August 9, 2014 by Chelle

Changes in the Chapter

Last weekend we had a social at Mike and Donna’s house. There was great food and plenty of time to talk to each other. (We apologize to those who didn’t get the invite to the social and will make sure it comes across our yahoo email list next time.) It was a perfect summer evening for a few special announcements.

The chapter presidency has changed from me (Chelle) to Karen. Woo-hoo, thank you Karen for stepping up. It’s good to change our leadership every so often because everyone brings something new to the position adding more to the chapter. It keeps a chapter healthier.

I’m now taking the treasurer’s spot. Many, many thanks to Kathy for being the treasurer for so many years. She held the spot in the best of times and in the worst times to keep the chapter going. Bless you Kathy, we appreciate beyond words.

Here are some pictures from the dinner the other night.

Robin and Helen

Fred (Kathy’s husband), Kathy and Linda

Don, Karen and Donna

Don and his wife, Marian.

Mike and Karen’s husband Chris

Karen, our new president. I gave her a tiara to go with the new position.

Table view

July 6, 2014 by Chelle

TypeWell, a Captioning Option

Last week at the Sanderson Center we had the opportunity to experience TypeWell, “A system for capturing spoken content and generating an immediate meaning-for-meaning transcript.” Kate Ervin, executive director of Typewell was in Salt Lake and offered to give us a demonstration before leaving town. Reading about it online, I came up with the above description and wondered how it differed from CART.

She came in before the speech reading class putting a lap top and a Kindle Fire in the middle of the table, each facing different sides. She sat to the side with her laptop in front of her, ready to go. The previous week I told the others she would be there but all three of them had no idea what to expect. Kathy, Robin and I are used to captioning but we love having options.

Kate of TypeWell

One of the students in the speech reading class was recently deafened due to acoustic neuroma and she was thrilled to see speech transcribed in front of her. Her husband was happy to know these kinds of options exist. Another attendee is a college student who has gone through most of her education without any CART or captioning at all. She was told it was a hassle to sign up with the disability resource center and that a note-taker would work just fine. All this time she struggled through classes when this was available? She could see where it would have made her college time much, much easier.

How is TypeWell different from CART? She uses her laptop with advanced abbreviation software instead of a stenography machine. Kate said they summarize by leaving out false starts and filler words but they also try to capture everything like other people’s remarks and sounds such as car alarms that may be going off outside to show why everyone is looking out the window. It easier for the transcribers if only person at a time talks. CART might better suit someone who wants to hear/see everything such as person with a new CI who is learning to hear again.

How is it like CART? Captioning in all it’s sources is wonderful. Just like CART, it appears on the screen in front of you and it follows the conversation and I didn’t see any missing words (except when I stumbled over my words/sentences). There is a slight delay as with CART but not enough to make a big difference. It can be done on-site or remotely (off-site). Notes can be saved and used to study or review later.

How do people become a transcriber under TypeWell? TypeWell doesn’t provide services but instead train people to do it. Kate said each person has to be able to type 60 words a minute with no errors and they need strong English skills. They have to pass a specific test or they do not get the software to work with. (She also mentioned their software has a math mode for in the classroom.) Training cost is about $500 and about $100-200 dollars a year for the software. There are ongoing training opportunities and workshops to attend.

They will train anyone who can work with a university or an agency first to gain experience (either as an employee or contracted) and later transcribers can become independent contractors. The typical charge for services is $15-$30 an hour, with the high end being $40-$60 and hour. There is a TypeWell provider in the Odgen area and another in Utah County but so far there isn’t one for the Salt Lake City area.

If you are hearing and this sounds good to you, think about applying because the hard of hearing population is growing and I think captioning will be more in demand. People with hearing loss are becoming less passive and want to be included. This job can be used in conjunction with another job, see the TypeWell blog for Jarren in Washington who provides services to both the Deaf and hard of hearing as an ASL interpreter and a TypeWell provider.

TypeWell is another option for real-time access to communication for those who are hard of hearing. Visit their website for more information and locate a local provider with this link: http://support.typewell.com/customer/portal/articles/229852.

June 23, 2014 by Chelle

HLAA-SLC Book Club July 12

Join us Saturday July 12 from 9-10:30 a.m. at the Sanderson Center in classroom C for the HLAA-SLC book club. Our meeting is fully accessible with the hearing loop, receivers available for those without T-coil in their hearing aids and CART.

Each month we let a different member choose a book. Our past books have been:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safron Foer
The Horse Whisper by Nicolas Evans
The Matarese Circle by Robert Ludlum

As you can see, there is a variety of books and genres we explore. The book we will be reviewing July 12th is “She’s Come Undone” by Wally Lamb which is on Oprah Winfrey’s book club. I’m halfway through the book right now and I think it’s going to create a lot of discussion.

She’s Come Undone

Here are the questions we will be going over:
1. How does Dolores’ life parallel her mother’s and how does she ultimately triumph and move beyond her tie to her mother’s failures?

2. Discuss the significance of water in the novel – as a symbol of both Dolores’ breaking points and eventual recovery.

3. How is religion, particularly Catholicism, treated in the novel? Is it a legitimate source of strength or simply another crutch to avoid dealing with the real problems in Dolores’ family?

4. Death, in many forms, frequently occurs in the novel. What is the impact of death on Dolores and is she ever able to move beyond the initial tragedy of her baby brother’s death?

5. Throughout her life, no matter where she is, Dolores always feels like on outsider. What perspective of reality dictates her actions – is Dolores misguided or is she a victim of her circumstances?

6. How is Dolores’ sexuality used to reflect her voyage in society Is her path in life guided by her dysfunctional relationships with men, beginning with her father, or are the men in her life simply potholes in her quest to search for her identity?

7. Dolores’ earliest memory revolves around the day her family received their first television set. Discuss the prevalence of popular culture in the novel, both in the shaping of Dolores’ identity and the world she lives in.

8. Whether talented or not, many characters in the novel express themselves through some form of art. Does “art imitate life” or does “life imitate art,” and how is art used to give life to the characters and their emotions?

9. Dolores frequently encounters people in her life who mirror family members who have disappointed her over the years. What is the role of the family and how does Dolores ultimately compensate for her losses through her relationships with caring outsiders?

10. Dolores is both adored and loathed for her unconventional appearance. How is body image treated in the novel and how does it affect Dolores’ growth and placement in society. Is her problem with social assimilation unique to her experience or a symptom of our society’s definition of beauty?

11. Discuss the significance of Dolores’ mother’s flying leg painting. Her mother is killed before she really gets a chance to fly — what facilitates Dolores’ ability to finally accept her mother’s failures and create her own wings to fly towards a better future?

12. Much of the attention of She’s Come Undone has focused on a male writer’s ability (or inability) to write authentically in the voice of a female character. What other male fiction writers of the present and/or the past have experimented with women’s “voices’? What female writers have written in the voice of males? Is it appropriate for fiction writers to give themselves such “gender-bending” assignments? Is it politically correct? Is it a more socially acceptable task for writers of one gender than for the other?

13. Wally Lamb has described “good literature” as writing that explores the imperfections of the world and “kicks readers in their pants, shakes them out of their complacency about a world that needs fixing.” Do you agree or disagree with this definition? How does it apply to She’s Come Undone?

Even if you didn’t finish the book come on in as it’s bound to be a lively discussion. Or pop in and check us out, we’d be glad to have you.

May 25, 2014 by Chelle

Book Club June 7, 2014

Our book social is coming up on June 7th at the Sanderson in the conference room from 9am-10:30. We’ve been enjoying our book chats and this time will be going over Robert Ludlum’s Matarese Circle. I was able to pick up my copy at the county library near my house last week. We have CART scheduled. If you’re a reader join us, even if you didn’t get to the finish the book. The questions Helen comes up with makes us think and our discussions engaging. We hope to see you there.

1. How did you experience the Matarese Circle? Were you

immediately drawn into the story–or did it take you a while? Did

the book intrigue, amuse, disturb, alienate, irritate, or frighten

you?

2. Do you find the lead characters convincing? In particular did you

find the heroes and heroine Bradford Scolfield, (sometimes

called Bray, aka Beowulf Agate,) Vasilisi Talenieko, and

Antonia believable? Compelling? Are they fully developed

as complex, emotional human beings–or are they one-

dimensional?

3. Did you find the female characters in the book, both the lead

character and any other women encountered in the plot fully

developed or just one-dimensional?.

4.Did you find the main enemy characters, Senator Joshua Appleton

IV, The Shepard Boy, (Guilderon), believable, complex or

basically one-dimensional?

5. Is the plot well developed? Is it believable? Do you feel manipulated

along the way, or do plot events unfold naturally, organically?

6. Is the story plot or character driven? In other words, do events

unfold quickly? Or is more time spent developing characters’

inner lives? Does it make a difference to your enjoyment?

7. Do the actions of the hero, Bradford aka Bray seem believable

given the circumstances he finds himself in?

8. Given the last few days of the story in Part III, do you find the

actions of Bray or the reactions of others in the plot believable

or fantastical?

9. If you have seen any of the movies based on his other books,

especially the Bourne books, did you find any of the actions in

those movies somewhat unrealistic at times?

10. If you have seen any of the Bourne movies, and was swept

along with the suspense of the plot, did you feel that this book

would lend itself to a similar dramatic script suitable for a

movie? Or are there too many intangibles such as the gradual

evolution of the Matarese Circle or Bradford’s inner musings

that would prevent it from being a suspenseful film?

11. Does it annoy you that the author uses Bray in one paragraph

and then Bradford the next almost throughout the book?

12. Consider the ending, especially most of the events in Part III. –

– Did you expect it or were you surprised? Was it manipulative?

Was it forced? Was it neatly wrapped up–too neatly? Or was

the story unresolved, ending on an ambiguous note?

13. If you could rewrite the ending, would you? In other words, did

you find the ending satisfying? Why or why not.

14. Are you aware that the author is referring particularly to a real

life organization called the Trilateral Commission, developed

by David Rockefeller, and supported by several presidents

including President Jimmy Carter? The aims of those

organizations and over-reaching goals including details as to

which countries would be the core countries are roughly the

same –without the intent to replace governments by violent

means.

15. Given his bias against the Commission, (stated in various

interviews and talk shows), do you believe that he is carrying

the commission’s goals to the extreme by having the Circle

develop terrorists who are actually pawns being used to

facilitate the establishment of authoritarian rule?

16. Do you find the last actions of the President in this book to

be believable considering all that has gone before and his

supposed support of Bradford’s disclosures?

17. Does this last action by the President indicate the author is

not finished with the concept, as shown by his next book the

Matarese Countdown?

18. If you have not yet read the Matarese Countdown, would you

consider reading it after reading this book?

19. Can you pick out a passage that strikes you as particularly

profound or interesting–or perhaps something that sums up the

central dilemma of the book?

20. Have you read the author’s other books? Can you discern a

similarity—in theme, writing style, structure—between them? Or

are they completely different?

May 12, 2014 by Chelle

Don’t Be Left Out of the Loop, a Success

Juliette Sterkens, AuD

On Friday May 2 and Saturday May 3, HLAA sent us their national Loop Advocate Juliette Sterkens, AuD, to keep us in the Loop! Our HLAA chapter and the Sanderson Center helped Loop Utah pull off a big, two day event for May’s Better Speech and Hearing Month which we called Don’t Be Left Out of the Loop. Both day’s meetings were held at the Sanderson Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in the looped classroom to show off the looping difference.

Friday morning’s session was set up for Salt Lake area audiologists and the afternoon session was for facility managers and architects. We made a great connection with the Sundance Festival organization that afternoon.

Hard of Hearing Assistant, Jodi, tried the loop for the first time and was amazed at the difference. She shared her enthusiasm with the audiologist attendees.

Marilyn and Jodi give their thumbs up.

Saturday was set up for those of us who wear hearing aids and wanted to learn more about them and the t-coil. We had 50 people show up that day, 50 interested consumers. Juliette spent a lot of time talking about hearing aids, their advantages and disadvantages, what they can and can’t do alone. She talked about all the things our audiologists should be doing but many aren’t. She answered questions from frustrated users and her honesty was refreshing.

Then she went on to talk about the loop and how hearing loops benefit us and our hearing aids. How they work and how we can help advocate for them ourselves.

During lunch, she gave an interview for Channel 4 News which aired Saturday night: http://www.good4utah.com/story/d/story/new-technology-for-the-hard-of-hearing/23029/t6ooMGsBs0umXrh9KXMY9g (Be sure to leave a comment at the website supporting the loop or hearing loss in the news.)

A silent auction was offered each afternoon to help Loop Utah raise funds. There were a lot of fun items to bid on, here are a few of them pictured:

There were gorgeous pictures, quilted blankets, ski tickets for next season, a home loop provided by Listen Tech, tickets for the Sundance Festival, a giant cookie basket, gift certificates for services and much, much more. Friendly competition pursued with fun for everyone.

The event was a success and brought many people together which became a reunion of sorts. Thank you to everyone who came and helped to make it such a success.

Loop Utah hopes to put on an event every year during Better Speech and Hearing Month.

April 21, 2014 by Chelle

HLAA Event/Meeting on May 3 from 9-1:30

May 3 HLAA Meeting is two weeks earlier than normal. To celebrate May’s Better Speech and Hearing Month, we teamed up with Loop Utah and the Sanderson Center to hold a two day event called, “Don’t Be Left Out of the Loop!” On May 3, 2014 the National HLAA office is sending us their Loop Advocate, Dr. Juliette Sterkens to talk about the necessity of hearing loops, the advantages and how to advocate for them ourselves. Here’s our schedule:

8:30-9:00 light breakfast

9:00-11:00 Dr. Juliette Sterkens

11:00-11:15 break

11:15-12:00 the Loop Challenge

12:00-1:00 Lunch for all attendees

1:00-1:30 Home Loops presentation

Feeling Loopy? Come join us. Send your RSVP to chellegeorge@utah.gov. We hope to see you there.

March 20, 2014 by Chelle

March Book Club

Have you ever wanted to attend a book club but didn’t because as hard of hearing you were afraid you’d miss too much? Here’s your chance to try one…. We will be gathering on March 29th from 2-4 at the Sanderson Center in classroom B/C. The book of the month is The Horse Whisperer by Nicolas Evans. We will have the loop on and Julia will be doing the CART. Feel free to come by even if you haven’t read the book as our discussions on the book can be lively at times.

For those of you planning to attend, here’s a list of questions:

If you saw the movie and then read the book, what did you think about the ending?

Which ending do you prefer and why?

Did the book engage you?

The story was told by three people; Annie, Grace and Tom. Could the book have been told by one person? Which person do you think could have told the story better?

Who was your favorite character and why?

How do you feel about Annie? And her drive, her career, her choices?

What did you think about Diane (Tom’s sister in law)?

Annie and Grace’s relationship was tense through most of the book, was it a typical mother/daughter relationship to you?

Does Tom’s gift with horses seem too good to be true?

A man wrote this romance, do you think he did a good job in this genre?

There are four themes in the book: worldly success vs the home life, rustic simplicity vs big city angst, the redeeming power of love and the mystic of animals. Which part did you like best?

What one word describes the book for you?

We are taking turns choosing a book each month. If you have a good one to share in April, let us know at the meeting this month. Thanks and hope to see you there!

March 20, 2014 by Chelle

Our Last Meeting March 8th

We had a great meeting on Saturday the 8th of March. We talked about self-help books and then second half was about hearing loss books in particular. Helen reviewed “A Quiet World” by David Meyers.

Kathy reviewed “Odyssey of Hearing Loss: Tales of Triumph” by Michael Harvey.

I reviewed “Missing Words: The Family Handbook on Adult Hearing Loss” by Kay Thomsett and Eve Nickerson.

Perhaps the best part was us sharing why our chosen book meant so much to us. Those are best part of our HLAA meetings.

Helen provided us with a long list of books, fiction & nonfiction, that center around hearing loss and deafness. Robin gave us a list of books about hearing loss available at the Sanderson Center for us to check out. Yes, the Sanderson Center has a great library of books for us to check out when we want. Take a look someday.

Utah-CAN members filled us in about captioned plays coming to Utah. Keep your eye on their website for place and time.

April 5th The Blueman Group

April 25th Warhorse

May 31st Memphis

July 26th Wicked

Loop Utah updated all their recent activities which included attending the Utah Speech-Language and Hearing Association’s conference in Park City a few weeks ago. There was a counter loop at the booth through which they played a sound clip showing people the difference between hearing in a church with hearing aids only and then hearing with a provided loop. A lot of people ‘got it.’ Dr. Anne Lobdell gave a presentation for the audiologists about hearing loops, the ADA requirements and then a panel of 5 hearing aid users talked about their experiences with the loop which was well received.

Near the end of our meeting we decided not to meet on our regular Saturday in May which would have been the 17th. National HLAA is sending their Loop advocate, Juliette Sterkens to us on May 3rd to talk about looping Utah and how we can work on having more hearing-friendly places in Salt Lake to attend. Loop Utah is heading this up in the looped room, classroom B/C. A light lunch will be served and there will be a raffle as a fundraiser. Stay tuned for more information.

Thanks to those who attended the meeting. It was great seeing everyone!

February 28, 2014 by Chelle

March 8th is our Next Meeting

Our next meeting is March 8^th instead of the typical third Saturday of the month. (I could not get the looped room scheduled on our regular day.) Our topic is Hearing Loss Books. In the first half of the meeting Susan Chilton will tell us what to look for in self-help books and how to use them. There will be a break with refreshments then we will continue the meeting with some of us reviewing the hearing loss books we’ve read. If you have a favorite hearing loss book, bring it along for discussion. We will also be passing out a list of books related to hearing loss. We hope to see you there.

Hearing Loss Association of America

HLAA; Salt Lake Chapter

Author: Chelle