Cape Cod Chapter

NEWS

formerly

Advocacy

:: News ::

:: Newsletters ::

Web Links

Contact

HOME

• The National Theatre of the Deaf will hold its annual Spring Benefit Performance on Saturday, May 5th at 7pm. The performance will be held in The Bruyette Athenaeum's Hoffman Auditorium on the campus of Saint Joseph College in West Hartford, CT. Attendees will be treated to a short performance by local drummer and Connecticut Master Teaching Artist Bob Bloom (http://www.drumming- about-you.com/) followed by a full performance of the Little Theatre of the Deaf's current production, Next Stop: Africa. Proceeds from the performance will be used to support NTD's current operations and future projects. Those wishing to purchase tickets in support of NTD are encouraged to call the Frances Driscoll Box Office at 860-231-5555 or to visit www.sjc.edu/arts. Ticket prices are $25 for adults and $15 for children under 12. For more information on the National Theatre of the Deaf, please visit http://www.ntd.org/.

• Good news--an organization that teaches you to teach your dog. Bad news--it's in Arizona.

Handi-Dogs, Inc. was begun in 1973 to teach disabled people of all types how to train their own dogs to help them.

The question came up when we had Beth and Dobbyn from NEADS at a program.

Some of our previous meeting topics:

February 24      Paul Gambina was a founding member of the Cape Cod chapter and first president. He now spends a great deal of time lobbying for the rights of those with hearing loss. He emphasized how important it was for our group to have a voice at the State level by writing to legislators. Individual names are very helpful when contacting state legislators. Paul emphasized that the legislators pay attention upon hearing from THREE people. Especially to let them know the importance to us of Title 8 to help pay for hearing aids, and which is on the table. Senate Bill #566 is ³off table² and focuses on health care.

Paul introduced Nini Silver of the Disability Policy Consortium. In addition to the Hearing Aid Bill, other issues it works on is the passage of the American Sign Language Workforce Bill, which would make funds available to colleges to establish interpreter training programs. Nini encouraged us to write our legislators abou the need for CART. Currently, there are no accredited CART training programs in Massachusetts. The lack of CART reporters to transcribe the proceedings of meetings, especially town meetings is a real problem and there should be a workforce bill for CART reporters also.

Nini Silver¹s email address is nsilver@dpcma.org The Disability Policy Consortium¹s web page is www.dpcma.org. Write to them at P.O. Box 77 Boston MA 02133There were many questions from the members present (22). Ellen graciously closed the meeting and announced that a short Board meeting would follow with all invited.

January  27     Tom Driscoll teaches sign language at Cape Cod Community College. He is presently the secretary of the board for Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI). Tom was a speaker to our SHHH group several years ago and we welcome him back. He is also a member of ALDA ( the Association of Late Deafened Adults). He gave a fascinating presentation, including demonstrating his Sidekick assistive text phone. He is one of three people testing out CapTel in Massachusetts. Our state is one of 7 in the country that doesn NOT have CapTel. 

The APRIL 29th meeting featured Carla Burke, who talked about adjusting to disabilities and her own adjustment to blindness. She is a member of the Harwich Disability Committee and teaches vision impaired adults to use assistive computer technology at Brooks Library in Harwich.

February 25th, 2006 our speaker was Betty Lynch, a vacational rehabilitation counselor from the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, a state agency that provides services to people with disabilites. She talked about finding and keeping a job and what kind of financial help and assistive devices are available from her office. There is an income level that is necessary, but anyone on SSI automatically qualifies. Contact

The January 28th meeting featured Joe Beals, an AARP driving instructor, who taught us about safe driving in general, in winter, and as a person with hearing loss. It was most informative. No more coffee while you're driving, people! In discussing the problem of hearing what passengers in the car are saying, Joe recommends waiting on the conversation rather than being distracted. An audience member suggested that something like a pocket talker might be helpful.

March Meeting 2005 --Wireless phones were once thought of as a gadget reserved for the busy executive, yet more and more people are dependent upon wireless communications.  The Telecommunications Act and FCC regulations have made it possible for wire-line phones to be accessible, but wireless access has been more of a challenge.  For hearing aid users, analog phones and/or attachments have been the "solution" offered.  While some have accepted attachments, others, including our speaker, Dr. Beth Wilson, have trouble assembling them by the third ring and do not see attachments as an accessible solution for an incoming call.  As analog services are being pushed aside, telecommunications legislation and agency enforcement has been focused on the digital services available today and emerging in the future.  Hearing aid compatibility with digital phones is a complex issue and Beth will review the challenges and progress in this area. Beth Wilson explained why cellphones sometimes don't work with hearing aids, how to find a cell phone that can work with your hearing aid and how to file a complaint with the FCC when you try one that doesn't.

February Meeting-- The topic was assistive devices and board member Fred Ralston demonstrated and talked about the wide variety of what's available. If you can't hear an alarm clock, there's a bed shaker to wake you up. For doorbells and telephones, a light will flash to get your attention. For a baby monitor, the light will flash in a different way. Smoke detectors also have lights that flash. If you are staying in a hotel, it's vital that you tell them you have a hearing loss so you can have a usable smoke detector. Most hotels now have a set of assistive devices they will give you for your room.

Fred recommended Hartling Communications, Inc., a family owned business in Burlington, MA, north of Boston as a good resource. Their website is www.hartling.com/ and they have a catalog.

For assistive device info see hearingloss.org/html/nchatfaq.html National Center for Hearing Assistive Technology, part of SHHH

January 2005 Communications specialist Jean Brennan. a nationally certified sign language interpreter with additional skills in oral interpreting focused on the importance of communication in medical situations. If you want some help at the doctor's office or hospital, call them and say you want an oral interpreter. Hospitals have Human Relations Departments that can help you. See the newsletter for more of her talk.

Why learn finger spelling or sign language? Because sometimes when you just can't understand a conversation, a family member or friend can help you out with a few signs to get the gist of it. She demonstrated and we practiced both the manual alphabet and a number of medical and health signs. Because she explained how the sign developed, or what it was showing, for example, breathing, hands out and back across the chest, they seemed easy to pick up. Now it's just a question of practice. We thank Jean for taking the time and travelling to speak to us.

A great website for practicing sign language: where.com/scott.net/asl/

November 2004 Greg Ryan, owner of the Verizon phone store at Cape Cod Mall, across from Filene's, brought some of the accessible phones which are provided free to anyone wearing a hearing aid. The cost of the program is paid BY YOU every month--$.87 is added to your phone bill. Take advantage of the program by picking up an application at CORD or the Verizon store. There is a display in the back of the store where you can actually try out all the equipment before choosing what you want.

After the break, there was a panel discussion with two married couples, only one of each pair had a hearing loss. Long-time married Dave and Anne found that patience and humor were important in dealing with a hearing loss. Anne said she tells Dave, "If you can't see my face, don't talk to me." Hilda and Francis are relative newly weds and have been finding that socializing in small groups rather than large crowds is more successful. Questions from the audience resulted in some tips from the panelists, such as take a small notebook with you to write notes in situations where it will be especially hard to hear.

October 2004 Former chapter president Lenore Hill traveled from her new home off-Cape to share insights about her life with tinnitus which began in her teens. In a funny and wide-ranging talk, Lenore shared many thoughts and suggestions, including the importance of a TTY telephone. We hope she will return often.

September 2004 Meeting

Lt. Steven Xiarhos, known as Lt. X and a 25-year veteran of the Yarmouth police force, spoke to us in the absence of Detective Fallon, who was called in to work on an investigation. Yarmouth has had a Community Policing Program for ten years, in which the police make an effort to know the children, teenagers and adults in the town. The police officer assigned to the high school is there to be a resource and communicate with the students and seems to have earned their respect. Complaints of speeding cars are the most common phone call to police.Though he couldn't discuss the specifics of our hearing loss identification project, Lt. X shared fascinating information about the police force and important safety information. He said that anyone can buy pepper spray. A license from the police is needed to carry it. Also, towns are giving R.A.D. courses--Rape Agression Defense--and we should ask our town police when the courses are given. Sex offenders who register are listed on the police website. The citizens of Yarmouth should be very proud of their professional police force.

Pictures from the June Luncheon at the Paddock Restaurant in Hyannis.

May 2004 Carole Rossick, an Outreach Trainer from the Mass. Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a state agency spoke about what her office does, despite budget cuts since 9/11/2002. Carole stated that the Federal government, not the state, was responsible for enforcement. Individuals can file a complaint with the US Department of Justice. Massachusetts is more concerned with providing inforamtion and the website at www.mass.gov/mcdhh contains a great deal of information.Things to note on the website are: Mission statement, Structure of the Commission, Events, Support Groups, Frequently asked questions, such as how to get a cell phone that is compatible with your hearing aid.

There is a Fund of Last Resort in the Case Management department. Although there is a waiting list, the Commission tries to provide help to all those who need it. Northeastern University in Boston has an audiology clinic where students learn skills on actual patients. Instructors always oversee the work of the students.

How to get services in your town, such as at a town meeting: call the town hall and ask to speak to the ADA Coordinator. Describe what you want and that you are looking for a reasonable accomodation (FM System, CART, etc.). The town will contact the MCDHH.

Informative web sites

Gallaudet University Clerc Center
Guide for late-deafened adults (in PDF)

Latest research
Dr. Ross    www.hearingresearch.org
MCDHH Information Series

March 2004 Speakers Tiffany Pfleger and Leanne O¹Neil, audiologists and owners of Advanced Audiology Associates, Inc. in Mashpee, gave a fascinating presentation that can only be briefly summarized here. Leanne explained an audiologist looks for three pieces of information in an audiogram.

1) degree and configuration of the hearing loss, such as symmetry, or whether the same in both ears, to predict the amount of communication problems a person would have to tell if they are a candidate for a hearing aid.

2) the type of hearing loss-- sensory-neural, an inner ear problem; conductive; a middle or outer ear problem; or mixed, which is a combination of both and showed how each looks on an audiogram.

3) speech discrimination, or the ability to understand single syllable words presented at a comfortable loudness level in each ear by itself. In the low frequencies are vowel sounds. The power and loudness of your speech is contained in low frequencies. F, S, T, H are in the high frequencies and very soft.

Hearing aids do not correct discrimination problems but a good quality hearing aid can reduce distortion. The BAHA, or bone anchored hearing aid, was approved by the FDA in 1996. It is a surgical procedure attached to the bone by a titanium screw. It bypasses the middle and outer ear and has improved quite a bit since earliest versions.

Tiffany stressed that before buying a hearing aid, one should have a medical evaluation. In fact, the FDA requires that hearing be evaluated not more than 6 months before getting a hearing aid. Read up on the available types of hearing aids and think about your budget. Generally, the smaller the aid, the more expensive. Don¹t buy from mail order or someone who sells only one brand.

February 2004 Beth Knowles and her Service Dog Dobbyn, an Australian Shepherd, have been together only since December, but they are quite well adjusted to each other. Beth in is a wheelchair and Dobbyn has been trained for many commands, including to pick up dropped items, even as unwieldy as a heavy key chain, bring items from another room like a telephone or leash, and even provide a steady brace when she walks or bends. NEADS stands for National Education for Assistance Dog Services in Princeton, MA and they have been doing this since 1976. They even bring dogs to prisons like Cell Dogs, the Animal Planet cable TV show. The cost for clients is $500 but NEADS welcomes additional funds to defray the actual cost of $6000 to raise and train the dogs from puppyhood. Beth’s husband helped to raise money between the PGA and family. She stayed at NEADS for two weeks in December in a special house with four other new owners and took classes during the day. At the end she had to pass a test to be sure she could control him. They can go everywhere, even restaurants and airplane cabins. Dobbyn wears a ‘gentle lead’ or ‘head collar’ across his nose. Though it looks like a muzzle, it is only to give more control and the dog can still eat, drink and bark. Our thanks to Beth and Dobbyn for a fascinating meeting.

Chapter Newsletters

In Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF® Format

2007  April 2007 March 2007  February 2007

Contact the Webmaster if you have any difficulty.

Lunch at a local restaurant often follows the meetings.

Meeting Schedule

Meetings are the last Saturday of the month, September through May, at CORD, 1019 Route 132, Hyannis (turn at the GOLF sign). In December and June, we have a luncheon instead.

© HLA-Cape Cod       Last update 4.07     Contact the Webmaster