Face me, I read lips

This is the last in my series on conventions I attended this summer. Over this past summer I’ve come to realize how much I crave real-life interaction with other people with hearing loss. I hope to become more involved with the local HH/deaf activities in my area, as my work schedule allows. I want to stay connected to those I can support in the northwest, and who I might turn to for support, as well.

Day Five started out with our “last day” breakfast banquet in the hotel. Finally, Robyn remembered to bring her Marmite. I watched in anticipation as she spread the light brown gunk on a small sliver of my toast, while explaining it must be applied thinly for the true flavor to be appreciated. Americans, she said, have a habit of glopping too much on like they do with jam. Too much is not the way to eat it. As she scraped her knife over the toast, I couldn’t help thinking it literally looked like shit. Now– this is not the first time I’ve ever eaten something gross looking on toast. In fact, one of my favorite toast spreads is apple butter– which closely resembles Marmite in both color and consistency. It couldn’t be THAT bad I thought. So I took a bite. . . . . . . And it wasn’t bad at all, not nearly as bad as it looked or smelled.

After breakfast we had our annual town meeting to discuss where our next convention should be among other things. I fidgeted in excitement knowing Abbie was on her way to meet me for lunch. Tina Childress had also been invited and was taking the train over from Wash, DC. I looked forward to seeing her again, as we had had a nice lunch last year in Vegas. When Abbie arrived, she texted. I rushed out to hug her. I have to say Abbie is even more beautiful in person than on her blog. Sometimes when you meet people in real life who you’ve met on-line they’re nothing like their on-line personalities, but Abbie is genuine–kind, funny and intelligent. I adore her!

We went to the bar to wait for Tina, while I introduced her around to some of my other friends. Robyn came by, and was so sorry she couldn’t stay as she’d made arrangements for that day, but she hoped to catch up with us later. And she did!

We all left for the Reading Terminal, where the Amish apple dumplings were sold. On our way we almost got lost in an underground mall. If it wasn’t for Abbie’s hand-held GPS system, I think we might still be there, but we managed to surface in front of the entrance to the Reading Terminal. It was a Saturday and the Reading Terminal was packed. My hearing aids immediately went into noise overload. We walked around until we found a perfect quiet spot to eat away from the throngs of people, then chatted for hours. I thought we might need a diversion, so had planned a trip to the Mutter Museum, but we never made it. The afternoon flew by.

Then it was time to leave. We shopped a little in the mall on the way out. Just HAD to try on shoes. I debated buying a pair with a matching bag, then realized I would never fit them in my suitcase. Our Phlash ride took almost an hour back to the hotel. And it was SO HOT. By the time we walked into the hotel, I saw other SWC’ers all dressed up for the Silent Auction and banquet. Abbie stayed until it was time to serve dinner. I bid on several items, but didn’t get anything. Tina stayed for dinner. I felt badly I didn’t get a chance to say good-bye to her. She must have left early during the banquet entertainment put on by late-deafened musicians from the Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss.

Then Paul had a party in his hotel room, which later moved down to the bar. I was so tired I could hardly stay awake, so went upstairs to bed. But Robyn and I ended up talking a long time and I didn’t actually sleep at all that night. I hated to leave knowing I wouldn’t be seeing her again for a long, long time. She asked that I wake her up when I left at 3am. I did. We hugged then it was time to go.

In the morning we had workshops. Usually convention hotels provide “breakfast” in the form of rolls, fruit and coffee or tea for those attending meetings. I managed to find a yogurt and a sliver of honeydew melon before everything ran out. Many complained about the skimpiness of our ‘breakfast’, and I’m happy to say our catered buffet overflowed with fruit and muffins the following day.

Our first presenter was Neil Bauman who has written about ototoxic drugs. Let me say I do believe drugs can sometimes cause harm to hearing, and I appreciate his earnest effort in getting the word out. Neither my doctor or audiologist ever said word one about prescription drugs and otoxicity until I brought it up after stumbling upon Bauman’s website years ago. A couple times doctors have done a double-take when I mentioned it because they were not even familiar with the word ‘ototixic’. Since then my GP has changed a few prescriptions after consulting the PDR at my request.

However, I didn’t feel Bauman’s presentation included enough convincing factual information. I had hoped for more charts and detailed scientific studies from research institutions to back up his theories. Instead he related several amazing testimonials from people who claimed to have lost their hearing after using prescription drugs. Many of their stories had been gathered on-line in his own informal study from victims who wrote to him.

Never-the-less I’ve known several people who lost their hearing from prescription drugs and also during hospital stays. I just hope people can put Bauman’s information into perspective when deciding to have medical treatment. While it’s true prescription drugs can harm your hearing, the chances of experiencing such side-effects are very small.

The next workshop was about webcaptel, which is an exciting relatively new technology put out by Sprint. Instead of needing a special captel phone, all you need is a computer and a phone. The Sprint representative showed a video, then went through the steps for how to access webcaptel. It’s simple! I tried it out later. Like captel it’s a bit slow, but it’s accurate and I can use it practically anywhere– at work, when I’m visiting my parents out-of-state, or at a friend’s house. I also like that it allows me to use my voice and other people don’t know there’s a transcriber typing what they say to me. It feels so much more natural than my old VCO.

Next was the hosted lunch for everyone in SWC who volunteers on a committee. Like the previous morning, restaurant service was incredibly slow. We had all pre-ordered so you’d think we could have been served in time to finish before our Philly Duck tour, but no . . .

The “ducks” are both a car and a boat. We were all given quackers, then driven around town to sitesee, and finally ended up in floating in the Delaware River. My only complaint was the tour bus was hot. I was happy when we finally went into the river as it felt cooler there. Someone bought little rubber duckies for everyone, and wrote our names on them with a sharpie. I was struck by the murkiness of the Delware, even though our tour guide said it was the cleanest it had ever been in over 200 years. I suppose it has something to do with mineral content or silt. I am not well-educated on river water.

Later that night Lorne and I walked around town looking for a good place to eat. We finally settled on Rotten Ralph’s — a small bar and grill with rare vegetarian variety. We found a quiet table on the second floor above all the street noise. My eggplant was delicious. Lorne’s fishNchips were just “ok.” Robyn and Michael joined us for beer as we were finishing up.

Then we all walked back to the hotel and bar. I got a craving for ice cream, mainly because Robyn had mentioned her apple-dumpling experience in Reading Terminal. I couldn’t stop thinking about sweets. Since the bar was closed the waitress wouldn’t give me any. So I asked the hotel manager where to go for an ice cream in “Old Town” after 10. He was kind enough to dish up a bowl of delicious Philly ice cream– no charge!! I honestly had no problem with the hotel staff.

Day Two in Philadelphia there was nothing planned until the Welcome Party at 7pm. Lorne would be flying in around 4-ish and Robyn wanted to see the zoo. She had never seen American animals in real life, she said. Which ones, I asked? She wanted to see a raccoon, which made me smile. I’ve got a family of raccoons living right in my yard. I actually don’t like them very much because they aren’t nice to cats. She also wanted to see squirrels, snakes and bears. I have ALL these in my yard. Bears do not come into my yard often, but I have had one. She had to say ‘bears’ three times then spell it because I couldn’t understand what she meant with her accent. It looked like she was saying bees when I read her lips. The New Zealand ‘r’ is very soft. I couldn’t believe they didn’t have bees in NZ. HAHA! They DO! Of course!

We got up early, then went to breakfast in the hotel. It turned out Michael, Paul and RuthAnn also wanted to come with us to the zoo, which was fine with us– the more, the merrier!

Robyn planned on bringing her marmite to breakfast so us Americans could try it, but she forgot. I was SO relieved. It stunk! OH! Before I forget. We became extremely upset with the breakfast service. They had a buffet but several of the board members didn’t want that much to eat, so ordered a light breakfast instead– Robyn included. After an hour and a half, they started throwing down their napkins and getting really pissed off. Nothing came. I got down to breakfast late. I was not hungry because I was still full from Robyn’s pineapple lumps the night before. They’re SOOOOOOOO good. So anyway, I went up to the desk, and complained about the slowness of their service. My breakfast order was taken and served within minutes. The rest got theirs too. We had tons of problems with the hotel staff throughout. More about that later. None of us ate breakfast at the hotel again until the final breakfast buffet where they went all out to please us, but our silver and plates were not well cleaned. Two people at my table sent their service back. Mine was OK.

Back to the zoo–those of you who know Robyn know she’s into photography in a big way, and she takes beautiful pictures. I urge you to go to her blog if you haven’t. Photography was the whole point of hitting the zoo. I should mention here, it was the oldest zoo in the country. It opened in 1874. It’s a very, very small zoo– but I sorta liked it because the animals were close and the buildings were old and beautiful. In the Seattle zoo, all the animals have much more space which means they often wander far away from the viewing area. This is better for the animals I know, but I kinda liked being able to see them up close in Philadelphia.

Anyway– it was hot out and they had confiscated my sunscreen at the airport– so Paul and I bought some there. It was really cool cuz the bottle has a little metal ring you can attach to a belt loop or your tote so you won’t lose it. I LOVED this idea! So did Paul! Now we have matching sunscreens!

We got separated several times at the zoo, so we all exchanged phone numbers and texted each other all the time. Somehow the first time I texted Paul to see where he was, he sent back the word, “just.” ARGGHH! Later, when Paul and I couldn’t find Robyn, she sent back the word “just” too. This has become a joke — or maybe it’s a secret code I’ve never figured out.

I should add here Philly is very easy to get around without a car. They have these tourist buses that will drive you to all the fun places tourists like to go. You don’t have to worry about navigating a strange city by bus because it goes in a constant circle. If you miss your stop you’ll end up there again in no time. Our zoo driver became upset and stressed out when he ended up driving behind a horse drawn carriage traveling on the wrong street. Then he became upset again when another tour bus parked in his spot. I was happy to be riding in the bus instead of driving.

It didn’t take long to go thru the zoo. Robyn and Michael decided to do some more exploring. I went back to the hotel with RuthAnn and Paul. On our way back, we ran into some more SWC members going out for lunch, so we tagged along, ending up at a little coffee shop/deli. There I had the worst lunch ever– though it initially sounded good. A sandwich with roasted eggplant, spinach and white cheese that had no flavor at all. The spinach wasn’t sauteed or anything, so it was also tasteless,but it would have been fine if the cheese had some flavor. It was AWFUL! But I ate it up anyway.

Then it was time to go back. Several people by now knew about my stupid mistake with the flight arrangements, and they let me know Lorne got in OK– ALONE. I hoped he wasn’t upset with me. It was time to shower and get ready for the Welcome Party.

I had a blast meeting up with several people I had not seen in over a year. Some of them spoke ASL and I was happy I understood. I let one woman try out my pocket talker cuz she had never seen one. Robyn had brought some wine from New Zealand and was handing out samples. I talked to several others there– One of the BOD members had some special fortune cookies made up with fortunes that said things like, “If you talk to my back, expect to pay.” HAHA! Lorne showed up and assured me he was not mad. I felt better after that. We all had to move downstairs into the bar after 10 so the other hotel patrons could get some sleep. I should not post pics of people without their permissions, so I disguised them all with Photbucket tools. I LOVE Photobucket tools! I took the picture of the flamingoes above too, then turned them into a painting!

I miss Robyn. She’s still texting me from CA, telling me where all she’s going. Today while at my Weight Watchers meeting she let me know she was eating ice cream on the beach. . .PFFFT.

I didn’t realize until Sunday night that I was flying out in less than 24 hours. The plan had been to fly from Seattle to Philly together with Lorne Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning. Eric was going to drive us, and Lorne planned to leave his car at our house. We bought our tickets on-line at the same time using IM. But somehow I got mixed up and accidentally booked my flight a whole day early! I had a full day of work ahead on Monday, and little time to pack. **SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!**

The cost to change flights was $321. I know someone who actually MISSED his plane back to California from Philly and he was only charged $25 extra. Apparently it’s better to miss your flight than to let them know your change of plans ahead of time. I’ll remember this in the future. There were plenty of seats on the other flight! Anyway– I flew alone and so did Lorne, and I felt like a complete ditz for messing up.

Luckily my room was already pre-booked for that night. Since Robyn planned to fly in a day early, and we were rooming together, I had a bed. And boy did I need it by the time I dragged in at 4:00 pm!! By that point I had been awake over thirty hours.

Robyn was sound asleep in her bed when I walked in. Her ordeal from New Zealand had been worse. Two whole days of jets, airports, and not sleeping. She looked so peaceful, I couldn’t bear to wake her. I decided to shower before hitting the sack myself. But just as I was about to climb into my bed she awoke. We hugged and talked non-stop for the next hour or so while she got ready for a dinner date.

I’ll be honest. I had been afraid I wouldn’t understand her accent. I always get nervous meeting new people for the first time and I knew the accent would pose a huge challenge. Silly me. She had been concerned about the same thing. Out of habit we both tried signing to each other when words didn’t make sense, but New Zealand sign is waaaaay different from American sign. We laughed at each other’s signs– many similar, and others, well. . . very different meanings. After about the third repeat, we wrote on tablets. As the days progressed, writing became unnecessary. Her NZ accent is adorable.

She invited me along to her dinner, but I was way too tired. Though I hadn’t eaten since 6 that morning, all I could think of was sleep. Later, I mosied on down to the bar in hopes of finding a late-night snack and other SWC club members sure to be straggling in by that time.

I’ve been to enough of these events to know all you have to do is sit in the bar and wait for people with hearing aids or implants to walk by. Sure enough the second the elevator doors opened I saw a familiar face wearing hearing aids talking to a man I thought might be her partner. Turned out he was PAUL, my blogging buddy!! For some reason I hadn’t recognized him at first– maybe I was still too tired. We hugged, ordered drinks and food and sat down to chat. Paul made an SWC sign for the table, but it wasn’t large enough for passers-by to see. I tried to get him to wear it on his head, but it kept falling off. Eventually he talked a waiter into making up a larger sign so that club members would see us as soon as they arrived.

As the evening wore on we had to move to a bigger table to accommodate everyone. Then we had to start pushing tables together when SWC’ers continued to pour in. What a night! The next day a group of us planned to go to the zoo–the very first in America. Robyn was anxious to take pictures.

IFHOH Day Four

Day four started out like the other days– a long drive to the Wall Center, followed by coffee at Starbucks and attendance at workshops. Unlike the other days, I felt a little bit more harried than usual because I had to pack my bags early in the morning and take them with me to the hotel. The only thing I left behind was a package of Splenda.

The first workshop I attended was Become A Hero: Unleashing Your Potential by Michael Currie. Currie was downright entertaining and also motivational. He began his presentation with antidotes about his own heroes, relating story after story of his life interspersed with jokes. I loved the way he used humor to drive home the point that roadblocks shouldn’t stop you from anything. Be creative. Be positive. Think outside the box.

The next speaker of this session was Dean Olson who is well-known in the Seattle area. His workshop Hearing Loss in the Workplace and Beyond was about using modern technology to assist in the workplace. Again the topic of self-disclosure came up, and also how to present oneself so that co-workers see the entire person rather than just your hearing loss. I wish this session had been longer. It could have easily been a two-hour workshop. I felt we only skimmed the surface.

The final presentation of this session was Communication Bloopers and Hearing Loss: Suggestions for Improving Communication Outcomes by Debbie Quinn. I had been looking forward to this one. Her own bloopers weren’t as funny as some the participants shared, but she gave some great advice on how to deal with communication problems in the workplace. People shared a lot of funny stories. Sometimes being HH/deaf is hilarious.

After this session we had lunch. Since we were on our own that day, we walked to a little supermarket/deli across the street from the hotel. I was surprised by the variety of salads, sandwiches and soups. It was difficult to choose, but I finally settled on something that looked like tabbouleh with dill pickles in it. An odd combination, but not too bad. This was the only day it rained, and it literally poured on us as we walked back to the hotel. The Canadians were all apologizing, as if they could control the weather. I just smiled. Since I live in the Seattle area, I totally understood how they felt. It’s so embarrassing when it rains on out-of-town guests during the summer, but I happen to like summer rain.

The next workshop was Perspectives from a Hard of Hearing Audiologist by Jamie Grew. Like Currie’s presentation, he was funny, motivational and interesting. He grew up with hearing loss and he now works as an audiologist. In addition to relating his own personal story, he found time to share with us tidbits of info about Canadians and Canada. For example, Superman was created by a Canadian. As an HH audiologist, Grew said he can do anything except listen to someone’s hearing aid when it goes bad. Since he works in an office with other audiologists that isn’t a problem. The benefits of having an HH audiologist are many– mainly because he has actually tried out the hearing equipment he sells and he’s able to relate a lot of other information to his patients about ALD’s and support that most audiologists leave out– since they’ve never worn hearing aids. If you think about it, it’s like a car salesman who doesn’t drive. I was so impressed with Grew’s presentation I’ve actually googled to see if there was an HH audiologist in the Seattle area.

Finally, the last workshop of IFHOH was Hearing in Harmony- Life as a Deaf Audiologist by Tina Childress. I’ve met Tina before when she spoke at my Say What Club convention last year. She’s such a great speaker we had her back again this year. Her story is interesting and inspiring. She became deaf after becoming an audiologist. Talk about coincidence. In many ways she was more prepared than the average late-deafened adult. She had the audiology background and knew ASL. And yet she was shocked by how deafness affected her, even with all her knowledge. Whenever I hear her story I’m deeply moved. Like the others, she hasn’t allowed deafness to stop her. I had lunch with her the following week in Philadelphia. She’s an amazingly fun, motivated, intelligent person. I’m so glad I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with her.

Then it was time to go home, do laundry and repack. Next up– Philadelphia!

IFHOH– Day Three, Part II
IFHOH Day Three, Part I
IFHOH Day Two
International Federation of Hard of Hearing Congress — Part 1

Day three– part II

The first workshop we attended Friday was called Accessibility Awareness Collaboration and Hard-of-Hearing People given by Sami Virtanen from the Finnish Federation of Hard-of-Hearing People. Like the the real-time text workshop, I found it exceedingly difficult to pay attention. Tired of reading CART, and feeling full from the large lunch I nearly fell asleep. The late night, early morning routine was catching up with me. Virtanen spoke mainly about Finnish policies, especially with regard to required captioned television programming. The US has had that since 1990. I think the information presented was probably more useful to those in the political arena of policy change, because several representatives from HLAA, CHHA and various other HH/deaf organizations around the world stood up to comment.

I wanted to leave then, but Creating Consumer Awareness through Policy Change turned out to be a surprise. Sherri Collins was a firecracker from Arizona. After waking us all up by handing out prizes she detailed her personal hearing history, and drew a thought-provoking analogy between independence and accessibility. It was US Independence Day. I had forgotten.

Next, Sherri expanded on events leading up to a policy change requiring Arizona audiologists and hearing aid dispensers to provide information about the benefits of telecoils to consumers. Telecoils seemed to be a recurring theme at IFHOH.

Following her presentation, a few people commented they felt a law seemed unreasonably harsh. A man from Michigan spoke about how pressure had been placed on an airport to loop it without resorting to policy change. A woman from New Zealand detailed a sad story about an HH/deaf American tourist who was hit by a passenger train when he got off at the wrong stop after failing to hear an announcement. All NZ trains were looped for telecoil after that. Sadly, she said, it took a death to change policy.

One man remarked that telecoils should be called “accessibility coils” or a-coils since they were used for much, much more than the telephone. Discussion ensued about telecoil vs infrared and privacy concerns in courtrooms, federal buildings and other sensitive areas, since people with telecoils can sometimes hear outside looped rooms with the doors closed. Others protested that hearing aid manufacturers were making smaller, more attractive aids for the Baby-boom generation, dropping t-coil in the process. Two more concerns were voiced:

1) Policy to require telecoil induction loops in public buildings could become obsolete within a few years if hearing aid manufacturers stopped making hearing aids with telecoil capability.

2) Hearing aid manufacturers should be encouraged to include telecoil capability in their newer models because of the many, many benefits.

The final workshop of the day was Experience Working for and With Those With Meniere: A Non-Medical Perspective I attended this one mainly for my husband who was diagnosed with Menieres about six years ago. Dr. Henk de Graaf from the Netherlands reported on the results of a twenty-five year study of Menieres patients in his country. Then he led a discussion of alternative treatments for Meneires. One woman had some success with a chiropractic procedure where the feet were adjusted. Several people mentioned using vitamins, exercise, acupuncture, eating certain foods, not eating certain foods, reducing stress, yoga, marijuana– you name it. Someone else mentioned the Meniett device. Hoping to discover something new I could share with my husband, I came away feeling deflated. No one knows of a cure.

That night Lorne went to a football game. In the mood for something ethnic, Kate, Ann and I sniffed our way up Davie Street, and found a little Mongolian Grill.

IFHOH Day Three, Part I
IFHOH Day Two
International Federation of Hard of Hearing Congress — Part 1

IFHOH Day Three. SideKicks in Canada? Public loops? Real-time text? In the interest of making each of my posts a little shorter and more readable, I have decided to post about IFHOH in smaller segments.

Friday, we made it to the Wall Center just in time for a quick coffee and lunch! None of the morning workshops appealed since they were either about cochlear implants or how to deal with hearing loss in young children. Both of us have grown hearing children and neither of us are currently considering a CI.

We learned from Gunnar Hellstrom, one of the real-time text speakers, that his company Omnitor was hosting Friday’s lunch. Hellstrom is a Swedish CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) who has a vested interest in solving the problem of deaf/HH mobile phone communications. During lunch he launched a captioned video with a plug for real-time text. Sitting at a weird angle to the screen, I couldn’t hear or see the captions. The story must have been cute or funny because people chuckled throughout, though the actual language sounded foreign– perhaps Swedish? I could never understand the difference between real-time text vs IM-ing or texting someone. I feel like such a dunce. Again, lunch offered a delicious vegetarian option– the best tomato soup I’ve ever tasted in my life and roasted vegetables on something that looked like a hoagie roll. Lorne left his soup bowl half full and I was tempted to ask if I could finish it off. But I didn’t want to act like the pig I really am.

Luckily a pair of bright red of Phonaks caught my attention. The Canadian woman wearing them happily explained the many hearing advantages of her Phonaks and smart link. I couldn’t resist asking how much they cost. She spent close to $10,000 along with her fancy smart-link system! AND NO– they weren’t covered by Canada’s National Health Plan. She paid out of pocket– every last cent. UGH!!

Another Canadian woman began to complain loudly about how you can’t get Sidekicks in Canada, only Blackberries. I picked up on the conversation a little, only because Kate has a habit of signing while talking. Probably this woman felt left out while the rest of the table thumb danced to email, IM and text messages between lunch courses. I like my Sidekick, but I wanted to tell her that Blackberry was supposedly better. I haven’t tried iPhone. She couldn’t hear across the table and our accents got in the way of lip reading. She didn’t sign. Too bad. She said Blackberry costs a hundred dollars per month where she lives. I don’t know if this is true all over Canada, but I felt bad for her. The deaf/Deaf/HH rank among the world’s most under-employed because of the stigma of hearing loss. It seems a double-whammy when people cannot afford the very tools needed for accessibility. I wondered about the benefits of a real-time text alliance like the one they’re developing in Europe between Omnitor and other companies.

We missed the first Plenary Session– something I would regret for the next several days whenever people mentioned “that deaf man who flew around the world.” His fantastic story inspired everyone who heard it. But I overslept, then we ran into traffic, and by the time we got to the Wall Center we wanted– no– NEEDED– coffee. After all the previous walking around the day before to find coffee shops, we discovered the hotel itself had a Starbucks right inside! AWESOME. This meant we could get our coffee fixes all day long without even leaving the hotel.

The first workshop I attended from 11-12:30 was Demystifying Hearing Assistive Technology given by Beth Wilson and Tina Thompson. Though this workshop was about making the most of the assistive technology available to you, the room wasn’t looped. Those of us hoping to benefit from our telecoils couldn’t. The Irony! I learned later that NONE of the workshops were looped, and I must admit I was shocked, since IFHOH was a world wide convention for hard-of-hearing and deaf people, most of whom wore hearing aids or CI’s with telecoil capability. I’m accustomed to looped meeting rooms whenever HLAA, ALDA and the Say What Club have events for the hard-of-hearing/deaf. Evidently I wasn’t the only one expecting looped rooms. At a later workshop it was pointed out that most all public buildings in Europe are looped for telecoil. The lack of FM loops was a HUGE oversight in my opinion.

And just an aside here–Though this was a major Sheraton hotel, we found out by the next morning Kate and Ann had a terribly hard time getting their captioned TV to work. A handyman was called up, and even HE failed. Un-frickin-believable!! A MAJOR Global convention for HH/deaf people was being held in this very hotel and their staff hadn’t been briefed on how to work the captioning? Reminded me of that awful experience I had in Albuquerque, NM last year. They finally got it working next day after going thru several handymen. ARGGHH!

However, getting back to the workshop, these two speakers– Beth Wilson and Tina Thompson– gave an excellent presentation with fun visuals and humor. The information presented wasn’t new to me, since I’ve been to many, many hearing loss conventions, workshops, and meetings for the HH/deaf over the years. The session would have been useful to those new to hearing loss. I came away with one great quote from Helen Keller. “When you lose your sight, you lose things; when you lose your hearing, you lose people.” I would add to that– When you lose your hearing you gain “things.” I’ve got gadgets up the kazoo to help me hear, see and feel my world.

I was pleased to see two interpreters just ahead. One of them signed he was there for the woman next to me. I told him I was learning ASL. He smiled and split his attention between the two of us. I haven’t used ASL since my last class over a month ago, and worried I had lost vocabulary. It was a good experience to be able to watch the interpreters and understand without having to read everything on CART. Unfortunately, I didn’t see them again until the very last day. They had been hired specifically for that one woman, not the entire convention. This was another huge disappointment, however with up to five workshops at each session, and three sessions a day not including the morning plenary– I realized that hiring interpreters for each workshop would have run up the tab up to five figures. Considering that most of us didn’t sign fluently and that many of those who could sign didn’t use ASL since they were from other countries, it made little sense to offer compulsory ASL interpreters for all workshops. Everyone was accommodated by CART. Everyone could read spoken English. English is the official language of IFHOH.

The second part of this session was Empowering Strategies given by Janice Aaron Moore. Like the first two, she was gifted in grabbing your attention, emphasizing self-disclosure as the first step toward empowering strategies with many colorful personal stories. Again, I think this would have been a great workshop for someone new to hearing loss. I’m long past hiding my inability to hear. Self-disclosure isn’t a problem.

Next, we had a fabulous lunch. Being a vegetarian I wasn’t sure what to expect, but as luck would have it, I ended up sitting next to some Muslims from Kuwaitwho didn’t eat pork . The menu for the day was some kind of salad with bacon bits. All the Kuwaitis ordered a ‘vegetarian’ option, so I did too– and I’m glad I did. The salad was delicious.

After lunch, I went to one of the best workshops of the entire Congress, in my opinion, The Evolution of Hearing Aid Technology: New Developments given by Dave Gordy. It was here I learned about the Phonak Naidas and Oticon Epoq. OK– I’ll admit it right now. . . My hearing aids are almost nine years old. They’re still working well, but obviously they don’t have any of the stuff the new hearing aids have–auto telecoil detection and sensors that know when to zero in on high-pitched speech sounds, etc. I’m not really into automatic everything. Mine were state-of-the art when I bought them but they’re SO OLD now.

Researchers are on the brink of solving many past problems associated with hearing aids– namely how to deal with the common ski-slope. The Naidas take high-pitched sounds and somehow transfer them to a mid-range frequency. What it means for people with profound ski-slope hearing loss is they are able to hear birds and several consonants in the high-pitched frequencies again. I am trying not to get my hopes up too much, but I couldn’t help wondering if I’d be able to hear the flutes in Bach’s Brandenburg concertos again.

I’ve looked through the Phonak brochure and pretty much decided on a hot color next time– something that will make a statement rather than the bland, icky medical-looking beige. I’m thinking transparent purple, but they also make a zebra striped aid that’s tempting. Hard to decide. Another great, but probably insignificant feature to some of you is it’s waterproof. Living in the Seattle area, I do appreciate that. The smartlink FM system with blue tooth capability is another fantastic feature. Finally, It’s a power aid. I learned during the IFHOH I wouldn’t benefit from the Epoq and other aids like that because my hearing loss is too great. Thin tubes and open ear molds are out.

Gordy said all the “newer” aids were being built without telecoil capability. The Europeans in the audience were upset by this bit of news since most of the public buildings are looped for telecoil. I double-checked with the vendors in the Phonak upstairs to be sure the Naidas had telecoil. Phonak has no plans to drop theirs. At a later workshop, telecoil capability came up again, and we were assured that Starkey will also continue to make aids with telecoil.

The final workshop of Day 2 was Real-Time Text: An Essential Accessibility Feature given by Arnould van Wijk, Raymond Kruyer and Gunnar Hellstrom. I have to admit I didn’t get much out of this session at all. The information presented was far too technical and dry for this blond. Two of the presenters spoke in heavy accents, which meant I had to read almost the entire presentation instead of their lips. Eye-strain was getting the best of me as letters began to dance and blur on the screen. What I could read didn’t make sense– either because it was too much to process after all the other info I’d been taking in, or the translations by the CART transcriptionist were confusing. Also, my mind kept wandering back to the Phonak Naidas and the Brandenburg Concertos. I was tired and ended up leaving early.

That night we all walked down Robson Street looking for food, then finally sniffed our way upstairs to a little bar and grill tucked in a second-floor corner spot above street level. Food was scrumptious. I got a vegetarian pizza with roasted asparagus and some kind of tasty cheese– I’m thinking chevre– but I could be wrong about that. Vancouver, like Seattle, is a great place to eat vegetarian.

Link to IFHOH Part One.