Salt Lake City hearing loss

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Assisting Individuals With Hearing Loss Who Experience Auditory/Listening Fatigue

Whether an individual has had hearing loss their entire life, or their hearing loss has been slowly progressing for years, focusing auditory attention to the task of understanding speech can be an exhausting experience. Add a difficult listening situation such as noise, and the experience is made worse.  Despite the marvelous benefits received from hearing aids and cochlear implants, listening continues to be “work” for most individuals. Aural rehabilitation therapy consists of therapy that assists individuals in developing their listening skills, but, also, provides counseling tools and compensatory strategies to aid in reducing auditory or listening fatigue and maximize the listening experience.  This session will discuss these tools and strategies for reducing listening fatigue, as well as, problem-solving examples of difficult listening situations. 

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Susan Naidu, guest speaker, is presenting on: Assisting Individuals With Hearing Loss Who Experience Auditory/Listening Fatigue.  Susan has been a practicing audiologist for over 30 years.  At the U of U, Susan teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in pediatric audiology and aural rehabilitation therapy for children and adults.  Additionally, Susan is a clinical supervisor at the U of U Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic and supervises graduate audiology students in aural rehabilitation therapy for children and adults with hearing loss, as well as, the assessment of auditory processing disorders in children and adults and hearing evaluations with children.

When?  August 20, 2016

Where? Sanderson Center to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 5709 South 1500 West, Taylorsville, UT  84123 in the Conference Room.

For more information email: hearinglossutah@gmail.com

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Meeting Notes from Sept. 20, 2014

Karen, our new HLAA chapter president, began the meeting just a little after 9:00 last Saturday morning.  Our meeting was set up with CART and the hearing loop making for easy hearing access for everyone.

Our guest speaker was Jared Allebest who has a specialty in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  He gave a short presentation on the ADA featuring the different aspects.  Title 1 applies to businesses with 14 or more employees.  Title 2 which applies to places like city hall, court, prison and the police.  Title 3 covers public places such as apartments (flashing door bells) and businesses we may go to (flashing fire alarms) and other businesses such as movie theaters with captioning access.

Jared Allebest

Jared Allebest

He took questions from attendees ranging from park and recreation services (if they take money from the federal government they need to comply with the ADA), tenant laws, jury duty, renters rights and using captioned phones to document conversations.

He coached us on writing  letters of accommodation to businesses:

  • Ask about their policy and then proceed with knowledge
  • State your disability
  • state your need
  • write it at least 3 days in advance though 7 days is best

You can email questions to Mr. Allebest about ADA concerns at jared@allebest.com and he will answer within a week or so.  If you need help writing a letter for reasonable accommodation, he can help with for a small fee.

For more on the ADA, try this link: http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm.  It lists phone numbers, addresses and websites.

During the meeting Karen also told us about the HLAA Convention last June in Austin, TX.  She shared her experiences and the workshops she attended.  Chelle later shared her experiences with the SayWhatClub Convention in Madison, WI last July.

Thanks to all who attended!  Our next meeting is Nov. 15th and the topic will be holiday depression.

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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.

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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.