Bionic Ear Blog

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I thought I had blogged this story, but only found bits and pieces. So here’s the whole story as my daughter remembers it.

I’d like to think that I was a unique individual from birth. I learned, at a very young age, that my family was different, but my parents instilled a sense of pride in me. Everything I was, no matter how it compared to others, was something I could wear proudly. My mother is deaf, and this never struck me as strange.

However, in second grade when children still loved to see their parents anywhere they went, mothers and fathers would come into class to read aloud. My mother doesn’t know American Sign Language (ASL), nor does she need it. She reads lips with crisp perfection; even I couldn’t help but to imitate it in my early years. She also speaks clearly, of course with a slight accent, but as time goes on, it lessens. I never heard any strange accent, only the sound of my mother’s voice.

This isn’t what my peers heard. They mocked her openly in front of me, and asked why she sounded so weird. What a blow this was, the first time that anything about me was “strange” and unaccepted. I wasn’t ashamed, though. To this day my mother remains an incredibly accomplished woman and writer. I get my language abilities straight from her. (Unfortunately, I acquired my father’s penmanship.)

What’s strange is that I think I brought a book with a deaf character. But what was different between talking to my daughter’s class and my son’s class is that in my son’s class — I opened with an explanation of the deafness rather than letting the book do the talking.

I accept that children and even some adults will look at me in a strange way when my mouth opens and the words spill. But I do not accept my children’s classmates making fun of me in front of my kids. That puts the burden on my kids for something that has nothing to do with them.

After a great experience in talking to two first grade classes this year, I hope to speak to more. It was college / career week. So I volunteered to talk to the kids about going to college, how college helped me on my career path, adjusting to college and making a career. I explained some of the barriers and how technology has erased many of them.

I believe education is the path to understanding and acceptance.

Posted by at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

17 Misconceptions about People with Hearing Loss shares great information answering many common questions I get from people. Some are afraid to ask the questions in fear of insulting someone. But I welcome them.

Here I share my responses to the 17 misconceptions from my experience…

1. Everyone with hearing losses uses sign language and reads lips. I know a drop of sign language, which I’ve picked up here and there like I’ve picked up words in other languages. My dad and grandmother lost their hearing as they got older. Neither knew sign language nor how to read lips.

2. Talking louder will help a person with hearing loss to understand. No, it puts us in an awkward situation. It is possible to talk too loud to me, but I can’t be sure if it’s someone’s normal volume or trying to do me a favor. Either way, I don’t want to risk hurting anyone’s feelings. It’s all about annunciation.

3. Hearing aids and cochlear implants restore hearing to normal. I wish! I’ve used both and I still cannot hear a conversation on the phone, from behind me or on TV.

4. People with hearing loss are stupid, mute and unsuccessful. I run a successful full-time freelance business. Before doing this, I had a great career in both the government and in telecommunications. A recent article discusses two employees at a large local company, one is an engineer. Unfortunately, if we dare ask “What did you say?” or don’t look like we understand, we’re perceived as stupid.

5. People with hearing loss tend to be older adults. I was born deaf. ‘nuff said. I’ve met many deaf kids my age over the years.

6. People with hearing loss are defined by their hearing loss. Hardly. I’m a wife and mother first. Then a writer and volunteer. Being deaf does motivate me to work harder. I’m as much as a lefty as I am a deafie.

7. Having hearing loss is shameful. Some folks who lose their hearing as they get older do struggle with the loss just like we all struggle with different things that come with aging. But as a person who was born deaf and never experiencing hearing like the average person, it’s not shameful. However, it’s true that some folks are in denial about their hearing loss.

8. When people with hearing loss miss something, it’s OK to tell them, “It’s not important,” or “I’ll tell you later.” Yeah, my brother did this to me all the time as closed-captions weren’t around until I was a teen. But I know he did it because it’s easier. It’s no different than when kids ask their parents what they were talking about to each other. They just don’t need to know everything.

9. People with hearing loss are rude and pushy. From my view, I don’t like lose track of the conversation or force myself not to care what people are talking about. So in my anxiousness to stay on track, I might come across as pushy when I don’t mean it.

10. People with hearing loss mostly hang out with other people with hearing loss. I’ve had very few deaf friends over the years. The only ones I know are from social networking. However, it’s true that some folks do all they can to be active in the community with other deaf people. It’s no different than Jewish people interacting with each other, Blacks and so on. You’ll find this in every race, culture and creed.

11. Everyone who needs an assistive listening system can use ear buds or headphones. I can’t use ear buds at all. They’re not loud enough and they don’t reach my hearing aid. I use headphones and switch my cochlear implant to T-Coil to shut out regular sounds and only hear what comes through the headphones. The T-Coil has been around since I was a kid. Great invention.

12. The wheelchair symbol represents universal access. It represents people who need to know if there’s access for someone with mobility challenges.

13. Hearing access isn’t needed because it’s so rarely requested. “Many people with hearing loss are so accustomed to there being no accessibility accommodations that they don’t inquire about it unless it is publicized.” Very true. I’ve gotten to the pint that if someone tells me about a video, I don’t bother to check it out unless they say it’s captioned or has no words.

14. People with hearing loss read braille. My husband ran into this when he was moving to Washington, DC, and I hadn’t yet joined him. Riding in an elevator, a coworker, who knew I was deaf, asked if I could read braille. Sure, I can rub my ear all over it and know what it says. Not really.

15. Providing access for people with hearing loss is very expensive. I can caption my own videos for zero cost. (OK, we won’t go into the fact you need a computer and Internet connection.) We can also access relay services online.

16. Deaf, hearing impaired, handicapped or disabled one is as good as the other. Even I get lazy and say “deaf person” referring to me. But it’s true that the correct way is “people who are deaf or hard of hearing.” Using “deaf person” or “blind person” implies there’s nothing else to the person. Some deaf people (see?) prefer to be known as “deaf person.” I also get lazy and say “hearing impaired” instead of “hard of hearing.” I’ve used all three terms. The only thing I don’t like is “handicapped.”

17. Companies or accessibility experts with no background with hearing loss can know what best meets the needs of people with hearing loss. Not all companies have the ability to hire someone to be an expert. That’s why you do research, ask questions and contact experts.

Image credit: Chris Baker

Posted by at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

I heard the news on Twitter from an unexpected source: @marleematlin. I happened to browse Twitter and caught her tweet. It’s great to have someone with her name speaking out about Netflix’s lack of captions on streamed movies. Like it or not, celebrities can make things happen a little faster than as ornery folk.

Netflix responded to the caption issue in its blog. While I appreciate the company’s action to deliver captions in 2010, I take issue with a few things:

1. Silverlight: “Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) is on Microsoft’s Board of Directors.” No wonder why Netflix is only looking at Silverlight instead of what’s best and fastest. Heck, I captioned my own YouTube video. Also see http://www.codeplex.com/amp. Besides, Microsoft hasn’t implemented all of the SAMI specs.
2. A year? Really? Even the major TV networks caption full-episodes. Hey, Hulu even does some!

Pshaw. Give us a better answer, Netflix. Not looking at the gift horse in the mouth, but the fact you’re letting your own “constraints” affect customer service.

Posted by at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Amazing Race’s Luke responded to a question that confirmed that some deaf people (me included) tend to be more defensive than the average person. Here’s the interview response I’m talking about:

The deaf community has responded very positively. They were very happy with how I played the game and that I made the final three. They were a little disappointed about the Kisha and Jen incident. It’s kind of the deaf-culture thing that the natural reaction is to protect myself when I’m bumped into. I was also really upset when Jen called me a bitch because I couldn’t hear what she said. She should’ve said it to my face and not behind my back. I thought that was a very cowardly thing to do and I felt like she kind of got away with that. The deaf community was mad about that.

We don’t want people to view us as pushovers or say something about us out of our view when we’re right there. If a hearing person can hear it, then be fair and tell the deaf person in front of him or her. Luckily, I can recognize a few words my kids say when they’re mad and catch them red-handed when they walk away calling me names or saying inappropriate stuff.

I wonder what other habits I have that are common for deaf people, but uncommon for hearing people.

Posted by at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

OK, sometimes I feel like I should learn how to create a neutral look on my face and talk as little as possible.

Or else someone misinterprets a perfectly friendly or innocent comment or look for something negative.

My famous look: Quiet. We all have quiet days. When I am quiet, I just don’t feel the desire to socialize, have much to say or have things on my mind. This look, many times, comes across to others as anger. Gosh, do I have an angry look except when I smile? I hope not.

What can I do? I don’t have time to stare at myself in the mirror on a quiet day and try to morph it into a different look.

We all holler to our family members who are not in the same room as we are. The comments aren’t anger. They could be reminders, check in, questions and whatnot. All neutral emotions.

One day, Paul (hubby) reported that I sounded mad.

Eh?

So I walk into another room and hollered, “Are you OK?” Returned to him and asked if I still sounded mad.

“Yes.”

D’oh!

If my family can’t figure out my real emotions, imagine others who don’t know me as well as they do.

I like to joke around and kid with people. What may sound like a negative or insult, I meant to say in a funny way. People make the same kinds of comments, so I know I am not being a bad joker. Now I wonder if I should refrain from trying to be funny aloud.

Good thing I conduct most of my business online without any face-to-face interactions or talking with my voice.

Nonetheless, in-person contact is important. I go to PTA meetings, volunteer at schools and with nonprofits, play tennis and attend events.

Unfortunately, there’s no good solution. I can’t be someone I am not. I try to live my life as a kind, caring, honest and conscientious person. Of course, I have my weaknesses and those probably come through more.

Maybe being aware of this will help me improve in communicating with others.

Posted by at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I remember in the ’80s when pins were popular and full of Valley Girl talk. One popular pin was “I’m not deaf, I’m ignoring you.” I had one as it made for a good laugh.

Paul (hubby) was talking to another parent at yesterday’s T-ball practice. She told him about her husband attending our kids’ school book fair. Apparently, he was going on and on while I didn’t pay attention to him.

He turned to his wife and asked why I was ignoring him. Thankfully, she knew about my deafness.

I’ve heard stories like this over the years and it makes me shudder. I’d like to think I’m a nice person who pays attention when people talk to me. It’s harder to tell when there’s more noise and a crowd. I figure the voices I hear are people talking around me and not to me.

I hate it when people think I’m rude without my having done anything to deserve it. I’d rather earn it :)

Posted by at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jamie Berke has an excellent article introducing Jonah Syndrome. I remember the movie, And your name is Jonah. It was broadcast in 1979 — still a few years before captions hit. Berke explains that the people behind the movie promoted it heavily in deaf communities yet the movie contained no captions.

Like I said, it was life before captions. However, she has a valid point. Foreign movie subtitles were around then. The producers should’ve used subtitles as an opportunity to connect with the deaf community and make the film widely available encouraging people to watch it without sound.

Last year, Law and Order: CI, had a great episode with Marlee Matlin. Yet, those of us in Dallas missed it due to bad weather (the weather reports took over). The station graciously reran the episode in the middle of the night (it sounds negative, but they are bound by broadcast rules and it was all they could do).

Speaking of weather, Dallas’ CBS affiliate abandons its deaf viewers whenever it has weather reports. An entire episode of The Amazing Race and Cold Case didn’t have captions. The network does something that prevents the captions from coming through. Yet, ABC and NBC don’t have this problem anymore. Since The Amazing Race currently has a deaf contestant, you could say it was bit by Jonah Syndrome.

Sometimes Jonah Syndrome hits well-meaning places. They provide an ASL interpreter, but no captions. Now, this is not a war of ASL vs. lipreading. Remember, many people classified as hard of hearing and deaf later in life didn’t learn ASL growing up. It’s true that it’s harder to learn a second language after you pass the age of 10. Almost everyone can benefit from captions including those who aren’t deaf.

Posted by at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recent research by Dorothy Bruck and Ian Thomas on behalf of the Fire Protection Research Foundation shows that almost 44 percent of many people — including people with hearing loss, seniors, children, and heavy sleepers do not wake to the sound of standard fire alarms. With roughly half of all home fire deaths resulting from incidents reported between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., this has become a safety issue.

New research discovered a 520 Hz square-wave signal is at least four to 12 times more effective at waking people at risk than the current high-pitched signal.

Using this information, Dr. Dave Albert has developed a new UL-listed bedside fire alarm and clock that uses technologies proven most effective at waking people. The Lifetone HL fire alarm and clock includes a 520 Hz square-wave signal and a bed shaker.

I’m sharing this with you to raise awareness about this safety issue. I’ve never used this product and cannot attest its effectiveness. Here are more fire safety resources.

I was in a fire when I was 5 — at my grandparents’ house. So it can happen to anyone.

Posted by at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Angela Chambers, editor of the Plano edition of neighborsgo, asked if I could attend the coffee to talk to people about my neighborsgo experiences.

Background: neighborsgo is the Dallas Morning News’ citizen journalism site where some lucky stories make it into the print edition of neighborsgo, which comes out on Fridays. There are 18 different editions and people can pick up a copy at local Starbucks or get it with their Friday newspaper. Excellent way to bridge the gap between print and online media.

I took her up on the invitation though I tend to avoid such invitations for fear of getting lost in conversation. Not shy by nature (although I do get more energy from smaller groups and my energy drains with larger groups), but it’s frustrating to struggle in understanding people. I’d rather listen than speak as you learn more that way.

I met some smart and intriguing people. Of course, I didn’t understand them all and searched hard for keywords. We exchanged many business cards and I hope we’ll stay in touch online where it’s more comfortable.

Next Friday, I’m attending another event — invited and couldn’t pass up on it. At least, it’ll be mostly women — my track record is that I lipread women better than men.

That’s why I value social media. No worries about misunderstandings or not understanding.

Posted by at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I’ve always hated services. I sat there bored out of my mind. Once in a blue moon, I made an effort to sit and follow. But it was too much work for little meaning. For a few years, I’d take a religious book and read it on my own. At least, I was with my family and absorbed in my own material.

But Purim wasn’t as painful especially with all the noise we make when the reader says Haman’s name. That and Simcha Torah with all the moving around we could do.

Now there’s a PowerPoint program for Purim that is available to synagogues to make it more accessible to the deaf and hearing-impaired. Almost 200 groups plan to use the program this year. Details available from OU.org, but unfortunately — it tells little about the program.

Here are the details from the web site — just in case:

The mitzvah of hearing Megillat Esther is a requirement of every Jew. Using our Power Point program will facilitate the “inclusion” of our fellow Jews who are deaf or hard of hearing within your community, and allow them to be part of this mitzvah. We would like to make this program available to every synagogue which is interested in including the deaf population into their services.

Our Way/NJCD is proud to offer a power point presentation of Megillat Esther for the deaf and hard of hearing. Developed in Canada by Frank Ducheony of Our Way Montreal, this program is designed to enable the deaf and hard of hearing to follow the Megillah reading and participate in the holiday of Purim.

Here’s how it works: Simply put the disc into the drive in your computer and the program will pop up on the desk top. It can be projected to the front of the synagogue and a hearing person follows along with the Chazzan using the mouse of the computer. Every time the name of Haman is read, the word is clicked and a visual graphic comes up to represent “stamping out the name of Haman”.

This is a fun and engaging program which can be used not only for individuals with hearing loss, but is also useful for the elderly and the visually challenged, and to engage young children.

There is a donation of $100 which would be used to further develop inclusive resources for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Please contact us at 212-613-8127 or jacobb@ou.org to order your copy and for more information.

Posted by at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Great discussion over at Filipino Deaf about deaf and hearing marriages and when the wife is deaf vs. when the husband is deaf.

From the post:

This leads me back to my main query, how successful is a deaf marrying a hearing person? Here are my succinct personal assessments on the four couples I had the opportunity to be acquainted with:

• The hearing wife is a skilled signer. She had a deep immersion on deaf culture and its peculiarity.
• The deaf husband is a well respected leader of the community. He has the appeal and at the same time, the intellectual maturity compared to other male deaf of the same age.
• Since deaf people are more straightforward in dealing with things, hearing wives tend to be more forbearing and patient with their deaf husbands than the other way around.

I guess I don’t count here because the closest I ever immersed myself in the deaf culture was participating in the deaf group in the Department of Transportation in Washington, DC. We had over 30 of us. Most I’ve ever met.

A friend of mine’s father is deaf and mother is hearing. Based on her stories and my experience, I would’ve thought it was easier to have the wife be deaf rather than the husband in a mixed marriage.

While I try not to think in stereotypes, husband often tend to be the stronger person in the marriage (not always!). My friend said her dad didn’t say much or get involved with the parental duties much. Since women have the advantage of birthing babies and all, I figure a deaf woman has a better chance of being involved as a parent than a deaf man. I’m lucky my husband is an involved dad.

There’s the discussion of interpretation. I communicate for myself, but I also do a lot of communication online. The only time my husband gets involved is when he recognizes my facial expressions and asks, “Did you catch that?”

I could slap him when he says that in front of the person! Of course, I wouldn’t do that. But I don’t want to hurt the person’s feelings for not catching what he/she said. That’s the extent of his help from a communications perspective.

Sounds like a potential topic for a graduate student’s thesis.

Posted by at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I got a surprise from the school nurse. She said that my youngest, a five-year-old kindergartener, failed his hearing test twice. The state required that she notify the parents and ask for a follow up. His hearing was fine until this point. The problem appeared only in his right ear and at the highest pitch (they test three levels).

Since he had been coughing and had a sinus infection, we thought it could be fluid. He went to see his regular doctor who pronounced no fluid and no wax. So the next step was to set up an appointment with the ENT and audiologist in his office.

We know it isn’t a hereditary thing as my hearing loss was a birth defect. His next follow up comes on February 3. Yes, it puts a family on the edge. I never dreamed that hearing loss would hit my children (the older two have full hearing).

I debated whether to share this story. But it’s deaf-related and thus, it should be here. Whatever will be, will be. That’s all.

I know some deaf parents are proud to have deaf children while others cry. I’m not going into that. This is simply my son’s story and we’re already working on the next step.

Posted by at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

One of my best friends emailed me because she has a new student in her religious school class who has a cochlear implant. She and her sister are in the 4th class together despite the person with the cochlear implant is in 7th. Here’s how my thoughtful friend explained the situation:

“She doesn’t us American Sign Language - something different and she is also a special needs student (don’t know the details here). She can read and write. I think we will need to write more on the board to help communicate with her and take some of the pressure off her sister. Any thoughts? I want them to feel welcome and since she is so much older and doesn’t speak it will make it harder for her to participate.”

Apparently, things are not going well at home either with divorced parents and Dad having primary custody. Mother refused to allow the kids to get baptized and they’re behind in their studies.

Obviously, there’s more to the story, but I am not going to make assumptions. I told my friend that they need to relieve the younger sister (4th grader) of responsibility in helping her older sister. My friend is going to call the dad to find out how to best work with her.

I hope this story gets better and that the girl learns to communicate the way that it works best for her.

Posted by at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We finally feel a part of the cell phone revolution as more phones come out with keyboards, more people use SMS, and more apps become available to help us communicate through text. Then I read an article in the local newspaper that keyboard phones might become obsolete thanks to voice recognition technology for cell phones.

Google and Vlingo have applications that let you commandeer your phone, search the internet, and save on typing. According to the writer, they perform almost flawlessly unless he is in an area with a lot of noise. These applications are available only for iPhone and BlackBerrys.

I would think voice recognition won’t take over 100% of the time for one reason: noise. If you’re in a quiet area or in a meeting, you won’t want to speak commands.

Should this technology advance enough to separate background noise from your voice — then we could be in trouble. In this case, cell phone manufacturers may cut keyboards for good and go with touch screen for times when you can’t speak.

On a brighter note, I’m grateful Google Mail has added SMS capabilities to its Google Chat application. My daughter relies on texting for communicating with me and I don’t have my BlackBerry with me when I am at home. So now I can text her from Gmail.

Posted by at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Never thought about it until today — shame on me. If I used ASL on a regular basis, this hand injury would’ve been more frustrating. I couldn’t type much for six weeks, so imagine trying to sign with one hand.

As you can see from the photo, the splint allowed me to move my four fingers. However, I think the thumb has a big job. Though I am a lefty, I think my right hand may have been the dominant hand when I learned the finger alphabet and picked up on some ASL from friends.

Anyone ever get stuck with one hand? How did you work around that from an ASL perspective?

Posted by at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

A reader wrote to me about her relationship. I told her I am not in the best position to advise and asked if I could post it as I think she would benefit from a community response rather than one person’s experience. After all, deaf people have all kinds of experiences. Here’s her note:

I know it isn’t easy to draw generalizations, but I’m hoping you may be able to tell me if some of my deaf boyfriend’s behaviors are culturally-based, gender based or just his own temperament.

He is an excellent lipreader and is able to speak with a hearing aid. All of his ex-girlfriends were deaf with one exception: a hearing person who knew ASL. Almost all of his friends are deaf.

I have never dated a deaf person before although I am very interested in diverse cultures. I have been reading as many books and on line info as possible about deaf culture.

I do not know sign language. I am willing to learn ASL (although learning a new language is very hard for me), but he says it isn’t necessary. I’m also not sure if I want to put in a lot of effort right now if he just wants a casual, friends-with-benefits relationship.

Without going into detail about the emotional baggage each of us brings to the relationship, can you tell me if deaf people tend to hold back from getting involved with hearing people?

We have fun together, can communicate and get along fairly well. However, he alternates between utilizing my help (dealing with the courts, banks, etc.) and then pushing me away saying he wants to be independent…which I understand. Do you think there is any long term future for us? If so, how can I promote it?

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This post will show you what I said and what this stuff where code [Line spoken should be, “the software heard”]. I strike out the software’s mistakes and picked [put] the correct version in practice [brackets]. Here we go…

For those of you not familiar with beast to pick up where [speech to text software], you begin by planting the stuff where [training the software] with your voice [for]. I completed a puce shim at this Nilan my guess asked them to wood made the top then the average user. [I completed a few sessions of this knowing my deaf accent would need more help than the average user].

Victim … err… product is Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 Preferred. I opted to go with v9 instead of 10 to save cash and not worry about crashing problems it supposedly has.

Needless to say, I’m not to let that. [I’m off to a bad start].

I’m trying the speech recognition software. Unhorsed for get a pass when I say [I’m hopeful it’ll catch what I say]. Starla far [so far] it’s not perfect. It looks like it needs blood twanging [more training]. IM into this to write auto close [I’m anxious to write articles].

I have not been able to write because to [of] have my hand touchingly [surgery]. I have t will [it typed “two,” so I said “backspace backspace” and “o”] may [lay] off use and [using] my hand because of Salonika [swelling].

Let’s go back to planning [training].

(Conducted more training… another attempt…)

Comeau nutcake [communicate]

I talk to my clients regularly and ensure they are happy with my luck [work]. I’ve gone [learned] from mistakes and client platform things [preferences]. I aim for high quality and provide personal sofas [service].

Bill pays not to worry [Build A Lot 3 review (awesome game, by the way)]

Linked [I couldn’t wait] to play this game. The previous two games Laden [captivated] me. I could not imagine it could get better. That [but] it did.

We talked a to Gravenhurst and you [Return to Ravenhearst review (another superb game)].

To blame for is it that it’s week he is as gay yeah [Return to Ravenhearst is the best Mystery Case Files game yet]. If you compare at the first list week he file game to the latest [the first game to the latest…]

That’s still the see at clout a.m. it [cursing here. No translation as this is a family friendly blog].

MP3 of the above script (opens in new window so you can follow script). I talked slower than usual for the software’s stake.

Posted by at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Anyone using an iPhone or a Blackberry? I’ve narrowed the cell phone decision to these two. My thoughts:

iPhone: Advantages

• Blends iPod, PDA, and phone in one nice package.
• Has a nice PDA interface.
• Tracks teen.
• Has 3G.

iPhone: Disadvantages

• On screen keyboard not as fast as BB keyboard.
• Syncs with Outlook, but not Notes for Windows.
• Doesn’t have its own desktop personal information manager that syncs with it.

BB: Advantages

• Contains real keyboard.
• Comes with its own desktop applications for syncing.
• Easier to enter and manage notes, a feature I often use.
• Can’t track teen, but hubby will be able to since he will have an iPhone.

BB: Disadvantages

• Targets Exchange server users, which I don’t use.
• No 3G.

I think I’ll have to go with the Blackberry where I can type fast. I own an iPod Touch and can’t come anywhere close to the typing speed I have when using my Sidekick (that I’m getting rid of due to unacceptable and unreliable service).

This move also shows Palm blew it big time. I stuck with the company for much longer than most and they just blew it. The Centro keyboard is horrendously small. It’s a shame because the company developed a wonderful personal info manager by keeping things simple yet powerful and useful… unlike Windows Mobile.

Posted by at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Paula Rosenthal offers advice on how to help a child get ready for school.

I asked my mom what she did when I was in elementary school. She said that after the first one or two years, she asked the teacher for five minutes of her time. Mom would explain that I needed to sit where I could lipread and that they needed to face me when talking to me. She also suggested they call or send a note (after all, no email back then!) with any problems so Mom could help.

Mom also had to meet with the principal a couple of times especially in third grade when I got a teacher assignment that wasn’t right for me. The school put me in the third top math class and near the bottom for reading. After Mom met with them, they moved me to the top math class and third top reading class where I did well.

She told the teachers about my hearing aid, the need for batteries, and that it had a tendency to have feedback (I do NOT miss this about hearing aids).

By the time I hit middle school, I just made sure I sat where I needed to. In high school, I didn’t work as hard to sit up front as I wanted to be with my friends and not the nerd in front row.

Although my middle child has all of his senses, we work with the school and teacher more than my mom did. We had our meeting with the teachers and principal last Friday (school started yesterday, August 25) to discuss accommodation updates for him. We regularly email them and will meet a few times during the school year.

The principal created a point sheet that requires more check ins than what we offered. We obviously wanted to keep it simple as we know the teacher has 20 or so other kids to manage. But the school chose to do it that way to help him build early success and then they’ll loosen it later.

We’re lucky to have a great support system in our school. Please share how you work with the school to help a child’s success.

Posted by at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In my first year in college, I walked in my dorm room to see building maintenance working on the ceiling. It turned out the university sent them to install a visual fire alarm. That impressed me because I didn’t request it and I never had one while growing up.

Whenever the fire alarm went off, I quaked in my shoes (I never wore boots). You see, my grandparents’ house caught fire when I was five while I visited them. Grandma and I were playing Casino or one of many card games we played together. We could see the little walkway to the kitchen from the formal dining room where we sat. It glowed.

Somehow we knew to get out (or maybe Grandpa yelled to Grandma and I didn’t hear him). We darted (well, Grandma probably moved faster than snail speed) away from the kitchen walkway to the other doorway to the front door. After that, I sat on the neighbors sidewalk while the firemen did their job.

So all these years, I knew fires could happen to anyone. Whenever alone at night, I turned into a frightened little girl knowing I wouldn’t be able to hear the alarm.

The Dallas Fire-Rescue department (jpg letter) installs smoke detectors for people with hearing impairments. The fire alarm monitor includes smoke alarms, receiver, and bed-shaker. So contact your city’s fire department to see if they offer a service.

If you build a new house, see about getting such an alarm installed. The way our fire alarms are set — the security company couldn’t add a visual fire alarm for us. Trying to see if the city’s fire department can help. Stay safe!

Posted by at 6:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Previously, I posted the iPod Touch Rules! — By accident, I found a similar feature in the iPod Nano (second generation). It didn’t have this before upgrading iTunes.

I pushed the button a couple of times while playing a song and by the fourth push — I see lyrics! To scroll down, just slide the scroll wheel like you do for volume. Brilliant.

These work well and don’t require extra steps like some lyrics software. Just copy and paste lyrics into the lyrics tab and that’s it.

Posted by at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I’m lucky I found someone early in my life so I didn’t have to deal with the stressful dating game for long. Deaf people — at least in my case — who live outside of the Deaf culture feel insecure when it comes to the dating game. Although it’s wrong to dislike someone just because of a difference, it’s human nature.

A person who is deaf wrote to Dr. Romance about returning to the dating pool:

I want to tell you a short story about myself. I am deaf since birth and I grew up being deaf. It’s hard for me to fit in, because this society doesn’t understand about us very well. I was married to hearing man for 13 years and we’ve been divorced for 10 years . I have wonderful sons, I love them so much and I have given up a lot to raise them. Now I am ready to date and trying to meet men on line, and chatting with them seems to go well; but as soon as I let them know that I am deaf they have stopped talking to me as if I had leprosy or something.

Its hard to meet men who aren’t scared of deaf people; the ones I meet seem not willing to try to be patient or to know me better. They never find out I’m a lot of fun like other people in general; and I like the outdoors, riding bikes, and camping. I also have job, because I can do anything but hear.

At the bar scene or anywhere when men talk to me and I try to understand them by reading lips, they act like I’m weirdo so I have to tell them that I am deaf. I hate to LABEL myself “I am deaf.” Then they say, “Oh, can you read my lips?” or “Never mind” and they walk away from me it hurts and frustrates me.

We the deaf people who love hearing people and want to prove them that we can be like they are and enjoy dating. It seems very limited for us to date people in general. They need to get better educated about us and to understand us better. It wont hurt to try!

I love your dating tips for deaf people, and I’m going to post them on my blog. To meet a hearing man who understands deaf people, why not go to classes in American Sign for the hearing? There you’ll find people who understand what it is to be deaf (many have relatives who are deaf) and who won’t be ignorant or afraid of deaf people. If you search online, be up front about being deaf in your profile — that will filter out the people who don’t understand. Try reading my article, “Where is Love?” .

How to Date Deaf People: (written by Dawn)

*If you meet a deaf person and you want to talk, let the person know by waving “Hi” or write a note to give to her or him.

*When you want to say something; Have a pen and paper to communicate with them so he or she can understand.

*If you invite a deaf person out out on a date, please face your date, to make it easier to read lips, and use the pen and paper when you don’t understand. Also, listen to what he or she has to say.

*If you have cell phone with you, don’t answer it unless you warn your date first [Dr. Romance says this is true of any date, not just a deaf person.] Understand that a deaf person probably can’t tell what you’re saying when you’re talking into a cell phone, so it’s polite to let your date know why you’re answering the phone and what the call is about (for example, it’s work calling, or someone who is ill. Non-essential calls can wait.) *If you take this date to a party, introduce your date and let them know that she or he is deaf. Sometimes, people knew some sign language — you never know.

*If the other person is talking and your date doesn’t understand, help him or her stay in the conversation by briefly explaining the gist of the conversation.

*It’s helpful and kind to ask your date how to say some words in sign language. Your date will be impressed that you are willing to learn to communicate with them in their own language.

*Phone calls are easy — text messaging always works. Even when you’re on a date, texting something on your phone and handing it to your date will work if you don’t think you’re understood.

*If you’re going to the movies, ask in advance if there are closed captions for the hearing impaired.

*Remember your date can’t read your lips in a darkened theater. This is a good place to use texting — you can just hand your date your phone.

*If you want to be able to talk, it’s better to take your date out to mini golf, a nice small cafe or the park.

*Understand that American Sign is a different language, with different grammar, so don’t be offended if your date is sometimes hard to understand. As with any different language, it takes a little patience. You’ll get used to it after a while.

*I encourage you to learn sign language. Classes are fun, and you’ll impress your friends.

*Your date will be happy to answer questions if you ask.

Posted by at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I received an email from a web designer who designs web sites and tries to make them more usable and accessible. He wants to add closed-captioning to all sites with video and also include a transcript.

He wants to know what is the best file format for the transcripts: rich text format (.rtf), Adobe Acrobat (.pdf), or text (.txt). Do you have a preference or know others who may have a preference? I don’t have a preference - I recommended either .pdf or .txt since .rtf doesn’t appear often. Anyone?

Posted by at 8:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I accidentally discovered a feature in the iPod Touch that I didn’t know was there. I copied lyrics into a song’s lyric tab in iTunes and forgot about it. I listened to the iPod Touch on my road trip to and from Austin (of course, I was NOT driving). On the way home, while listening to a song that had an album cover — my finger slipped and hit the screen.

What do you know? The lyrics appeared in front of the album, which faded into the background. Eureka moment!!! From then on, I was hooked on my iPod Touch and went digging through my old CDs to grab anything I enjoyed, but never bothered listening to because I didn’t know the lyrics. I loaded over 100 songs and copied/pasted several hundred lyrics (my eyes hurt forcing me to stop searching for songs and lyrics).

To add the album artwork and the lyrics, right click any song and select Get Info. See the screen shot on the left.

iTunes still doesn’t make it easy to find closed captioned media (meaning music, podcasts, videos, all of them — not just videos). I found a captioned law podcast as well as SpaceGeek and Tecnocato HD videos.

Now my longer car rides are enjoyable! I hated car trips — and still do as they make me miserable — but the iPod Touch makes them bearable. Progress… finally! Next step… captioned popular media. iTunes needs to have a captioned option in its search — not just in the movies, but ALL media search.

Posted by at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I visited with my mom yesterday and asked her about the St. Louis trip that my parents to me on when I was three. My parents received a recommendation to have me tested at Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) to see if there was anything else they could do to help me.

Apparently, I did well on the tests. However, she remembered that I failed one word, “ceiling.” I didn’t know what it was. Mom joked that it wasn’t as if I had use for the ceiling and walking around on it.

After completing the testing, the examiners said I’d be a great candidate for their residential school. Me… THREE YEARS OLD! They wanted to separate me from my family at three. We lived in Fort Worth! Not exactly close to St. Louis. Mom responded, “She’d be a great candidate for staying home with us.” Mom would never send me away to school. If anything, they might have considered moving someplace.

I asked her if they got anything out of the trip. They learned they were doing the right things with me and took a report back to TCU’s Miller Speech & Hearing Clinic where I went for much of my speech therapy. Boy, did I hate repeating non-sensical sounds and words like me-ma, me-ma, mo-mu, blah blah. Of course, I am grateful to have had the help, but as a kid… who enjoys it?

As for my education, I attended Fort Worth public schools for all but nine months and two days of it. I went to a private school in second grade because we bused across town for second grade and my parents were concerned that it wouldn’t be ideal for me. Then for two days, I went to a private school in 10th grade and hated it. Back to public school.

I am sad to report that Fort Worth public schools have fallen apart and lost their shine on their armor. A couple of schools here and there remain strong, but hardly anywhere compared to when I went. I sincerely hope that this changes. Fort Worth is a lovely city.

Posted by at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Employers think it costs too much to hire people with disabilities. But many articles dispel this myth including this one from JobJournal. “In fact, hiring a person with a disability usually costs very little. Seventy percent of workers with disabilities require no accommodations at all. For those who need special provisions, perhaps a custom keyboard, phone, or computer program, the average cost is less than $500.”

Plus, employers who hire a person with a disability gain a bonus. The Job Journal writes, “In exchange for going the extra mile to hire someone with a disability, employers in surveys consistently say they get a worker who is often better than average, with good attendance, punctuality and acceptance of authority. Surveys also find that those with disabilities are less likely to have an accident at work.”

Right on target. You could almost say my slogan in life has been, “Always proving to be as good or better than the everyone.” I’ve been fortunate to have a great career and one that makes me proud. I never thought I could make it as a freelancer because I would be responsible for marketing and finding clients.

Considering relay phone calls take away the “personal touch” factor, I couldn’t imagine how I would get around that. But I did. I couldn’t tell you what one thing worked. When I find new clients, I ask how they found me. Some through people whose names weren’t familiar, some through online searching, and some through networking.

The article also says, “…the biggest endorsement for hiring those with disabilities comes from the companies themselves. Ninety-seven percent of employers who have hired someone with a disability would do it again.” I’ve been lucky 99% of my clients used my services again. It could be 100%, but I can’t be sure of that and I don’t want to be dishonest. I guess I’m doing something right. I’ve made a few mistakes along the way and still do. It bugs the heck out of me, but I try to learn from them and move on.

What about kids? Deaf kids enjoy working at Six Flags over Texas. I loved going there as a kid, but I would never work there since it was a 30 minute drive for me. Hard to believe prices have more than doubled since I went as a teen. We owe my son a trip there for his birthday, but I’ll let hubby take care of that. I can’t ride roller coasters anymore because I black out on them and it was getting worse as I got older.

I got every job I applied for as a kid except one with a giant discount store. Never got a reason, but that’s OK. The jobs (pre-college graduate jobs)?

• University bookstore clerk.
• Toys R Us checker and stocker.
• Tandy Radio Shack filer.
• Data entry for an antique catalog.
• Casa Manana apprentice (we changed the sets between scenes). Most memorable kid job.
• Gift wrapper in my mom’s short-lived gift wrapping booth.
• Babysitting.
• Babysitting in a community center daycare.
• Putting mailing together, stapling, getting paper cuts (really young — was helping my mom’s organization).

Posted by at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

We all have embarrassing moments, and most of the time (we hope) we laugh at them later.

Embarrassing but Funny Deaf Moments: I’ve zoned out at a green light a couple of times, too.

From Ear of My Heart: Fire alarm story. Haven’t had one of those… yet!

Deaf Womyn Pride

Forgot to Turn off My Car: This is becoming a problem now that my new car doesn’t need keys to start — just turn the ignition. Did it once, so far. Hope I won’t do it again!

You Think I’m Crazy? Story

Deaf Culture Online

My Stories

• Shopping: My mom and I were shopping in a clothing store for teens. Mom went to look for some more clothes while I tried on clothes. I opened the door to see my mom and the sales rep talking. Apparently, she thought I was a snob because I was not responding to her questions (I turned off my hearing aids to prevent squealing).

• 7th grade science: We were doing microscope experiments. My table with four people had a hard time finding the organism in the microscope. So I told them I would take one more look. I finally find the organism and said, “I found it!” Again, I had my hearing aids off and when I looked up, the whole class and the teacher were looking at me. Apparently, it was very quiet and the teacher was giving final instructions. (blush)

• Basketball practice: I was practicing shooting baskets. Somehow I zoned out and didn’t notice the team gathering around the coach. I was standing alone on the other side of the court with everyone looking at me. This happens on occasion in tennis… I’ll go the wrong way and sometimes can’t hear people calling because of the wind and other outdoor noises.

• And I do this way too many times… talk louder than necessary when I think it’s noisier than it really is. Hate that.

Posted by at 8:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I’ve talked to many people over the years about my speech. They tell me that it would be impossible to not have a deaf accent no matter how much speech therapy I get. Then I came across this from Dear Abby.

DEAR ABBY: I am a deaf woman who was raised by a woman who made sure I had speech therapy most of my life. Because of it, my speech is quite good, and people often forget that I am deaf or don’t believe me.

I was pulled over by a cop, and when I told him I was deaf and needed to read his lips, he didn’t believe me. Friends and co-workers have even told me, “With speech like yours, you can’t be THAT deaf!” It is frustrating and sometimes hurtful.

The truth is I cannot hear, and I need people to look at me so I can read their lips. Any suggestions on how to kindly remind people — including law enforcement officers — that I really am deaf? — READ MY LIPS IN D.C.

DEAR READ MY LIPS: You should request from your physician a card explaining your hearing disability, and carry it in your wallet in case you are stopped again by law enforcement. You can also use it if there are any more misunderstandings in the workplace.

Anyone know of other profoundly deaf people who speak this well?

Posted by at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I’ve been wish washy about what smartphone to get next as I’ve had it with my current provider. The keyboard and features are great. The service is kablooey. It would be nice to stop carrying a phone and a PDA.

I also own a Windows Mobile-based device and still prefer Palm’s. Like many others, I don’t want to give up on Palm. I studied the Treos and Centro so hard that my eyes protested in pain. I wanted to stick with a PalmOS-based device.

Then a friend with a Centro let me play with her device and see how its keyboard feels. The keyboard was so tight that typos occured more often than not. How am I supposed to take notes on this thing? Writers have ideas popping up in odd places. So phones with a QWERTY keyboard come in handy in capturing those ideas.

Besides, I need to use IM and text messaging to stay in touch. But what good is a Treo or Centro if the typing results in this:

whst hiif is a treo or ceentro ig tge typong looka lije thus?

I tried the BlackBerry. Typing was a tad better than on the Centro, but not as good as the device I have. But one service I’m looking at is getting the BlackBerry Curve soon… maybe that’s the one?

My current plan ends in two months. According to the TechTarget article, Palm could be brewing something. I had my suspicions when I noticed Apple people joining Palm and hoped for an iPhone with a Palm-like operating-system and a real QWERTY instead of an onscreen one.

I doubt it. An easy to use keyboard is a must along with a working network (heck, working 50% of the time would be better than what I have). I’d hate to start carrying a small notepad again.

Posted by at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just completed my first phone call through Sprint Web Captel’s service and it was wonderful. I used to make voice carry over (VCO) calls, but the problem is that they took me away from my computer and I couldn’t save the conversation on the Captel phone.

I have used the TTY to make VCO calls and print the conversation, but I didn’t like wasting paper or the noisy grinding it made while printing. So the web service combines the best of both worlds for those who would like to talk rather than type their conversations (and avoid increasing chances of carpal tunnel).

This flyer shows how the service works [pdf file].

The nice thing is that I can hear the person on the other end and when she pauses. As soon as the person stop speaking, I try to minimize the silence by trying to figure out what the person said based on what the operator has typed before completing the sentence. We humans don’t like silence.

But if the person says something very short, then that’s impossible. Generally, I’ll recognize “OK” and other “agreed”-type answers… but if it’s “What’s that called?” Then it becomes an uncomfortable silence while I wait on the operator.

It will take a little practice to get comfortable with this set up since it’s been a long time since I regularly VCO’d. I fumbled a little and it didn’t help that my voice was a little hoarse due to allergies.

Posted by at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Admit it. It does!

This is no April Fool’s joke. Many things happen on the first day of the month… well, why wait until May?

My biggest frustration with captions are…

• Too many videos out there and not enough have captions. Project readOn is trying to help… but it’s way bigger than any one company to manage.
• Plenty of good DVDs still not captioned or subtitled (latest being Jeff Dunham’s video).
• Sometimes hard to read as these photos show sucky captions.

Captioning Sucks explains what’s wrong with captions while Open & Closed Project aims to set standards for captioning as well as audio description, subtitling, and dubbing.

Posted by at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wow. I’m impressed with Sprint so far — and I am not even a customer yet. The company’s customer service e-mails are much better than my current wireless provider’s.

My current wireless provider sends long e-mails where only one paragraph means anything to me. The rest sounds phony as it uses a poorly written customer response template. The company needs to hire new writers.

We plan to switch all of our phones to the Sprint network when our plan is up in the summer. I need to decide if I want to be on the family plan and have voice capabilities for use with a voice mail texting service or if I want to use the special Sprint plan for the deaf that only has unlimited data.

Decisions!

Posted by at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The commercial we all wanted to see during the Super Bowl didn’t air during the game. Instead, it aired 30 minutes BEFORE the game. Yeah, how many people view the pre-game program AND watch the commercials? Most people assume the supposedly hot (some weren’t) commercials will air during the game — not before or after. So they’re more likely to take breaks during pre-game show commercials.

Nonetheless, you can catch it on YouTube and Pepsi’s special page devoted to the making of the spot and more.

And as usual, many Super Bowl commercials didn’t have captions. Ironically, this included Pepsi’s other commercials. These companies spend millions for their ads, but can’t spare a small amount for captions? Pepsi sent mixed messages with its ads.

Continue reading "The Deaf Super Bowl Commercial" »

Posted by at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Nothing new has happened with regarding to captioning online or downloadable videos. I researched iPod captioning again to see if something had changed since the iTunes v7.4 comes with show captioning option as shown in iLounge.

However, I came across DiveintoMark’s entry on how to view his videoblogs with captions. Reviewing this — we have a problem. Too many options, too many different ways of doing things, no standards.

How can we expect iTunes to work as it depends on the video’s settings/codecs? A video may have captioning available for one media player, but not for iTunes and others.

Continue reading "Captioning Online Videos January 2008 Update" »

Posted by at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

It looks like technology for the deaf and digital don’t get along. I remember back in the ’90s when my company’s phone lines went digital. Well, the TTY didn’t work with digital and the company had to install an analog line for me.

Last weekend, my husband went shopping for a new HDTV. He knew to check out the caption features and ensure it worked well. Unfortunately, what you see at the store isn’t necessarily what you get at home because it depends on your TV service provider.

So far, I’ve watched regular TV, DVD videos (using both captions and subtitles), TV shows recorded on DVR in standard format (instead of HD format — it was before we got the TV and besides, HD takes up more space). The captions are inconsistent in terms of font, size, formatting.

Continue reading "The Nightmares of HDTV and Captions" »

Posted by at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

It finally got cold enough for me to try the headband that covers the ears. When I tried it on, it looked like a good fit. But of course, I didn’t have my tennis sunglasses on to add to the bulk. At first, it worked well. When I adjusted the headband, I was surprised to find my behind the ear part of the cochlear implant way off my ear while the magnet hung on for dear life.

From there, it was downhill. I played softball almost my entire childhood and I don’t remember ever struggling to wear a baseball hat with two hearing aids. However, I didn’t have to deal with a magnet sitting further up my head to make things difficult. Funny thing was when we started wearing baseball caps less often, I hated giving up my cap. I guess there was just something about having the complete softball uniform — hat and all.

At least, the cochlear implant worked despite of the behind the ear floating away from the ear. A hearing aid might not work as well because of the microphone, which would have trouble getting reception through the headband.

Another possibility is the golf cap. I recently learned these are bigger than regular baseball caps and can cover the ears.

Posted by at 9:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I loved reading this Fox News story because the owner of an auto shop took the initiative to create a new product because he wanted his shop to communicate with customers who were deaf. As a result, he saw business go up from 2 or 3 deaf customers to 30 per month! It’s a great example of how making your business or Web site accessible can boost a business.

Posted by at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Cochlear implant. Sunglasses. Visor. iPod headphone. It’s a miracle my ear hasn’t fallen off. The biggest frustration is when I play tennis. Even wearing glasses causes problems since I wear sport sunglasses. I have the best ones I could find that provide the right shade with thin earpieces. Yesterday, in an attempt to get a short ball, I reached low, fell and rolled with my cochlear implant flying out of my ear. Both cochlear implant and I are fine.

I dislike wearing visors and hats because of the cochlear implant’s magnet. But sometimes I have to wear a visor while playing tennis when the sun hits my eyes just right.

Posted by at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

DeafNetwork had these fascinating facts in its newsletter. I don’t know who deserves credit for putting this together, but it’s a neat read. The resources, however, appear at the bottom of the article.

At least 1 out of every 10 people (8.9% to be exact) in the USA has a hearing loss.

Generally speaking, it is estimated that at age 65, 1 out of every 4 people in the USA has some degree of hearing loss;

At age 75, 1 out of every 3 people in the USA has some degree of hearing loss;

At age 85, 1 out of every 2 people in the USA has some degree of hearing loss; and

At age 95, nearly everyone has at least some degree of hearing loss.

Continue reading "Deaf Facts" »

Posted by at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

First iPod. Now iPhone. iPods don’t support captions or subtitling. iPhones aren’t compatible with hearing aids and cochlear implants. Paula Rosenthal has been speaking up loud and clear about the issue that ComputerWorld heard her and others.

Disappointing. Apple dares to be different, but it doesn’t recognize those of us who are different.

Posted by at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

A family friend told us about their temple using an interpreter at the Rosh Hashanah services. The three members who used the interpreter sat to the side in the front for the best view of the service and interpreter.

Now, talking during services is tradition. Even my mother, who values services and follows along, refuses to sit near the front because she wants to chat with her neighbors. But it’s possible to go a little far with the talking thing, but in some cases — people forgive.

My parents took me to services when I was three-years-old. Apparently, I talked loud at times (c’mon, a deaf toddler has no concept of whispering). My mom apologized to the rabbbi. Knowing about my challenges to learn to speak and lipread, he responded, “It was music to my ears.”

When my grandmother was 93, she got frustrated when the rabbi’s sermon went on and on. At one point, she said, “I wish he’d shut up” and it was not whispered. We all turned red-faced.

Back to the interpreter and the three folks. Apparently, a man was talking up a storm, making points. It was obvious to even those who didn’t know sign language that this was more than an traditional chatting. Yes, sign language is quiet. However, the eyes can’t help but dart toward the signers and it can distract those praying. Was this going overboard?

Posted by at 7:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I ran into a classmate from high school online. She emailed me through classmates.com and we caught up with each other within a few emails. She stays in touch with two other classmates, one of which brought back memories. Robbie loved to fingerspell with me from across the classroom. He was a clown borderline troublemaker. I guess he liked the ability to communicate without the teacher and most students understanding.

Then there was Bryan in high school. When we took chemistry together, he loved to say innocent phrases that “look” like inappropriate ones to a lipreader. His favorite lines?

• I want a Fig Newton.

• Olive oil.

I won’t translate the first one, but olive oil can look like “I love you” to a lipreader. I’ve had plenty of lipreading accidents where I misinterpreted what someone said. By the way, Bryan is a doctor.

Posted by at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I don’t remember where I saw this Microsoft form, but it had a field I had never seen on a form before — at least, not from a company that doesn’t deal with products primarily for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

I’ve put all but one TTY into the closet where they are turning yellow in spite of protection from light. The one TTY in my office is the voice-carry over (VCO) phone with no keys. I use the Internet to take care of most of my calls as it saves desk space and uses my comfortable keyboard.

So if I need to call a TTY number, what can I use on the Internet? Using the old method of Hyperterminal didn’t work. Searching for this info yielded no results — all of the results sent me to current relay resources, but not TTY to TTY or computer to TTY.

What’s out there?

Posted by at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For the first time, I’m joining a tennis team… two of them, actually. The coaches and team captains are working to pair us with partners. So I have to start thinking about tips to help my partner communicate with me during the game.

Funny thing, I can’t recall how I communicate with my volleyball, basketball, and softball teams. Probably because it wasn’t a big deal. I did my job and called “I got it!” “Out!” “Foul!” But if I had the basketball, how did I know who was open? It was about using my eyes. I’ve never had a teammate complain to me about not doing something.

Gotta watch that competitiveness business too. One league is more laid back and the other league is very competitive. So I hope it’ll provide a balance, but still — in practice, I find myself building up that competitiveness feeling. It’s tough not being a strong player, which makes it easier to get frustrated or mad at myself.

I let the other team know that I don’t always hear “Out!” so that if I keep playing, it’s only to be on the safe side. People don’t always remember to raise their hand making a one — the signal for out. Surprisingly, there’s no signal for in like in volleyball. When the ball heads for my partner, I move sideways to watch her get the ball and move back to my previous position as soon as she hits it — that way I know where she is. Besides, that’s standard practice in doubles tennis.

Posted by at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Would I be as competitive and a perfectionist had I not been born deaf? I don’t know. Growing up, sports was my thing. I loved playing team sports. I tried golf and tennis lessons, but gravitated toward teams. Thinking about that, you’d think I’d prefer individual sports since you don’t have to worry about communications as much as in team sports.

Anyway, sports can make anyone competitive — not just deafness. But being a deaf person, I constantly wanted to prove that I was as good or better than everyone else. Hence, the perfectionist and competitiveness. This applied to everything I did — grades, sports, and work. While I did well in high school and college, I wonder how much better I could’ve done if I could hear and not miss anything the professor said or fellow students in group discussions.

Competitiveness got me in trouble and I learned from it. After losing a softball game, I was mad and not being a good sport. My behavior caused me to lose a spot on a tournament team. I worked to improve my sportsmanship — but sometimes it was hard to keep it inside of me.

After college, I rarely played sports. Life got in the way… work, kids, and other things. So I had get exercise the boring way — treadmill, stepper, or go outside. I channeled my competitive energies into my career. It drive me nuts when people on my team got promoted and I couldn’t reach that or they’d move to another team because of an invitation.

I did something about the lack of promotion. I applied for higher jobs within the company and landed one. Unfortunately, it was a terrible move as the team was falling apart. Would’ve rather stay on the previous team and be a lowly contributor than move to this one. Work was a horrible feeder into my competitiveness. Politics, knowing the right people… things beyond skill can move a person up.

Before I had my second child, I wanted to climb the ladder fast and become a team leader and then manager. That changed when I realized my managers spend most of their time in meetings — many of them in conference calls. It’s a fact that people might not like a deaf person be their superior in a similar manner to a 23-year-old becoming the manager of a team where no one is under 30. So it may not have bode well for me to get into an official leadership role.

Since leaving the corporate world for my own business, the competitiveness in me has subsided … that is, until I finally found a sport to make exercise fun and started tennis. I love it. Thankfully, the lessons learned help me keep a level head in the game. But that doesn’t mean I don’t get a little frustrated or mad. I keep reactions to myself — much easier than in the past.

Posted by at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I went to a company Web site to read more about its products and possibly place an order. Unfortunately, there was a huge barrier plastered all over the site — “Call if you want more information!” Call … call … call … this toll free number. No online chat. No e-mail. No contact form. Nada. I used the customer service form (not for new orders or questions) and asked for a way to communicate by e-mail. No response in over a week.

The company had a qualified lead and lost it. While I could use the product, the barriers made it easy for me to decide not to buy. I’m checking out the company’s competitors’ products.

Some companies prefer to have people call in so they can upsell or drive the sale home. AOL was one of them — if you wanted to unsubscribe to the free trial plan, you had to call. And in making the call, the customer service personnel challenged us in preventing our unsubscribing every step of the way.

Toll free numbers are worse than regular numbers. They tend to have a recording that lengthens the relay call and bumps up the frustration level.

Posted by at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Mother Father Deaf, a CODA (child of deaf adults) discusses that CODAs “are not normal or the same as the rest of the hearing world.” I think it depends on the deaf adult and communication preferences. But even if a deaf parent speaks and lipreads, CODAs do experience life a little differently.

I have three kids, all hearing. Don’t want to ever be a burden or an embarrassment to them. I talk about this in a past entry describing my experience in talking to my son’s second grade class. It took a long time before I could muster courage to talk to his class as I didn’t want my deaf accent to reflect how my son’s classmates treat him (stupid, but reality).

I avoid using them to help me in conversations where I’m not catching what someone says. In talking to the second grade class, I relied on the teacher to let me know what a child asks NOT my son. If my son wants to call a friend and Paul (hubby) isn’t around, then either I have him call the friend himself or have big sister help him. Sometimes eight-year-olds don’t accurately recall a phone conversation.

Unless it’s grandma or a close family friend, I don’t answer the phone or let the kids answer it when it’s a service company or doctor’s office. They’re not my administrative assistants and I don’t want their help in anything hearing- or communications-related (in other words, cleaning up is something I expect them to do, but not translate phone calls). If it’s important, the person can leave a message or call Paul’s cell. While some of my kids’ friends’ parents use e-mails, it isn’t always possible to use it when time is a factor. They’re not all e-mail checking freaks like me. Those who are — I do e-mail them.

I imagine for ASL households, it’s a different story in terms that the children might learn ASL first and become bilingual (always a big plus!) at a young age. Actually, I doubt any CODA household is identical with the various factors that can affect CODAs’ lives.

Posted by at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Many times, I’ve attended a dance recital, sports event, or appreciation luncheon where I stood in the crowd talking to each other — feeling anxious and isolated. “Why doesn’t anyone talk to me? Someone has to make conversation,” I think to myself. Oh sure, I could start the conversation, but that fear is explained.

Some of these people know me. Do they not like talking to me? They can’t be uncomfortable based on past meetings. Uncomfortable with standing alone, I might go find a group where I know one person, squeeze in the little circle and listen. At least, I’m not alone anymore although I feel isolated from the conversation.

I don’t want to speak up because I might interrupt someone thinking she’s finished talking. Or I might misinterpret the topic of the conversation. Some supporters of the deaf culture and ASL may claim this is my fault because I choose to stay oral. I’m not looking to start another oral vs. ASL war.

No one wants to blame deafness as the cause for isolation, but I’m a realist. I’ve seen enough situations where kids and adults don’t want to talk to the person with a disability or become friends. When I try to slowly build a friendship with someone and she doesn’t respond, I wonder if it something about me? Or our situation?

In today’s society, people are becoming more closed off from each other. So I know I have to take the first step though I despise it. This situation is much like two people in a potential relationship — Is it OK to hold hands? Or will she not share the same feelings? Are we both thinking the same thing, but too afraid to make the first step?

All is not bad. At my daughter’s bat mitzvah party, I couldn’t stop talking to people and moving around. It was our party and we knew everyone. That was a fabulous experience. I’m in no hurry to plan the next one though!

Posted by at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

How to Initiate Conversation had me thinking about my experiences in social settings especially those where I knew few people or no one. While I have a few basic questions to break the ice, I rarely use them because I’m afraid to start a conversation.

Shy? No. Fear of speaking? No. Fear of understanding the other person? Bingo.

If I try to start a conversation and immediately learn I can’t read the person’s lips at all — I feel stuck and in a “Wham bam, thank you, ma’am” situation. OK, how does this compare to the real “Wham bam…” situation when it’s G-rated? Because it feels like I “used the person” as in go to the person, get something and leave without respect. Only I get a bad situation with no satisfaction.

Is it better to not start a conversation and avoid a bad situation, or miss the opportunity of meeting a new friend or client? I guess it depends on my mood and alertness. If all else fails, introduce myself and just rely on “nodding head syndrome.”

Thankfully, I live in a community where I’m involved in different things — so I rarely run into an awkward social situation these days.

Posted by at 8:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thank goodness our independent school district allows teachers and parents communicate by e-mail. The district also provides online tools for reviewing grades, attendance and lunch account updates. One of my kids runs into a situation a little more than the average student, so e-mail plays a valuable role in keeping communication open between the school and me.

It also makes me feel like a true parent. Rather than taking the easy way out and calling my husband, the staff knows they can send me an e-mail. When people skip around me — it makes me feel inferior. Just like when I saw a manager go around fellow co-worker — who was also deaf — and talked to her manager instead. He didn’t want to try communicating with her through writing since her communication preference was through sign language.

I rarely run into a teacher who doesn’t like to respond to e-mails. Heck, one that was bad about e-mails was also bad about returning phone calls. Some parents are paranoid about sharing their child’s information by e-mail, but I think involvement outranks paranoia. Besides, the e-mails don’t discuss my children’s appearance and other specific details. They cover a situation or a subject. If someone hacks my e-mail messages to a teacher, G-d forbid they learn something.

Posted by at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I loved Karen’s entry on dealing with adversity and her mention of social bluffing. I never realized the act of just doing what everyone else does had a name. I learned the guilty way that social bluffing can lead to trouble.

My husband knows me so well that he’ll catch me bluffing and repeat the question someone else asked me. Another name for this could be “nodding head syndrome” since we often do that when someone is talking and we have no idea what they’re saying. But sometimes we do it for real.

Posted by at 7:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Stephen Hopson of Adversity University asks how people deal with adversity. I believe if I weren’t deaf that I wouldn’t know how to deal with adversity as well as I do today. Here I’ve posted my 10 tips for dealing with adversity.

Posted by at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I never considered that my inability to whistle could be because of my deafness. Ocean brought up whistling and the deaf. My family told me where to place my tongue, how much to open my lips and all that. All that comes out is noisy air and sometimes spit, not a note. I can’t even remember if everyone in my family can whistle, but I believe my parents and two siblings can. They’re hearing.

If you read some of the comments in Ocean’s blog entry, you’ll see a few deaf people can whistle. I always try the puckered lip method as the two finger or “F” shape method always ends with spit all over my fingers and terrible noise. Several said they can whistle backwards. It sounded like a good possibility since I’m left-handed. So maybe I need to do things backwards. I tried and it didn’t work.

Another commenter used the grass blade trick. I had forgotten about this one. I remember trying it and not succeeding. Then BEG referenced bottle whistling — although I think it’s more like humming — and that’s one thing I can do! Ha, I wrote this before I read another person’s identical comment.

Deaf258 made me laugh by sharing other abilities including tying cherry stems into knots using the tongue. I can’t do that, but I can roll my tongue or make a U shape.

Posted by at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Believe it or not, Deaf people enjoy music. Each experiences music in his own way. Some play music like Beethoven’s Nightmare. Some turn up the stereo and feel the vibrations. Some listen through hearing aids and cochlear implants. This applies to songs not originally written for ASL.

Growing up, I loved musical theater music. I still do. Following the storyline was easier than a movie or play because of the dancing, colorful scenes, period costumes and the songs. My parents took me to many shows at Casa Mañana where I picked up favorite songs. I worked at Casa for two summers setting up the scenes.

Continue reading "Discovering New Songs" »

Posted by at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Wow! The Pittsburgh Pirates have captioning at their home games! No wonder the stadium scored the number one spot for accessibility. I can’t wait to tell my dad this — he’s the big baseball fan in the family and rubbed it off on me. I’m thankful I can still tell my dad something after he had his stroke a month ago. He’s still hospitalized, but he understands what’s going on.

We’re Brooklyn Dodgers fans. How can we be fans of a no longer existing team? No law against that. Dad grew up in Brooklyn and I love the team’s rich history. Dave … the Pirates may be lousy, but at least they have a great past to speak of unlike the Texas Rangers. The Rangers have had some of the best players and pitchers, but never make it far into the playoffs.

Posted by at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

In Reading to Students, I discussed a bad experience in reading to my daughter’s second grade class and how reluctant I was doing it for my current second grader (for four more days). I e-mailed the teacher who said I could talk to the class on Thursday, May 17.

And so I did. Those of you responding to that post — thanks for the encouragement. I collected stuff to show the students and printed cards with the fingerspelling alphabet and numbers. The talk began with an introduction and my background. Then came show and tell including a yellowing TTY, Sidekick III, hearing aids, and my cochlear implant.

Continue reading "Talking to Second Graders" »

Posted by at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

My son is a second grader and parents come in to read on a regular basis. I read to my daughter’s second grade class way back when and it was a bad experience, so I opted not to read to my son’s class.

But then, I read this story: Deaf woman’s story captures pupils’ attention and wonder if I made a mistake. I talked to my son’s teacher about educating the kids on deafness, but I still worried about his classmates potentially teasing him as they did with my daughter.

Well, the story motivated me enough to leave a message for my son’s teacher to see if there’s an opportunity to come talk to the class before school’s out. Unlike the person in the story, however, I don’t use ASL or an interpreter. Anyone have experience with talking to young students?

Posted by at 3:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Jared opened an enlightening discussion on laser surgery for the eyes to improve vision. I had LASIK in 1999 while on maternity leave and I love it. The procedure was uncomfortable, but it went by fast though it didn’t feel like it while in the chair.

Eight years later, my eyes continue to see very well. However, I don’t see 20/20 as I did after surgery. I got a pair of glasses last year for use on occasion when driving at night. They sit in my glove compartment for those times.

It’s tricky to read captions or the cable guide on TV at times, but it was still worth going the procedure. Who wants to manage contacts, glasses AND hearing aids? It was enough.

Posted by at 8:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Someone wrote asking me the following. I don’t have an answer for her without doing a lot of research. Maybe one of you knows a resource. Just post a comment and I’ll make sure she gets your notes.

I’m looking for information on captioning provided to local communtiy television station. This is a community of 12K, university town with good number of deaf/hoh students. Deaf/hoh in town numbers around 15-20. City attorney says they are not required to provide captioning for their city council meetings and such. We understand that there is a cost issue. Is there any technology out there that will alliviate the cost to caption the local tv station?

University students are involved for internships. I was hoping there is something out there that is not cost prohibitive that I can share with them. They use a video camera and manage their output thru a computer that sends live/taped sessions of municipal court/city council meetings/and other city related issues such as interviews with park adminstrators etc. Let me know if there are tools out there that I can present to them so they can caption some of the local events.

Posted by at 7:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had been looking forward to seeing Wicked for over two years as we bought our tickets for last night’s show in December of 2005! On a lark, I stopped by the theater’s Web site to see a list of the upcoming season’s shows. I saw the “OC” symbol and eagerly read up on open captions. According to the site, the theater uses a laptop to display the script.

[image pops up in new window]

Continue reading "Wicked without Open Captions" »

Posted by at 6:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Many of us were eager to watch Law and Order: Criminal Intent recently because the cast consisted of deaf actors. Those of us in the Dallas/Fort Worth area experienced interruptions due to the storms we had on Tuesday evening.

The local NBC affiliate heard plenty of complaints and re-aired the episode a couple of days later… at 2:00am. It was the best the station could do because of contracts and all that legal stuff. I thought it was a nice compromise. Most of us have recorders, but for those who don’t — there’s always summer re-runs.

Continue reading "TV Weather and News Interruptions" »

Posted by at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Law & Order: CI (though it stands for “Criminal Intent,” it was the appropriate L&O series since episode was about cochlear implants) “Silencer” revolved around the death of an ear surgeon who testified against another surgeon for doing cochlear implant on a baby that should not have received one. Candidates for cochlear implants undergo testing and evaluation to determine whether they qualify. Unfortunately, some doctors will implant anyone.

A deaf girl discovered the body and called 911. Though she couldn’t hear, she waited just enough time that an operator answer and repeated that she needed help. I’ve done that before when I got stuck somewhere without my hearing aid. Like when I went swimming at the community center, I called my mom and just kept repeating what I needed long enough that she’d get the message.

Continue reading "Law & Order: CI "Silencer" Comments" »

Posted by at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Finally watched the CSI: NY episode, which originally aired last December. I record everything and watch them when I have time. Anyway, my observations.

Good to hear a gunshot and Matlin not reacting to it. Instead, we see her feet feeling the vibration and the baby monitor light blinking. She walks out of her bedroom and sees a broken lamp. As she makes her way to the baby’s room, she finds her 19-year-old daughter dead on the floor from a gunshot.

Continue reading "CSI: New York "Silent Night" Comments" »

Posted by at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In talking about speed reading, Scott H. Young mentions a word I hadn’t come across: Subvocalization. Not only do I do this while reading, but also while lipreading without my hearing aid as I explained in this post from my other blog.

I’m curious about those who are deaf especially those who primarily communicate with ASL and don’t wear hearing aids. Do you “hear” things in your head while reading or lipreading?

Posted by at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Grant W. Laird, Jr. takes a stroll down memory lane with “History of Wireless Devices in Deaf Community.” Thinking about my experience, I can’t believe how many devices I’ve gone through since 1993 in my first job out of college. The following lists the devices I’ve used:

• Email: 1986 - current. It began with BBSes. I was limited to emailing those who used BBSes and eventually Prodigy and AOL.

Continue reading "Wireless Communication Devices for the Deaf" »

Posted by at 8:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Since For a Deaf Son aired immediately after Through Deaf Eyes, I recorded it. Rob Tranchin, an executive producer at PBS KERA in Dallas, created this 1994 documentary exploring his and his wife’s search for the right school for his deaf son. The parents discussed their thoughts, concerns and frustrations. They interviewed the headmasters at different schools as well as experts in deaf education.

At the end of the film, they were undecided on what path to take. Laurie Tranchin leaned toward oral education while Rob Tranchin supported ASL. In searching the Internet to see what happened, the only thing I could find — sadly — was that their son Tommy passed away in 2003 at age 15. I found a way to contact Mr. Tranchin, but when I saw the news… I dropped that idea even though I’d still like to know the outcome.

I admire the Tranchins for filming an honest account of their struggles to do what’s best for Tommy. I’m sorry there wasn’t a happier ending.

Posted by at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

I watched Through Deaf Eyes and For a Deaf Son, which followed. For Deaf Eyes opened with comedian CJ Jones who told the story of dealing with a angry driver.

Deaf rock band, Beethoven’s Nightmare (great name!) appeared. I like what they do — they let people go up on stage and tell their stories while they rock. Here is the band’s myspace page and mine.

Continue reading "Through Deaf Eyes Commentary" »

Posted by at 3:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

In writing about 5 to 10 things that he does almost every day to stay successful, Stephen Hopson of Adversity University tagged me. Aaron of Today is that Day started the project, and I tag the next set of bloggers at the end of this post.

Continue reading "Simple Success Secrets" »

Posted by at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Angry Deaf Man Deaf shares an experience about shopping with a friend when the salesperson tends to look at the friend instead of him. I haven’t had the opportunity to travel much overseas and his comment about not having this problem outside of the U.S. intrigued me.

It happened to Angry Deaf Man again. This time with a parking attendant.

I get scared at the thought of traveling to a foreign country because lipreading a foreign language tends to be harder. In one company, I worked with people from around the world. I looked forward to working with them and getting to know them. But then reality set in. I couldn’t understand them very well. So whenever I communicated with them, it had to be brief and about business.

I can relate to Angry Deaf Man’s experiences. I can recall many group events, team bus rides and other situations where I felt invisible. Sometimes I push and get myself involved with the discussion or group. Other times, I back away. It all depends on who I am with and how well I understand him or her.

That’s what I love about blogging. None of the barriers get in the way and I can enjoy intelligent discussions with others.

Posted by at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

While RFW’s post about Radio for the Deaf isn’t to be taken seriously, it reminded me to discuss the topic. I’ve never pushed for radio captioning. Sure, it’d be cool to follow along with the songs and practice my hearing — but really — most of the time I am the driver not the passenger. Not a good idea to read and drive.

How often do people listen to the radio at home with MP3 players? One thing I’d like to see is a greater use of technology that gives you the title of the song and the group/singer. My car is too old to have this, but Paul’s car radio displays the song title and artist if the song contains the ID3 Tag. Radio data system isn’t it, but it has relevant information.

It’d be nice to know the title of a song I find myself enjoying. I rarely discover new songs since high school as I don’t follow music by watching VH-1 or MTV because I don’t have the luxury of repeatedly listening to a song until I learn the lyrics. I have to have the lyrics in front of me while playing the song — that means no multitasking.

Continue reading "Radio for the Deaf" »

Posted by at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

With Baby Boomers hitting middle age, the number of deaf people is climbing. Millions Of Us Are Going Deaf And Our Computer Won’t Help Us rants about the things many deaf people discovered long before now. Still, it’s an insightful read and helps spread the word about the challenges deaf and HoH people face.

Posted by at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Social Work/Social Action points to Deafness and the Riddle of Identity, which discusses Jane K. Fernandes and the “not deaf enough” issue. It isn’t fair to use the fact that Fernandes wasn’t a native signer against her.

Not I’m not going to defend Fernandes, but want to say don’t hold this sort of thing against a person. Remember, when we’re children, our parents and guardians make our communications decisions for us. So some great ASLers may not have learned ASL until later in life.

Granted, Fernades wasn’t fluent in “real” ASL, so I understand that. The point of the message is to not judge someone because ASL wasn’t his or her first language.

Posted by at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

I admire Marlee Matlin and the show’s writers for its episode where Matlin played Joyce’s lawyer, Ruby Whitlow. Actually, she was in several episodes, but I’m referring to the one from November 30, “Born a Gamblin’ Man.”

I admire the writers because they scripted a funny story that addressed the sort of thing we don’t encounter in real life, but could think about it. For example, Doug — Ruby’ interpreter — covers his mouth with a notebook and tells Joy that sometimes he gets annoyed with interpreting for Ruby like when she flirts with a guy. Hilarious.

Joy, being the troublemaker (this is a family friendly site, y’all) she is, beat up the interpreter. Another time, Ruby speaks to Joy with her own voice. Joy responds with a big laugh and says, “That deaf accent of yours gets me every time.’’ Making fun of deaf people’s voices isn’t new as I’ve dealt with it from kids — but adults talking about it on a TV show is something else. Earl’s writers did a great job making it genuinely funny not “feel sorry” or “laughing at you” funny. Shows like Saturday Night Live do this all the time.

A TV Guide reader wrote to Matt Roush about one of the earlier shows in which Matlin appeared about Joy’s laughing at Matlin’s voice. I liked what Roush said: “Earl is a show that blends crude and sweet humor rather fearlessly, with little regard for political correctness or even tastefulness. If Joy’s reaction to the lawyer’s deafness was offensive, it was meant to be. But it was so extreme (as is Joy’s way) that it was also hugely funny.”

Hey, I rather kids laugh at my accent than point and stare.

Posted by at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I’ve been reading Steve Wozniak’s autiobiography, iWoz, learning about the birth of Apple Computer and its evolution to Apple I and Apple II. Made me think about how eager I was to get home from camp in 1980 because I knew we had gotten a new computer, an Apple ][+. Reading iWoz, I realized my dad got into the personal computer thing early. All these years later, he still isn’t a whiz with computers and relies on his children and our spouses to fix his computer, hardware and network.

So I asked Mom why he bought a computer as early as he did. First, she thought I asked why an Apple not the TRS-80. She wrote, “At that time, it was mostly Apple or Radio Shack’s TRS-80 for at-home personal computers. Apple was the most popular and supposed to be user-friendly (which we certainly needed, since we knew nothing and you were young.) We looked, drove around to get the best deal (they were so expensive) and finally bought that one in Arlington, hoping it would work for wht we needed (wanted.).”

“Why did Dad get a computer so early in the game?”

Mom said, “He wanted you to be computer savvy - he knew it was the big thing coming and figured we’d use it, but mostly you’d get into the computer age and it would be a great communication tool for you. He was right!”

Boy, was he right. Actually, I didn’t use it for communication until about five or six years later when we got a 300 baud modem. Even when we installed the modem, I didn’t use it much right away. My generation didn’t grow up with computers — a handful did. We might’ve had computer labs in school that we could use once a week or so, but not something generally found in the home.

Too bad we didn’t invest in Apple stock!

Posted by at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Call me strange, but I’ve loved musicals since I was a kid. I would pretend I was a character from a show and sing without fear of how bad I sounded — of course, I had no real audience. My parents took me to many shows at Casa Manana, a theater in my hometown of Fort Worth. Casa has a colorful history with Billy Rose who brought famed stripper Sally Rand to perform.

Casa has a round stage — which made it difficult to have a bad seat in the house. Sure, the audience faced the stars’ backs at times, but the direction was well done so it was hardly noticed. I learned many of the songs by heart and became familiar with the storylines, so I could fully enjoy each show.

I even spent two summers working at Casa changing the scenery. I still have my shiny black jacket with Casa’s famous domed building on the back of it and my name on front. I had the pleasure of working with Ruta Lee, Peter Palmer, and Jason Byce in Hello, Dolly! and Paint Your Wagon.

I had the pleasure of seeing many wonderful shows at The Kennedy Center in Washington. We had season tickets there a couple of times. We’ve also seen shows at Arena Stage (has a round stage, but not the one we saw), National Theater, and the famed Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was shot.

What does all this have to do with studying? I got carried away with memories. Anyway, we’ve had tickets to see Wicked at Dallas Music Hall for over year for April 2007. I bought the book and the CD so I could familiarize myself with the show and completely enjoy it.

When I went to the theater’s web site to try to buy a third ticket for my daughter, the OC (open captions) caught my attention. Can you imagine how excited I was when I read that the theater gives laptops that have the script? I can’t wait to try it out. It’ll be interesting to see how well I can read the screen and watch the action on the stage. One suggestion: Why not use tablets instead? They’re lighter and less bulky.

Dallas Summer Musicals has a great line up this year. We were tempted to get season tickets, but it’s too difficult for us to try to make a show every two weeks especially with our kids’ schedules.

Posted by at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Austin news channel KXAN reports on new technology in a San Antonio that will make it easier for the deaf when they’re at the airport. Deaf Link is an airport station that lets a deaf passenger connect with a Deaf Link interpreter through the Internet and communicate ith airport or security personnel.

But this is limiting because it’s only for those who know ASL. I doubt it would be easy to lipread the video just like it’s difficult to lipread people on TV. I know, I should be grateful that the airport is taking steps to help and I am.

Cheryl Heppner of NVRC also wrote about an action alert on accessible air travel last March. Here are the details from her email:

Continue reading "Air Travel for the Deaf" »

Posted by at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I whined and moaned in this entry about the problem with my eyes aching and feeling pressure. My regular doctor told me to see the ophthalmologist rather than my optometrist (Talked to him, too).

She said all my symptoms pointed to dry eye syndrome. First thing to try was adding tears (eye drops) four times a day and then an eye gel at night. After two weeks of that, I didn’t feel better. The office did a test on my eyes at that appointment and the results stated I had severely dry eyes.

The doctor put in plugs (didn’t bother me at all) and I will continue my routine (if she hadn’t put in plugs, I would’ve had to put tears in EIGHT times a day). All About Vision has a great entry about dry eyes complete with animation showing how plugs get inserted. The entry says that Dallas/Fort Worth is one of the top 10 cities named as a dry eye hot spot.

After reading up and talking to the doctor — It’s no surprise that I had serious dry eye problems as I had LASIK in 1999, took meds that can lead to dry eyes, and being a woman (hormones can cause dry eyes). But my eyes never felt dry and she said that can happen — maybe I adjusted.

Anyway, there you have it. If you hear someone is having problems and can’t find answers — here’s one possibility to check into. While this has nothing to do with deafness, I had people asking me if it could be related. So it isn’t related in my case.

Two more pages with good info. One from Mayo Clinic and the other from The Eye Digest.

Posted by at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How to Calm a Nervous Employer provides suggestions on how people with hearing loss deal with interviews and telephone calls. I especially appreciate the “Left Out” section as that’s been a life-long challenge.

I have a contact number for my business, but I also link to an entry on how the relay service works. I’ve tried to keep the contact process and relay information simple. Ever since I first entered the workforce, I’ve constantly searched for ways to explain the relay process in as few words as possible. I hope this process works in helping current and potential clients feel comfortable about working with me and contacting me.

Posted by at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Various relay service providers exist, but they all work similarly. A person who is deaf, has speech challenges, or has visual impairments contacts a relay service through a TTY, special phone, web site, or instant messenger where an operator acts as a go-between.

A person calls the relay using a preferred method (TTY, online, etc.). The operator answers and asks for the phone number. The person provides the phone number and any other relevant information, if needed.

The operator calls the number and explains the relay service to the person called. The person called answers normally and says, “Go ahead,” when finished responding.

The operator types the response to the caller who types, speaks, or signs (depending on the type of service used) a reply in which the operator repeats to the person called. The conversation continues using this process until the end.

The call doesn’t cost anything (except for long distance and cell phone charges) as the funding comes from other sources. Long distance calls made online typically don’t involve charges.

Contacting Meryl

I have a phone number that reaches me through AIM (AOL instant messenger). When the caller calls me, it’s almost like making a regular call except with delays between caller and person called speaking. The relay service requires patience, but I want to be available for clients and prospects.

Some people find the process tedious and prefer to use email, instant messaging, or another means to communicate with the caller. I try to make the communications process as easy as possible for clients and potential clients. Unfortunately, sometimes I can’t reach people because they hang up on the service thinking it’s a telemarketer.

Posted by at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How to Calm a Nervous Employeer offers advice on how to prepare for a job interview or prepare a potential client by explaining technology and ASL. As a result, I plan to add information about using the relay service on my About page.

More on this in a past entry.

Posted by at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I read Joyce Lain Kennedy’s Career Advice column and in last Sunday’s column, she provides advice to a deaf job seeker [may require free registration] who is struggling to find a job that doesn’t require telephone work. The writer also says that employers are reluctant to hire someone with a disability. I’m disappointed to read that as I rarely ran into this sort of problem since graduating college. Furthermore, I’m a full-time freelancer so I’m constantly “seeking new employers” in the form of clients. Perhaps, I’ve been lucky.

The only time I may have run into an employer who wasn’t comfortable with a deaf person was in high school — the retailer was the only one that didn’t accept me for the job. I even had the opportunity to work in a department store’s gift wrap shop in spite of the requirement to answer the phone. I turned it down because they believed I could handle the phone. It wasn’t a loss as I don’t have a talent for gift wrapping.

Anyway, Kennedy use professional athletes as an analogy. At the end of their professional sports career, they rely on their network of friends and family to open doors to a second career. Troy Aikman and Emmitt “Twinkletoes” Smith have done well in their post-football years. Kennedy points to DeafProfessional.net, a one-year-old web site covering deaf professional issues and profiles successful stories.

Sadly, Kennedy quotes a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)statistic saying that “only 55.8 percent of the disable community has a job.” SHRM is working with the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy to provide resources to employers on hiring people with disabilities.

Posted by at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My IP Relay is available on MSN Messenger.

To use it, add myiprelay@verizonbusiness.com to your MSN Messenger Contact List.

To make a call:

• Just click on contact name, My IP Relay
• Enter the phone number you want to reach and follow the directions
• My IP Relay connects your call

Learn more at http://www.ip-relay.com/myiprelay.html. This is the same service that offers AIM relay (contact name: myiprelay). I use it most of the time because it’s faster than web-based relay services and it blends right in with my online chat application. Furthermore, I get my own phone number that goes through the AIM service.

Posted by at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I read stories from the 1990s, I’m amazed how different they could’ve turned out had cell phones been more common then. Paul and I had numeric pagers. We came up with different codes to communicate with each other. Now we both have Sidekicks and can AIM to text message each other.

Forbes explores how Gallaudet protesters kept each other informed with technology. Paul and I use our ‘kicks to stay updated on game scores, shopping questions, and children whereabouts. Is it any wonder why I love technology and gadgets?

Posted by at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

AllDeaf.com points to a story about deaf people who want to see closed captioned ads. We may fast forward through commercials when watching TiVO or a taped program, but there are times when we’d like to know what is said on the commercial.

Super Bowl time, for one. Hey, with all the hoopla about commercials during the big football game of the year, we want to be included. People talk about hilarious commercials. We like to laugh, so please caption it so we can laugh with everyone else.

The story talks about political ads. Deaf people can vote. At least, those 18 and older. I’ve voted in every minor and major election since turning 18. Political campaigns aren’t required to be captioned — only for presidential candidates who receive federal funding.

Considering not everyone turns out for voting, don’t candidates want to grab as much of the deaf vote as possible? Not that I would be influenced by the candidate who captions vs. not captions, but it can make a difference in an election where you have one Republican, one Democrat and two Independent candidates. That would be the Texas race for governor.

Super Bowl advertisers, are you listening? If you pay big bucks to run your commercial during the big game — what’s a measly few bucks for captions?

Posted by at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lots of great articles popping up regarding Gallaudet and the Deaf Culture. Alicia sent a link to a very powerful article [scanned version] written by the mother who has a deaf daughter. The article highlights the big picture for the protests against the selection of Jane K. Fernandez presidential appointment. The shocker? The article [html version] is 15 years old!

This New York Times article published in Arizona Central is also worth a read as it also explores the Deaf perspective.

Here are letters from Dr. Roz Rosen and others. Another honest and insightful commentary from Rick D. Taylor a.k.a. Ridor, David W. Boles, and The GU Private Investigator.

Posted by at 7:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This superb article from the Houston Chronicle by Clarence Page of Washington, D.C., and Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist. It looks at mainstreaming, Galludet and its presidential challenges, the culture, and cochlear implants.

Everyone should read the last four paragraphs.

When you divide the world between “us” and “them,” even in reaction to prejudices, you run the risk of developing dangerous prejudices of your own.

Posted by at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For many of us, the Internet erased communication barriers until videos started gaining popularity with sites like YouTube and TV networks making episodes of shows available as downloads. We can watch the TV shows on TV with captions, but the downloaded videos are silent — without captions. The Wall Street Journal took notice with its article: Deaf Web Users Fear Being Left Behind As TV Shows Stream Onto the Internet.

Even with the Journal’s article, it will take a lot more notice to make a difference — but it shouldn’t be as slow a process as it was for TV captions. I hope.

Posted by at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I want to switch to the Palm Treo when my current data plan contract ends in December, so I’ve been researching prices and options. I went to Verizon Wireless and couldn’t find a data only plan. The rates for a calling plan with unlimited data were too high.

I emailed Verizon about a data only plan and the company said it can’t offer specific plans. I understand — but according to PC World and Palm’s press release, it had a data plan for $45. Either it went away or never existed. That would work for me.

Cingular and T-Mobile don’t carry the latest Treo. Sprint’s service is bad where I live. Garth Wireless targets people who are deaf, and there I find a Verizon data only plan that costs $20 more than T-Mobile’s data plan with a Sidekick. Data plans with Blackberrys are also cheaper.

Seems the message is for me to stop using PalmOS. I should switch to something else, but I can’t help but prefer PalmOS-based devices.

Posted by at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

stu.dicio.us is a great idea and would’ve helped me a lot in college… but what are the chances fellow students who take the same classes would use this service? I entered my university and there were only NINE notes from classes I never took. I also entered the university I attended as a freshman and that had one note. It’s going to take time to build this up besides with students changing (graduating plus entering freshman), it won’t be easy to inform the new students about the service.

Posted by at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, as a lipreader-instead-of-sign-language-user, I can’t catch these videos from DeafJoke.tv. But I get the third comic strip and I love it. Though I may not use an interpreter, I’ve had plenty of situations when I had delayed reaction or laughter because someone had to tell me what happened. Funny snakes, too.

I hate it when I have to ask people sitting around me… “What’s so funny?” “What did I miss?” “What did she say?” I’m sure it comes across like I’m not the brightest bulb in the box.

Ken “Prof. Glick” Glickman wrote a few humor books on DEAFinitions — I have a couple of them. He sends DEAFinitions on a weekly basis. I also remember enjoying Kathy Buckley’s comedy routine on TV. She was hilarious. I’d like to share one of her funniest lines… but I can’t quite recall the set up and it’d ruin the joke.

Posted by at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Friday, my kid’s elementary school held a program called “Experience the Awareness.” The point of the program is to have the kids learn about the struggle behind the different disabilities and learning differences. Kids rotate through 10 stations, spending about five minutes (too short) at each station.

We covered muscular dystrophy, missing limb, injured limb, autism, cerebral palsy, dyslexia, asthma/speech, blindness, hearing loss, and wheelchair. The deaf station required the kids to put cotton balls in their ears, put headphones over them and listen to the music. Then they would take one cotton ball out to see what it’s like to only catch some of what they hear.

Continue reading "Experience the Awareness" »

Posted by at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While working for a company, employees received a letter from HR telling us we needed to call the voice automated system to confirm our accounts. It had to be “the employee” who does it. I asked the manager what I should do about it and she said to have Paul call.

I didn’t trust this process because I’ve gotten phone calls from my credit card company and other businesses that must talk to me. One time Paul and I were frustrated with a caller. I told the caller that I was Meryl and that she had permission to talk to Paul. It took a few repetitions to get through to her.

I appreciate that companies try to watch out for their customers in times of identity theft — but where can we find a happy middle between the company ensuring safety and getting what it needs while keeping the customer from getting frustrated with jumping hoops.

Continue reading "Dealing with Phone Reps and Recordings" »

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Did I tell you how much I appreciate the Internet? It’s the one place I rarely run into communication barriers. The only time that happens is when a site has audio or a video without captions (and it isn’t easy to tell what’s going on just by watching it). I posted entries on this over in meryl’s notes as I think online communication goes beyond making it easier on a deaf person like me to connect.

Posted by at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I play mahjongg once a week and love it. I, however, can’t imagine playing as fast as the regulars do especially since I have to look at every tile thrown. My group contains mostly beginners and we’re getting faster — but still a long way from the continuous clickety clickety clack game.

Anyway, we were on break after setting up the next game. My friend was studying her tiles while talking to herself. “Don’t cuss!” I said. She jumped out of her seat and glanced at me with a confused look on her face.

She didn’t cuss. She said something entirely different. [Blush]

Now she tells everyone the story and we have a good laugh. I forgot what she really said. Maybe it’s a good thing because obviously my lipreading skills were off.

Posted by at 8:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here’s an excellent guide from The Hearing Journal. It discusses the price of not addressing the hearing loss and where to get help. There article also contains a long list of resources, which I’ve added here as a backup.

• Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
• American Tinnitus Association
• Better Hearing Institute
• Canadian Hard of Hearing Society
• Hear-it
• Hearing Loss Association of America (formerly Self Help for Hard of Hearing People)
• League for the Hard of Hearing
• Deafness Research Foundation/National Campaign for Hearing Health
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

Organizations:

• Academy of Dispensing Audiologists
• American Academy of Audiology
• American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Canadian Hearing Society
• International Hearing Society

Companies:

• Audina
• Audiology Online
• Healthy Hearing
• Beltone
• Bernafon
• Electone
• GN ReSound
• Miracle-Ear
• Oticon
• Phonak
• Qualitone
• Siemens Hearing Instruments
• Sonic Innovations
• Starkey Laboratories
• Unitron Hearing
• Vivatone
• Widex

Posted by at 8:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Stephen Hopson, a talented person who is a pilot and former stock broker, shares an embarrassing experience that could easily happen to anyone who is deaf. I do what he did — answer “yes” or “no” when I’m not sure what someone said and I’ve already asked him to repeat. You just don’t want to be a bother by repeatedly asking, “What?”

A minor incident happened a few months ago. It worked to my advantage, but it also made me feel guilty. At the mall, I stopped to get a soda on my way out. I ordered and had money in hand. The guy at the counter asked a question. After two or three times of “What?” I finally said, “Yes.”

The cost of the drink was less than what I usually pay. Confused, I took my drink and left. Moments later I figured out what he asked. “Are you a mall employee?” Oy! I accidentally lied and felt rotten about it. I tried to make up for it by giving a tip next time.

Posted by at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My sister told me about a conference scheduled for November here in Dallas and encouraged me to submit a proposal. I’m not afraid of public speaking, but rather others understanding me and hearing their questions.

A few years ago, I did a panel at sxsw and it went OK. I was the moderator, so I didn’t have to worry too much about interacting with the audience and panel members. But I think I’ll pass on any future panels — unless it’s people I’ve met in person and understand.

For this presentation, I plan to bring index cards so the audience can write questions. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to collect the questions or walk around and read them while letting the person read the question out loud. I did this once in college when I did a lesson plan with children (we all did short lesson plans). Barely can remember how it turned out, but it must’ve been fine as I would remember it if I struggled or ran into problems.

The hardest part isn’t speaking and listening, but creating a creative presentation instead of falling into the PowerPoint Trap. I plan to dig into Metaphorically Selling for some ideas.

Posted by at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

School, meetings, conferences, speakers. I felt like a dork having to sit in the front row in school by choice. I was grateful to teachers who did assigned seating saving me from “making the decision” to sit in the front.

Dorkier than sitting in the front row in a class: sitting near the front when coworkers and I went to listen to a speaker. I’d be up front alone while my team sat in the middle or back row. Occasionally, a team or a few members sat with me in the front row without a thought and I appreciated that.

One time a manager motioned for me to come sit in the next chair. I did something stupid. I rolled my eyes in frustration. Not at the manager, but as a reflection on the whole “front row” thing I’ve done all my life. More like “Here we go again… to the front row!” The manager naturally and understandably thought I was being rude.

I don’t automatically go for the front row as I’ve learned over the years, the front row isn’t always the best place to sit especially when dealing with roamers, neck pain, or angles. The roamer is a speaker who likes to walk around. In this case, I scoot back to the middle row.

The neck pain comes from looking straight up when the speaker is on a stage or platform. The angle is when the speaker is on the left or right side and I have to turn my head to one side for the entire time eventually cramping. Of course, everyone knew when I wasn’t paying attention when I turned my head the other way for relief. Shame on me! My eyes aren’t on the speaker.

Generally, I try to tell the speaker that I’m a lip-reader and then ask about the best place to sit. But sometimes the situation doesn’t allow me to do that like when I went to 6th Grade Parents’ Night. We went to the auditorium and I sat between the front and the middle of the auditorium. Well, we got a deep roamer!

Lucky for me, a friend of mine spoke up in front of everyone, pointed in my direction, and said, “She can’t see you” and the rest was a blur as I imediately started blushing like the child who has been caught red-handed. I knew she meant well, but it was embarrassing when someone else speaks up like a parent does for a child.

My friend also tells other people and kids to look at me when they talk. I haven’t even done that with my toddler. When he talks to me, I simply remind him I can’t hear with his hand over his mouth or to speak up (when he’s too afraid to ask for something). When I put him to bed last night, I left the bathroom light on and explained to him that I can’t hear him with the light off. “My ears don’t work like yours. So I use my eyes to listen.” Don’t know how much he grasped.

My 12-year-old understands. My 7-year-old knows I can’t hear without my implant and that he should look at me when he talks. But he forgets like when his friend or friend’s parent calls and he tells me to talk on the phone. Besides, looking at someone when you speak is a good habit, isn’t it? When someone doesn’t look at me (and I can still see their lips), I feel like they’re not talking to me.

I just work with my kids based on their age and situation. Mainly, I tell them to look at me when they talk. It’s rarely an issue.

Posted by at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I’m not shy, but I am afraid — not for the same reason listed in the article: “Most of us are afraid of rejection.” Rather, I’m afraid that I won’t understand the other person. I’ve reported this before that lipreaders on average only catch one-third of what’s said. Read every third word and you’ll see how it can affect understanding the article. I tried to find the scientific article that reported this — but no such luck — although a doctor reports this fact, but he doesn’t say where the information comes from.

University of Wisconsin has a guide for working with students with various disabilities. It states, “Only about one third of all English words can be lip-read. Many of those words that can be lip-read are identical to other words. Students who lip-read pick up contextual clues to fill out their understanding of what is being said.” That’s true. For example, “mom, mop, pop” all look alike when you look at the mouth movements. My implant helps me distinguish the p and m.

I’ve attended conferences and networking meetings. I don’t believe I’ve picked up any business through these means. That’s why I rely on my web site, blog, and newsletters for marketing.

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fabulous news! About time a company did something. America Online announces close captions for online video.

AOL today announced it is now testing closed captions for streaming news content from CNN that will enhance the online media experience for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Captioned CNN video content will be available throughout the AOL network, including the AOL service, the free AOL.com Web portal (http://www.aol.com) and the AOL Video portal (http://www.aol.com/video).

More information on AOL’s closed captioning initiative and links to closed captioned videos here. This resource only lists samplers from what I can see. I found captioned videos by going to http://www.aol.com/video and entering “captioned” or “captions” into the search box. When you first use it, be sure to click Preferences and tick the captions box.

OK, there’s a flaw somewhere. I tried watching Shania Twain’s “Don’t” and John Mellencamp’s “Walk Tall” and neither had captions. What’s up with that? I tried it in Firefox and Internet Explorer. I can play the videos, but see no words.

Posted by at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I received an email from talented photographer Peter Bryenton, and asked if I could post it here because it gave me insight in a major problem that a deaf photographer has to deal with. They came up with a clever solution… but it isn’t perfect. He kindly agreed and provided an expanded note.

There’s a serendipitous feel about the way I sometimes stumble across links between blogs long after I’ve forgotten how I arrived at them.

Meryl is an experienced blogger, worth reading, with whom I have exchanged a few brief words about teaching special needs children. There is often an immediate assumption among many people that a hearing impairment, or an unusual speech pattern, signifies stupidity. More often than not, nothing could be further from the truth. Is Stephen Hawkins any more daft than the rest of us, just because his body does not obey his mind?

I remembered how, when I was at Art College in the early seventies, I befriended a fellow photographer who was profoundly deaf. Andrew was exasperated by other students, who repeatedly burst into his darkroom, ruining his work. They had dutifully followed the unwritten professional code of conduct and knocked on the sliding door first. On hearing no reply, because, of course, their knocking had not been heard, they went in. Surprise was usually the least of the ensuing states.

There was a clever system of red and green lamps above the doors. Put our trust in technology, OK? Well, frail humans leave red warning lamps switched on, even after they have left a space, forgetting to switch them back to green. Oh, and let’s not forget about those who lived with red-green colour blindness?

Life isn’t ever simple, is it?

Posted by at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I didn’t wear my implant for almost two days because I was sick. When I put it back on — whoa, it was uncomfortable. Took a little time, but got used to it. It takes time to get used to wearing braces and eye contacts — the same applies to hearing aids and cochlear implants. But why did I have to start over every time I got a new hearing aid? It was understandable when I got the cochlear implant.

I had a lot of ear infections when I was a kid (nothing to do with my hearing loss as far as I know) and I couldn’t wear my hearing aids when that happened. It got so bad that I was no longer “used” to wearing two hearing aids at the same time — plus, we had to send it in for repairs.

And from then on, I wore both hearing aids, but I would switch between ears depending on which sounded better. I never told my parents until years later. I believe it was high school when I got a new set of hearing aids and I got used to wearing both at the same time again.

Now with a cochlear implant, I am back to one. I don’t know if I want to get a cochlear implant for my other ear. I fear getting sick again from the surgery. That lasted too long and I don’t have time to be sick like that. Heck, I didn’t have time to be sick for the past week and now I’m behind.

Posted by at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I’ve heard this argument in different forms. She’s too Jewish. She’s not Jewish enough. She’s too much of a democrat. She’s not Republican enough. Here the person isn’t deaf or hearing enough. I don’t 100% belong in either world, although I have a higher percentage of belong in the hearing world than the deaf world.

Just have to make do with what I’ve got and accept things as they are.

Posted by at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A reader provides tips for communicating with someone who is deaf and she says that deafness is not a visible disability, which can be nice as well as difficult. The good: You’re not instantly judged when you meet strangers unlike other disabilities. My daughter has a friend who has an arm that stops at the elbow and kids teased her at their sleep-away camp.

The bad side. When I was a teen, I went shopping with my mom in a mall clothing store. I was trying on clothes and my mom had gone to look for something elsewhere in the store. The sales person was talking to me on the other side of the closed door. I either had my hearing aids off (to avoid squealing) or I figured someone was talking to someone else.

Continue reading "Communicating with the Deaf" »

Posted by at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Reading this Letter to the Editor in regard to this story triggered my thinking about the terms related to deafness. But first, a comment on the story. While the letter writer is right that the statement could’ve been easily omitted, Dave Crosby was being honest about his feelings about his own deafness. It would be unbearable for him to become deaf. I try to show that there are all kinds of deafness and how we feel about it.

The debate on which terms to use: deaf, hearing loss, and so on, has been around as long as deafness. Political correctness aside (these terms should all be fine anyway), each one conveys different connotations. The one that may not be politically correct is “hearing impaired” because some see “impaired” as implying a disability. When I say “hearing impaired,” it’s out of laziness because “hard of hearing” takes more effort to say. Same amount of syllables, but still I find it easier to say “hearing impaired.”

Continue reading "Deaf vs. Hearing Loss vs. Hearing Impaired vs. Hard of Hearing" »

Posted by at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Pay phones were disappearing and I was concerned about that for a while. As you know, it’s pointless for me to pay for a cell phone that I would only use in the case of an emergency. That’s a lot of bucks to pay every month even with a basic plan. A pay phone only costs a few cents and it’s all I need for emergencies. I’ve had very few emergencies in the last 20 years… thankfully.

We still need pay phones. Hey, cell phone batteries die. Cell phones stop working. Cell phones lose signals. Cell phones don’t appear in every kid’s backpack. Heck, many kids don’t have cell phones. Let’s hope phone companies keep pay phones even though they know cell phones bring in more money. The challenge is to find the best places to park a pay phone as there aren’t many and they need to be located where people would need them.

Inspiration for this post comes from Toby. Thanks. I agree that posting advertising on pay phones isn’t the best thing to do when targeting execs and business owners.

Posted by at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I often turned off my hearing aids while in the middle of something that caused them to squeal as I had them turned all the way up. It wasn’t until I got digital hearing aids that I could stop topping out on the volume.

In 7th grade science, we did a lab where we looked for some living thing in a microscope. Bending over to look for the thingy, my hearing aids yelped. Off they went. My table struggled to find this stubborn thing. I couldn’t contain my excitement when I spotted it, “I found it!”

Continue reading "Embarrassing Moment in School" »

Posted by at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was blessed that I didn’t stand out too much during my public school years. Kids who made fun of me did it in a joking way that was no different than making fun of my religion. In fact, they probably made fun of my religion more than my deafness. They often said, “Jesus loves you.”

I responded, “It’s so nice to be loved.”

The boys love to say, “I want a fig newton” or “Olive oil” because when you read lips, they come across as something else. A couple of them would say, “Read my lips,” and then proceed to do the Bronx cheer. Cute, huh?

Continue reading "Elementary Signing and Lipreading" »

Posted by at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This insightful story from a Nigerian publication addresses the two different broad types of deafness: prelingual (deaf before speaking) and postlingual (deaf after speaking). Unfortunately, there’s a bad typo in the article. “Dead” instead of “deaf” as well as a few errors. In spite of these mistakes, it’s still worth reading.

While growing up, a few kids asked me, “Are you death?”

Obviously, they misheard “deaf” as “death.”

Posted by at 7:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I like them cell phone bluetooth ear pieces. They make my implant less weird-looking. Is that good grammar? Those things are more noticeable than my implant. Boy, I remember hardly ever wearing my hair up because I didn’t want people staring at my ugly beige hearing aids.

Now I wear my hair up almost all the time. I’ve got thick and curly hair, so it’s like having a fur coat on my neck when I wear it down.

In the ’70s, t-shirts with cool slogans and pictures were a hot item. The local mall had a tee store that put on whatever images and words you wanted. I wore a body hearing aid then making it difficult to see the pictures on the shirt. By the time I got the behind-the-ear hearing aids, the shirts were gone.

And they’ve come back. But I’ve got so many t-shirts now, it’s ridiculous to buy more.

So thank you, cell phone addicts, for making ear pieces cool. :)

Posted by at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Resources available in captioned media talks about the Caption Media Program (CMP), a great program that ofers free loans of open captioned programs. The program now offers Internet streaming videos and currently has over 1000 videos. I love this part because finding online captioned media is like the needle in haystack thing.

I just finished reading Winning Results with Google AdWords (reading it to do an abstract, not to advertise) and learned something interesting. Google Video relies on caption transcripts to make its videos searchable. Well, why can’t the captions be in the streaming videos, too?

Continue reading "Captioned Media Program" »

Posted by at 6:06 AM | Permalink

This story breaks your heart and makes me thankful I’m an American. The treatment of deaf children in developing countries doesn’t surprise me.

Posted by at 8:55 AM | Permalink

Carter Bloodcare rules. I donate blood on a regular basis, or try to anyway. Carter makes it easy to set up an appointment as it can be done online. The donation appointment form, however, doesn’t play nice with Firefox. No biggie. I’d rather use IE than to navigate a recording to schedule an appointment. You can show up without an appointment, but you may have to wait.

Furthermore, you can check your cholestrol test results and check the date of the next time you can donate blood on the Web site. Now, if the organization would let me fill in my meds and answer the questionnaire online before I go. That’s my least favorite part of the appointment.

Know those postcards you get from non-profit organizations asking you to call if you have clothes and other items to donate? I prefer it when they leave a bag because it means they’ll drive by whether or not you call. I got a surprise the last time I received a postcard. The postcard said you could schedule pick up online.

Continue reading "Online Customer Service" »

Posted by at 11:14 AM | Permalink

Alicia mentioned audism in a recent comment and it was the first I heard of the word. Audism, like racism and sexism, is discrimination against deaf people.

Wikipedia provides examples of audism:

• Deaf people cannot write well because they are deaf or because English is not their first language.

• Deaf people cannot be successful without the aid of hearing devices like cochlear implants.

• Deaf people who can speak well are more successful or smarter than those who can’t or don’t speak.

• Deaf people cannot perform well in sports due to their loss of hearing, which is related to the sense of balance.

• Deaf people cannot drive.

I’ve heard some of these, but not the sports reference, which surprised me most considering sports was my thing during my kid years. I only remember of ONE instance where my hearing loss embarrassed me in a sports situation and it happened during basketball practice not a game. We were warming up and I was practicing on the far end of the gym. Coach called us to huddle and I kept on practicing. Blush.

Continue reading "Audism: A Name for Deaf Prejudice and Wrong Assumptions" »

Posted by at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Ah, it’s good to laugh about the whole thing with this hilarious comic of Gallaudet President Jane K. Fernandes (affectionally known as JKF… OK, so it’s a shortcut not an affection) receiving an Extreme Makeover comic from Dan McClintock’s Cartoon Blogs. More good stuff. Thanks to Alicia Lane for the pointer.

Posted by at 7:44 AM | Permalink

Yesterday, the kid who wanted to play baseball. Today, the students who want an education. Deaf Students File Lawsuit Against USU. Suddenly, I feel like we’ve jumped back in time.

I graduated college over 10 years ago (yikes!) and even then, American University (AU) had an office for students with disabilities. I spent my freshman year at TCU and got notetakers there. Some good. Some bad. I needed a strong one in economics and got someone who was an economics major, but his notes stunk more than a garbage bin on a hot and humid day.

I just remembered a notetaker that I liked and had for a few classes while at TCU. Tracy. She had the stereotypical girl’s cursive handwriting with big, neat, and round letters. She was thorough and thanks to her, I did well in Ben Proctor’s U.S. history class.

Continue reading "University Isn't Accommodating Enough" »

Posted by at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Courtney started a fascinating conversation with Being Deaf and thinking. The entry brings up an interview I did with a reporter years ago. How the topic came up, I don’t remember. Somehow, our conversation turned to when I talk or think, I can “hear” words in my head. But I had hearing aids to help me “auralize” words. What would I think if I had never heard a sound in my life? Anyone out there who has been in this situation?

For instance, I’m thinking of the words I type and “hearing” them in my head. Do all hearing people do this? I thought of the word “apple.” I hear it. Sometimes I see it, but more often I hear the word than see the object. Perhaps, this is because so many words don’t have a tangible including tangible as well as is, are, our, quick, and so on.

Posted by at 7:04 AM | Permalink

I can relate to the Deaf couple who worry because they can’t hear sirens. Every Wednesday at noon, I hear the city sirens (for testing purposes), but I’ve missed a couple. Thankfully, I’ve got a hearing family, but I know there are many deaf couples who don’t have this option and it’s a problem.

The story is about the city sirens, not cars, but it prompted a memory. Way back when I was a new driver in high school, we learned about a GM program that installed siren alerters in cars for free. The hardware alerted me whenever a police, fire, or ambulance had its sirens on so I could pullover or do what’s necessary.

Unfortunately, the thing freaked me out every time it went off and it was wrong 95 percent of the time. We took it out as it was causing more anxiety than helping. One thing about deaf drivers is that we use our eyes and usually notice the flashing lights.

Info on GMAbility and from Edmunds

Posted by at 8:26 AM | Permalink

For the deaf, captioners are the true TV stars — Amen!

It’s amazing that I can catch just about anything on Food Network and TLC in captions. In the past, I’d ignore the ads for a new and interesting program on these channels as they were usually not captioned.

Not anymore.

They get paid a nice sum, so it’s a respectable career.

Posted by at 7:38 AM | Permalink

When I worked in the federal government, I attended events and meetings of our department’s deaf group. It had about 40 members — an amazing number to me as throughout my life, I never met more than a couple of deaf people at one time. But that’s Washington, D.C. for you. After all, it’s the home of the largest liberal arts university for the deaf and hard-of-hearing — Gallaudet.

The group held a baby shower for three of us who were expecting around the same time — me with my first (seems so long ago). I couldn’t believe it when I heard (read) that one of them had hoped her child would be born deaf. I’m all for being proud of your culture, but to wish this?

I bring this up because the director of the London-based theatre company Deafinitely Theatre felt the same and succeeded. Why wish for something that will make your child’s life harder. It’s very difficult to live in a deaf-only world even with a town in South Dakota, but obviously not everyone can live there especially those in other countries who prefer to stay where they are.

Posted by at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Wristwatches Get the Back of the Hand says that more people are skipping the wristwatches and relying on handheld devices for the time. Why am I posting this here? I stopped wearing a watch because of my cochlear implant.

??????

I understand the confusion. Because of the implant, I got a medical bracelet that says my name, that I have a cochlear implant, not to do an MRI, and I read lips. I wear it on my watch-wearing wrist. When I tried it on my left wrist, it was making too much noise and bothered me when I wrote. I be a southpaw, indeedy.

I would’ve liked to wear the medical bracelet as an anklet, but how many people check there when a person is unconscious? They’re more commonly worn as necklaces or bracelets.

I tried wearing my watch with the bracelet, but it drove me insane. So now I rely on my Palm or Sidekick II for the time. I’d rather wear a watch, but what can I do?

Besides, when you go to a formal event, do you want to rely on gadgets for time? I think a classic watch or timepiece is more appropriate.

Posted by at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I love this article from Mass Live because it’s how I feel about books. I lived two blocks from the library while growing up.

When we were looking for a house, I kept asking where the nearest library was located. We looked at a house within a block of the library, but it was not to be. We found a place, but the nearest wasn’t, but not close enough that it’d be a place I drive by regularly.

Then finally it happened in 2001 — six years after we moved here. The city built a library within biking distance. I don’t get there as much as I’d like, but it’s wonderful knowing it’s there. Sadly, my older two haven’t taken a keen interest in reading and the library.

I didn’t read many books after my first child arrived. I stole a little reading time while riding on the metro (subway) to work in Washington, D.C., but it wasn’t enough to go through many books. When she was 18 months, we moved back to Texas and more reading time disappeared as the public transportation system is in the dark ages compared to NY and D.C.

After kid #2 came along, I started taking classes and switched to part-time work. After I finished the classes, I started writing for an excinct Web site where I did book reviews and other articles. This got me back into the reading swing again.

Posted by at 10:21 AM | Permalink

I’ve been on a trial assignment for the past week where I submit a story three hours of receiving the assignment — it must have quotes from two original resources (not PRs, research reports, and so on). I understand that because it enhances a story and makes it more interesting.

Not once have I turned in an article on time. I called and emailed the right people — I know I didn’t err there. You know there’s one thing I do differently — I use the relay service to make the calls because I can’t hear a phone conversation. Here is what happened on one assignment alone:

• Called a research firm. Before I even get to type… hung up.

  Continue reading "Journalist with Three Hour Deadline" »

  Posted by at 2:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In the Sign-language takes to the web interview, the CEO of SignPost suggests that live sign language would be more beneficial than subtitling. People who use sign language are supposed to learn how to read and write in the official language of wherever they’re from. Subtitles reach a far wider audience than sign language.

However, I understand the preference of “live” sign language as it’s faster in a live situation. But when it’s possible to choose one of the two, subtitles is the better choice as many employees don’t have sound turned on to avoid disturbing office mates. So subtitles aren’t just for deaf folks.

Posted by at 7:21 AM | Permalink

Synagogue offers sign language interpreter to help its deaf congregants follow services. I don’t like going to services. It was torture to sit there for hours staring at the ceiling. As a result, I don’t last long in services or lectures where I can’t follow what’s going on.

Why don’t I sit in the front? Doesn’t make a difference. I’m a religious person and I do care — just not about services. Why don’t I skip them? Tradition. Seriously. It feels wrong not to. I remember one service that I enjoyed. I attended a women’s conference and the services were easy to follow and a joyous experience thanks to the attendees.

If I work harder to follow services, I know I’ll be worn out within 30 minutes — an hour at the most. Services are rarely that short!

Posted by at 7:11 AM | Permalink

Deaf History Month runs from March 13 through April 15. The March issue of Captioned Media’s ezine has a wealth of information on deaf history.

From National Association of the Deaf release:

“A program highlight will be the introduction of a kit designed to provide information and resources for the nation’s libraries across the country for celebrating Deaf History Month. The kit includes: Program Planning Suggestions; Resources (deaf professional services, library membership organizations; 2006 annual deaf-related events, notable deaf pioneers; Library References; and Glossary of Terms Related to the Deaf Identity; and the National Deaf History Resolution approved by the American Library Association in 2005. The website of the Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action makes the kit available online at: http://www.folda.net (click on “Library.”) Celebrate Deaf Legacy Kit

Posted by at 12:41 PM | Permalink

Fomdi lists Captioned Movies playing around the US. Just enter your zip code, how far you’re willing to travel, and when you want to see a movie. Very nice resource. Typically, I go to AMC Theaters and look under Dallas. It’s the only chain that cares enough to provide captioned movies.

I’ve written to another chain with a theater that’s walking distance from my house and the reply not too friendly. The gist is that the chain doesn’t do it and won’t do it in the near future.

Posted by at 8:24 AM | Permalink

Paul was at the mall and saw a girl wearing hearing aids with colorful earmolds. Intrigued, I did a search and it’s amazing what you can get today. My implant does come with changeable color covers. I was excited about them, but never switch colors. Just wearing silver all the time.

Not only do colorful molds exist, but also glitter and even animals are available. A few pictures show hearing aids in the shape of an animal. Man, quite a far cry from the boring tan hearing aids I had for years. It wasn’t till I had the implant that I got something different. The main part of it is silver. First, they got me brown, but corrected the mistake and got silver. The following pages demonstrate the wild world of hearing aids and implants.

Hearing aid choices for babies has colorful molds and hearing aids, clips, a children’s book, and a few other things. Babies and kids aren’t the only ones who like a splash of colors. Us adults, too!

Westone displays a diversity of ear molds, clips, and stylish gear.

Colorful hearing aids from Eurion.

Hearing aids with patterns have more than just a splash of color.

in action

This is freaky. Silicone impressions that fit inside the ear.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match with Oticon Color MatchMaker.

Karma, karma… chamelon ear plugs and swimplugs. Colorful molds aren’t just for the hearing impaired.

Tour of 20th century hearing devices.

Posted by at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I never thought about becoming a pilot nor the challenges that come with it because of communications between pilot and air traffic control. In spite of the barrier, Stephen Hopson passed his oral and flight exams making him the first deaf person to get an instrument rating from the Federal Aviation Administration. He is allowed to flight in low visibility conditions. Here’s another article about him.

In researching this article, I discovered the Deaf Pilots Association, which says somewhere between 100 and 120 deaf people are pilots. It has fly-in every year and its FAQ explains how deaf pilots fly without being able to hear the radio. Gotta be impressed with these folks. I am.

Posted by at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I remember in high school that I went to a school dance, but I took someone home afterwards and couldn’t call my parents. I didn’t think much of it; a big mistake. It was the first and only time my parents worried about me while I was out. This wouldn’t have happened if I had a Sidekick then. But of course, cell phones weren’t as common then — certainly not for teens. I imagine texting makes a world of a difference in deaf teens’ lives.

Posted by at 7:49 AM | Permalink

Whenever I meet someone who learns I’m deaf, I often get “I’ve taken ASL classes” or “I want to learn ASL.” I think it’s great and it’s obviously a growing language as this article reports the study of sign language drastically increasing.

I loved taking Spanish and French in high school. It’s a shame so few high schools offer much more than that. Mine had German, Latin, and Russian. A friend of mine’s daughters are taking Japanese. Many people from countries other than the U.S. are fluent in at least two languages. How many Americans are not counting those whose family members speak another language?

Posted by at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I often wonder how different my teen years would’ve been if I had the same opportunities as the Deaf and hearing students of today with the technology available to them.

Posted by at 10:50 AM | Permalink

From Deafnetwork:

Some CapTel (captioned telephone) users have complained that it is not fair that they have to pay for their long distance calls while VRS (video relay service) calls remain free. Comparing these two types of relay service is confusing because currently they are billed differently. CapTel is more akin to traditional relay because it is run through the phone line and therefore it is possible to know where a call originated and whether or not it is a LD or local call. Whereas VRS is Internet based like IP relay and there is no way to know where the call is coming from. Because of this, charges for Internet based relay calls, IP and VRS, are currently waived due to the billing issue.

Continue reading "Long Distance CapTel Calls No Longer Free" »

Posted by at 8:05 AM | Permalink

Fire Safety for the Deaf talks about two deaf women who died as a result of a hotel fire because no one woke them up. Whenever I travel alone, I ensure that I get a room for the deaf or people with disabilities. I was in a fire in my grandparents’ house when I was 5-years-old, so it can happen to anyone.

My first experience with light alarms was in college in my dorm. The school had one installed in my dorm room. I didn’t even ask or anything as I would’ve never thought of it.

Continue reading "Fire Safety for the Deaf" »

Posted by at 8:13 AM | Permalink

The purpose of the Accessibility Survey is to gather information about deaf and hard of hearing people as a consumer market. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete and is entertaining. [ Link: Deafnetwork ]

Posted by at 1:29 PM | Permalink

Silent Voyager tells the story of a man who has been deaf since a burn accident destroyed his hearing as a child. He dreamed of becoming the first deaf person to sail solo around the world. And he did it on December 19, 2004. [ Link: Deafnetwork ]

Posted by at 7:17 AM | Permalink

A former television subtitler (the person who does the captioning) in the UK writes about her experiences and point-of-view in Let’s Not Overlook The Deaf, Hearing Impaired - or Hearing. She mentions an exhibition called Hearwear at Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum.

Posted by at 10:11 AM | Permalink

I rarely discover new music as I can’t identify the songs I hear on the radio. I know there’s a resource that helps with that, but I can’t collect information to be able to use the resource.

However, I liked a new song that I heard on CSI. It’s the famous episode where Nike Stokes is buried alive. The episode opens with him driving and singing along with a song playing on the radio. Although I’m not a fan of country music, the song just stuck with me. Man, it wasn’t easy finding the name of the song or the lyrics as the title wasn’t given. I entered phrases of the song until I found a forum where a lot of people were discussing this song.

The title is Lucky, Too by Bob Neuwirth. You can listen to an excerpt here. I can follow along with the lyrics in front of me. However, the only complete lyrics I found has a few mistakes and I’ve yet to find the right one. Most places only list part of the song’s lyrics, not all.

Posted by at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From DeafNetwork of Texas:

“Hello. I am with the Protective Animal League in Dallas. I am currently fostering a one-year-old white deaf male Boxer. I’m looking for a permanent home for him.

“He is a very loving dog. A really great boy. He will make a great companion for someone. He just needs someone that can give him a good home and understands his needs. He knows basic commands such as sit, stay, go, leave it. He is housebroken via a doggy door right now but before he came to me, he was housebroken. Please let me know if you may have a place for him with someone or can refer me to someone else. Thank you.

“You can reach me at ChristiH@BaylorHealth.edu. photo of Bomber”

Posted by at 8:40 AM | Permalink

I’ve known the Anders for years as I grew up in Fort Worth. Their daughter was a couple of years older than me and we met through a mutual friend. Last I heard, she was a lawyer in California. Sidney Anders has been attending the famous CES in Vegas for years, but this year he was an exhibitor. Here’s the article that was published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

A while back, my dad picked up a portable voice carry over (VCO) VCO phone TTY from Krown Manufacturing. You put the TTY to the phone when the other person is speaking (the operator is typing instead) and then read the text and respond with your voice. It was a nice idea, but didn’t work well since there was a lot of garbled text.

Deaf and hard-of-hearing folks don’t have to worry about technology going away. The Anders will make sure it stays alive.

Posted by at 12:43 PM | Permalink

Thanks to Grant W. Laird Jr. for telling me about an article on Deaf Blogs in Signews. Would’ve never known about it had it not been for him. He kindly posted copies of the two pages in his blog entry. It was great reading about the other blogs and the things they cover. My name and blog name are briefly mentioned as the real story are the others mentioned.

Posted by at 7:41 AM | Permalink

Ilise asked about what people are afraid of when it comes to speaking up and self-promotion. My situation is a little different from what you see in the entry’s comments as you know that I’m profoundly deaf. When I make calls, I go through a relay service and it’s incredible how many people hang up on the relay service before I even get a chance to speak.

When I worked for a company, I took on three clients as an “ambassador.” One kept hanging up on me no matter what I tried to do. So I wrote a letter and explained the situation. It didn’t do any good.

Anyway, I get fearful of calling clients (especially ones that don’t know me) because the relay service is a real pain (though a blessing, too) as it’s slow, uncomfortable, and impersonal.

Continue reading "Fear of Speaking up and Promoting Self" »

Posted by at 8:36 AM | Permalink

My friend, Kim, shared this story and I thought it’d be worth sharing here. It provides a wealth of insight into the world of dogs who are deaf.

A woman adopted a dog who is partially deaf. He’s been through a lot and when he arrived to his new home, he ended up fighting with her other dog. Here’s the advice she received.

“Welcome to the world of deaf dogs! I have two currently and have had two in the past and fostered and helped train several others. I am a sign language interpreter for the deaf by profession so deafness is really not an issue for me and honestly, it is not an issue for the deaf dogs. They do not know they are deaf. They know they are happy to be alive and the just experience the world a little differently than we do.

Continue reading "Deaf Dog Doesn't Get Along with Dog" »

Posted by at 8:58 AM | Permalink

There are three Yahoo groups:

DeafDogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/deafdogs/

Texas DeafDogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TexasDeafDogs/

Deaf and Blind Dogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blind-deaf-dogs/

And a Web site: http://www.deafdogs.org/

The Web site has a lot of information, lists adoptable dogs, and points to resources like vibrating collar makers.

Deaf Dog Atlas is a resource where you click on the maps till you get to a locale you want and read profiles of deaf dogs and the people who love them. See how well and happy these dogs are with their families. If you have a deaf dog, why don’t you add your dog to the map?

Posted by at 9:01 AM | Permalink

We have a very friendly Pit mix that appears to be deaf. He has not shown any aggression to people or other dogs. He has been in cages with all types of different breeds. He has just been happy go lucky and just wants to play.

He was to be PTS this morning but we pulled him because he is just too good of a dog to not get a chance at a happy life. He is pure white and looks young, maybe a year old or so.

Please let Ginger know if you can help this boy or know of someone who can.

Permission to post anywhere.

Ginger Leach
Fort Worth Animal Care & Control
817-392-3737 VM ext 1865
ext 1830/1831 to have me paged
gingerleach45@yahoo.com

Posted by at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Saw this link in GMail and had to check it out. Well, Glow Gloves certainly make it easier to see hands in the dark. Could it become a hit when deaf people go clubbing?

Posted by at 9:07 AM | Permalink

Not long ago, I posted an entry about Bible thumpers who came knocking on my door. Funny, I ran into another one… this time by snail mail. Yes, paper, pen, stamp, and all. Here’s the note (nothing changed):

Hello Meryl.

My name is Gayle. I volunteer with people who are deaf and hard of hearing. I have a deaf daughter. I want to share information we have, DVD’s all in ASL sign language that help us get closer to God. I know different people have different religions. That is OK. We have many DVDs and videos all in sign language with information from the Bible that talk about the wonderful future God has planned for people who get to know him and want to live with people who have good actions.

As Moses helped lead the Israelites to the Promised Land God has wonderful hope for us to live in a world with peace — where people are happy. Please read Psalm 37:10, 11, and 28, 29. I would like a chance to show you the DVDs and you decide if you want to learn more about the Bible in ASL sign language. My sidekick number… [of course, I omit this].

Love, Gayle

Continue reading "Bible Thumper Revisited" »

Posted by at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From DeafNetwork: Oobi & Millie: http://www.houndrescue.com - under Available dogs in Austin.

Oobi was going to be gassed just because he was deaf. We rescued him from the kill shelter. He is currently in North Carolina and will be transported to Dallas soon.

Millie is currently staying in a foster care in Austin.

If interested, please email Julie at jlministries777@yahoo.com or Amy Smith at amy@houndrescue.com.

Good golly! Thank goodness there are kind people like these folks to save these dogs.

Posted by at 8:10 AM | Permalink

Shared my experience with seeing a movie with Rear Window. I went back to the movies and saw Chronicles of Narnia with my older two kids. The experience was better this time, but it took about 10 minutes of adjusting to get it just right. At first, the captions were crooked. Then, eureka! Put the window just below the screen in the black area and I won’t have trouble reading the captions even when something light appears on the screen.

I got it just right where the captions were neither too far left nor too far right. A guy behind me started signing to me about the rear window. I couldn’t figure out the signs and usually I can get the gist of it. Then he asked his friend to talk to me. I told them to get the window viewer from the front desk.

Continue reading "Narnia with Rear Window" »

Posted by at 8:55 AM | Permalink

Just a couple of weeks ago, I had my second visit from bible thumpers. The first was last summer and they showed up three times. It started out by them asking where I go for help and support. The gist of the conversation sounds like deaf people are isolated. While that’s true, we’re not hermits — at least, not most of us. At the end of the conversation (thought it’d never end), they gave me a brochure and off they went.

I looked at the brochure. They were Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was hard to tell them that I wasn’t interested as they were kind. Then they came back again. I listened to their spiel and did what I could to hurry the conversation. It wasn’t any of their business that I’m already a religious person of another faith and don’t plan or want to convert. They came back AGAIN, but my husband answered this time. I don’t know what he said to them, but he finally got the message across that we’re not interested.

Continue reading "Bible Thumpers Come Knocking" »

Posted by at 8:39 AM | Permalink

Big thank you to AMC Theatres for carrying rear window captioning and open captioned movies. AMC captioned movie information is here and NCAM/Motion Picture Access (MOPIX) info is here.

Yesterday was the first time I attended a movie with rear window captions. I’ve been to open captioned movies twice at AMC Grapevine Mills. The nearby rear window theatre I went to last night was AMC Valley View in Dallas.

Continue reading "Movies with Rear Window Captions" »

Posted by at 8:26 AM | Permalink

One student had never talked to Santa and she’s nine-years-old. Deaf students talk to Santa through sign language. According to the article:

Before he saw Santa use sign language at school, first-grader Michael Shoemaker never really understood his significance to the holiday.

Isn’t there more to the holiday than talking to Santa?

Posted by at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Lyrics Magic is a music player for Windows Mobile devices that displays lyrics while the song plays. It supports Rmp, Mp2, Mp3, WMA, Mpa, Ogg, Midi, and Wav files. To view lyrics, put the same-name lyrics (.lrc) and text (.txt) files into the same folder as the music files.

While I’d love to try this, the problem is that I can’t find any lyrics for the songs I like. :( Most of the songs, I believe, are from newer groups and singers I don’t know.

You can learn more about it from this article. Search for lyrics here or check Google’s search results.

Posted by at 7:49 AM | Permalink

Mark Cuban’s entertainment company, 2929, Entertainment is hoping to change the ways movies are distributed by releasing first-run films on DVD the same day they hit theaters as reported in WSJ.com - Will ‘Bubble’ Burst the Movie Business?

Low-budget movie, Bubble, will be available on DVD and digital cable on the same day it hits the theaters.

‘course this scares producers and movie theaters because it could kill the movie going biz. Even though I rarely go to the moves, I don’t want the experience to disappear for my kids, other family members, and everyone else. Furthermore, it hurts the economy and employees for movie theaters to go out of business.

The other issue… will these be captioned? If so, it’ll help those who are deaf, hard of hearing, and others that rely on captions enjoy seeing the movie at the same time it comes out instead of waiting a few months before it comes out on DVD with captions.

Where would grown ups and kids go for a date other than a restaurant? Kids are not old enough for bars and all grown ups don’t want to go to bars.

Where’s the middle ground?

Posted by at 7:47 AM | Permalink

I can’t imagine how different my life would’ve been had instant messaging hit the scene while I was a teen. Sure, I discovered online chats in my late teens, but it was no where like what you see today as explained in Hearing Instant messaging reaches out and touches deaf people.

My family discovered Prodigy before I moved away for the first time to Washington, DC. We used the service to email and stay in touch with each other.

I also met Paul online through a bulletin board system (BBS). Back then, I hated to tell people how we met because it felt geeky and embarrassing. Today, it’s no big deal. He moved to Washington, DC about nine months before I could join him. We stayed in touch by chatting as his modem connected with my computer. Unfortunately, my roommate at the time had to have call waiting and we were constantly disconnected. That doesn’t happen with the current tools. We could’ve saved a bundle of bucks on long distance.

I envy the kids today as they have all these tools at their beck and call. But then again, I might’ve not gotten out enough if I had these tools.

Posted by at 9:08 AM | Permalink

Deaf woman finds homes for deaf dogs has an interesting statistic that I had never heard before. According to the article, “deafness is more common in dogs with white (or merle-patterned) coats.” Apparently, Dalmatians are on the top of the list with 10 to 12 percent born deaf.

My dog, a beagle, who passed away last year, literally lost his hearing overnight due to an ear infection. This didn’t happen until he was about 12 (he was 13 when he died) and it completely changed his personality. He became an aggressive and scared dog as he didn’t have one of his two most important sense to rely on anymore (the other being the sniffer).

My daughter wants a dog, but we hardly have a backyard anymore or the time to truly welcome a new family member. It’s a shame since she’s almost 12 and it’s a good time for her to enjoy a dog before she takes off for college.

Posted by at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Kids make fun of each other. That’s an accepted part of childhood and growing up. It’s unbelievable what kids in 6th grade say nowadays. Words I’d never heard people say until at least high school. No matter what I do, I can’t prevent my kids from learning things too young. As a parent, I do what they can to enjoy their childhoods as long as possible, but fuhgettaboudit. They learn from their friends. Too well, I’m afraid.

In high school and maybe even middle school, some boys would say to me, “I want a fig newton” without using their voices. If you don’t get it, slowly say it in the mirror and read your lips. They also said, “O-live oil.” Funny.

They also made fun of my religion probably more than my deafness, which was kind of nice in a weird way because they didn’t see me as deaf as much as a person with a different religion (and most have a religion).

Posted by at 8:14 AM | Permalink

Since the state of Texas had a special offer on Captel phones for its residents at $99, I got one. It’s great for making calls, but receiving calls are a pain.

Making calls: Just pick up the phone and dial the number while ensuring the caption button is lit up. You can also hear the person speak, something that I’ve never been able to do in the past as it would just be TTY beeps from the operator. It’s a wonderful way to practice listening on the phone since the captions follow the person’s voice and speeds things up if I figure out what the person says.

There is still a delay between the person speaking and the words appearing on the screen. After all, typing is slower than speech. But I recommend the phone for those who like using Voice Carry Over and plus it helps those with a cochlear implant practice listening on the phone with help.

Continue reading "Captel Phone" »

Posted by at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last Friday, I did something out of character. I spontaneously drove to downtown Dallas to join the UpYourBudget Treasure Hunt. I wrote about it here and here. From a deaf perspective, I ran into two challenges.

One, if you find the UpYourBudget sticker, you have to call the number on the sticker. I figured my chances weren’t great, but it never hurts to try. After all, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. The second one: a complete stranger stopped me on the street and started talking. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand him. It was an uncomfortable situation. Finally, I just had to walk away from him while he kept on talking. I hate doing that, but I had to get out of the situation.

When I go shopping, I don’t like it when sales people start talking to me especially when they’re behind me. While in high school, I was trying on clothes in a store and Mom was there with me. Apparently, the sales person was trying to talk to me from the other side of the door. I heard talking, but it didn’t sound directed at me.

Mom came to my door and realized what the sales person was doing. She explained the situation. The gal admitted that she thought I was a snob for not responding. So I’d rather they didn’t approach me. I know where to find them if I get to the point where I need help.

Posted by at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Since Tuesday was election day in the U.S.A. and I saw this article from New Zealand that talks about deaf on juries. Sign language interpreters are making it possible for the deaf to do jury duty.

I remember a few years ago reading about a court that had technology so a deaf jurist could read the text. That’s my kind of solution. I’ve been called to jury duty about five times or so and got out every time because of my deafness. No, no, I’d be glad to do my patriotic duty. The court didn’t have a way for me to follow along, so they let me go.

This is where some say I should learn sign language. Then all the court would need to do is bring on an interpreter and it would help in other situations. Well, first of all, getting an interpreter isn’t always an easy process.

Continue reading "Patriotic Duty: Voting and Sitting on a Jury" »

Posted by at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

iPod does not have captioning capabilties as confirmed by an article and in this Washington Post interview and many blog comments / postings. There is also a good article on the topic, but I can’t share the article with you because it’s copy-protected AND you have to register to view the article. Hence, my rant about registration-required sites.

Back to the topic. This CBS News article is a little confusing about the issue. It says:

“Search engines and podcast directories generally index audio and video by analyzing text that appears near the file or using humans to create summaries. Some also pull closed-captioning transcripts from video programming, but user-generated content generally carries no closed captioning.

“Chandratillake said Blinkx attempts to fill the gap by using speech-recognition software to transcript feeds when closed captioning is unavailable. It already indexes feeds, mostly video, from companies with which it has deals, including CNN, the British Broadcasting Corp. and Movielink LLC.”

Continue reading "iPod Captioning... Not" »

Posted by at 9:02 AM | Permalink

Alex dropped me a line and soon we started having an email conversation. I learned she’s fluent in ASL. She’s not deaf nor does she have a relative that is. Not a teacher either. Anyway, I enjoyed getting to know her and she mentioned a person who wanted to use ASL, but her mother was not supportive of it. I’ve heard this story too many times — a parent who isn’t supportive of the child’s choice or doesn’t bother learning ASL.

I can’t imagine. Even if a parent disagrees with a choice (it isn’t like she’s doing illegal drugs, for goodness sakes!) — the parent should accept the child’s decision. Usually by the time a child has a preference, she’s not so little anymore.

By this time, the parent has what she can to raise the child her way. If the child chooses to go a different route, then there’s nothing you can do. Any effort is like leading a horse to water… the least the parent can do is build a decent relationship with the child.

Posted by at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A group of MBA students at Washington University in St. Louis is conducting a survey on behalf of a company called iMAT, which is developing a new product to benefit the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

It would be most appreciated if you would help this educational endeavor, and also help a company trying to assist deaf and hard-of-hearing people, by taking a few minutes to complete this very short survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=709271462168

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

Kevin Kiley, Washington University in St. Louis

I completed the survey in less than five minutes. Link: Deaf Network of Texas

Posted by at 12:00 PM | Permalink

I’ve largely ignored webcasting and podcasting — just learning enough to understand what’s going on and staying up to speed with online technologies. But beyond that, it’s a waste of my time. I had thought about downloading podcasts and using them to practice listening, but I have enough material thanks to the speech therapist.

Besides, there are so many choices (The Paradox of Choice : Why More Is Less), so which would be useful for practice? Homemade podcasts may not be clear enough for me or it depends on the speaker. The books on tape and radio industries don’t just hire anyone — the voice matters.

Making Webcasts accessible to the deaf uncovers what happens to me a few times a week. I receive a link to a humorous resource only to find out it’s a video or audio that can’t be understood without understanding the text. The CaptionMeNow sounds like a great concept. It’ll take a while before sites adopt it and it’s an imperfect technology as speech recognition has a lot of growing up to do.

Posted by at 3:40 PM | Permalink

Ah, the good ol’ days when we had three feet tall speakers. I’d take out my hearings aids and press my ear against the speaker with the stereo volume turned way up. This was the only way I could hear with my own ears. I got reminded of this yesterday.

My son’s school had a rally to promote a drug-free life. Jay Jenson of Radio Disney (thank you!) came to the event and MC’d it. Of course, he had powerful speakers so the few hundred of us could hear him and the VIPs. I walked past the speaker with my implantless ear closer to it and felt the music’s vibration.

Came across this article on deaf and speakers, so it seemed like the topic to talk about.

Mavs Man was also there and he was awesome! Those in the Dallas area can rent him out for parties. Warning: he ain’t cheap, but he’s a crowd pleaser! Thank you, Mavs Man.

Posted by at 8:02 AM | Permalink

Brand New Captels for $99

Sprint and WCI has come to an agreement to promote this special for Texas Residents only. It’s available for a limited time and for a limited number of units.

WCI is now offering brand new CapTels (Captioned Telephones) for only $99.00 each. It will come with a one-year full money back guarantee. That means you can return them if you are not happy with them or for any other reasons.

This was made possible due to feedback we received from you state-wide. Its now available for you at an affordable price for a limited time. Be informed that they will be sold in limited number and they will go out fast.

To order, please complete this form.

Posted by at 3:23 PM | Permalink

Went to Cochlear’s Web site and found my way to this Hearing Loss Education Center’s resource page, which contains links to lyrics sites and more listening Web sites. I’ve updated the Auditory Training page.

Posted by at 8:24 AM | Permalink

This fascinating report says Deaf Students May Have Advantage in Studying Geologic Faults. It makes sense without reading it because we have a sensitivity to vibrations. In reality, “… students who use American Sign Language (ASL) are often already adept at this 3-D thinking, and it may give them an advantage when grappling with the intricate networks of geologic fault systems.” So it doesn’t apply to everyone… just those who are fluent in ASL. Great finding, isn’t it?

Posted by at 7:55 AM | Permalink

According to TravelBite, 25 percent of people with disabilities didn’t travel in 2004 due to the lack of accommodations. I recently wrote about a little kink in my recent trip, but accommodating me is less complicated than for those getting around in wheelchairs especially when it comes to airplane toilets. Heck, those toilets are difficult for a able-bodied person to use.

I’ve been trying to remember my first trip alone without visiting family. I believe it was in 1992 or 1993 when I traveled to Oklahoma City. I never gave it thought that I could have challenges on the trip. Over the years, I’ve traveled alone many times. Getting from airport to hotel is usually the difficult part of the trip. Sometimes renting a car was hard because I couldn’t read the employee’s lips. Whenever that happened, I came across obtuse or dumb. I hated that.

I’ve had trouble finding out which baggage claim to go to as some airports have big ones and they’re not all in the same place. I usually just follow the signs to baggage claim then walk through the area until I see my flight number. When I lived in Washington, DC, taking a cab home was nerve-wracking. Taxi driver and I couldn’t understand each other. But I got home and I survived.

If I want to order room service, I can’t do it from the comfort of my hotel room. I’ve covered this in the previous travel entry.

Posted by at 8:21 AM | Permalink

I took my first Spanish class in 5th grade, I think. I remember the teacher’s face clearly and that the class was in a temporary building outside. Like a trailer with noisy ventilation. I don’t remember much of the experience.

I took another class in 6th grade as it was a requirement of magnet students. I remember Senora Boone very well, in fact, I ran into her a few times over the years. She had a daughter my age who played soccer in the same league. I think I struggled with that class, but then again, my whole 6th grade year was one of my worse years in school.

I skipped foreign language in middle school. I had enough going on playing every sport in the school even track! Not running - ha! I was never a good runner in terms of speed or distance. Instead, I did shot put and discus throwing. I did embarrass myself once in a track meet when I filled in for one of the runners. Came in last place. Barely finished.

Continue reading "Habla español" »

Posted by at 8:14 AM | Permalink

Murphy paid a nice visit on the day I left for Austin to attend a two-day seminar at Wizard Academy. While packing, I grabbed the black vibrating travel alarm clock only to find it refused to tell time. No problem, time for a battery change. Click, click, clack, clunk. Nothing. Still refused to show its face. Strangely, however, the light worked.

Grr. Maybe bad batteries… it had happened before… when new batteries played dead and stayed that way. Another set. Click, click, clack, clunk. Same results. Great. Not like a there was nearby store that sold these. Good thing, we contacted the hotel and requested a room with accessibility equipment.

Continue reading "Hotel Accommodations" »

Posted by at 9:43 AM | Permalink

Boy, I remember when I was a senior in high school when the students of Gallaudet made news. They protested the selection of a hearing president and won the protest. As a result, I. King Jordan was selected and led the school for the past 17 years. Couldn’t help but feel sorry for the hearing president — after all, he was out of a job.

The article says that administrators questioned that a deaf person would be strong enough to lead the school AND manage raising money. “He [Jordan] improved the quality of the faculty, Fernandes said, increased academic rigor and added graduate degree programs in such areas as audiology and linguistics. Not long ago, many finished Gallaudet and could not get jobs. Now, 95 percent of graduates go on to careers or graduate school.”

During Jordan’s tenure, the university’s endowment went from $5 million to an spectacular $150 million. How’s that for showing admins that a deaf person can lead the school, increase the quality of the education, and increase funding thirty times the previous amount.

Jordan will stick around through 2006 until they find a successor. Rumor is the school won’t exclude hearing candidates, but it’s not likely a hearing one will be hired. Discrimination… but perhaps, hearing candidates know not to bother.

Posted by at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Whenever you travel or go on vacation and stay in a hotel, ask the hotel (in advance while making reservations) for accommodations. Most will put you in a room with equipment such as a visual fire alarm and a TTY phone. Almost every hotel I’ve been to in the past few years has captions unless they have old TVs.

Unfortunately, not all countries are accommodating as described in The disabling cost of traveling. Darn it. I am going to Austin tomorrow and I forgot to ask about accommodations. Ah well, at least, it’s a short trip.

One annoyance of traveling is when I don’t rent a car. If the hotel has shuttle pick up at the airport, you have to call on those phones that automatically dial the hotel. I’m working around it by taking my Sidekick and contacting family who will call the hotel and let them know I’m waiting for pick up. Feels childish to do that, but no choice.

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink

If you like reading news on things related to the Deaf world, the DeafSpot.net Google Toolbar gives you instant access. The free FireFox extension (there is another one for Internet Explorer users) does not have spyware or adware. To install it in FireFix, click on the Download Toolbar button and wait a moment until the Install Now becomes active in the installation window. Close and re-open FireFox and the toolbar appears. Toggle toolbar off and off by clicking on View > Toolbars > DeafSpot.net.

Click on image to view larger image.

The toolbar includes a Google search box, but I already have one right next to my address bar. Deaf Events takes you to a listing of events by state. Select your state to find out what’s happening. Deaf Links a few good ones plus a few repeats from the toolbar itself. News headlines crawl in a small box next to the Privacy button. It’s not distracting, but it would be nice to have an option to stop the crawling. Then the button to the right of the news crawler takes you to the DeafSpot.net chat room.

A nice tool that saves you a few clicks in getting updates on the Deaf-related news.

To remove the toolbar, click on Tools > Extensions > scroll down until you find DeafSpot.net Toolbar and click on Uninstall.

Posted by at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Just Services with funding from Arts Council England set up Disability Writes to help disabled people who face barriers in getting support and encouragement to write. It promotes the work of disabled writers to a wide audience of disabled and non-disabled people through its Web site and printed publications. People with disabilities can post their work on the site and receive constructive feedback.

Thanks to the Internet and technology, I can do writing — something I might not have done without it. Sure, we have the relay services and all, but some people don’t respond well to calls through the service.

I called a potential client through the relay yesterday and got a one-liner then a hang up. However, last Thursday, I had a great conversation with Janine of JAS Coaching and Training. So my experience with the relay is mixed, but more on the negative side.

Posted by at 7:51 AM | Permalink

I’ve always disliked going to services. I can’t follow and I am bored out of my mind. I’ve seen articles like At Synagogues, Services Open Doors for the Deaf as there are a few places that do this. It’s great. I admit a lot of the boredom is my own fault, but we also do the services in a foreign language that I barely read and understand. So sitting closer to the front doesn’t do a lot of good.

Why do I bother going to services? Because it’s the right thing to do. I’ve been going to services for important holidays and special events since I was a young’un, and it would feel wrong to stop going. I try to read a book on my religion while in services as a way of immersing myself into the religion.

Posted by at 10:03 AM | Permalink

When I was six-years-old, I was in a full-fledged burning house fire at my grandparents’ house. Grandma and I were playing cards in the dining room while Grandpa was working in the kitchen, spiffying it up for the upcoming holiday.

One of my fondest memories of Grandma is our card games. I can’t remember the names of them all. There was casino (I think) where you added two cards to equal the amount on the third card. She was the only one I played this one with and I can’t recall how to play it anymore.

Back to the fire. Grandma heard Grandpa yell. I didn’t know what he said, but I heard his loud voice and looked to the direction of the short hallway that leads to the kitchen and saw an orange glow. I knew we needed to get out. I had to push the chair back hard because it was heavy and bigger than me. We headed in the opposite direction that took us to the front door.

Continue reading "Smoke Detectors" »

Posted by at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

From job one, I’ve had to deal with meetings by conference calls… long before travel became restricted due to tightening budgets and more technology. I recall attending a regularly-scheduled conference call meeting while working in the FAA.

I used the relay service to call in. It wasn’t easy. I felt sorry for the operator who got stuck with my call. The process didn’t last long. The people on the call knew each other, so there was little need to say your name before you spoke. The operator didn’t know, so I had to figure out for myself based on what the person said. Of course, the operator couldn’t type everything word for word as human conversation went too fast for their hands.

Continue reading "Conference Calls" »

Posted by at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I’ve mentioned getting a Sidekick II and you can get your own relay number. These two things make it easier to share my phone number and for people to reach me. The Sidekick comes with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Yahoo! Instant Messenger, so I can stay in touch with family when they’re by their PCs.

However, when they’re not around their PCs, they call me through my personal relay number. The relay number reaches me through AIM. Though the Sidekick has the relay service application, instant messenger works much better.

I have yet to receive a call through this method except for a few wrong numbers. At least, I can put my personal number on my business cards and when I fill out paperwork without having to include the relay number and a long explanation.

You don’t have to use the Sidekick II now that the relay service works with AIM. So whatever device that can use AIM will work. The Sidekick, BlackBerry, palmOne’s Treo 600 and 650 have an advantage since they come with a keyboard. A couple of phones now have a QWERTY keyboard, but not many.

Here’s an article on this topic.

Posted by at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Donna Talarico writes about her experience in moving from email interviews to in-person interviews. Nothing beats face-to-face meetings as it’s the most intimate way to connect with the person whom you speak. Except for me, face-to-face puts my articles at risk for incorrect information and quotes.

You see, I’ve been profoundly deaf since birth. I rely on lip-reading instead of my hearing. While the Internet may take away the “personal” connections we make in person, it lets me be a writer. Without email, instant messenger and Web sites, getting the interview would become a struggle.

Continue reading "Why I Am Stuck Doing Email Interviews" »

Posted by at 6:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Actually, this entry should be in the whining category. I just feel like I need to rant about it since nothing else works. My eyes have been aching. It gets so bad that I can’t do anything but rest on the sofa or in my room. It comes and goes… even two or three times in a day. Sometimes it comes with nausea. Sometimes, it has tightness around my forehead (like a tension headache). Sometimes the eyes don’t hurt, but the head is tight.

The doctor believes it’s both migraine and tension headaches. It makes sense… but the Excedrin Migraine isn’t working or at least, not keeping it away for even one day. I took the stronger medicine for the first time, so we’ll see how that goes. He warned me it could make me feel blah, which is why I avoided taking it. Close enough to my bedtime.

I am not under any more stress than normal, but I need to feel decent since Paul’s hours are unpredictable as he started a new job last week. Last night was awful. I felt lousy, he didn’t get home till 7pm, one of the boys was being extremely difficult for the first time in a while… I didn’t have the energy to do my mommy job.

It feels wrong to whine when I have a friend who is MISERABLE. Doctor said to call back if the meds don’t work. But I just can’t see the problem being anything else. I go to doctors too much and am tired of making up my hours at work for the time lost to go to appointments.

I’ve been to the ENT and had a CAT scan of the sinuses. Nothing wrong. I’ve been to the neurologist and that’s the one who said it might be migraines without the headaches. I’ve been to the optometrist. No clues.

When I’m in public and people can tell I’m not comfortable — they ask if it’s low blood sugar. It isn’t that either. Meanwhile, I continue experiencing ache in my eyes off and on. I’ve searched the Internet for answers and found none. I even left several messages where doctors provide advice and none have yet to offer anything helpful.

Posted by at 8:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Nick pointed me to an interesting post from Michael Buffington. He thought, “I assume deaf people are allowed to drive without restriction - so why do ‘in ear’ headphone manufacturers make sure you know that they shouldn’t be used while driving because they impair your hearing - what specific issues might you run into that would make not hearing a serious or life threatening disadvantage while driving?”

When I listen to music, to songs I know by heart, I sometimes lose focus on my work as I have to concentrate to follow along with the words. Maybe this is effortless for those born with hearing. So I can imagine listening to a conversation through the headphone might have a similar effect because it’s a two way conversation unlike music.

In the two times I got pulled over, I had no trouble quickly noticing the cop. It’s a mixture of hearing the sirens and noticing the lights. Sometimes I see one and not hear the other, sometimes vice versa, and others both.

For a brief time, I had a device that blinked whenever sirens were near. It didn’t last long because lots of things made the danged thing blink and scared the bejeebus out of me. No thanks. I’ll stick with my trusty eyes. However, Michael came up with an innovative idea that might work because the notification would come from the cop instead of whatever environment sounds pop in.

Posted by at 7:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reading about the stigma of wearing a hearing aid made me think. Though I liked wearing my hair in a ponytail especially when playing sports, I didn’t do it because it “exposed” my hearing aids. Hearing aids just weren’t cool or accepted like eyeglasses. They embarrassed me.

I wore glasses and contact lenses for a while and never minded except for the annoyance of having another device on my head. Plus, glasses gave me more headaches than contacts because of my sensitivity to light. But I got rid of both when I had LASIK in 1999.

Continue reading "Hearing Aid Embarrassment" »

Posted by at 9:49 PM | Permalink

I’ve spent my entire career working in an office setting where you have your analysts, specialists, team leaders, managers, and directors. When I first started my career as a management trainee with a government department, I had high ambition. I wanted to go into the workforce, learn my way around, and climb, climb, climb. Management—the ultimate goal. At this point, I believed I had no barriers except the fact I couldn’t carry a conversation on the phone the normal way (I discovered the relay service not long after joining the government).

While in the year-long training program, we attended many courses related to leadership including public speaking, dealing with difficult people, and policies. At the end of the year, the program placed us with one of the agencies. I worked in the Federal government for three years and then we moved back home to Texas.

Continue reading "Ambition" »

Posted by at 9:30 PM | Permalink

We have “fire marshalls” on every floor in my office and I have two buddies who would look out for me when an emergency occurs. Our building has those bright, painful lights (think bad disco lighting), so I can’t miss those nor the sound (awful). But I could be in a meeting or the ladies’ room when something happens (hope not).

Emergencies do happen. It’s scary that many people don’t take the alarm going off seriously. When I was five, I was in a fire at my grandparents’ house. We all got out, but Grandpa had to go to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Article: Warning the deaf in an emergency

Posted by at 6:00 AM | Permalink

Handheld Individual Captioning, I-Caption makes Big River performances at Ford’s Theatre accessible to the deaf. Wicked is coming to Dallas. Why can’t I-Caption come along? :(

A similar item called COMMplements from Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has been licensed.

Posted by at 6:24 AM | Permalink

For my parents, the decision to mainstream me into public school was an easy one. The other option was to send me out of town to the school for the deaf. They didn’t want that. I’m glad they decided that as I’ve had some awesome teachers in my public school career. I didn’t feel secluded in public school. Well, at least, not till I was older because I felt like I didn’t fit in with a crowd… nothing to do with my hearing. Read Parents of deaf children make tough decisions.

Posted by at 8:45 AM | Permalink

Ed Bosson wrote a great commentary in response to the great article from the New York Times on December 7, 2004 titled “What Corporate America Can’t Build: A Sentence” by Sam Dillon. I believe that even if a person’s first language is ASL, the person should know how to write correct English. ASL is a spoken not a written language. But as a person who doesn’t use ASL, I figured my words would not have as much meaning. However, Bosson uses ASL and he believes in the same thing. Reprinted with permission from Ed Bosson.

Continue reading "Writing Proper English" »

Posted by at 5:58 AM | Permalink

Thanks to email and the Internet, it’s possible for me to volunteering with kids without a worry.

Posted by at 5:59 AM | Permalink

The groundbreaking ceremony for apartments in Seattle designed specifically for Deaf and Deaf-Blind victims of domestic violence and sexual assault takes place on March 28. The complex will have 19 units of affordable housing, integrated services, and technology.

Elsewhere in South Dakota, planners are working on creating an entire town for the deaf. Why South Dakota? Doesn’t the Washington, DC area, Rochester, NY, and California contain the larger deaf populations? Learned something new… quoted from the article. “Elsewhere, because of proximity to schools and businesses tied to the deaf, large concentrations of deaf people have gathered in cities like Rochester; Washington; Olathe, Kan.; Frederick, Md.; and Sioux Falls, S.D.”

100 families from around the world have already declared they plan to live there. Full story at New York Times (may require free registration) and another from Indystar.

Posted by at 8:24 AM | Permalink

Leda Maliga has announced a documentary about cochlear implants. Her film Pilar will be screening at two festivals in April. It is a portrait of her sister and follows her over eight years starting months before she was implanted with a cochlear implant. It covers the operation, the day they activated the device, and the years of learning to use the implant.

The film will screen on April 24 at 3pm at the Artivist Film Festival at the Egyptian Theater and on April 25 at the Newport Beach Film Festival (time TBD) It will be screening with other hearing theme related films at both festivals, including What’s Bugging Seth.

Posted by at 6:20 AM | Permalink

I’ve heard from people who have hearing dogs and they love them. It’s hard work for both the dog and the owner. I couldn’t imagine putting that much energy into ensure the dog stays on top of things. Besides, I’ve got three kids instead :)

Posted by at 6:18 AM | Permalink

This article originally from the Belfast Telegraph is available in its entirety from Deaf Today (thank you). The writer makes one strong point, “In my view it is essential to recognise that the word ‘deaf’ has many different meanings and the important factor is to find the best way to communicate.” Amen.

Posted by at 7:30 AM | Permalink

My kids’ school has a tutoring program in which parents volunteer to tutor kids who are struggling at another school where resources are lacking. My daughter’s volleyball team needed a coach for the games (they have an excellent one for practice).

Yet, I can’t step up to do jobs like these. I am comfortable talking. But being around kids is difficult for several reasons. I’ve had to deal with funny looks when they heard me speak (typical monotone-style voice). The second problem is that some are not easy to lipread.

But I’ve found a wonderful program that lets me work with kids. In2Books (news report) is a reading program in which students in Washington, DC elementary schools are partnered with an adult mentor. I am the pen pal / reading pal of two 4th graders.

I started by creating a pictorial profile about me (no last name). The picture goes in my students’ classroom. They wrote me an introductory letter before we read our first book. I write my letter in Word and add clipart, then I upload it on the In2Books site. The students and I use the In2Books mailing address in our letters and we don’t share last names.

When the students write their letters, they write it on old fashioned paper and the program scans them. So it’s nice to see the students’ writing and drawings. We get four books to read throughout the school year (two before the New Year and two after).

After reading each book, I write a letter to the students answering their questions from the previous letter, and asking them questions related to the book while tying it to my life and real world experiences.

You know I’m swamped as a mom of three, an employee in a large company, and a freelancer. This program doesn’t take much time and it’s a fabulous experience.

By the way, the classroom they show in the news is the one with my students. Too cool!

Posted by at 9:05 PM | Permalink

150 students from the Florida School for the Deaf will join Alicia Keys in performing at tomorrow’s Super Bowl. Cool!

Posted by at 10:12 AM | Permalink

Gainesville teen no ordinary drummer plays in his high school marching band and wants to pursue a career in music therapy. Drums make a great instrument for the deaf since we can feel its vibrations. But that ain’t what I played as a kid.

I took piano lessons in third grade from Mrs. Guinn. She had a big Chocolate Labrador retriever who greeted me along with a unique smell that no other place had. It was neither good nor bad. If I had my eyes closed, I would know I was in her home.

Though I liked my teacher, I sucked at piano. But it was partially my fault because I didn’t practice. Though I refused to let my deafness keep me from trying anything, I guess that was the other part of why I wasn’t a natural. (I know… I know… Beethoven…) Blaming deafness was the last thing I wanted to do. As I grew older and more realistic, I had to admit it was a barrier to many things in life.

If I had a passion for music and worked hard at it, then it wouldn’t be a barrier. But neither applied. I played in a recital and remembered how to play the song for many, many years after, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

My experience with piano didn’t prevent me from trying something else. In 6th grade, you had a choice of band, orchestra, and choir. I had no chance of singing in tune and stringed instruments weren’t my thing, so I chose band and the clarinet. When a student was in the honors program, she got placed in honors everything. That’s where I got placed. It wasn’t a good idea, although it kept me with my friends.

Despite learning the songs, I often played along without blowing (air clarinet, you might say) because I would lose my place in conjunction with the rest of the band. Not wanting to embarrass myself, my fingers followed the notes on the sheet music and my lips squeezed onto the mouthpiece, but no air pushed the reed to play a tune.

After a few months of playing with the crew and retaining my distinction of being last chair every time, I finally requested to move to a different class. Thankfully, I retained the same teacher, Mr. Matney. Despite the lack of interest in music, I was lucky to land music teachers I liked.

Whoa! This class was small! Only three of us played clarinet, if I remember right. One girl’s dad was the band director in one of the city’s high schools. He happened to be my clarinet tutor. Like Mrs. Guinn and Mr. Matney, I liked Mr. Watson. Because I enjoyed lessons with him, I had some appreciation of band and decent memories.

Unlike the piano, I practiced some of the time. Probably not enough, but better than nothing. Band had its ups and downs. I should’ve quit while I was ahead and not played in 7th grade as it almost ruined band for me.

For unknown reasons, I worked extra hard to learn a short song. When it came to play musical chairs, I played every note on cue. When I finished, the class of pimply, self-absorbed 12-year-olds applauded. It may not be a big deal for many, but I’ll never forget the day I earned first chair.

Posted by at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Engadget reports on Text messaging, email said to hurt deaf culture, an article originally from Orlando Sentinel. I’m not a member of the “Deaf” culture, but I do rely on email, instant messaging (IM), and closed-captions. I am jealous of my daughter because she has become a IM freak and chatting was not cool when I was a kid. At the time, BBSes (bulletin board systems) were the rage (but involved mostly geeks) and online chats didn’t become big until the latter years while I was in high school.

I admit, though, that I stay home more than in the past. Partially because I have three children and driving them places takes away any desire to go places for myself. Also, I have two jobs. A day job and my freelance.

The other part is that I’m uncomfortable with gatherings. As a child, I was very outgoing. The older I get, the more introverted I become as I keep meeting people whose lips are difficult to read. That’s why I joined IVWCC, it’s an organization that holds its networking events online.

When I lived in Washington, DC, a city with a large deaf population, I met many other deaf folks. In fact, the Department of Transportation had its own deaf group. I went to some of the meetings, but I didn’t fit in. Regardless, I respect the choices of those who prefer to belong to the Deaf culture. Despite what the article says, I can’t imagine it fading away due to technology.

In Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), we’re lucky to have Grant Laird, Jr. who manages Deafnetwork and Deaf Chat Coffee (not just for DFW). Grant sends out regular updates on anything related to the deaf.

Perhaps, rather than saying the culture is fading away, say that it’s evolving. The article mentions a deaf group in Orlando that’s having trouble bringing in fresh blood. Maybe such people belong to a newer or different organization. Who knows?

Posted by at 6:31 AM | Permalink

Just learned about DEAFPASSIONS.COM, an online community for deaf singles. So if you’re single (I strongly discourage married folks from using this site - lol) and looking—here’s another resource. No, I’m not looking (happily). Someone told me about the site. :)

Posted by at 1:20 PM | Permalink

This story is about a teen who struggles to find a high schooler type of job. I’ve mentioned it before, but of the four jobs I have applied for while in high school, only one company didn’t hire me: Wal*Mart. I worked for Tandy, Foley’s, and Toys R Us.

It’s not necessarily her hearing loss that puts her at a disavantage. It’s the economy. Paul applied for retail jobs and they either had no openings, openings only during holiday season, or bad hours (we have three kids, y’know?). It’s the “no openings” that is the most prevalent.

Jamie Berke runs the about.com deafness / hard of hearing section and she has a forum focusing on jobs. It requires free registration and your account will work in any about.com forum.

Click on Messages and on the left, you see the forum topics in gray with a couple of discussions beneath each one. “Finding work and working” is the one covering jobs. “How did you educate co-workers / bosses?” has a good discussion happening.

Posted by at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In yesterday’s entry, I referred to an article on CapTel and wondered about the quality of the captioning. The writer of the article kindly referred me to two people. Mary kindly provided a detailed reply.

Let me begin to answer your question by saying that the accuracy of typing is variable, and thus it is difficult to assign a percentage to answer your question. Speakers’ voices are so different, so bearing this in mind, most errors can be attributed to people who are very soft spoken, have a muffled voice, a speech impediment, etc. Actually, it is not so much the typing that causes errors, as it is an unclear speaker. The people behind the screen who assist us with calls are specially trained, and the standards are very high.

Admittedly, some errors do occur and will show on the CapTel screen. When this happens, the person doing the ‘re-voicing’ will very often correct the error, showing up in parenthesis. Even when not corrected, (for myself), I can usually figure out what was meant from the rest of the text. If I cannot determine what was meant, I merely ask the caller to repeat. This usually solves the problem, but I am not satisfied until I understand the message.

My own experience in the past has been with TTY and with the 711 Relay system. The CapTel, in my opinion, far surpasses either of these, and I find that hearing people are more comfortable with the CapTel system.

Posted by at 4:38 PM | Permalink

TV stations seek better captioning talks about a Tampa resident who didn’t Hurricane Charley had changed direction from Tampa to Punta Gorda. Because of this, they were scared longer than necessary. I agree news stations need to improve captioning. I am grateful that most caption at all, but there have been key breaking news stories that weren’t captioned.

Another problem with TV captioning is during weather and election reporting. Some stations shrink the TV program to make room for scrolling on the bottom with the latest weather or election news. When this happens, the captions take a vacation.

There is a way around it as I’ve seen it once in a while. The TV show stays at full size with captions still there and the news scrolls either on the bottom or the top–on the opposite side of the captions rather than overlapping them. This is a problem during sports, awards shows, and other programming where text pops up telling you who the person is and title. For instance, shows like The Apprentice often show the contestant’s name, job title, and home town. These are difficult to see as the captions are in front of the text. Just move the caption to the top of the screen.

Posted by at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had the ENG (electronystagmography) last Monday to determine why I have dizziness and vertigo. It turned out there is an 80 deficiency in one ear and 20 percent in the other. They’re out of balance, which causes dizziness and eye problems. The brain usually compensates, but with the stress in my life — it has not been able, too. If this condition has existed for a long time (years), it would have made adjustments. So we don’t know if this is new and it was something else earlier or what. Doing eye and balance exercises should pinpoint the problem because if I do them regularly, it should improve.

The test was tiring. I started by looking into a machine. It would not have been so bad except the nose part pinches the nose and you have to breathe through your mouth. Since I spent most of the test counting out loud (to ease the dizziness), I was thirsty as heck when the test was over. I didn’t have any electrodes attached to my face.

The first test was following a moving light with only my eyes. It was OK until it moved fast. The doctor also moved my head from side to side as well as my body into different positions.

At the end of the test, the doctor monitored eye movements while blowing cool and warm air inside my ears. This test is called the caloric test and may be done without using electrodes to detect the eye movements.

For now, I’m doing

Posted by at 6:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It’s not often I come across a story about deaf people and sign language in other countries. I remember when I saw Four Weddings and a Funeral, I enjoyed watching British sign language. Though I don’t know ASL, I could see a difference. It’s like when I am lip-reading and I recognize someone has a unique way of saying things. Sometimes I recognize the accent and others I don’t, but I know it’s from parts far away.

A linguist is surprised when she travels to Nicaragua and experiences the birth of a new language when she expected to see a well-developed sign language. People interested in language, deaf culture, and culture will fancy this article.

Posted by at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Have learned about a new device called Captel (captioned telephone) and debating whether or not I should use the Texas STAP program to try to get one or use the program to get a Sidekick II whenever more are in stock.

Captel “displays written, word-for-word captions of everything the caller says.” However, I am not sure how accurate the system is as I haven’t seen a demo. I’ve emailed the company who promptly replied. In asking how the captioning is done, the rep replies:

“When making a captioned call using the CapTel phone, the CapTel automatically connects to the captioning service. The captioning service is a separate center from the traditional relay center. At the captioning service, a specially trained operator transcribes everything the other party says into written text, using the very latest in voice-recognition technology. At the traditional relay center, the operator types what the other person is saying. At the captioning service, the operator revoices what the other party is saying. When using CapTel, the operator can be thought of as “invisible,” so to speak, because the captionist does not have any direct communication with either party.”

In asking if there is an on / off switch so that hearing users can use it, she replies:

“The CapTel phone can be used with captions or without captions. When the light above the caption button is lit, the phone is ready to make a call with captions on the screen. When the light above the caption button is off, the phone can be used without captions, or in other words, as a regular phone. People who use the CapTel as a regular phone may need to adjust the tone control and the volume control accordingly.”

To see a demo, go to the availability page and click on your state. Contact the individuals from that state to find out where you can see a demo.

Posted by at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When I came across NexTalk, I thought it was the best thing to come along in phone communications for the deaf other than instant messenger (which not everyone will use). But it didn’t quite work out as hoped.

Unlike the others, you download and install software on your computer. You can make and answer phone calls through the Internet rather than through a phone line. This is a big plus because our phone line is not a TTY line. But after six months, I learned it was not to be though not all of it is NexTalk’s fault.

Continue reading "NexTalk" »

Posted by at 6:57 PM | Permalink

Whoa! I didn’t realize it had been a while since my last entry. I had surgery late last week, so I’ve been doing only what is necessary as recovery is slow. No worries - I’m getting around and all, just have to stay off my feet more than preferred.

Online relay services are a great convenience. The only drawback is the lack of VCO (voice carry over) capabilities. However, I would think with VoIP that could change. I have primarly used two services: MCI Relay and Sprint Relay.

Both use Java and take a few moments to load, so be patient. I am not crazy about Java and the wait, but I find it’s easier and faster to use the online service than the clunky TTY. Plus, I can use it anywhere there is a computer.

Continue reading "Online Relay Services" »

Posted by at 8:22 AM | Permalink

All Deaf has information discussions in its Deaf Life section including deaf / hearing relationships, technologies, hearing aids and implants, and a couple of others.

Posted by at 11:38 AM | Permalink

Barry Strassler keeps a list of Maintreamed Deaf Athletes. Only three from Texas and all in one school? C’mon, there’s gotta be more. If you know someone who is not on the list, Barry’s email address is on the Web page. Sports was my passion as a young’un. Sure miss those days. One of my biggest regrets is not playing volleyball for all four years of high school (Southwest High School in Fort Worth, TX - Rebel Country).

Posted by at 12:53 PM | Permalink

An old and nasty friend is back. For the last few weeks, I’ve been experiencing vertigo, dizziness, lightheadedness, and eye pain. I’m at my wit’s end, frustrated. All the things I’ve learned in the past for managing it are not working. I’ve contacted the doctor who helped me through the worst vertigo of my life from last year, so we’ll see how it works out.

I don’t understand why doctors haven’t put me through testing for the past decade I’ve been complaining of diziness. This site from Vestibular Disorders provides good information.

I’m constantly on the verge of tears because I have to support my family of five between my teleco job and freelance work. Hubby has been out of a job for over a year and I don’t know when he’ll find one. When I feel sick like this, I can’t work. Then as soon as I feel better, I’m playing catch up. Hate it when things are out of my control and Paul is doing everything possible to find a job.

Posted by at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

(Warning: LONG) From OCDAC (Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center) News:

The purpose of this series is to properly inform potential clients so they will have this knowledge before they decide to trust such deaf centers with their safety, health, and productivity opportunities.

We have been be focusing on a particular deaf center in our series. The Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness known as GLAD to many Southlanders.

Two weeks ago we highlighted key points of Mr. Apodaca’s complaint against GLAD. Last week we shared you 2 letters regarding Lenny Meyer’s outser and the reaction from the community.

GLAD for many decades has been a partner to corruption and we be will showing you, Friend , more FACTS today

In this issue we will focus on, Tom Willard, another person who tried to fix GLAD and what happened afterwards.

I’ve known Tom Willard to be one of the most interesting people. He’s set an example of a positive face in an aversive situation. He’s been a man of the deaf news system for a long time and he’s made his thoughts on GLAD known to a lot of people.

First we go to some highlights of his famous ‘How to Fix GLAD’ posting on USA-L News at yahoo groups.

Continue reading "Corruption in Deaf Centers" »

Posted by at 10:55 AM | Permalink

Stress Management and Hearing Loss is a PowerPoint presentation by Jennifer G. Sowards. It’s an insightful presentation providing information you wish people knew about those who have hearing loss.

Key points: 1. Normal hearing people do not experience the same level of fatigue from listening. People with hearing loss must work much harder in order to understand speech. 2. Tendency to avoid social gatherings. 3. Feelings of isolation and depression.

Proactive strategies (take control): 1. Find the best place to sit. 2. Don稚 be embarrassed about telling the person you are listening to that you have a hearing impairment and that you need them to speak clearly and distinctly (see notes below). 3. ask them look at you, keep hands away from face, speak slower, not wander, etc. nicely. 4. Look for context clues. 5. Don’t nod “yes” when you really don’t understand (me guilty of this). 6. Repeat back important information.

Reactive strategies (after it happens): 1. Ask specific questions as opposed to, “What?” “Huh?” “Eh?” (in honor of my Canadian friends) 2. Ask to rephrase what was missed. 3. Avoid frustration when you don’t understand (yeah, right… not when you have a 5-year-old grunting at you because you don’t understand). 4. Ask the person to write it down or move to a quieter spot.

The presentation covers ALDs (assistive listening devices). These don’t work for me except for the T-coil, which is a great way to listen to music or to try to hear on the phone.

Light flashers for alarms, doors, phones? Ha, they don’t work after two minutes. I do, however, use a vibrating alarm for when I travel. I despise it and much prefer the lovely hubby alarm.

Captions rule!

Your rights (important): ADA indicates hospitals, hotels, and other public places are required by law to provide you with flashing alarms, TDD phone, and a special door knock alarm. To get these, however, you must ask for them. Be prepared to install them yourself as most personnel won’t know how to operate them.

At one hotel, I got a cool case of these devices.

Back to stress, isolation can lead to depression, a serious illness. Do not be ashamed to get help. It is a real illness like having the flu. I am getting treatment for it. There, see?

The Internet is (duh) a great place to get help through forums, communities, blogs (!). Just go to a favorite search engine and enter keywords like deaf, help, assistance, hearing loss.

Posted by at 2:45 PM | Permalink

Dr. Michael A. Harvey is a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology and the author of a few books relating to people who are deaf. Here’s an interview with him.

I am fortunate to have a supportive family who make a large effort to communicate with me. I have a handful of friends as well, but not as many as I would like and most of those friends are long time friends rather than friends from recent years.

As shallow as it sounds, some people just don’t want to be friends with someone who has a major difference or disability no matter how normal that person behaves in every day life. Then there is the opposite side… those who are friends with everyone are the kind of people I want to be friends with as I like having few and meaningful friendships.

I saw the finale of Friends and I envy the writers or whomever they based those characters on. I would like friends like them. It may be fiction, but these stories are based on what several people have experienced.

Too often, I feel isolated. Last weekend, I went to my daughter’s volleyball game. I talked to a parent when we arrived. Then during the game and in-between games, I felt isolated. It’s frustrating to be the one who has to initiate a conversation almost every time and I don’t want to do it all the time because it could be they may not be interested in talking with me.

Some of the moms were sitting together chatting up a storm. I know these moms and have had conversations with them many times, so it’s not like they don’t realize I can converse. This sort of thing happens too often and it’s a depressing situation. I spent the rest of the time sitting quietly doing my own thing.

The Internet tears down the barriers I face in my day-to-day life and I’ve made a few online friends since they got to know me as a person without the deaf thing in the way. But it’s not the same as having a friend in the same city that you can hug and visit.

Posted by at 9:18 PM | Permalink

A discussion at Hard of Hearing Advocates has caught my eye. The topic is attention impairment. I like what this person says:

“…it has always explained a lot to me. Hearing loss is a sensory deprivation. For those who generally understand how computers function I would add that hearing loss is sensory input deprivation.

“How a person could retrain themselves afterwards by focusing or paying closer attention, seems more a matter of testing your tolerance based on how much information can still be heard. It seems the only retraining possible is to now incorporate sight when filling in auditory blanks. Yet it’s the brain’s lack of information/input that results in what is perceived as ‘not paying attention.’

“When actually there is not enough information received via hearing to keep the brain focused. Our not paying attention now is not due to lack of effort. I wear myself to a frazzle trying to focus by reading lips, paying attention, and straining my eyes as well as my ears. The problem is that audio information via hearing has no rival. Certainly none that do it as well or as fast as hearing. The brain simply can’t process video as quickly as it can audio. I try but it usually only strains the eyes.

“So I think it’s input that is impaired not our attention.”

Wow! Well said. I find myself having more and more trouble sitting still in a classroom, services, a lecture, a luncheon with a speaker, whathaveyou. This is on target and makes sense.

Another person writes, “When we are trying very hard to undertand what is being communicated, we are doing much more than is ordinary.”

I wish people would realize this about me. But I guess when I communicate with those I understand well, they think it’s easy and not a big deal. It is and it unfortunately affects more of my life than I want it. For instance, I suck at sales and it’s a big problem for trying to build up a freelance business.

Posted by at 8:04 PM | Permalink

Emotional Factors of Hearing Loss is an insightful article into how hearing loss impacts a person’s emotional state from depression to unhappiness. The facts it addresses apply not only to those who lose their hearing later in life (which is harder to contend with as they have lost something), but also to those born with hearing loss like me. The following two are powerful statements and I can relate.

“Even when doing simple tasks, hard of hearing people must stop in order to concentrate on what is being said. The result is more stress. By itself, that is a minor problem. But people who are hard of hearing must be always alert to when conversation may or may not be taking place—particularly when background sounds exist.”

“Following a typical conversation, normal hearing participants generally retain a fairly good idea of the basic information that was exchanged, be it names or whatever. The hard of hearing person usually has been so focused on trying to understand the conversation that awareness of the complexity of the events discussed suffers, and memory of the conversation is badly limited.”

I am discovering how lucky I’ve been all these years to have retained information from many conversations, but I am also learning why it’s harder and drains my energy. I have always thought I was naturally a low energy person, but have since changed my mind to believe the energy I put into communication takes more out of me than the average person.

Many times, I sit in a conversation with an inkling of the topic, but unable to absorb the information and process it. The numbers are there, but the calculations aren’t working.

Posted by at 8:25 PM | Permalink

From today’s Dear Abby:

DEAR ABBY: I was at a dinner party recently. One of the guests, who was totally deaf, was completely ignored. Not once did anyone attempt to include him in the conversation. I don’t know how he stood it.

After dinner I talked to him. He told me he is used to being ignored by hearing people at parties and hated attending them. He was there to please his wife, who is not deaf.

He spoke well and was good at lip-reading. He was intelligent, knowledgeable, and has a good job. He told me he would bring a good book to these gatherings if his wife didn’t think it’d be rude.

Abby, how would you have handled this? I’m going to send your answer to every person I know. — SHOCKED BY THE RUDENESS

DEAR SHOCKED: A gracious hostess tries her best to assure that all of her guests will have a good time, and facilitates conversation. If I had been the hostess, I would have spoken with the couple in advance and elicited some interesting facts about the man. Then I would have shared them with the rest of my guests, as well as the fact that he could lip-read.

The alternative would be to “casually” mention that he is distantly related to Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, or that he’s connected in the motion picture business. But then you’d probably have to hire police protection to keep the other guests from mobbing him. (Only joking!)

Meryl here: Please don’t ignore me. I do want to be included. But if you decide to ignore me, let me know and I’ll bring a book to read. If I don’t understand what is said, it’s not out of stupidity… rather out of the fact, I’m not a perfect lip-reader.

Posted by at 2:23 PM | Permalink

This blog, unlike meryl's notes, shares more personal information since the purpose is to educate people about leading a life with little hearing and using technology to hear differently. However, I've yet to determine whether or not I should share the bad feelings or experiences with which I contended as a person with communication challenges. Would it be too personal? Would it be viewed as "feeling sorry for me" thinking?

That's not why I would report it -- I'd be sharing that so people get inside the thoughts of a person in my situation. Thinking and doing are two different things. It'd be quite an eye-opener to know what people are thinking. Oh, I know that's called telepathy and Deanna Troi can do it, but I can't do it and I don't know what everyday people are thinking.

Continue reading "Unmasked" »

Posted by at 10:46 AM | Permalink

I didn't make this discovery until recent years after attending a few conferences and conventions. I've always accepted I'm a low energy person except during my middle school days when I played every sport at the school and was a bundle of energy. But that waned during the high school years. Looking back, it makes sense.

Lipreading takes more work even if it is with a person I understand well. In fact, Paul and I were on a conference call (he was helping me "listen") and I was tired within 30 minutes. This was Paul! I talked to him all the time. In this situation, I was watching him constantly talk for 30 minutes except for the few instances when I contributed. When we regularly talk, it's a conversation -- back and forth. The conference was a conversation with many perspectives and I was lipreading them all constantly with no break.

When I went to sxsw two years ago, I crashed at 8pm on the second to the last night. Didn't mean to do that, just fell asleep on the bed while resting up for that night's events. Watching speakers, talking with people, and trying to follow along in gatherings.

Thinking about this further, I was more conscious of this fact when talking to someone one-on-one to see if maybe it was more work for me than an average hearing person even if it was with a person I understood well. After a few conversations, I believe it is harder because not only I have to translate what they're saying but to digest it, too.

I have to try to put my own thoughts away if I am going to pay attention to the speaker's thoughts. Unfortunately, I lose my train of thought and what I wanted to say when it was my turn. I believe it's more important to listen than to speak even though that's a large order on my part.

I confirmed my theory when a friend of mine went to visit someone in a foreign country and had dinner with them. They were speaking in their native language and she was exhausted trying to follow along. She came back and told me she felt like me in that situation and understands why I get so tired in such situations.

That's why I cherish email and instant messaging. It evens things, but alas... many I know aren't e-users. What can I do? I am not going to force e-stuff on them, which is like forcing a hobby on a child. They probably use it when it is necessary, but nothing more.

Posted by at 12:11 PM | Permalink

I've been researching how I can stay in touch when away from the computer and when the person who wishes to reach me is also away from emailing capabilities (or more importantly, not even a big emailer as luck would have it that most people I know locally are that way).

I looked into a two-way pager in which comes with a phone number where a person can call and leave a message with an operator. The operator would page me with a text message. But Paul believes that it would be just as difficult as calling me through the relay operator.

I am at my wit's end. I want to be reachable to friends, family, colleagues without putting too many hurdles in front of them. Suggestions appreciated and will be shared.

What I've used / tried: I had a text pager for three years and got text messages fewer than 20 times during that period. I had a cell phone that could get text messages, but I didn't promote it since I had a PDA with a modem at the time and could check email and it sufficed. Since then, I don't have that set up anymore because the network is no longer available. But it still required using a computer or other email system to send a text message to me. I want to reach those who aren't regular emailers.

Posted by at 6:21 AM | Permalink

Deaf Today shares an article from the Telegraph (requires registration) about a mother's experience in deciding what to do for her deaf son and running into roadblocks from the deaf community. My opinion is that it is none of the deaf community's business what a parent or person decides to do in terms of language and hearing choices.

Posted by at 5:53 PM | Permalink

The Slope ASL Poetry Special has original poetry by Ella Mae Lentz, Patrick Graybill, Clayton Valli, and the Flying Words Project featuring Peter Cook and Kenny Lerner. Plus, you'll find poems by the winner and finalists of the National ASL Poetry Prize. Slope is the first national poetry journal to publish ASL poetry online in video form.

I love the Flying Words' Untitled. Original! It's an experience to watch these talented folks. Thanks to Rita for bringing it to my attention.

Posted by at 9:07 PM | Permalink

Recently, my family was mentioned in a newspaper blurb because of Paul's being laid off. The blurb mentioned we have three kids and that I'm hearing impaired. I asked Paul what the big deal was about mentioning the deaf part. I mean, it's like saying someone wears glasses, isn't it?

Paul said that people believe it's a big obstacle that a person has to overcome in life. I don't think of it that way. I was born deaf and it was just another characteristic to which I had to adapt. Like some people have to adapt to being short, tall, have fewer number of limbs than the average, of a certain race or culture, etc.

Although, I admit that I've blamed my hearing loss for a lot of things... why I wasn't popular... why I didn't have more friends... why I was never voted for anything... I believed people thought less of me because I sounded different and couldn't always know what was going on in a group conversation. Bugging people to know what was said or what people are talking about. That's a topic for another day. It's just impossible not to blame deafness for a few things in life.

Posted by at 5:41 PM | Permalink

Here's another person who believes the hearing world is Dehumanizing the Deaf. I draw the conclusion that this person is saying, “Adapt to us, not us adapt to you.”

Last I checked, people living in the US who speak languages other than English are expected to learn English to be able to get along better in the world. They can't expect all of us to learn their first language and adapt to them.

I know that cities like Miami and those in South Texas have a lot of Spanish signs and such, but it's a compromise because those places are close to Spanish-speaking countries and have many who speak the language.

My friends and colleagues do adapt to me. They learned to look at me when they speak and they respect the fact I can't use the telephone in the same way as everyone else. Both parties do what they can to adapt to one another.

As for the whole parents making decisions for younger kids thing... the earlier a child works on communication skills, the better chance she will adapt to the world, which is predominantly hearing.

I could go on and on here and I am sure a few of you have strong feelings about the topic. I am my own person and I could've gone off and learned sign language when I left home at 18. I chose not to do that because I am comfortable with who I am. Would I feel differently had my parents put me into sign language classes instead? I don't know as I have never been in that situation.

As a mom of three, I do the best I can to give my children the best opportunities to learn and grow in this world. I make mistakes along the way or they might not like some of the beliefs I have by the time they're old enough to understand. When they're ready, they can change to whatever works for them.

All I can do is teach them what I know and believe so that when they're on their own, they can lead productive and moral lives.

Posted by at 3:06 PM | Permalink

I've seen my share of closed-caption typos, but I never remember them long enough to share since there are too many especially during live programming. It ain't easy being a stenographer and I have high respect for them.

Codeman38 (who has a Proofreader's Hall of Shame) points to I Am Error Happy, a site for closed-captions bloopers. Now, I'll be motivated to watch for errors and report 'em. I love this kind of stuff, which is why I started the Gotchas. Man, I have about 150 of 'em to add to the list.

Posted by at 10:14 AM | Permalink

This year is coming to a close. It's been a roller coaster of a year between having a baby, Paul getting laid off, getting the cochlear implant, and managing three kids. Health-wise, it was rough and I hope 2004 will be better and healthier.

I was invited to participate in a study that requires going to Southwestern twice a week at two hours each visit. That means about six hours of my time between the commute and the time spent there. The study involves free auditory training, something I need. But I just can't sacrifice six hours a week when I'm barely staying above water. :(

Hearing-wise. People often ask how I am doing with the implant. This is what I say as of today:

I have adapted to it and use it as well as I did with my hearing aids. I still rely heavily on lip reading. New sounds or louder sounds I hear: the laundry washer and dryer from the living room when previously I had to be IN the laundry room to hear the sounds; hard-boiled egg buzzer; microwave oven beeping; Paul's PalmOS alarm (just discovered this one yesterday); and the baby crying from more rooms than previously (sniff, sniff).

The doorbell is still a trouble spot. I can probably hear it when the TV is off, but when I am not expecting it to ring, I miss it.

The nuisances. I mentioned before that sometimes I forget I have it on or it doesn't stay on because of my thick, curly hair. When I listen to music, I hook a cable to the behind-the-ear (BTE) device and the computer. I have to take the BTE out to plug it in since it's small and not easy to find without looking.

With the hearing aids, I just put the headphones on, but it hurt sometimes as the headphones pushed the hearing aid harder against my ear. With the cable, it doesn't hurt, but it pulls my ear down unless I use a paperclip like a lapel to hold the cord in place and taking the weight off the ear.

When I put the BTE on telephone, the buzzing sound is loud and awful, making it hard to hear anything on the phone even the dial tone. I have to adjust my head like a TV antenna to find a spot where the buzzing is not as loud.

Battery guzzler! The BTE takes three batteries as opposed to the hearing aid's one. The body processor takes two double-A batteries and the rechargeables barely lasted 12 hours, so I had to change and recharge every day. The BTE batteries last about three days and aren't rechargeable.

The one BIG plus! No more squealing or beeping. It was embarrassing whenever a person let me know my hearing aid was whistling. Oh, the person is means well. I was embarrassed that it was happening and I couldn't hear it (sometimes it was high pitched or too soft for me to hear). More embarrassing was when I hugged a friend and it would squeal. No more of that.

With the hearing aid (before I got the digital ones, which warned me with a beep), when a battery was going bad, it would slowly get softer and sometimes I wasn't sure if it was me or the hearing aid battery. With the BTE, it completely shuts off rather than gets softer. Can't go wrong with that and you know the batteries are gone, gone, gone.

Have a wonderful holiday and may 2004 be peaceful and happy for us all.

Posted by at 6:15 AM | Permalink

A couple of weeks ago, I left for work... without the implant. It's easy to forget putting it on because it doesn't have those awful ear molds like hearing aids do. With or without the implant, you hard feel anything there. Plus, I went a few days without wearing it because I was sick and sound hurt my already poundnig head.

There should be a caution on the implant. “Warning: If you have thick and curly hair, the implant may or may not cooperate in staying in place.” Every time I put my hair up or down, I have to take it out while fixing it otherwise it falls out. On days when my hair is thicker because of humidity, it takes longer to get it to stick.

It's scary when I am helping a kid in the bath as I worry that leaning over will make it just plop out. I did one stupid thing with the implant, but I'm too embarrassed to share. Move on to the next show and tell.

Posted by at 5:07 AM | Permalink

I read about Elliot in this article from the Denver Post. His mother is right about the statement that "deaf people can't use regular phones or pay phones" being wrong. It was a blanket statement. There are still plenty like me who can't use the phone... yet.

Anyway, the site talks about screening, candidacy, the device (he uses MED-EL), surgery, and all the stuff I went through except Elliot is an amazing and adorable toddler.

Posted by at 5:27 PM | Permalink

As one who uses a relay service to make phone calls, I prefer to connect with humans instead of dealing the mile long recorded-message hell. It takes a long time for the operator to type the entire recording and by the time it ends, the phone has hung up. 1-800-Annoy me now shares a few workarounds for going straight to a live operator. Is it no wonder Southwest Airlines is successful? They have live operators handling every call.

Posted by at 10:03 AM | Permalink

Here's a great way to practice listening skills. Download the free Microsoft Reader and it'll read books out loud while highlighting the text. Currently, they're offering free eBooks every week, but these aren't read out loud. But, I'd be willing to buy books to practice listening. Unfortunately, my @()#*$ sound driver isn't working right. Gotta get it fixed before paying the rent.

Great news! Cochlear came through! I emailed them about my disappointment and misunderstanding with the color of the CI. They said they will contact my audiologist and arrange a swap. That's what I call awesome customer service. Cochlear rules!

Posted by at 9:54 PM | Permalink

As promised, I've uploaded photos of the old hearing aid I wore until I was in 4th grade. See The Many Faces of Hearing Aid, the photo album.

Posted by at 12:48 PM | Permalink

Since my wireless service no longer offers a network that's compatible with my PDA modem, I'm exploring cell phones with text and email capabilities like the Nokia 6800 (one bad thing... no built-in camera... pooh!). AccessWireless.org offers the latest information on developments in the wireless industry from an accessible perspective.

One thing that's not clear is references to hearing aid compatibility. Does that mean it is compatible with a cochlear implant? Cochlear talks about it, but not specific brands (understandable). I used a loopset with my hearing aid, which shut out all the static so I could at least know when someone answered the phone. Will any loopset work?

Posted by at 9:22 PM | Permalink

Many people who are Deaf are against cochlear implants because they feel it's taking away a culture. Such people are prejudiced against people like me who use speech and no sign language when communicating. It's my choice and I choose to do it. I am free to learn sign languages and I choose not to do it. I respect those who learn it and use it. Hey, even these guys from Paris are cool.

I don't like or dislike a person based on their communication preference. I like a person based on his personality. Those who believe in the Deaf culture are prejudiced. I have heard stories of people who have an implant or hearing aid who remove the device whenever around the Deaf culture and use no speech. It's a shame they have to hide how they are in everyday life. If I were in this situation, I'd keep right on wearing my implant and communicate with them in sign language (if I knew it).

It's interesting there is a Deaf culture, but not a blind culture. After all, they do have their own language called Braille.

Off my soap box. Here's a happy story.

Posted by at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Cochlear Implant Online Web site told the story of a high schooler who had to get reimplanted and in the process received an upgrade. Rachel's younger sister, Jessica, is also deaf and has an implant.

The Web site discussed cochlear implants, its history, and a girl's story in receiving an implant. On one of the pages, I was surprised to read the following.

"Many of my teachers had a fear of having a hearing impaired student in the classroom in the beginning of the school year or semester, and many times they didn't know how to accommodate me as a hearing impaired student in the beginning."

I never thought about this in all those years in school. I never got the impression that a teacher feared dealing with me. Every year on the first day of school, I met with the teacher privately to let her know that I was hearing impaired and read lips.

I sat in the front row or wherever was the best place to see the teacher. Of course, I hated it. I wanted to be in the back with the other cool kids. Even as an adult, the front row phenomenon bugged me as my co-workers or friends rarely sat in the front row. It amazed and disappointed me that adult life was a lot like high school.

Many years after I had a certain 8th grade teacher, I learned something about my dad. Whenever he met my teachers at open house, he would tell them of my hearing loss and that I lip read. He also told them other than ensuring I sat in the front, not to treat me any differently.

Many years after I had a specific 8th grade teacher with whom I stayed in touch, she told me something about my dad. Whenever he met my teachers at open house, he would tell them about my hearing loss and that I lip read. He also told them — that other than to make sure I sat in the front — not to treat me any differently than they treated the other students.

Wow. That's something I expected from my mom. Of course, Dad cared about my education and that I led a normal life, but he usually let Mom do the talking. Dad had a quiet influence on my life. He made a big impact, but with little attention.

He and I never talked much. It wasn't for lack of trying. While I was growing up, he attended many of my sports games and even coached. He practiced with me and took me to Texas Rangers baseball games. When I cut back on sports, we didn't interact as much.

On that Monday, I returned to the hospital within a week after the implant because I had severe vertigo and dehydration. Living an hour away, Dad drove with Mom to see me. I was surprised because it wasn't as if I was seriously ill. He usually let Mom update him.

Mom was always there when we needed her. Her car has logged a lot of miles driving 60 miles to Plano from Fort Worth and added more miles on the trip back. So it wasn't a shocker that she came to the hospital. On the car ride home from the hospital, I thanked Dad for coming and told him it meant a lot to me.

Later, I found out from Mom that she asked Dad if he wanted to go to the hook up (the first time cochlear plant gets turned on). He said he didn't want to go because he knew everything would be fine. He explained that when I was in the hospital, he wanted to see me for himself because he was worried about me.

Though Dad and I may not exchange a lot of words, we speak volumes through our actions. When I was little, I could count on Dad to make sure my hearing aid was in working order and had fresh batteries. Thanks, Dad.

Posted by at 9:31 PM | Permalink

An athlete from Austin, a Romanian girl, and a father's son.

As a member of several cochlear implant forums, I'm impressed with the different histories of the courageous people who shared their stories and paved way for newbies like me. After all, someone had to go first.

Actually, we looked into cochlear implants waayyyy back in 1984, summer olympic season in L.A. My parents and I went to LA to House Ear Institute to explore options. At the time, the implants weren't strong enough for someone of my situation. Who ever thought that almost 20 years later that I'd be in this boat? While in LA, we experienced another wild story.

Yes, we made it to Disneyland and even checked out a taping of Wheel of Fortune and Benson. We got the heck out of there before the olympics began.

Great quote from MetroWest Daily News:

“The surgery is easy. The hard part is defining the expectations after surgery. Everyone thinks it's like turning on a light switch, but it's not.”

Posted by at 9:16 AM | Permalink

Before I got my first behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aid in 4th grade, I wore a body aid. For the most part, it had one end of the cord attached to two ear molds and the other end to a case about the size of a deck of cards. As an active little girl, there was no way the aid would stay in a pocket. Besides, girls' dresses and outfits didn't have many pockets.

So, I was stuck wearing a case holder with shoulder straps and waist straps to hold it in place on my chest, a nightmare in the '70s when t-shirts with cool iron-ons were in. Plus, I played a lot of sports and gave my parents a heart attack whenever something hit me in the chest.

Mom tried to ease the pain of wearing a straight-jacket... er... hearing aid case by making a bunch of them in different styles and colors. I believe that hearing aid required four double-AA batteries or was it two? Anyway, Dad had a recharger and we charged them every night.

Wearing this body processor feels freakishly like those days. This is temporary as I get used to the new way of hearing, then I'll change to the behind-the-ear. The processor has two cords, a long one goes into the processor and a short one to the transmitter. Well, I ain't goin' back to no cases! I'm stuck wearing the processor in a pocket, on my pants, or on a belt loop.

OK, if I am wearing a dress with no belt and no pocket... where does it go? When I go to the restroom, I have to hold on to the processor. If I miraculously have a shirt pocket, a rarity in women's clothing, I could accidentally bend over without thinking... and out comes the processor. People have suggested building secret pockets and all that. But like I said, it's temporary.

Another similar feature... the processor requires two double-AA batteries. It'll be good to go back to the behind-the-ear.

I haven't been able to find a picture of the body aid, but I do have some of me wearing it with the case. Will have to scan them, but my PC is in my bedroom and the scanner is on the desk. Doubt I have a cord that long!

Instead of worrying about me pulling the cords (Mom said I did it all the time and broke them), I have to worry about the baby pulling the cord. He did manage to get his hand on it once already out of luck. Maybe before he improves his target, I'll be on the BTE.

Posted by at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I neglected to explain why I was born deaf. I have sensineural hearing loss, which in most cases is a permanent hearing loss. The causes of a sensorineural hearing loss are numerous: nerve damage due to illness, menengitis, maternal rubella, RH blood incompatibility, scarlet fever, absence of semicoclear fluid, cytomeglovirus, chronic exposure to loud noises (industrial work), premature birth, head trauma, drug exposure, heredity / genetics and unknown causes. The areas of concern with sensorineural hearing loss are in the inner ear.

I would fall into the unknown cause category. No one else in the family is deaf, my mom was healthy throughout her pregnancy with me, and since it happened at birth... obviously, it was not affected by illness.

Recently, I learned of a genetic defect called Connexin 26, which is prevalent in people of European ancestry. I had the test done, but tested negative. So the nerve deafness theory stands and the mystery remains.

Posted by at 10:29 AM | Permalink