The first person every week who guesses the location of where Dr. Z correctly will receive a $5 Starbucks or Target gift card. We will post the name of the winner every week on this site. There was a correct guess for Episode #26. The place was the Louvre in Paris, France. The winner is in the process of being notified. For this episode, you need to identify the place and the city .
Author Archives: pbravin
Editorial #26-On Martin Luther King Day 2010-“I Have a Dream”
Today is Martin Luther King’s Birthday–I make it a habit to read his “I Have a Dream” speech on this day.
I am posting an excerpt from his speech as follows:
“…Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”
“Created equal”—this calls for FULL functional equivalency in the VRS world—Dr. Z is calling on all VRS providers to come on board and pursue this goal.
The full text and video of his speech can be seen at this link: MLK “I Have a Dream” speech.
Dr. Z cares about your communication access.
Editorial #25-NAD on Behalf of Consumer Groups File Information About a Meeting with the FCC
Rosaline Crawford, the Director of the NAD Law and Advocacy Center filed an ex parte notice on January 13, 2010 about a meeting she had with the FCC on January 12th on VRS issues. She was representing several other consumer gropups and the link to the notice is as follows: Link to NAD Ex Parte Notice. An ex parte notice means something that is presented by one party without hearing from the other side. The FCC requires everyone to file such a notice when people meet with the FCC. This way, all parties involved will know what has been discussed. This makes the process as transparent as possible. Three (3) issues were discussed as follows:
Toll Free Numbers
It was urged that the FCC take a position on toll free numbers. In addition, toll free numbers should be made a part of the national data base. It reminded the FCC that 3 months remain before the FCC’s waiver on this ruling expires. Dr. Z agrees that 800 numbers need to be part of the national data base. This way, everything will be functionally equivalent, just like what hearing people have.
VRS Reform, Rate Methodology, and Rates
It was urged that the FCC institute a new rulemaking process to follow up on what took place at the December 17, 2009 VRS Workshop. This will allow all interested parties to make their views known. Dr. Z agrees with this, but there is also the question of whether there is enough time before July 1st (when the new rates are supposed to go into effect) for the process to run its course. It was noted that other groups should be made part of the workshops (such as interpreters) and there could be tension among the various stakeholders.
Consumer Complaints about Blocked VRS Calls
It was noted that some calls are not being connected. In addition, NECA (the organization that reimburses VRS providers for services rendered on behalf of the FCC) is denying reimbursement for certain VRS calls. (CSDVRS filed a letter recently on this issue, too Link to CSDVRS letter.) Dr. Z feels that the deaf/hard of hearing caller makes the determination as to what call he makes is legal and proper, not a 3rd party which is detached from the situation and is not in a position to assess the critical nature of such calls. Hearing people are not being penalized the same way–in this case, this is not functionally equivalent for deaf and hard of hearing people.
It is Dr. Z’s sincere hope that the FCC will listen to this ex parte notice and follow up on this.
Dr. Z (and the FCC) cares about your communication access.
Week of 1/10/10-Episode #26 (VLOG) (NEW)
The first person every week who guesses the location of where Dr. Z correctly will receive a $5 Starbucks or Target gift card. We will post the name of the winner every week on this site. There was a correct guess for Episode #25. The place was Times Square in New York. The winner is in the process of being notified. For this episode, you need to identify the place and the city .
What is CES? What Did We Find Out? (NEW)
CES is the Consumer Electronics Show. It took place last week in Las Vegas. This is where all manufacturers introduce the latest in electronics and technology. This is where stores like Best Buy take a look at all those gadgets and decide what to buy and then sell in the months to come.
Dr. Z followed the events of last week very closely–the web has all kinds of sites keeping track of what happened last week. The best site for this was the CNET website. (ces.cnet.com). Some of the videos on the website are captioned!
Several devices attracted our interest — LG had a TV that came with a webcam. Can you imagine doing a VP call with a large screen TV–how cool would that be, but that would mean giving up what you were watching on TV to do a video call. I am sure we can schedule these times to make video calls that does not happen at the same time as the Super Bowl. But we are seeing a slow trend towards video communication. There were a few other devices that had video communication capability–but these were in the prototype (test model) stage and could take a year or so before we can see them on the market. There were a lot of netbooks with built-in webcams that came with a faster Atom processor (chip) made by Intel. The old processor was a “N270” and the new ones coming out had a “N450” processor. This usually means a faster processor which means better video quality for video communication when using a product such as ZVRS’ Z4 (it should be coming out very soon.)
All this is good news–this is a signal that the major players are seeing the potential of video communication which spills over to better technology for us deaf and hard of hearing people to communicate.
Dr. Z cares about your communication access.
VCO Plus—How can VCO be made better? Absolutely, with Just One Line!
Voice carry over (VCO) is for those deaf and hard-of-hearing VRS users who can speak well enough for the hearing person on the other side to understand them. They still need an interpreter to interpret the hearing person’s voice dialogue.
The old and traditional way to do VCO required 2 lines (2-line VCO) for the deaf and hard of hearing person. One line to make the call and the other line was a regular phone line to speak back to the hearing person. This is a very cumbersome and costly method and required some time to set up the call because the video interpreter would have to work on connecting the call to the telephone.
The latest development (pioneered by ZVRS) is VCO Plus, which is one-line VCO. It does not need the second line for the phone as voice communication is handled through the Z-Phones (Z-150, Z-340 and Z-Ojo) All of these phones have microphones built into them. There is no delay in setting up the call as the the voice portion goes through the microphone to the hearing person. When an incoming call comes in, all that is needed is to press a button to answer the call and enable the microphone on the phone and conversation starts right away. No need to wait for the second phone to be set up. This is almost real time and people who have tried this rave about this.
This is an example of how technology can enable communication and make things even more functionally equivalent.
Dr. Z cares about your communication access.
Week of 1/3/10-Episode #25 (VLOG) (NEW)
The first person every week who guesses the location of where Dr. Z correctly will receive a $5 Starbucks or Target gift card. We will post the name of the winner every week on this site. There was a correct guess for Episode #24. The place was the North Pole. The winner is in the process of being notified. For this episode, you need to identify the landmark and the city . Dr. Z has updated the previous weeks winners. You can click the link below.
Editorial #24-Dr. Z’s New Year Resolutions for the VRS Industry for 2010
Happy New Year once again !!!
Dr. Z is here with his New Year’s Resolutions for the video relay service.
1) The video relay service as a whole shall continue to improve, have enhancements that go a long way towards making communication more accessible.
2) There shall be more cooperation between VRS providers in exchanging information so that all equipment can freely communicate with once another, without consumers getting confused as to why such a feature works with one device but not the other?
3) The FCC shall continue to issue orders that enhance functional equivalency of VRS.
4) We shall continue to see competition, but not be undercut by tactics by providers that instill fear, uncertainty and doubt in customers. We should not be afraid to make consumer-based decisions on our individual needs in communication.
5) VRS providers should lend a strong ear to consumer needs and not arbitrarily make changes and recommendations that restrict access.
6) VRS providers shall continue to enhance careers of deaf and hard of hearing employees and put them in decision-making positions. Boards of such companies should have deaf and hard of hearing people on them.
7) Fraud is not an option—VRS providers shall practice zero-tolerance when it comes to fraud.
8) Open standards such as H.323, SIP, H.263 and H.264 shall be followed to the letter by all providers. De-facto standards that affect interoperability should not be an option.
9) VRS providers should begin thinking of some sort of a industry association where there is a body insuring all companies work together to insure their service and equipment is interoperable.
10) VRS companies shall invest more in the community they serve.
Dr. Z cares about your communication access.
Happy New Year from Dr. Z and His Friends
Here’s wishing you a Happy New Year!!
Dr. Z wishes you all a great 2010 with all the goodies that come with communication access.
Be back with you on Monday with Dr. Z’s resolutions for the New Year.
Dr. Z cares about your communication access.
Editorial #23-Information and Thoughts on International VRS Calls
In Dr. Z’s travels across the country the past 2 months, he met a lot of appreciative consumers who valued the ability to talk to their friends and families using the Spanish VRS service. Some French-speaking consumers asked Dr. Z whether French would be added to the service–Dr. Z based on current rules, said this was not possible. This is usually for calls to Canada and Haiti which has a French-speaking population.
The rules are clear–VRS calls must either begin or end in the United States. For example, someone from Canada cannot call a VRS service in the United States to call someone else in Canada. But if the person receiving the call is in the United States, it is OK. The same is true for someone in the United States calling someone else in Canada through the relay service.
It is understandable to offer Spanish VRS calls in the United States–but what about other languages? How can we handle this? Is this functionally equivalent? How can we staff interpreters who can understand LSQ (French/Quebec Sign Language)? This is the tip of an iceberg but we need to empathize with our deaf and hard of hearing colleagues who want to speak to their non-English speaking relatives in other countries. Maybe there would be technology down the road making this possible?
Dr. Z cares about your communication access.