Category Archives: Dining

Maryland Governor Signs Legislation Impacting People with Hearing Loss

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Governor Martin O’Malley today joined Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., House Speaker Michael E. Busch, and Lieutenant Governor Anthony G. Brown, to sign into law two bills that will have a significant impact on Marylanders with hearing loss.

Captioning Requirements for Places of Public Accommodation

The first requires a place of public accommodation to activate closed captioning on any television in use during regular hours if a person requests the feature be activated. With the signing of this legislation, Maryland becomes the first State in the nation to make it a civil rights violation to refuse to activate closed captioning upon request.

“This is landmark legislation, not only for Marylanders with hearing loss, but for the estimated 17 million Americans with hearing loss around the country,” said Lisa Kornberg, Director of the Governor’s Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH). “By signing this legislation, Governor O’Malley reaffirms his commitment to people with hearing loss in the State and fulfills his promise that there is no such thing as a spare Marylander.”

Inclusion of Deafblind Individuals, Addition to Advisory Council
The second bill amends the definition of “deaf and hard of hearing individuals” within ODHH’s statute to include individuals who are deafblind. The bill also increases the roster for the Maryland Advisory Council on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing from 16 to 18 members, adding a member with knowledge about deafblind individuals and a representative from the Department of Aging.

Support for H.R. 3101
In the past year, the O’Malley-Brown Administration has shown tremendous leadership in promoting equal access for Marylanders with hearing loss. In August, in consultation with ODHH and Maryland Relay, Governor O’Malley sent a letter to the entire Maryland delegation to the United States Congress asking them to support H.R. 3101 – the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2009 and asked the members to work for its swift passage. This bill would ensure that individuals with hearing loss have access to emerging Internet Protocol-based communication and video programming technologies.

- Thanks to the Maryland Governor’s Office press release, 5/4/10 and NVRC.



Restaurant Reservation Service OpenTable.com a Boon for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

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From Paula Rosenthal’s HearingExchange 2/2/09

The Internet has been a true blessing for those of us with any kind of hearing loss. Now, more than ever, we are able to do many tasks easily like shop, find support, communicate with family, friends and professionals and a myriad of other things we used to struggle with. Every so often, I come across a gem of a website or service that makes me stop and think, “Wow, I’m so glad someone thought of that!” I’ll be using the HearingExchange blog to share some of these great ideas with my readers so be sure to subscribe to this blog in the upper right corner.

One online service I’ve been using quite frequently is OpenTable.com. It’s a free service that enables you to make dining reservations in cities all over the United States as well as several other countries without ever picking up the phone. You can search by location and cuisine or by restaurant name, select the date, time and number of people dining and the system will show you a list of what is available. If your time is not available, the screen will show you the closest times that are open before and after the time you selected.

One of the thoughtful features I really love about OpenTable is that you can request a certain type of seating or whatever else you may need in the Special Request for the Maitre D’section. I use that feature successfully for every reservation by writing this: Two members of our party have hearing loss. Kindly seat us away from the bar and kitchen areas and in a corner or against a wall. We really appreciate this courtesy. Thank you! It has worked like a charm every time and has greatly improved our dining experiences.

As if this service isn’t good enough, OpenTable also has a dining rewards program. Each time you book and dine using their system, you receive points in your OpenTable account. Typically you receive 100 points per reservation but restaurants will offer point incentives to get you to dine during their slower hours so you can earn points faster. To learn more about their dining rewards program, http://www.opentable.com/info/diningrewards.aspx.

Do you know of a terrific website or service online that is helpful to people with hearing loss? Send them in and I’ll share them with the HearingExchange community.

http://www.hearingexchange.com/blogs/

- Thanks to NVRC, Fairfax