My Fault Entirely

I erred.  I goofed, plain and simple and I felt a little foolish afterwards.

I was in the checkout lane at the grocery store, ready to pay for my relatively few purchases.  I opted to use cash instead of a credit card and listened for the total as called out (okay, spoken not too loudly) by the cashier. 

I was so clever, or at least I thought I was being clever.  The total was $9.73, so I gave the woman ten dollars and 73 cents so I could get a dollar bill back from her.  Instead, she gave me one dollar and 10 cents back.

As soon as she did it, I knew what I’d done wrong.  I misheard nine dollars and seventy-three cents when she’d really said nine dollars and sixty-three cents.  I failed to follow my usual practice of looking at the cash register’s digital readout of the total to make sure what I heard matched what had been said.

I’ve done this before.  In fact I’ve done it a number of times.  I have a lot of trouble accurately hearing numbers called out in noisy places.  While I can wish forever and a day that everyone will face me and speak both loudly and clearly, the truth is simple: it is my responsibility to check to make sure I hear things correctly or risk making a mistake.

In the grocery store checkout lane I can look at the numbers on the cash register.  I could ask the cashier to verify that I understand the total.  I could also bring a personal amplifier and ask the cashier to speak into the microphone or even ask the clerk to write the number down for me.  In the end, this situation’s resolution is in my hands.

I am a firm believer in accommodations provided by business and government entities.  I think it is proper, under ADA, to request and receive amplification, real-time captioning and/or ASL interpretation, whichever works best for you.  But for a quick trip to the grocery I need to make sure communication works for me.

Now, if I ever meet with the President of the United States perhaps I’ll request real-time captioning.  That way I’ll have a transcript of the event!

B. Burton

 

Some Days We’re All in the Same Boat

A couple weeks ago my Beloved and I met our Older Son and his Lovely Girlfriend at a food truck event for dinner.  Sadly, the trucks ran out of food causing us to scramble to find another place to eat.  Because we had not only my hearing dog with us but Lovely Girlfriend’s darling pet dog, we opted for a local pub where the patio allows non-working canine friends.

Despite the lively conversations around us, I was able to keep up within our group of four (Lovely Girlfriend speaks loudly and clearly and faces me!) and we had a great time.

Then the skies opened and the rain poured down forcing us to grab our dinners and our dogs and head inside, a place normally off limits to pets.  We found a table and settled in, waiting until the rain slowed enough that we could leave.  It took a while!

In the meantime the population of the bar doubled with more and more people arriving every few minutes.  The music overhead was loud rock from the 90s and it wasn’t long before my brain decided to stop processing sound.  I was on complete aural overload.

My Beloved sensed my predicament and shouted, “Turn your hearing aids off!”  I did, and enjoyed the dimming of the din.  Of course this meant I could no longer hear the conversation, but Beloved interpreted using the limited ASL we know.  Soon even that was exhausting.

The rain eventually slowed and we four humans and two pups made our way outside.  Older Son gave me a hug and said, “You know, none of us could hear in there.  The noise hurt our ears, too.  It wasn’t just you, so don’t feel bad.”

He was right; we were all in the same boat.  The bar was a great equalizer.  Sometimes I forget that I’m not the only one in the group who misses words, misunderstands conversation, or has trouble hearing in loud noise.  Sometimes we’re all the same.

B. Burton

I Miss Movies…and so many other things

For many years after my hearing started to diminish I stopped going to movies in the theater.  I watched movies on television because they were captioned.  Later, we subscribed to Netflix and almost every movie we got from them was captioned.  I quickly learned to check carefully to make sure the movie had captions before adding a film to our queue after learning the hard way that there were some, especially those made in Great Britain, which did not.

When we moved to the city in which we now live, I learned that a large theater had movies that were open captioned during select showings.  Unfortunately the single movie or two chosen to be captioned often was specifically for children.  Unfortunately the movies chosen were shown at odd and inconvenient times. 

Then one day my son sent me an email based on a Tweet.  This is a world connected by social media.  My terrific son learned from the person tweeting that a nearby theater provides digital captioning devices for virtually every movie it shows.  I was skeptical.  I drove to the theater one day and asked an employee. 

“Which films are captioned?” I pointed to the list of movies above the snack bar.

“All of them,” he replied.

All I could say was, “Wow!”

While this method of viewing movie captions takes a little more work than reading open captions, it still made the experience of being in the theater a good one.  I was able to go to a theater with family and have that group experience and enjoy a first-run film.

So, how can you find out if your area theaters offer some form of captioning?  Visit a website called Captionfish at www.captionfish.com.

How can you find out if the Netflix film you can’t wait to see is captioned?  Check out phlixie at www.phlixie.com.

Now grab the popcorn and enjoy!

B. Burton

I Feel So Alone! Can Anyone Help Me Adjust to My Hearing Loss?

When I was diagnosed with hearing loss, something that sort of came as a surprise because I had lots of misconceptions about hearing loss, I felt as if I was missing something. There were so many questions and I needed answers.

Fortunately a friend insisted I join what is now known as Hearing Loss Association of America www.hearingloss.org.  To bolster his point, he gave me a copy of their publication, Hearing Loss magazine, to read.  What an eye-opening experience!  Here was a real community of people who were like me.  My wonderful husband insisted we both join and that we attend that year’s convention.

What an experience!  Suddenly I was among peers.  Everyone around me understood the challenges I faced.  Meetings and sessions were made accessible to me so I could get information without feeling exhausted from trying to hear and understand.  I learned so much.

A few years later, after repeatedly driving 90 minutes to attend HLAA chapter meetings in another city, I worked with a dedicated group to start a chapter closer to home.  HLAA had become that important to me.

There are other resources out there if you are looking for information and community. ALDA, the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, has chapters across the country.  You can find it online at www.alda.org.  ALDA also has publications and conventions.

It is amazing just how much you can learn from other people who have walked the path you currently walk.  It is gratifying to get so much acceptance and understanding from those same people.

B. Burton

 

Recording Noise Levels in Restaurants

There is an interesting article in the Los Angeles Times in the last couple of days about measuring noise in restaurants.  All of us with hearing loss know how difficult it is to manage conversations in noisy restaurants.  In the article, it mentions that restaurants that measure noise at 90 decibels or above is equivalent to sitting next to a running lawnmower and trying to have a conversation with someone you are dining with at the same time!  Here is the link to the article: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-restaurant-noise-20120818,0,1279757.story

After reading this article, I found an app on my iPhone called db Meter Pro for .99 cents that I downloaded.  Now I can record the decibel levels in the restaurants that I go to, keep a log of what I record, and share my findings with my fellow Hearing Loss Association chapter members.  Do you think we could eventually convince the restaurant owners to "keep it down!"?

Happy Birthday ADA!

July 26, 2012 was the twenty-second anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Every day I am grateful for the disability activists who worked so hard to convince senators and representatives to write legislation creating and protecting rights for people with disabilities.

Every day I am thankful for the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, Section 508, FCC captioning rules, the Air Carrier Access Act and the 21^st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.

I love being able to watch captioned television.  Captioned movies both in the theater and on my DVD player are delightful and allow me to enjoy entertainment with family and friends.

It is great that when I am in a meeting or attending a lecture or public program, I can have the services of a captionist to ensure I do not miss any nugget of wisdom.

ADA gave me the ability to have my hearing dog with me wherever I go: work, restaurants, theaters, museums, doctors’ offices…virtually anywhere.  The Air Carrier Access Act gives me the OK to have Terrific Dog with me on airplanes.

Thanks to the ADA and other Federal rules, people with hearing loss and other disabilities can function better in all aspects of life in the United States.

Sex, Lies & Hearing Aids

We hear it a lot: “I want a hearing aid that is small, discreet and practically invisible so nobody knows I’m wearing it.”  They continue: “I don’t want people to know I have hearing loss because I don’t want to appear old; I don’t want people to think I’m no longer attractive or sexy.”

Wow.  Hearing aids have the power to influence all that, huh?

So what do people want from a hearing aid?

Shouldn’t the first thing on the list be that it works, that it helps you hear better than you do now?  New models of hearing aids are small while providing the features that can enhance ability to hear.  One of the most important additional features is a telecoil which can help the wearer use a telephone.  It can also be used to connect with a variety of assistive listening devices, further enhancing one’s ability to hear in a variety of settings.

While there are small hearing aids that are complex and powerful, if you think you can focus only on the size of the hearing aid and still hear better, you might be lying to yourself.

We’ve covered the hearing aids and the lies, what about the sex?  Can there be anything hotter than actually, truly hearing someone say, “I love you, you sexy thing.”