Shawn Jackson
Superbowl 44: To the Saints Go the Spoils
Feb 7th
It has come and gone and it was an epic match-up of Olympian proportions, ending with the first ever SuperBowl win for the New Orleans Saints. Queen Latifah sang “America, the Beautiful” and Carrie Underwood sang our National Anthem “The Star Spangled Banner”, with accompanying ASL Interpreters who gave a great performance also, flowing along with the hearing singers.
After the coin toss and eventual first kick-off, the road was not as clear as it could have been. Most of the first half saw the Colts ahead of the Saints, first up by 10-0 and then ending the half with the Saints with 16 and the Colts with 17. But New Orleans defense proved to be too much for the Colts and Quarterback Drew Brees kept his passing game steady and he performed very well under pressure. When all was said and done, the final score was New Orleans Saints 31 – Indianapolis Colts 17.
ASL Inside ATL wishes to Congratulate the Drew Brees, Coach Sean Payton and the rest of the New Orleans Saints for making SuperBowl 44 an historic winning event!
Hey Business Owners!!! "Consider the Deaf Customer"
Dec 4th
The beginning of a successful business relationship is one which is built by sharing the community’s common interests and common goals to obtain mutual benefits.
This formula is key in building a customer base because without customers and their referrals, a business cannot succeed rendering its services useless to the community it is trying to serve.
In point, speaking to the needs of the deaf community, there seems to be a large disconnect between our needs and the services provided by business’, even though it is conducive to their bottom line. In larger cities where there is a larger presence of deaf individuals, ignoring the needs of the consumer is akin to business suicide. Accessibility for all of consumers is a must.
Below is a short list that could assist Hearing Businesses when prospecting for the Deaf/Deaf-Blind/Hard of Hearing Customers:
This is by no means a complete list.
Having access to an available TTY/TDD in house. Most businesses have a phone for customer use or for business use that a customer can use if they need to have someone pick them up at the place of business. Instead of attempting to get the person employed at the business to call and decipher ASL, it would give the deaf person control over this and know that this business knows about deaf people and cares about their concerns.
Providing closed captioning on all TVs in their establishment. How many times have you been to a restaurant that might have a TV playing with the game on and you can’t follow? Or what about going to the doctor’s office and you finally catch something you’re interested in but can’t follow along because of no captioning? With captioning on all available TVs, this gives the deaf person something to look forward to and might make it a favored place.
Learning at least the ASL alphabet. While we can’t expect every hearing person to know ASL, it would be a positive step in the right direction and would show the Deaf Community at large that steps are being taken to help facilitate communication.
As more people come into contact with the Deaf and realize that their concerns are valid and worth attempting to reconcile, the better standing they will have within not only the Deaf Community but also the hearing world at large; that they are including all people and are willing to learn and provide services to those different from them.
