SECOND PLACE It's Painfully Obvious: We Need More! By Jason Le Cavalier Cedarburg High Cedarburg, Virginia

You've just had a long, arduous day, and the prospect of settling back into your favorite chair with that movie you've waited so long to see is especially alluring. The popcorn is ready and the soda glass is full as you sit back and push the PLAY button.
Roll through the normal course of previews, and now, for the feature presentation. Credits pop through flickering images...teasers of what is to come...the movie begins....
What? It started and they're talking, but where are the captions? It is just too difficult to comprehend. A studio will spend umpteen million dollars to produce a feature, market it with an eye-catching promotional campaign, and even go so far as to put the universal symbol for closed captioned programs on the video's cover, but fail to deliver on its advertising.
We have captioning on our televisions and lights on our front doors to signify ringing doorbells but, if you really think about it, these things have been around for quite a while. In fact, if you were to evaluate deaf-related technology alongside other devices such as computers, it would be painfully obvious to even the casual observer that over the course of more than a decade, one is barely through its infant stages while the other is a full-fledged adult at the peak of its development. I am not saying that things like closed captioning are bad--personally I couldn't live without them; it is just that technological advances are being made in so many areas, why can't we benefit a little more?
Probably one of the single greatest technological advances for the deaf and hard of hearing society has been closed captioning. It is great that we can rent a video and view it at home and fully understanding it. However, even after more than a decade of this technology, there is still no way that we can go into a public theater and fully comprehend the story behind those astounding special effects. Tremendous explosions, fiery passions and shivers untold...oh, sure, we can see that, but what are they saying? Why is the audience laughing? Why are people crying? Your guess is as good as mine. Movies have been around for over one hundred years and have undergone countless changes, but none of those changes have touched on the sore spot that most affects deaf viewers: decoding what the actors are saying.
Closed captioning as an invention is great, but undoubtedly one of the single greatest steps in deaf technological development has been the hearing aid. I myself benefit from one, but despite alterations over the years, it still provides only a scant minimum of understandable speech. To be perfectly frank, a hearing aid can sometimes be nothing more than a hindrance, a means of fostering frustration for those who try to reap the benefits of its usage. For me, a hearing aid is like walking across a bridge only to discover halfway across there is still a gaping chasm that leaves your destination unreachable on the other side. Like closed captioning, listening devices could certainly undergo intensive development.
Maybe it is time I accentuated the positive aspects of deaf technological advancements and developing innovations. There is one that deserves attention in the "plus" department--the relay service. I can remember the days when there was no way you could pick up the phone and make a plane or restaurant reservation, nor any way to simply call your best friend on your own. The TTY was a major advancement, but you could only use it if the person on the other side of the phone line had a similar machine. In a more recent development, the new relay systems became available nationwide. It is now possible to contact anyone, anywhere in the U.S. even if they don't have a TTY (does that include Candice Bergen's ten-cents-a-minute plan?). Perhaps down the road we will see much more efficient video phones where all you have to do is sign instead of typing, and you can actually see the other person. After all, who said it was fair for James Bond and Batman to have all the fun?
According to Forrest Gump, "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." That used to be true. Not anymore. With the passing of the equal rights act, we can now be sure that our needs will be met. Even so, it is not the time to kick back and soak in the sunshine, because we aren't the only ones moving ahead; the entire world is.
To keep up, we need to continue pushing.