TDI
Presents Special Recognition
Commemorating its 35 Years of Advocacy
SILVER SPRING, MD - In a fitting conclusion to the three-day
15th Biennial TDI International Conference in Las Vegas on
July 16, 2003, TDI gave special recognition to twelve
companies and two educational institutions who have given
extraordinary efforts in different areas promoting equal
access to telecommunications and media for consumers who are
deaf, hard of hearing, late deafened or deaf-blind in
commemoration of the organization's 35th anniversary.
During the Appreciation Night Ceremony, TDI presented the
painting "America" by renowned deaf artist, Chuck
Baird, to representatives from twelve corporations and two
educational institutions. "TDI commends these companies
and institutions for their special efforts over the years to
include consumers in the various phases of their products
and services," said Claude Stout, TDI's Executive
Director. "We recognize that it has taken special
commitment and allocation of resources to introduce and
offer accessible and useable products and services to all
Americans. As the companies develop new technology,
deaf and hard of hearing Americans can fulfill their
potential as full, active participants in the general
mainstream, regardless of differences in culture, language
and communication."
The painting shows "America" in sign language.
Both hands are interlocked together in a flag motif against
a desert background. Chuck Baird (www.chuckbaird.com)
says, "I like to think that the sign for 'America' with
both hands interlocked and moving around in a circle denotes
a combination of both the American natives (round structures
like tepees) and the white people (interlocked as log
cabins) and symbolizes the integration of all races within
our borders."
From the "America" painting, TDI draws the
following analogies. The
symbolism in the painting shows that consumers and
professionals can work together as a community. The US
flag motif shows that the ADA and other legislation provided
the impetus and that their contributions are felt throughout
America. The interlocked fingers denote the wide
variety of choices that come as a result of enhanced product
and service offerings. The desert background shows the
ongoing reality of inaccessible technology, but your
contributions are making the desert blossom here and there
until it becomes a fertile field.
The painting "America" was presented to
representatives of the following companies and educational
institutions:
AOL
AOL
was noted for its disability consumer involvement and
marketing efforts through the AOL Access Group (AAG), a
top-level initiative that incorporates customer service and
product/service design issues. AOL promotes its
disability access through their corporate accessibility
website and has an extensive partnership with iCan, a
disability news website. For many deaf and hard of
hearing users, AOL served as their introduction to the
benefits of e-mail and Instant Messaging. For a time,
AOL promoted their brand of pagers, the AOL Mobile
Communicator.
AT&T
Relay
AT&T
Relay is a long time provider of traditional TRS as well as
the newer IP-Relay and VRS. To their credit, we enjoy
innovative TRS features such as Caller ID pass through,
conference calling with High Speed Captioning, faster
outgoing calls and customer profiles. AT&T has
enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with TDI, beginning
with the Telephone Pioneers of America during the early
years of the TTY network. In addition, AT&T
considered the needs of deaf and hard of hearing people in
its next generation payphone - the AT&T 2000 Phone.
AT&T
Wireless
AT&T
Wireless has been at the forefront of the wireless
telecommunication industry efforts to ensure hearing aid and
TTY compatibility with digital handsets. In addition
to those efforts, AT&T Wireless has an outstanding
outreach program for consumers with hearing disabilities
using brochures and websites.
Cingular
Wireless
Cingular
Wireless has been at the forefront of the wireless
telecommunication industry efforts to encourage hearing aid
and TTY
compatibility with digital handsets. In addition to
those efforts, Cingular
has maintained frequent collaboration with TDI on industry
forums and
in-house consumer advisory panels, as well as consumer
product testing. Furthermore, they operate one of the most
widely used pager networks through a number of affiliates.
Cingular
provides cellular/PCS service in 43 of the top 50 markets
nationwide, and provides corporate e-mail and other advanced
data services through its GPRS, EDGE and Mobitex packet data
networks.
Communication
Services for the Deaf, Inc.
Communication
Services for the Deaf, Inc. (CSD) has a long list of
accomplishments reflecting its history of strong consumer
involvement and community development. From the
heartland in South Dakota comes various telecommunication
technology solutions such as their pager answering service
and from CSD's unique partnership with Sprint comes Video
Relay Services and many other TRS innovations.
Gallaudet
University
Gallaudet
University, a premier educational institution serving deaf
students worldwide, has been at the forefront of technology
advancements. Such accomplishments would not have been
possible without the National Center for Law and the Deaf's
contributions to today's legislative successes. The
Technology Access Program (TAP) frequently collaborates with
consumers and with TDI on various research projects, and the
TAP faculty exposes students to technology early on by using
TDI publications in the classroom.
Hamilton
Relay
Hamilton
Relay capitalizes on its Midwestern values with a strong
customer service component under the theme "Relay Your
Way". Their exemplary customer service philosophy
was the basis for their innovative HIP Relay as well as
their upcoming video relay service. In addition to HIP
Relay, Hamilton serves Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska,
Rhode Island and Wisconsin.
MCI
Global Relay
MCI
Global Relay combined their high technology resources with
an assessment of text telecommunications, thus paving the
way to provision of text telecommunications over the
Internet using IP-Relay. Fresh from their success in
that endeavor, they also became one of the major VRS
providers.
Microsoft,
Inc.
Microsoft,
Inc. was one of the early prominent adopters of Section 508
regulations, mandating accessibility to federal electronic
and information
technology. From their strong consumer involvement via
the Accessibility Technology Group, Microsoft has supported
the development of access features in their Windows
operating systems, deaf-friendly software such as NetMeeting
and MSN Chat. They supported development of the SMIL
captioning software, used in multimedia and Internet
downloaded software.
National
Technical Institute for the Deaf
at Rochester Institute of Technology
The
National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester
Institute of Technology (NTID/RIT), one of America's leading
technical colleges for deaf students, has been innovative
with its strategic partnerships with major high technology
corporations and as a result, technology has been ingrained
in every aspect in the lives of their students. NTID/RIT
has been a major presence in the last several TDI
Conferences.
SBC
Influenced
by its Midwestern values, SBC has been a strong player in
community development projects across America through the
"Excelerator Program", operated by its
philanthropic arm, the SBC Foundation. SBC provides
TRS services in Arkansas, Kansas and Michigan.
Sprint
Relay
Sprint
Relay has been one of the leading TRS providers with
services in more than half of the states as well as the
Federal Relay Service. Its wide range of offerings
reflects the profound consumer involvement throughout the
company. Their collaboration with CSD has led to the
development of advanced technologies such as Sprint Relay
Online and USAVRS. To keep its many consumers
informed, Sprint publishes their "Relay Today"
newsletter.
Ultratec,
Inc.
From
its early days collaborating with Robert Weitbrecht, the
inventor of the TTY network, Ultratec continues to maintain
active dialogue with deaf and hard of hearing consumers.
As a result, Ultratec has come out with many innovative TTY
amplified telephones and signaling devices. Ultratec
remains as a leader with the development of a unique device
for hard of hearing callers, the CapTel; and participation
in telecommunication industry efforts such as the TTY Forum.
Verizon
Verizon
is noted for its many educational initiatives that benefit
people
with disabilities. Disability awareness is widespread
throughout the
corporate infrastructure from the efforts of the Verizon
Center for
Customers with Disabilities in Massachusetts, as well as
their Forward
Access Newsletter. Bell Atlantic, one of Verizon's
forerunners has long been a leader in Universal Design
principles for telecommunication products and services and
took the lead in implementing "TTY-Intercept" and
7-1-1 TRS services.
About TDI - Also known as Telecommunications for the Deaf,
Inc., TDI is a non-profit advocacy organization that
promotes equal access to telecommunications and media for
individuals who are deaf, late deafened, hard-of-hearing or
deaf-blind. Since 1968, TDI has successfully advocated
for federal legislation such as the Telecommunications Act
of 1996, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the
Television Decoder Act, both of 1990, as well as other
legislation and policies mandating greater access to
wireless technology, captioning as well as other
telecommunication and media technologies. In between
its biennial conferences, TDI publishes annually, a National
Directory & Resource Guide, commonly known as The Blue
Book, a popular resource book for people with hearing loss,
as well as The GA-SK quarterly news magazine. For more
information about TDI, go to www.tdi-online.org
