Grant Laird, Jr. Blog

http://www.deafcoffee.com

How did DeafCoffee.com become one of the greatest website in America?

Hosting deaf chat coffee in Texas is not common more two years ago.

Originally, Brenden’s wife Cindy (both moved here from California) worked for real estate at this time and needed to create network in deaf community in North Dallas area. She decided to use idea for hosting deaf chat coffee which is very common in California and started one near my house at Buckingham Road & Plano Road in Richardson near Garland. It was born 1st deaf chat coffee in Texas.

Of course, it was popular instantly with help from Deaf Network of Texas mailing list. We’ve been doing it for about one year. We don’t have deaf chat coffee website at this time. When Cindy left her job in real estate for another opportunity – we still want to keep it alive. Same time, there’s couple of other people want to have one closer to their place such as Fort Worth, Mesquite, etc.

Finally, we launched DeafCoffee.com website in April 2003 – it was designed by Sam Dunn. Later on, we asked Steven Whitworth to join us to help maintain website. Texas alone have close to 20 deaf chat coffee event – it just grew like crazy in 2nd year. Of course, California still has more than anywhere in United States. I am not complaining about it – but instead Brenden and I were focus on spread everywhere in United States. We did achieved 24 states with at least one deaf chat coffee event in every states and we have total over 75 events in those 24 states as of November 2004. We already have one in Hawaii!

Today, we proudly announce that DeafCoffee.com website have been re-designed to keep it exciting and fresh looking. Same time, we added more features such as mailing list, gallery, FAQ and request form online.

We predicate that DeafCoffee.com will become an important piece in every deaf community everywhere. With due respect of declined with deaf club and another deaf-related activities, it may be biggest reason why DeafCoffee.com become their all-time favorite. I am talking about every town in every state. How many towns do we have in United States? There’s thousands of them where they normally get together at mall, restaurant, street spot, church, etc. – don’t forget CI user, hard of hearing, ASL students, enthusiasts, relatives, out of town goers, and others will enjoy it the minute they enter Starbucks or another coffee place.

There’s many advantage to it:

1. Non-smoking environment.
2. Many people love to drink coffee these days.
3. Closer to home.
4. Able to bring children.
5. Easy to host your own one near your home. No experience required!
6. Comfortable chairs and playing game
7. Able to get Internet online on your own laptop.
8. Closed at midnight or earlier – no more staying up late.
9. Save your gas bills.
10. Meeting new friends and hugging old friends!

To learn more about DeafCoffee.com:
http://www.deafcoffee.com

To view DeafCoffee.com Photo Gallery
http://gallery.deafcoffee.com

To sign up DeafCoffee.com Newsletter:
http://newsletter.deafcoffee.com

To view DeafCoffee.com FAQ:
http://www.deafcoffee.com/whatisdcc.html

To request your own DeafCoffee.com event:
http://www.deafcoffee.com/add_dcc.html

To view Deaf Network announcement:
http://www.deafnetwork.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?flavor=archive&id=20041101041428&list=dn

http://people.unt.edu/ske0001/DeafSurvey.htm

Deaf / hard of hearing and Heath Care are very important these days. A student from Denton, Texas is doing study on it right now. I figure some of you might want to check it out. Enjoy! –gwlj

INSTRUCTIONS for participation in this survey . . .

Consent
The purpose of this research study is to understand the health care information needs of the D/deaf and hard of hearing (D/d&hh) and communication problems that prevent the D/d&hh from using health care services. This project is being conducted for the Texas Association of the Deaf and will serve to advise hospital administrators about how they may better serve their D/d&hh patients. You are being asked to complete a survey that will take a total of about 1-2 hours, depending on the amount of information you wish to share.

Participation is voluntary and you may stop at any time. You give consent by completing the survey. No individual responses will be reported to anyone because data will be reported in aggregate.

Instructions
There are several sections to this interview as you will see below. To begin the survey, click on step #1 below, read each section carefully, and respond accordingly. At the beginning of each section, you will need to fill in your name and email address. It is not necessary that you fill in your whole name, just your first name and last initial will be fine, as this is only used to enable me to match up the various sections of the survey. Once you are finished, click on the “submit test” button at the bottom of the form. You may then proceed to the next step in this interview. It is important that you answer the survey questions as honestly and thoroughly as possible.

Terms
The term “health care services” or “services” is meant to include any type of medical services, such as physical exams, X-rays, blood tests, mammograms, pap smears, surgery, etc. It can also include complimentary, alternative, or holistic healing practices, such as acupuncture, massage therapy, etc. It can also include psychiatric services

PLEASE GO THIS LINK:
http://people.unt.edu/ske0001/DeafSurvey.htm and start survey online.

Thank you for your willingness to take part in this research–your help is greatly appreciated!!

For more information about survey, please contact Sandra Tyson at ske0001@unt.edu

To view announcement on DeafNetwork.com:
http://www.deafnetwork.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?flavor=archive&id=20041031200629&list=dn