News & Events- 1/27/03

The next biennial Western Symposium on Rehabilitation and Deafness will be April 9-11, 2003 in Seattle, Washington at the Seattle Center. If you thought the previous conferences were great, wait till you see the lineup for this one! Not sure if this is the right conference for you? Take the test at http://www.wou.edu/nwoc/wsrd/wsrdtest.htm (java-enabled only) or http://www.wou.edu/nwoc/wsrd/wsrdtesttext.htm (text-only version). The program line up, registration materials, hotel information, general conference information, links to Seattle Center information, and proceedings from the previous conferences are all available at: http://www.wou.edu/wrocc and click on 'WSRD Conference'. When you see the program, you'll know you can't afford to miss this one!

If you'd like to get your program some recognition, we can help! Send a t-shirt, sweatshirt, mug, book, video or products from your program along with a brief description of your program to Cheryl Davis at the address at the end of this e-mail. Donations will be awarded as door prizes at the WSRD Conference, and organizations making donations will be posted to the website and listed in the program. We thank you for your support! For more information, contact Cathy McLeod at catherine.mcleod@csun.edu.

Remember, PEPNet is here to serve you! If you have questions about how to provide services to Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing students on your campus, new technology to provide access on the job, or need materials to assist instructors or employers in developing accommodations, contact the PEPNet Center nearest you! You can locate the Centers easily by clicking on the map at http://www.pepnet.org/centers.asp . Contact information is available at http://www.pepnet.org/directory.asp . And don't forget to check on the materials available through the PEPNet Resource Center at http://prc.csun.edu . NEW!! To make products easier to find, additional catalogs are available focusing on specific needs (e.g., faculty, technology, students, parents, notetakers). See http://prc.csun.edu/Content/Products.asp for more information.

As important as it is for 9-1-1 Call Centers to be trained in handling TTY and VCO (voice carry over) calls, it is equally important to educate consumers to make the call directly to the Call Center by dialing 9-1-1 rather than going through the relay service. I am looking for feedback on an article I have written on the subject. A draft of the article "When Seconds Count" is posted at http://www.wou.edu/wrocc under 'Training Materials'. Feedback can be sent to davisc@wou.edu.

Register now for the next exciting broadcast: Thursday, February 20, 2003 "Virtual Learning and On-Line Services for Postsecondary Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing." Information is now available at http://www.pepnet.org and click on Teleconferences. Topics will include How the internet is changing higher education, Building the right infrastructure for web-learning access, Technical issues in creating accessible software, Future trends in virtual learning. NEW!! On-line registration is now available. You can also check and see if any programs in your area are hosting it. Go to http://www.pepnet.org/teleconfer.asp . If you are in the Willamette Valley, Western Oregon University will be a downlink site. Attendance is free and open to the public. If your program or institution is interested in hosting the downlink, WROCC Outreach Site at WOU has a limited number of stipends available to cover the downlink fee for programs in the Western region. Contact wrocc@wou.edu for more information.
Videotapes of previous teleclasses, such as "Americans With Disabilities Act - Responsibilities For Postsecondary Education Programs Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students" and "Services for the Hard of Hearing Student in Postsecondary Education" are available from the PEPNet Resource Center at http://prc.csun.edu.

WROCC has some good news and some bad news. The good news is we are thrilled to welcome Cathy McLeod to the WROCC staff at CSUN. Cathy was coordinating the MENUS project (Meeting the Educational Needs of Underserved Students), also out of CSUN. If you haven't seen her work, go to http://menus.csun.edu, or you can "meet" her at the upcoming 2/20 telecast on Virtual Learning...She'll be moderating! The bad news (for us, anyway) is that we are losing Sharaine Rawlinson, our Materials Development Specialist. Sharaine has been hired by Sprint TRS as a regional representative. Congratulations to Sharaine on her new career! (Luckily, we'll still get to see her on the conference tour!)

Did you like the WSRD Test? The test was developed using a program called 'Hot Potatoes' from http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/ . The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for non-profit educational users who make their pages available on the web. Other users must pay for a license. Check out the Hot Potatoes licensing terms and pricing on the Half-Baked Software Website. It is easy to use and is a fun educational tool!

New Cell Phone Devices If you've been wanting one device that does it all, you should check out these new products (not an endorsement...just letting you know what technology is available!): Pocket TTY + VCO you can use with your cell phone http://www.krowntty.com/tty/products/k_pvco2.html (available April 2003) T-Mobile Sidekick reviewed at http://geek.com/hwswrev/pda/danger/ or online at http://www.deafmobile.com . Cell phone, PDA, 2-way pager, e-mail, IM, and web browsing (plus a few games) all in one! Try an on-line relay service: http://www.sprintrelayonline.com The Web application connects the user with a relay agent who dials the call. The dialog can be seen as a split computer screen image; one side for the caller text and the other for the relay communication assistant. Call transcripts can be saved or printed. Screen text size and color can be specified for both the caller and operator screens. Macro buttons -- GA (go ahead), SK (stop keying) and PLS HOLD -- are part of the application. As a further innovation, American Sign Language (ASL) emotion icons -- or emoticons -- are available to direct the operator's tone of voice and inflection. Spanish and French Creole language options are available. Project Products on the Web Curricula from two previous national RSA projects are now located on the web for easier access. The curricula are from the National Multicultural Interpreters Project (NMIP) (formerly at El Paso Community College, 1995-2000) and the Professional Development Endorsement System (PDES) (formerly at Northwest Connecticut Community College (1990-1995). To locate the curricula, go to http://www.Colorado.EDU/slhs/tiem.online/curriculum.html . For information about obtaining the videotapes that accompany these curricula, check with the National Clearinghouse for Rehabilitation Training Materials. www.nchrtm.okstate.edu , 800-223-5219. You can find their catalogue on their web site (which is about 500 pages when printed!), as well as a link to their interpreting catalogue. All RSA-grant-produced materials are sent to the Clearinghouse so you may find other materials that would be useful for your students. Oregonians: TDAP Advisory Committee Opening The Telecommunication Devices Access Program (TDAP) is currently seeking candidates to serve on the TDAP Advisory Committee. The group meets quarterly on the second Monday of each March, June, September and December, from 9 am to noon in the Public Utility Commission (PUC) building in Salem. The mission of the committee is to provide input to the PUC regarding the loaner assistive telecommunications technology for Oregonians with disabilities who cannot use a standard phone. Current openings are for deaf or hard-of-hearing candidate, preferably someone experienced with deaf-blind issues. Submit a letter of interest, a resume and a letter of recommendation from a community member to: Damara Paris, RSPF Manager, OPUC, 5550 Capitol Street NE, STE 215, Salem, Oregon 97301-2551 or fax to 503.378.6047. Phone or E-mail inquiries may be made to damara.paris@state.or.us or 503.373.1413 TTY. Mobility International Seeks Summer Exchange Applicants Mobility International USA (MIUSA) is offering a summer exchange program. Each summer since 1995, MIUSA has taken a group of first-time travelers, ages18-24, on an educational exchange to Mexico, Costa Rica and, most recently, England. This past summer, our group included two Deaf and two hard of hearing students. If you know any young adults who might be interested, please encourage them to get in touch. The application deadline is March 15, 2003. Thanks for your support, Stephanie Gray Program Coordinator Mobility International USA PO Box 19767 Eugene, OR 97440 Tel: 541-343-1284 (v/tty) Fax: 541-343-6812 www.miusa.org.

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