Category: Advocacy

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Our Gallaudet football team makes history…again!

AT&T and Gallaudet unveiled a new 5G Football Helmet that would change the way deaf players actually play the game.

 

In 1894, we made history when Paul Hubbard invented the huddle. Today, in 2023, we are making history again with the first-ever 5G-connected football helmet.

On Thursday, October 5, AT&T and Gallaudet University unveiled the first-ever 5G-connected football helmet. This helmet was used for the first time in NCAA history on Saturday, October 5, when Gallaudet played Hilbert College.

The helmet contains a heads-up display. Gallaudet’s head coach uses a tablet computer with the team’s playbook installed on it. He sends plays to the quarterback over 5G, and the quarterback sees them in the display above his right eye. The quarterback then relays the play to his team. This results in instantaneous, clear communication and reduces mistakes and penalties.

There has been extensive media coverage of the helmet launch. The Associated Press, Good Morning America, and People first broke the story. Since then, it has appeared in hundreds of media outlets all over the country and the world. This webpage contains links to some of the major stories. It will be updated periodically.

Read on at https://gallaudet.edu/att-helmet  or the longer video about the helmet at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=702147791306153&extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing&mibextid=2Rb1fB

 

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Deaf truck driver awarded $36M by a jury for discrimination

Victor Robinson, who has been deaf his whole life, was awarded over $36 million in damages after a trucking company told him they wouldn't hire him because he was deaf. Victor Robinson Photos

A deaf man who says a truck driving company told him that they would not hire him because he couldn’t hear won over $36 million in damages by a jury a month ago.

Victor Robinson, who is in his 40s and has lived his whole life deaf, told ABC News that Werner Enterprises trucking company passed him in their commercial driver’s license (CDL) training program, but when he applied for a job in 2016, the company’s Vice President of Safety and Compliance Jamie Hamm, who was Jamie Maus at the time, told him he wouldn’t get the job.

“It was really intense,” Robinson told ABC News through an interpreter. “The person said, ‘We can’t hire you because you can’t hear,’ and hung up [the video call]. And there it was. The end. And I got to the point where I didn’t know what else to do.”

Robinson eventually reached out to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). They reviewed his case and decided to file a lawsuit against Werner.

“That fact has baffled us from the beginning,” Josh Pierson, Robinson’s lawyer, told ABC News. “The fact that Victor and other deaf drivers can complete training school, can get their CDL, even attend training schools owned by Werner but then aren’t allowed to drive for the company, ultimately.”

Read on at https://abcnews.go.com/US/deaf-truck-driver-awarded-36m-jury-discrimination/story?id=103764881&fbclid=IwAR2eruCHHbLJwxreCRUTwpHmkySOK9USjnJ4ARVpjui8kpoJ73do8CIKgPQ

 

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Site for Deaf Community Center moves ahead after Planning Commission vote

Map showing where the new Maryland Deaf Community Center would be located.

Frederick’s Deaf community is closer to having a new gathering place, after a vote of the city’s Planning Commission.

The commission voted unanimously to approve a final site plan Monday night for the Maryland Deaf Community Center, planned for North East Street on the eastern side of Frederick.

“It will be the best day of our lives when we get this building,” Marsha Flowers, a member of the Maryland Deaf Community Center’s board, told the commission, through a sign language interpreter.

Read on at https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/employment/site-for-deaf-community-center-moves-ahead-after-planning-commission-vote/article_d21ed0d0-1b41-5e21-b06a-11df6e149f7e.html?fbclid=IwAR1_sF5SLnk6BehAW0ztu-pR1SCC5zIHLmwFX3w8GfnS9-D5_YTKZ6D7mJE