deafbiz.com

Just stumbled on this website from pfblogs.org:

Secret History of the Credit Card

It has online video and a transcript, although I have no way of knowing if the transcripts are for the entire show or just an episode.

It’s available on DVD so check your library (that’s a frugal tip from me).

It’s timely because this past Sunday the Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle interviewed an RIT professor who is an expert on credit card.

Call him a credit card crusader. A pointy-headed scholar. A naive reactionary, if you must. But whatever name you choose, don’t refer to Robert Manning as a pessimist.

Sure, the Rochester Institute of Technology professor has some dark views — about the sharp rise in consumer debt; about the country’s negative savings rate; about the lack of planning for retirement; and about what he believes is a predatory banking system.

Yet he actually has an uplifting outlook. Manning simply believes that Americans can do better for themselves, accomplishing their dreams and aspirations without excessively relying on the use of credit cards. And he intends to spend much of the next year explaining how and why in an increasingly aggressive media, academic and public policy campaign.

The 48-year-old Florida native plans to publish three books over the next 12 months, including a follow-up to Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America’s Addiction to Credit, the groundbreaking work that established him as one of the most outspoken critics of the country’s consumer spending and lending practices. Manning argues that deregulation of the banking industry in the 1980s has unleashed powerful forces that encourage banks to overlend and seduce consumers to overspend. His research will also play a prime role in at least three documentaries, including In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts, which debuts Friday at the prestigious Nantucket Film Festival. Portions of that movie were filmed on the campus of RIT.

In addition to all that, Manning will also be the lead player in a pioneering debt relief program in Utah, approved by the state legislature, that could serve as an alternative to bankruptcy. The goal of the program: To enable consumers to pay back as much as they can without having to liquidate their homes or put the black mark of bankruptcy on their records.

As if that wasn’t enough, next year Manning and his staff will launch a novel undergraduate program and research center in consumer financial services at RIT. Along the way, he’s made a few adversaries in the banking industry, which disputes the notion that it encourages overspending. Credit cards represent a small fraction of total consumer debt, the industry says; as well, banks follow careful guidelines to determine creditworthiness. It also argues that the greater availability of credit has strengthened the country by, for instance, making it possible for more people to own homes.

I have no doubts whatsover that many deaf individuals and families would beneft from Credit Counseling with an ASL fluent counselor. Whoever graduated from this new major will never lack new clients and new businesses, sad to say.

Coulda be easier to just write it off as a loss and buy a new SideKick II, but instead this story got a lot of publicity, due to the idiots taking pictures.

Coming soon on your Computer Screen - Captioned RADIO!

Call for Beta Testers to View New Radio Captioning Technology of Earize Communications Providing Streaming Text on National Public Radio (NPR) “Talk of the Nation” Radio Show June 12, 2006 (2:00 — 3:00 P.M. EST)

Many of you have been asking for radio shows to be accessible.  Now we at Earize think we’ve developed an inexpensive way to stream radio show text on the Internet — as it happens.  But we need your members help to test the technology and find out how many people can reliably use the system at any one time.  As well, this technology can be used for emergency situations where television is not an option.

For the last year, Earize Communications has been quietly developing high volume “one-to-many” text streaming technology at its own expense.

Over the last year, the development team has grown to include what we think we think are some of the best minds and most experienced people from across the nation — Idaho, California, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Florida, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

But now it’s time to take the technology out of the laboratory and into the real world.  The big questions are: “How many people can use the system at any one time?” and “Will captioned radio really be useful?”

We are hoping that TDI’s members will help us answer these questions.

Two test sessions were planned.  One session already took place on June 6, 2006.  At least 7,500 people are needed to log-in at the next test session at http://earize.com, in which Earize will display real-time captioning text from NPR’s Talk of the Nation show at 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.
EST on June 12, 2006.  There is no sign-in, no personal information will be collected, no software or cookies will be downloaded on any computer, and your members will have the satisfaction of knowing that they helped make a higher level of accessibility possible.

Please encourage your members to participate and to share their comments and questions about the test with us at Info@Earize.com.  Thank you so much for helping to make this innovative and exciting technology possible.

Sincerely,

Lorraine Carter, RPR
President

[P.S. Not one cent of taxpayer money was requested or used to develop this much-needed technology]

Nice article from by Greg Livadas of the Rochester (NY) Democrat & Chronicle:

Thousands
of Americans who are deaf are finding video relay to be an easier and
cheaper alternative to making calls via text telephones, or TTYs. Like
many deaf people sold on video conversations, Frei doesn’t have use for
a telephone anymore.

The popularity of video relay services has exploded in the past
four years. About 7,200 minutes of video relay were used per month when
video relay began in January 2002, according to the Federal
Communications Commission, which regulates the service. By December
2005, more than 3 million minutes of video relay were used per month,
with eight companies providing the service.

It’s a booming business, with two video relay centers in Henrietta and more companies expected nationwide.

The potential for growth is tremendous because the service is used by only 10 percent to 15 percent of deaf people.

While the service is a boon for deaf users, its explosion carries ramifications:

Shortages of interpreters available to work in the community.

I didn’t see this comment until I was clearing out the spams at Askimet. I’ve edited the comment and felt it was more appropriate to give it prominence instead of hiding in obscurity in the comments that no one will read.

But I want to emphasis that this is by no means an endorsement of QuickenLoans. Just that for some companies a “light bulb” idea just popped up and realize how valuable online chat is.

If at all possible, any company that provides online chat is a company I WILL BUY from!

So for those business out there, please consider adding online chat. It cost very little and you will have a headstart over your competitiors.

Hi,

I found your blog by doing a search for blogs relating to or by deaf
people (sorry about leaving this as a comment, but I don’t see an email
to contact you on your site).

(Deafbiz says: that’s because I recieve over 20K spams per day!)

I work at Quicken Loans in Livonia, Michigan and thought you might
be interested in writing about a new feature on our website – online
chat — that seems to be popular with our deaf customers.

<snip>

I would like to keep my blog “commercial-free” so that’s why I’m cutting out the rest of the spiel.

Just say that Quickenloans have online chat with SSL (https://) feature is good enough for a mention.

If you have articles about mortgage that the deaf community can
learn more about, feel free to submit articles using the Contact form
at Deafbiz.com and I’ll create a new category for articles.