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.

IFHOH-- Day Two

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.

International Federation of Hard of Hearing Congress 2008-- Part 1

This is just a quick recap of the IFHOH. (International Federation of Hard of Hearing) Congress in Vancouver, BC.

Since I hate driving in Vancouver, and didn't want to mess with long lines over the border crossing during TWO Independence Day holidays, I took the train. The IFHOH began a day after Canadian Independence Day and ended a day after US Independence Day. The train proved to be a perfect choice for my commute, as I enjoyed a relaxing ride sipping coffee while watching scenic beach views stream past the snack bar window. I had programmed my MP3 with soft rock and bought new noise reduction headphones just for this. Eventually the gentle swaying of the train along with warm coffee in my belly put me to sleep, and before long I had arrived at the train station in downtown Vancouver.

Two interesting things happened on my journey. First, I told the porter I couldn't hear well as I boarded the train. He smiled and made a concerted effort to talk directly to my face. For emphasis he pointed in hand gestures when indicating the way to my seat and where to put my suit case. He also clearly explained where the dining care and rest rooms were, again pointing while facing me to make sure I understood. I am not new to train travel and didn't need all the attention, but I appreciated his courtesy. Second, as I went through customs, I had to tell a border guard I couldn't hear well when she began grilling me on why I was visiting. Like the porter, she looked directly at me, enunciated clearly and talked slowly, then she actually SIGNED "thank you" as I walked away. That made my day. I had the feeling train staff and customs had been put on notice many deaf and hard-of-hearing would be traveling north from the states.

Canadian friend Lorne waited on the other side of customs to greet me when I walked through the gate. He grabbed my bag and off we went to the beautiful Wall Center in downtown Vancouver for registration. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures at the Convention, other than those of Kate with HER camera, who will be writing up her experience for a magazine-- but this picture was taken a week later at the SWC Philly Con where he attended, again with me. We took a quick lunch before returning to the train station to pick up Kate and Ann, who also came by train. While they settled in, Lorne and I hit the wine and cheese welcome party. We had hoped there would be enough food to call it a dinner, but we barely managed a few small slices of cheese before the food ran out. The room was crowded with people from all over the world. Later at opening ceremonies we learned over 27 different countries were represented. It was the largest recorded gathering of deaf/HH in Canada's history. People spoke in other languages and signed everywhere.

The opening ceremonies had CART in English (the official language of IFHOH) on three large screens. With the room filled to capacity, I ended up standing in the back straining to see. CHHA went all out welcoming everyone. They even had one CART devoted to Japanese, (or maybe Chinese-- I was never sure which.) Representatives from all 27 countries were called up, each waving their respective flags. Then the ceremony ended with a native drum march of Canada's "First Peoples." Hearing loss and deafness isn't confined to one nation or one race. We are a nation unto ourselves. During the next four days I would come to feel a bond with people from all over the globe as we examined each other's technological gadgets, and shared our concerns, hopes and dreams for a barrier-free world.

After the ceremony we rushed out to browse the vendor booths brimming with freebies. One woman from Sweden demonstrated a computer program she had developed for teaching lip-reading skills. While I found the concept fascinating, I already lip read quite well and wasn't interested in spending $110.00 on it-- though it was a very good piece of software and would be helpful to someone who has trouble lip-reading. Another booth featured little balls that you put on the feet of chairs called "hush-ups". They looked exactly like blue tennis balls, and Lorne joked he had a basket of old tennis balls somewhere he could put to better use. Many other booths were devoted to hearing aids, loops, phone systems, alarms and alerting devices, hearing dogs, medical ID bracelets, and basically anything you can think of relating to hearing loss.

We rushed through the exhibits as it became more crowded and noisy. I felt like I was on noise overload. We grabbed a cup of coffee and headed down to the beach within walking distance of the hotel. Noting the many coffee shops along the way, I made the remark that Vancouver is just like Seattle only full of Canadians. At the beach we walked around a bit more, socialized with other deaf/hh people and finally drove back to his house-- where I stayed. Lorne's wife Joanne and their little puppy, Hunter, greeted us at the door. Next, their earless cat, Tux, wandered into the room to see all the commotion. We went to bed early in order to get up for the Plenary Session next day.

Stay tuned for Day Two!