Opening Session and Keynote Address - Part One

By Cheryl A. Heppner

June 2010

Editor: There were a couple of workshops Thursday afternoon, but the "official" opening of the convention was the Opening Session and Keynote Address on Thursday evening. Here's Cheryl's report.

This is part one of three parts.

Complete Convention Coverage

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Here's Part One

Here's Part Two

Here's Part Three

The opening session of Hearing Loss Association of America's 2010 convention took place in one of the Ballrooms at Milwaukee's Frontier Center. While waiting for the session to begin, I had a delightful conversation with Carole Purdum of Kansas.

Michael Stone, President of the HLAA Board of Trustees, recognized the chapter representatives and trustees in attendance and then turned the program over to Deputy Executive Director and Hearing Loss Magazine Editor-in-Chief Barbara Kelley. Barbara thanked the those who made the conference possible - the sponsors, captioners, and assistive listening device specialists. She gave a reminder for the Young Adult event on Saturday night and some other conference activities.

Bevin K. Baker Before leaving the podium, she introduced Bevin K. Baker, a special guest whose government work here in the health field has drawn acclaim. Among the things he is known for is his health initiative to reduce teen pregnancy 50% by the year 2015. "They people here look healthy and happy to me," she said, "so he must be doing a great job."

Mr. Baker won us over in short order with his statement that hearing loss is a major health concern, and he applauded the work HLAA has done to call attention to it. With 17% of people experiencing hearing loss, he said more must be done to remove the stigma. He expressed his pride in Wisconsin's passage of a mandatory hearing screening for newborns, but cited issues that remain for people with hearing loss, such as lack of access in auditoriums and movie theaters, hearing loss due to iPod and MP3 player use, and the need to develop new technology. Key to resolving these issues, he believes, are education and advocacy.

Issues related to hearing loss are personal for Mr. Baker because he has responsibility for the health of the entire city and also because he and his wife have adopted a little boy from Ethiopia with a lot of health conditions, including hearing loss. He heard this three year-old child's first words three weeks ago. In addition, his daughter's interest in communicating in sign language with a person in the Post Office, has led him to desire that every American be able to talk with their hands.

Mr. Baker's final message was "the most powerful words often spoken are in a whisper." Last year his mother became very ill and he was the last of her children to arrive to see her. She was fading and barely responsive, but when he walked into the room, her eyes opened for the first time in hours. He moved closer to her, pressing his ear to her lips and heard her say, "Thank you. I am so happy to see you."

"I missed my mother's last 46 hours, but I heard her last 30 seconds," he said.

In closing Mr. Baker thanked the 800 people at the convention for coming to "the little city by the big lake" and said they have transformed his life by the work they do.

Brenda Battat gave an impressive and inspiring update on the wide variety of important HLAA activities during the past year. Just a few of those on the list were advocacy to oppose a proposed a sales tax on hearing aids, reversing a decision on security officers with hearing aids, and educating consumers about what to expect when searching for hearing aids. She cited the recent addition of the HLAA website video education series, collaboration with other organizations to get things done, reaching out to young adults, a wiki for parents, and convention scholarships. Then she asked, "how can we rest?" and mentioned a few of the challenges not yet met, such as the dismal statistic that 50% of infants diagnosed with hearing loss still are not getting care, and there is no availability of accessible teleconferences.

Brenda recognized volunteers in the audience who headed the Walk4Hearing and their work taking the fundraising and education to the next level. She also lauded the support of the corporate sponsors who make the convention possible and a partial sponsorship by Williams Sound for the new listening system receivers used by conference attendees.

American Academy of Audiology Partnership Patricia Kricos of Florida, President-elect of the American Academy of Audiology, spoke of the organization's delight to be working with HLAA on the launch and roll-out of the hearing loop initiative, which arose after Brenda returned from Europe inspired by an international conference on the hearing loops. The Academy had been wanting to work together with HLAA, she said, and this project was an ideal match. Critics have asked why such a project is needed when Bluetooth is available, and Patricia's answer was that it's so functional. She considers David Myers a hero for his Loop America campaign (www.hearingloop.org). Her list of reasons to embrace hearing loops is headed by their being simple, cheap and affordable, and she said a telecoil needs to be included the tiniest of hearing aids to harness the power of the technology.

Conny Andersson of Sweden, Chair of the International Standards Committee, is an engineer who has been working in the area of hearing loops for many years. The standards by this nonprofit organization cover things like electrical appliances and audio systems around the world. They address sensitivity of the electronics and ensuring that all systems will work together, just like a hearing aid must work with a loop system. U.S. standards are called ANSI; standards in other countries go by different name. These standards specify field strengths setting how high you will hear, addressing frequency, response, and background noise.

Here's Part One

Here's Part Two

Here's Part Three

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