capriuni: Text: "I know where my towel is, But I can't find anything else." (Default)
2010-03-26 00:44

Just in case you think YouTube's new Auto-Caption feature is making the Web more accessible...



Description for the visually impaired:

Header: "What YouTube's Automatic Audio Transcriber heard:"

Image: a still from a children's cartoon, showing several children playing in a city park; the closed caption reads: "and still the CDC from other countries that may be running a living standard bearer."

Footer: "What the announcer actually said: "And so, the city is saved from a cumbersome meteorite"
capriuni: Text: "I know where my towel is, But I can't find anything else." (Default)
2010-03-23 12:58

Just a few minutes ago, this news from my local newspaper, popped into my email box:

Quote:
VA. ATTORNEY GENERAL SUES OVER FEDERAL HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL

A spokesman for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court immediately after President Barack Obama signed the landmark measure into law. Attorneys general from 13 other states joined to file a similar lawsuit in Florida.
Unquote.


*facepalm*

Why didn't I accept the pressure from my aunt and cousins, and move to Philadelphia-region, when I the chance, instead?

Note: Insurance companies have used a child's cerebral palsy (or asthma, or whatever) to deny coverage of families. Medicare will help pay for (some, and increasingly less) coverage of the extra cost of raising a disabled child. But that coverage can end (depending on the bureaucracy) when the kid turns 21.

And the Canadian government is trying to deport a French family (that it initially invited) because one of the daughters has CP and is an "Excessive Burden" on the state. So I don't expect I could escape north, for better healthcare.

Do you see why the story I'm working on for Script Frenzy feels totally plausible to me (except for the deliberately dodgy skience parts)?

[ETA: and another "gr": the wording of a sidebar link in the article I referenced, above: "Daughter's ill health makes family an 'excessive burden'"

Cerebral palsy affects how you are able to move, period. It is not an illness. Granted, if the parts of your body you have trouble moving are those you use to eat and swallow, it can adversely effect your health, but it is not an illness, in and of itself. And later in the that same article, the writer expressly said that the girl has not required one bit of medical intervention -- rehabilition services (probably physical therapy, maybe help with writing and such in school), but no hospital care.]