IFHOH--Day 3, Part I

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.