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Sharing Information From Our Last Meeting

Last Saturday morning we had our meeting and it’s topic was Don’t Be a Victim. Dr. Susan Chilton led the discussion and Julia Stepp provided CART.  Our discussions ranged from not getting the punchline, not hearing alarms, to relatives who refuse to repeat and how we are treated at businesses. We talked about drive thrus, staying safe at home and pre-boarding on planes. Coping skills were discussed afterward, working to improve our situations. Our topic discussion lasted about an hour.

Susan Chilton

Dr. Susan Chilton with a CART backdrop and our favorite CART person, Julia.

attendees meeting 9-14-13 3

Later we discussed the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Festival being held at the Sanderson Center Saturday, September 21st from 11-7. HLAA will have a booth at the event and we are hoping to attract more hard of hearing people to our chapter. Tomorrow I will post a schedule of presentations on our website (www.hearinglossutah.com) as well as parking instructions. CART will be available during presentations and Listen Tech is looping a portion of the gym for us as well. If you haven’t experienced a loop yet, Saturday is your chance. Crafts will be on sale made by our own community. Be sure to join us, it will be a fun, fun day. Stop by our HLAA table and say hi.

Utah-CAN successfully got captions in the Rice-Eccles stadium. The first captioned game was August 29. Users picked up a tablet which relayed the captions. More about this later on our HLAA website.

Loop Utah, a new movement here in Salt Lake is underway. The official kick off will be at the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Festival at 4:00 pm. Learn more about loops, how they work, what we hope to accomplish and you can help.

There are officially 18 hard of hearing assistants in Utah spread throughout the state. They will provide their areas with classes such as Living With Hearing Loss, CASE, Hearing Aids 101 and more. They hope to reach out to many people who feel lost and isolated. The Sanderson Center works hard to spread support.

Our next meeting will be November 16, from 9am-11am at the Sanderson Center in classroom B/C. Our topic that morning will be Stress Management for the Holidays.  Refreshments provided.  We hope to see you there.

Thank you.

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September 14, 2013, Our Next Meeting

The second half of the HLAA mission statement says, “We strive to improve the quality of lives of people with hearing loss through education, advocacy and self help.” We strive to meet these standards and the Salt Lake City chapter has also reformatted it’s meetings to include emotional and social needs as well. Our next meeting is September 14, 2013 from 9 a.m. to 11:00 at the Sanderson Center in the conference room. Our topic will be, “Don’t Be a Victim.”

Don’t be a victim of crime, abuse or isolation. Learn to be aware and advocate for yourself then get help as needed. We don’t have a guest speaker but Dr. Susan Chilton* will be there to help guide the discussion. We all have our personal stories to share and with our combined years of hearing loss experience, we make quite the expert. Together, we will develop information and make connections.

Refreshments will available and we will mingle before the meeting, during the break and afterward. We look forward to seeing you there so please mark your calendars.

 

*Dr. Susan Chilton received her Ph.D. in Educational Administration with an emphasis in Educational Psychology. She worked in the Jordan School district for 34 years. She has taught special education classes and help hundreds of students with various learning disabilities. In 1984 the district asked her to head the department and create a program to provide help and resources for at-risk students. She taught parenting classes, formed a drug prevention performance team, initiated a suicide prevention crisis line, developed teacher and student trainings on drug prevention, depression, gangs, eating disorders, crisis intervention, etc. And she organized a district crisis team that was first on the scene of any crisis that affected students and teachers. Her department became the place to which all JSD educators, students, and parents turned for answers and interventions. She has served on many boards in our state, including Suicide Prevention, Parents Helping Parents, Wasatch Canyon Hospital, and others.

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University of Utah Football Games Now Captioned

From everyone’s friend Kathy Evans….

 

Football fans, you are invited! Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah will now have captions to help people follow the game. Announcements, officials’ calls and videos will all have real-time captions. We can now feel that we’re part of the action! Read the U’s announcement of this a http://utahutes.cstv.com/genrel/082813aaa.html.

 

Notice the tab for tickets at the top of the page . . . You can be a red-blooded Utah fan and enjoy the games in person!

 

First game is today (Aug 29), against Utah State.

 

Next game is Sept 7, against Weber State.

 

 

 

Utah-CAN’s Sports Venue Chairperson is Mike Shelton, and he has spent many hours working out details with the people at the U to make this happen. The U jumped right on it when Mike first approached them – we’re grateful to them and congratulate them for making this happen.

 

 

 

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News from the National Office

Awards Nominations Due October 31 HLAA Chapter and State organizations find unique and special ways to serve member needs as they reach out and make an impact. National awards acknowledge these achievements and contributions. Nominate your chapter or state organization, members, employers and others who make a positive difference to people with hearing loss. The nomination packet will be mailed to all HLAA leaders later this month. If you would like to receive it sooner, please send an email to  Chapters@hearingloss.org and place 2014 AWARDS in the subject line.

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Our Ranks Are Growing There are now 48 million people with hearing loss in the United States, a 30% increase from the previous estimate of 36 million. The number is based on research conducted by Frank Lin, M.D., Ph.D. at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

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 Barbara Kelly, HLAA Magazine Editorwould like to hear from you: Whether you’re working nine to five or doing shift work, we want to hear about your experiences on the job as a person with hearing loss.

 

Answer any of the questions or all of them. (Or add anything you wish.) Does your employer and/or co-workers know you have a hearing loss? Do you use any special accommodations like assistive listening devices or CART? What are your experiences interviewing for a job? Have you had to ask your employer for a “reasonable accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act?

 

Have you been successful at work? Have you felt you had to give up a job because of your hearing loss? Have you felt discriminated against because of your hearing loss? Are your co-workers sensitive to your communication needs? What positives have come from having a hearing loss?

 

We would like to hear about your workplace experiences for possible use in an upcoming Hearing Loss Magazine and/or on the HLAA website. Please send your remarks in 600 words or less to Barbara Kelly: bkelley@hearingloss.org. Please include your full name, email address, and where you live.

 

All comments are welcome here by September 10th.

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Hearing Loss and Interviewing

At the 2012 HLAA Rhode Island convention, Malik B. El-Amin presented a workshop called Hard of Hearing and Exceptional – Landing the Job and Achieving Career Success. In today’s world it’s tough finding a job and having a hearing loss on top of it doesn’t makes us feel any more secure in the process. The American Disability Act (ADA) backs us up but doesn’t guarantee we will have a job. Malik went over the ADA, what it covers and what it doesn’t. Here’s his overview:

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) –Title 1

•Covers private, state & local govt., employment agencies, and unions with more than 15 employees

•Covers job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, and training

•Must have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, have a record of such an impairment, or be regarded as having such an impairment

•Must meet legitimate skill, experience, education, or other requirements of an employment position that you hold or seek, and be able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation

•Reasonable accommodation is any modification or adjustment to a job or the work environment that will enable a qualified applicant or employee with a disability to participate in the application process or to perform essential job functions. No “undue hardship”

•Employer cannot make any pre-employment inquiry about a disability or the nature or severity of a disability

•An employer is not required to reallocate essential functions of a job as a reasonable accommodation

Some of what he shared is common sense; look professional, arrive early and leave behind or turn off phones and gadgets. Keep your current job or do some volunteer work to fill time. Go to industry related events and check out the local chamber of commerce.

For those of us with hearing loss, he had a few more tips like controlling your hearing loss. Rehearse talking about your hearing loss before hand, be comfortable with it. Don’t fake it or bluff your way through. Use your typical accommodations. Provide accommodations if you can, ask for the rest. Don’t be afraid to ask for adjustments in the interview, like lighting (if I can see you better, I hear better). This shows you in charge of your hearing loss.

We don’t have to disclose our hearing loss on applications or at interviews but it might be better to be upfront so no one is surprised. (Personally, I don’t list my hearing loss on applications and I don’t talk about it on the phone. I wait until I’m in front of the person so I’m not prejudged.) There are some positive aspects to hearing loss he reminded us.

We are good about accepting others as they are.

We listen because we have to.

Adversity is no stranger to us.

Malik is a member of the HLAA Los Angeles chapter.  His convention presentation can be found here: (cut and paste might work better than clicking)

http://www.hearingloss.org/sites/default/files/docs/El-Amin_friday.pdf

 

Here are some helpful links to other websites on hearing loss and job interviews:

Employment Toolkit for the Hard of Hearing by HLAA http://hearingloss.org/content/workplace

Managing at Work http://www.hearinglink.org/managingatwork

CapTel has suggestions: http://www.captel.com/news/hearing-loss/how-to-handle-a-job-interview-with-hearing-loss/

blog by Gael Hannan http://hearinghealthmatters.org/betterhearingconsumer/2012/getting-hired-a-hohs-perspective/

Another bloggers personal perspective: http://livingwithhearingchallenges.com/2012/11/27/job-interview-with-hearing-loss/

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Apps and Services to Aid Phone Use

 phone ringing

Using my smartphone is great for texting, email and the internet. As hard of hearing, these features keep me in the communication loop but using it for actual phone calls is another matter altogether. There are times when using the phone is unavoidable and I have to do it. In the last few weeks, I needed help getting messages off my voicemail which sent me on a flurry of research.

YouMail: My boyfriend found this service so we could forward any voicemail to him and he could text me back with the necessary information. It’s free (with ads), $2.99 a month without ads and there is a business plan which includes voice to text for $24.00 a month. They also have Read It plans but it gets a little goofy here, with $4.99 a month for 20 voicemails at 20 seconds of transcription. Their next level is $9.99 with 40 voicemails and 40 seconds each and on up to their unlimited plan which includes unlimited messages and 60 seconds of transcription each. They have a free app available for iPhone and I now have it so I can forward messages which I wasn’t able to do through iPhone alone. It also allows me to record personal greetings to people in my contact list and have a default message for everyone else.

My boyfriend is willing to help me out but as my business picks up, I don’t want to burn him out so next I asked my friends at the SayWhatClub (SWC, a daily source of support and friendship via email) how they coped with retrieving voicemails. It turns out a lot of us use our significant other or try very hard to get people to use email or text instead. Those who still deal with the phone (usually for business purposes) told me about services and programs they heard of or used. I haven’t tried them myself yet but here are options you can look at.

PhoneTag: Their website says, “PhoneTag uses advanced technology to convert voicemail to text and deliver it via e-mail and/or text messages.” Their plans range from 35 cents a message, to 40 voicemails a month for $10 and unlimited for $30 a month. Jaynie Kind who writes for her local HLAA chapter in California wrote in their 2009 newsletter, “My husband just set it up and it’s fantastic! People can leavevoicemail messages on your home or cell phone and thosemessages can be transcribed and sent to your email or cellphone as TEXT messages! No more struggling to understandvoicemail.” On the downside, another friend on the SWC email list said he signed up for the service and after 5 days hasn’t been able to use it and tech support is via the phone only.

Google Voice: They have a video to watch for information but it’s well captioned. This service appears to be free at first glance. It’s over-view says the transcription isn’t always perfect but believes we will get the basic message anyway and they are working to improve that portion of their service. It has many options including tying three phone together if needed. Someone who used this service said it wasn’t perfect but it’s not bad. (I’m thinking it can’t be any worse than relay operators and it can’t be as awful as YouTube captions.) I’m not sure how much of their Voice services are free but it might be worth checking into. I like their honesty so I will look into this soon.

After doing a web search, I found other businesses offering similar services:

Before my voicemail issues last week, I hadn’t heard of any of this and didn’t know these kinds of options existed so I thought I’d share my discoveries. Feel free to add your thoughts and experiences below in the comment section.

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Meeting 7-13-13

Last night Mike and Donna hosted a social/meeting at their house offering HLAA members dinner.  We were supposed to eat outside in the nice summer weather but an oncoming thunderstorm chased us inside.

Mike and Donna

dinner

kids

A few of us brought kids who were thoroughly entertained in the play nook under the stairs.  We visited with one another and shared news over a nice meal.

 company for dinner

nice gathering

dinner guests

Afterwards we had a meeting, CART was provided. Thanks Julia!!!

Julia setting up CART

During the meeting portion we elected a new president to the chapter, Chelle George.

The outreach committee outlined their efforts; creating this website/blog and a FaceBook page to which many will get a invite to over the next few weeks or so.  They also want to get together some published material to handout in the future.  The program committee reported on our next meeting.

We discussed a request by Utah-CAN coming up for help with printing materials for outreach. A budget will be coming soon for us to vote on.

After business was concluded, we hooked up this website to the large TV to share with everyone for the first time.

Before we left, we had a group picture taken. Don’t you just love the smiling faces?

Back row: Mike, Kristen, Chelle, Kathy and her husband Fred, Linda. Front row: Donna, Kristel, Helen, Julia.

Back row: Mike, Kristen, Chelle, Kathy and her husband Fred, Linda. Front row: Donna, Kristel, Helen, Julia.

Our next meeting is September 14, 2013 from 9 a.m. to 11:00 at the Sanderson Center.  Our topic: Don’t Let Yourself be a Victim (Crime Prevention; Family Abuse Prevention; Invisibility Prevention /advocating for self). Please mark you calendars and we hope to see you there.