Comments so far on this story:

1. Pepe Cervantes wrote on October 24, 2007 11:32 PM:
"I want to dispute the following line: "Many sign language users are not fluent in written English, so captions, although excellent for some people, are of little or no help for others." This is total baloney and Dr. Trybus knows it. I understand that he is doing a good thing because there are Deaf people out there who need ASL interpreters because they cannot understand captions but it isn't because they are sign language users. It is because our education system fails some Deaf people at a young age and they don't get to develop the neccessary English skills to understand captions but Deaf people aren't the only people who have these issues. Try ordering a Big Mac at McDonalds by writing on a napkin and I guarantee you 1 out of 3 times the worker will call the manager to read the napkin for you."

2. Brad D wrote on October 26, 2007 3:06 PM:
"I was also struck by the fact that the ASL interpreter was inconsistently pictured during the press conferences. It wasn't just camera angles, but some stations were splitting the screen into two frames, shrinking the news conference to a size that was probably useless to anyone trying to see (read?) the ASL translation. The other frame was of course used to replay all the most dramatic camera footage of fire that had already been beaten to death by overplay."

3. Sunshine the Terp ;) wrote on November 5, 2007 3:29 PM:
"The more we speak out on providing interpreters on-screen during emergency situations, the more they will take it seriously. Whether they provide a terp in a bubble on-screen and/or include them next to the speaker at the press conference, newscast, etc. With modern technology, there's no excuse for this not to be available. Caption services are applauded, however, they may not be as beneficial for all. Also, all television stations do not provide closed captioning. Some only provide captioning during certain hours. In case of an emergency, it's not enough. I'm just glad the word is getting out there promoting equal access for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing communities. :)"

4. deafsi wrote on January 14, 2008 12:37 AM:
"English and ASL are two separate languages. They are different from each other and each should be respected individually. They should not be combined as in sim- com or SEE. Mixing the two languages together makes the meaning of each language less understandable. I read some articles at deafloves com and many people are discussing ...... As you know this is a niche deaf dating site and for deaf and HOH singles. Hundreds of new members daily join."