to leave deafvideotv.



I dont blame her for making that video blog too. In fact I encourage her and other people to leave deafvideotv because its a dark coven of ASL extremists. And time and evolution is doing it's best to get rid of them for us.

And for this lady, she has my respect and she's a blue ribbon vlogger at the Hearing For Life Foundation website.

She's one of my heroes!

Richard

Sign tracking, which is an off shoot of tactile signing, has the receiver gently holding the signer's wrists to follow general arm and hand movement. In this way, the receiver is able to get the location, position, and movements of a particular sign. This then allows the eyes to focus on the handshape formed for a sign, and switch back and forth between handshapes and facial expressions when "listening". It also allows the person to receive signs in a more relaxed manner as they always know where the signer's wrist and hands are located thus eliminating the need to exert one's visual energy in tracking or searching out such information.

This technique also allows the receiver to send subtle cues when signing goes out of their visual field. Cues can also be transmitted to the signer such as slow down, repeat, agreement ("yes", "yeah"), pause or hold, or move to better lighting (visual field).

It should be noted that in the deaf-blind world, such use of technique means "yes, I am paying attention and focused on what you are saying". Letting go of one wrist but holding the other tighter can signal "hold, I need to do something", losing grip and moving one hand under the signers hand signals that the receiver would like to say something.

All of this seems to be learned and applied naturally by the two people conversing over the course of the conversation. Simple physics and practical studies can further the understanding of this technique.

To begin this with, I been involved in hundreds of foodstand fundraisers. But there's one event that stands above it all.

The Tustin Tiller Days stands tall above the others.

This one has a reputation system that places organizations having the best type or fanciest looking BBQ systems on top of the others. Basically its become a more of a pissing contest among the organizations than a fundraising event.

Mine is a respectable model noted for it's efficiency , safety, and ease of use. Thanks to a donation last week by one of our long time sponsors to replace the one that got stolen. We got a brand new char-broil.com BBQ. This event marks the first ever 100% fully sponsored foodstand event. We were hit up with hundreds of dollars in purchasing cards from a dozen supermarkets and wholesalers.

So Saturday afternoon comes then 'judgment period' when people walk in the back areas and gawk at the new and fancy BBQs out there. And some are wealthy guys and they're compassionate and sometimes make donations if they like your BBQ arrangement. We were hit up 4 yrs ago with a nice $250 donation cause of it. We were treated with extra hands in teardown. And a guaranteed invite back in the following year.

Keep our fingers crossed at the Tustin Tiller Days event for a good fundraise and we have lots of hearing impaired help here.

Based on the excellent preparation results so far, I feel I'm a winner in the 'pissing contest' not because of our new BBQ, because I was able to get our organization's participation in this event fully funded by corporations.

Richard Roehm

Helping Deaf Blind Succeed In Life

We're showing the way to these deaf blind people they can succeed selling their artwork over the internet.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230291816792 .

We are giving them a good shot at success in life.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330271469909 .

We are offering them hope.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330271469092 .

We are building their confidence.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330271468319 .

We are leveling the playing field for the deaf blind community.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230291816323

We are giving them the opportunities to succeed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330271469688 .

We are building the foundations of their independence.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item= 230291816442

We are leading the deaf blind community toward success.

Richard