IFHOH Final Day -- Inspiration

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

IFHOH Day Three, Part II

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

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!

I've been away

I feel badly I've been neglecting my blog here. The past two weeks I've been attending back to back hearing loss conventions. The first was in Vancouver, BC. Maybe some of you went to the International Federation of Hard of Hearing Congress 2008 (IFHOH), though I didn't recognize anyone other than those I already knew from the northwest. Over 500 deaf/HOH people were in attendance AND it was the largest gathering of deaf/HH people ever in Canada. Twenty-seven different countries were represented. I attended eight workshops and took tons of notes. The most informative was on new technologies in hearing aids and another on Menieres, though most all offered insight into how people experience hearing loss all over the world. I came away with a sense that accommodations for the deaf and hard-of-hearing are a problem everywhere. If one country offers a certain accommodation, they do not offer another. I'll share more information about that over the next few weeks, but I'm busy attending another Convention in Philadelphia now for the Say What Club.

I just flew in this afternoon and I'm rooming with Robyn, the Ambling Rambler who came all the way from New Zealand. http://robyncarter.blogspot.com/2008/07/gone-to-usa.html So far we've had fun comparing sign languages and trying to understand each other over our thick accents. I'm enjoying her immensely. Tomorrow we have big plans to go to breakfast, where she's dying for me to try an awful smelling concoction on toast called Marmite that smells suspiciously like congealed beef broth. She assured me it's vegetarian. I can't imagine eating it on toast, but she said it's good with tea. New Zealanders like their hot tea even when it's 90 degrees outside. Another goody she brought from home is called Pineapple Lumps. They're very tasty little bits of chocolate covered fruity flavored squares, and I've snuck three more while she wasn't looking (don't tell). After breakfast, we're off to the zoo so she can take pics of American animals -- snakes, raccoons, squirrels, etc. Workshops don't start until Thursday.

Many SWC-ers arrived early. I had dinner with eleven of them this evening downstairs in the bar. Then came back upstairs to crash as I hadn't had any sleep in nearly thirty-six hours. Now I'm wide awake and it's bedtime.

I'll see Tina Childress for the second week in a row because she spoke at IFHOH last week and will be speaking again here at the SWC Convention this week. For those of you who don't know her, she's a late-deafened audiologist with two cochlear implants. Fascinating story, since she learned ASL and became an audiologist BEFORE losing her hearing to an auto-immune disease.

That's all for now. I'll fill you in later on the workshops and try to send pics too.