Deaf Pagan Crossroads

Reminder, folks!

You have ONE WEEK LEFT to submit your entries for the ECA Blogging and Vlogging Contest!

Perhaps you are wondering why you should even bother to submit an entry? What’s the purpose of this contest? What good would it do?

Let me explain a little about the history of the Equal Communication Access Project and how this contest came to be, and perhaps this will help you to better understand.

Several months ago, during a discussion which occurred on another blog, it was agreed by several of the commenters that there was a need to help educate the general public and hearing people to better understand about the Deaf Community, and especially about our need for Equal Communication Access.

As I read the many different blogs and watch the many different vlogs that I see on DeafRead and throughout the Deaf B/Vlogosphere, but becomes clear that communication and access to communication is a big issue for us. We discuss it almost every day – better language and communication for deaf babies; the need for skilled sign language interpreters and for more places to provide such services; providing captioning for television, internet videos and at movies and football games; improving technology for mobile devices such as iPhones, Sidekicks, and Blackberries; the various VRS companies and the quality of services provided by different relay services… the list goes on.

And yet in spite of all of this discussion that goes on within our community, most hearing people remain ignorant about Equal Communication Access. A good example of that can be found with the police department in Minnesota – one has to wonder if Doug Bahl would have gone through this whole nightmare if the cops had been better educated about communication issues.

That’s where the Equal Communication Access Project comes into the picture. This is a project begun by Deaf Pundit, and supported by a small group of volunteers. It’s goal is to help get the word out about Equal Communication Access – what it means, and why it is important to the Deaf Community.

The first step of this project was the creation of the ECA video, which you can find here:

http://deafpundit.wordpress.com/2007/06/28/without-further-ado/

Several deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing individuals were involved in the making of this video, and we thank each and every one of you!

The video was seen by many hearing people, most of whom have had little if any exposure to the Deaf Community. It was clear from their comments that many of them had a lot of questions, and were not quite getting the message:

http://deafpundit.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/whats-in-it-for-me/

As a result of the comments left by such individuals, I decided to write and post my own blog trying to answer some of their questions, and explain what Equal Communication Access means to me:

http://deafpagan.com/2007/07/14/what-equal-communication-access-means-to-me/

This got me thinking…why not have a vlogging/blogging contest along the lines of the one DeafRead had for the “Through Deaf Eyes” program? Encourage other vloggers and bloggers to share their own thoughts about Equal Communication Access and what it means to them.

So that’s how this contest got started.

Now we are coming up close to the deadline, folks… so we need your entries soon!

But maybe now it’s your turn… maybe now you are wondering “what’s in it for me?”

Well… I don’t know if I can answer that question. You have to decide for yourselves what’s in it for you – whether or not you consider Equal Communication Access to be an important enough subject to be worth vlogging/blogging about and submitting an entry for the contest.

What I can tell you is this… all entries for the contest will be listed in the Equal Communication Access website. The winning entries will receive their very own special page on the website where their vlog/blog will be posted in its entirety.

In addition:

• All entries will receive a very nice graphic to put up on their own sites to show they participated in the Equal Communication Access Contest
• Finalists will receive a special graphic for being a finalist
• Winners will receive a special graphic for being selected as the winner in their category

The graphics are being designed, and I promise that they will be very nice. But you won’t get to see them until after the contest, and you won’t receive one unless you enter!

But graphics or no graphics…the most important thing here is that you will be doing your part to help spread the word about Equal Communication Access!

Not only will you be helping to educate the general public and hearing people, but you will also be helping the deaf and hard of hearing community to start thinking and discussing Equal Communication Access, and what it means to each and every one of us.

This might seem like a small project, and maybe you wonder if it will be really effective. But every project must begin with a small step…and then the more people who get involved, the bigger it becomes. It’s like throwing a pebble into a pond…the ripples get bigger and bigger.

Why not be a pebble yourself and help to create those ripples?

SO DON’T DELAY…GET YOUR ENTRY IN TODAY