Communication access is possible in 2012 My response to Suzie Woolway’s Letter to the Editor on Dec. 13, is to say “amen” for bringing communication access issues to light. The hearing impaired are among the most misunderstood, underrepresented and underserved
Communication access is possible in 2012
My response to Suzie Woolway’s Letter to the Editor on Dec. 13, is to say “amen” for bringing communication access issues to light. The hearing impaired are among the most misunderstood, underrepresented and underserved members of society.
Few of us are able to speak for ourselves. Yet more than 10 percent of the island’s population has a significant hearing impairment. The numbers will rapidly increase with aging baby boomers.
Closed captioning for television, which we fought hard to obtain, has, in recent years, been surpassed by newer technology that has exciting ramifications. Movie theaters using digital projection must, by law, provide captions for all screenings. New laws are also looking at captioning requirements for Web content.
High-speed Internet streaming can provide wireless communication access via personal devices, such as smart phones, tablets and laptop computers; captions are displayed through remote captioning applications, such as Clear Captions. For those who use ASL, interpreters can be accessed remotely in the same way.
In addition, many venues on the Mainland have installed FM induction loop systems that enable hearing impaired persons to hear PA and other speaker systems through their cochlear implants or digital hearing aids more directly and clearly.
It is my hope that Kaua‘i will make the effort to catch up with available technology so that those of us who are deaf or hard of hearing can participate in our society. It can be cost-effective, if we start now. Or is it necessary for Kaua‘i to wait until expensive lawsuits are filed before access will take place?
Lucy Miller, Lihu‘e
A brazen attack on American liberty
In the bitterest of ironies, Dec. 15 — exactly 210 years to the day after passage of the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Senate voted to extinguish them. If Obama signs this into law, it will effectively turn the U.S. into a totalitarian police state.
This is not hyperbole or exaggeration. This law specifically states that a U.S. citizen may be merely accused of terrorism, which is so broadly legally defined it is terrifying, and the military can lock you up without trial, without judicial proceeding, without a lawyer FOREVER!
Says Sen. Lindsey Grahan (R-South Carolina): “It is not unfair to make an American citizen account for the fact that they decided to help al-Qaida to kill us all and hold them as long as it takes to find intelligence about what may be coming next. And when they say ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them, ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.’”
Just substitute the words “bring down our government” for “help al-Qaida kill us” and you will see where this will quickly turn. Who will be terrorists? Patriot groups? The Tea Party? Occupy Wall Street? Hawaiian Sovereignty groups? Who will decide what is legitimate dissent and what is terrorism?
This is the most brazen attack on the fundamental concept of liberty and human rights we have seen in this country. Please join the ACLU, Amnesty International, The New York Times and Ron Paul in contacting the president to veto this act.
Rick Goding, Waimea
Koloa Camp considerations
The article “Koloa Camp residents to be evicted” elicits several questions and observations.
1. The market prices for the homes: $375k to $440k with 30 percent of the homes as affordable. Affordable is defined by a median income of $76,300 per year, or $38 per hour per family. How many families really make $76,300 combined? What jobs are available that will pay $38 per hour for a single-income household or $19 for a dual-income household?
2. The company claims that “you cannot find a single-family house and lot in the price range we’re targeting.” Last time I looked in the real estate classified insert, there are many houses in and below the Grove Farm target range of $260,000 to $485,000.
3. Grove Farm plans to purchase 50 prefabricated homes from China. The last time the building industry purchased material from China, it resulted in multi-million-dollar lawsuits because the sheetrock contained more sulfur than matches. Just think. If you purchase one of Grove Farm’s affordable houses, you could be enjoying your own vog sauna with or without a southeast wind.
There are many tradesmen out of work and purchasing prefab homes does nothing to alleviate their current situation. It is ironic that this company plans to outsource the houses and then expects to sell their products for a large profit in a local market that could use the employment from manufacturing the outsourced product.
4. The residents of Koloa Camp should at least be allowed to stay until Grove Farms has the permits in hand. The permitting process will probably take several years and by then, the economic reasons for building the homes may change.
As an example, Koloa has seen many beautiful monkeypod trees prematurely cut down for an expansion that has not yet taken place.
Grove Farm should not evict the Koloa Camp residents until the permitting process is completed, and the houses should be built by stick by local tradesmen
David Giuliano, Princeville
