My first thought is why are you "stealing" the FUBU concept from the African-Americans? They coined the brand name/concept. I believe it's ok to share concepts like this, but it seems to me that some people on here are claiming the concept/quote/brand as our own. That doesn't look good for us.

read all the comments to this point with interest.

The ONLY thing that is wrong is the deaf mentality.

No deaf can progress without education in specific fields. Qualifications to meet. Every VRS company has same problem. Gimme Gimme Gimme mentality.

Sorenson has specific qualifications for each position. There are quite a number already where they are and more taking education to move up. Nobody is stopping them. I am absolute sure other VRS companies are doing for same reasons.

The issue is development of skills for specific positions, and yes even public relations positions.

I should know because I used to work for a hearing owned company that has nothing to do with the deafness but I learned a lot while there about why it is important for the deaf NOT to limit themselves to "pity level", that the deaf need to stand firm and go for the education for progress.

You can't get there if you limit yourselves!

Qwest, SWBell, att, etc are doing the same way.

check this out http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100114006174&newsLang=en

I think it is a good?

Sorenson has more than 300 deaf workers who work for Sorenson.

Well said. You covered 3 important things that are happening. We need more people like you to express direct and honest issues. We need more Deaf leaders who can say and express clear direct honest issues that needs actions. Not many are willing. I encourage you to continue this and forward your vlog to many sites that reaches to a range of Deaf and hard of hearing as well as CI consumers ...am going to do this...

Thanks again and hope to see more of your vlogs. I got it from my friend...if not for him, I may not see your vlog...

Hi Ryan

I have been thinking the same thing as this has bothered me for the past few years.

First of all, why don't we start up a business under board of directors to handle VRS so 100% profit after expenses, will go back to the Deaf Community? I am not sure if Convo or BIS will contribute all their profits to the deaf community.

Second of all, I am not sure if 50% deaf will make the difference but it will help their employment skills though. Please allow me to play devil's advocate a bit here... let's say a hearing owner of a certified company decided to hire 99% deaf but all the profit will go to the hearing owner only. Will the hearing owner contribute these profits to the Deaf Community or just for himself where he can live off in a luxury style?

Something to think about.

Ryan, I was glad to see your video. I agree with you. VRS companies needs to do far better.

I'm one of many Deaf Shareholders of Purple. Purple was founded and built by Deaf People as well as CODAs. Purple probably has more Deaf executives than any other company in the world. The Company probably has more Deaf people managing the biggest budgets and the most people than any other company in the world.

Are they perfect? Absolutely not! Does any company have more deaf owners than Purple? Probably not. Does any company have more deaf executives than Purple? Probably not. Does any company have deaf people managing bigger budgets and more people than Purple? Probably not. Has any company fought for more communication rights than Purple? Probably not.

I'm a proud shareholder of Purple but I and other owners are continuing to make sure that Purple does not rest on its laurels. We will continue to make sure that Purple continues to hire and promote Deaf people. We will continue to make sure that Purple gives back more to the community than any other company and make sure that they continue to be the leader in fighting for communication rights for Deaf people.

Your video will go a long way to make sure that Purple continues to do better while encouraging other companies to do the right thing.

Thank you for this vlog and here's link about my experience that I had with VRS industries in the past at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYqNdmesdwc

Dear Ryan, thank you for doing an excellent job expanding on this concept, I really love the brilliant correllation between the VRS industry and Deaf Infants human right to sign language! We have a great group in California working to make changes in the newborn hearing screening program, and such efforts would indeed go farther if we had more people invest time and money in this issue. I do feel its important to add, that there are several companies who are not deaf owned, but whom have hired a good number of deaf employees who obviously do not make up more than 50% yet, but as we push this forward, in 20 years from now, this too shall be considered the norm because the need for VRS should be greater than it is now, with a twist perhaps. More on this later, for now, I simply wanted to thank you for undertaking this important issue.

Looking forward to working with you and all!
Rock on! xo Sheri

I'm so glad that you, RC, made an effort to dig up a little about VRS industry and focus on the exploitation of Deaf people's language by VRS industry.

I did make several vlogs in the past regarding the VRS industry and it really irked me to no end when people tried to spin it around and accuse others of this, that and there.

The bottom line is that the VRS industry is clearly dominated by hearing peers who created the glass ceiling against Deaf individuals, hence led me to believe that this is a true potential of exploitation.

Thanks so much!

I'm kinda irked at Dr. Don for stealing the idea about FUBU -- I had the note here a while ago that I wanted to talk about FUBU. Too bad, Dr Don beats me to it! :-)

Cheers,

R-

Hello, Ryan! Once again, a good vlog. A good VRS company who sincerely cares about the community it serves definitely should seek to re-invest some of their profits into that community especially in protecting and preserving ASL and Deaf children's right to have a language they can comfortably communicate in which is ASL, naturally. As you pointed out, this has not been happening. Perhaps we need something like a watchdog to watch what VRS companies are doing, where their donations and sponsor money are going?

As for the question regarding what are VRS companies' plan to cultivate deaf employees and their talents so they can move upwardly into managerial positions, I'm reminded of a graduate school level sociology course I took few years ago. We discussed about the role of what we called "gatekeepers." Gatekeepers are individuals, organizations, or social groups which has the role of "screening out" a group of people and determine whom should be allowed to be granted access to a position of power and whom should not be. This is connected to a concept called Credentialism.

I question whether if it is a good idea for us to sit back and allow VRS companies' higher-level managers to become gatekeepers for future potential deaf managers. Heck, they are already acting as a gatekeeper - saying "Sorry you don't have enough experience hence you are not qualified for this and that position." We could pressure them into doing something to increase % of deaf employees in higher levels in their companies but if we sit back and allow them come up with workshops, training opportunities and so on, I bet you, they will continue to act as gatekeepers. Sure, maybe they will find ways to increase % of deaf high level managers but will they be culturally Deaf or dysconscious audists or only audiological deaf?

A related example would be I. Jordan King. As you know already, during the DPN, the community demanded a Deaf president and the BoT (gatekeepers in their own right) gave the community a dysconscious audist (or audiological deaf whatever how you want to argue it). The community, not knowing any better, accepted this token.

Should we accept similar tokens in VRS companies?

While it'd be a progress to have VRS companies to increase % of deaf high level managers, we should look at how they are going at it. I'd prefer to have a Deaf-owned and Deaf-run training firm to conduct those trainings and workshops instead of having VRS companies having their own in-house trainings. Which would be more ideal is to have more VRS companies Deaf-owned and Deaf-run.

Even with Deaf-owned and Deaf-run companies, we should still watch them and encourage them to re-invest back into the community. We cannot assume since they're Deaf, they will do so.

Anyway, again a good vlog and thank you too for your role in the '06 protest! :)

Good points, Ryan!

There is another Deaf-owned company, Western Interpreting Network (WIN) owned by my friend, Eric Feris, although I don't know if this is another "white label" or not. Will ask him when I see him in a few weeks.