Volume 28 Issue 5

HOH-LD-News
Vol. 28, Issue 5
July 29, 2006

Copyright (C) 2006 Hearing Loss Web. All rights reserved.

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Table of Contents
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- Article 1: DOT hears criticism of rights plan for deaf flyers

- Article 2: Wendy's Musical Adventures at the 2006 HLAA convention

- Article 3: Closed Captioning for movie theaters

- Article 4: Short Takes

Our advertisers make it possible for us to provide HOH-LD-News as a free service. Please let them know you appreciate their support, and please mention that you saw their message in HOH-LD-News.

- Advertisers in this Issue
First Premium Placement:
Clocks and Hearing Aid Batteries from Sound Clarity
Second Premium Placement:
StarPlus-45 Phone on Sale at Harris Communications
Third Premium Placement:
IHHD Online Educational Opportunities
Fourth Premium Placement:
Switch to Sprint
Classified Section:
Two online stores and one employment opportunity

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Contact information and disclaimers are at the end of this newsletter.
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- Article 1: DOT hears criticism of rights plan for deaf flyers
By Andrew Compart, Travel Weekly
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Editor: A while ago we published a story about proposed rules by the Department of Transportation that would greatly improve access to information by air travelers with hearing loss. As you might expect the airlines aren't crazy about having to implement these proposals. The following story has the latest on this situation. It originally appeared in Travel Weekly and is shared here with their kind permission.

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A multiyear effort at the Transportation Department to create a consensus on rights for deaf and hearing-impaired air travelers is coming apart, with airlines blasting a DOT proposal supported by the community's advocates.

The criticism concerns a DOT notice of proposed rulemaking in February to create numerous requirements for airlines, including giving deaf and hearing-impaired travelers "prompt" access to the same information provided to other passengers.

Among other things, that would mean providing captioning on televisions and other audiovisual systems on airline-owned, -leased or -controlled property at U.S. airports and providing captioning for in-flight safety, informational and entertainment content on new aircraft.

The proposed rules also would require airlines to train employees to communicate with hearing-impaired individuals.

The rules would apply not only to U.S. carriers but also foreign carriers for flights that land or take off from a U.S. airport.

Advocates for the hearing-impaired were thrilled with most of the proposals.

"Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals have been excluded from air travel services and information for too many years," Kelby Brick, director of law and advocacy for the National Association of the Deaf, said when the DOT issued its proposal.

But in comments filed with the DOT last month, the Airline Transport Association accused the DOT of overstepping its bounds in the proposal. It said the Air Carrier Access Act requires only that airlines provide nondiscriminatory access to air travel, not to every aspect of air travel.

"The DOT has conflated civil rights with customer service matters that it should leave to the competitive marketplace to address," the ATA said.

The ATA also argued that the proposal "involves significant costs that impose an undue burden on airlines." Both the ATA and the Regional Airline Association claimed that the DOT underestimated the costs and overestimated the benefits. The National Air Carrier Association expressed the same concerns.

Foreign airlines also almost unanimously opposed the proposal, arguing that the U.S. did not have the authority to apply the rules to their flights and that the requirements could put them in conflict with disabled traveler rules in their home countries.

That's the same argument those carriers made about a DOT proposal, still under consideration, to expand existing disabled-traveler rules for U.S. airlines to foreign airline flights that use U.S. airports.

The DOT issued that notice of proposed rulemaking in November 2004, in response to an amendment to the ACAA that prohibits foreign air carrier discrimination against disabled travelers.

Groups representing the hearing-impaired have been pushing for air travel rules for more than a decade. They moved closer to their goal in August 2002 when the DOT asked the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency, to submit a proposal to improve air travel access for deaf, hearing-impaired and deaf-blind travelers.

The NCD quickly assembled a working group that included representatives of hearing-impaired communities, airports and airlines.

But the airlines were never persuaded that government regulation was the way to improve the services. Those objections were made even more clear when the airlines filed their comments to the DOT last month.

The ATA emphasized that the DOT "should not consider our active participation in the work group as an endorsement of the petition."

Copyright 2006 Travel Weekly, Reprinted with Permission

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- Article 2: Wendy's Musical Adventures at the 2006 HLAA convention
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Editor: Losing the ability to understand speech is certainly the most common issue reported by people with hearing loss. Losing the ability to enjoy music might be second. So we're intrigued by people who continue to pursue musical endeavors, in spite of their hearing loss.

One such person is Wendy Cheng, a cochlear implant user who is also an amateur musician and viola student. Wendy also manages a website and listserv for musicians with hearing loss. Please visit http://www.aamhl.org to learn more about the Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss or to join the listserv.

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Back in May 2006, Advanced Bionics (AB), the manufacturer of my cochlear implant, invited me to play viola at their exhibit during the Hearing Loss Association of America's (HLAA) convention in Orlando, Florida. I would be playing about half an hour each day and at the pre-banquet reception on the final evening of the convention. I had never done a solo gig like this before, but was intrigued enough to say yes to the invitation. John Redden, a fellow member of the AAMHL listserv (and a Clarion cochlear implant user as well) was also invited to perform at AB's booth.

Every spring I take a certificate exam for my viola studies that measures my skills at a particular level. Right after the exam was over June 11, I started creating a repertoire list of music to play at the convention which was set for June 28-July 1. One of my old music teachers suggested that I play Suzuki viola repertoire, but I wanted to do more than that. In the end I came up with a mixture of easy viola solos...some classical, some folk songs, a few hymns/ fiddle tunes, about two patriotic pieces and of course, some music from Disney movies.

Advanced Bionics provided a pickup for my viola and also worked with the sound person at Disney to hook the pickup to a pre-amp/mini-amp. But I was determined to hear my viola regardless of how much echoing and noise was in the exhibit hall. And I remember how badly I played at the American Academy of Audiology convention in Washington DC last year with just my CI and nothing else. So I packed my auxiliary microphone as well. I was generally scheduled to play in the early hours of 9:00-9:30 each morning.

I tried tuning up in the exhibit hall on the first day but it was too noisy in there and the normally trusty Seiko chromatic tuner I was using couldn't tell the difference between the extraneous noise and the viola. I actually turned the G string peg too far out of tune and had to adjust that. The following morning Mike Brownen, one of the audiologists at AB, suggested that I find a quieter place to tune so that's what I ended up doing .... taking my tuner and viola and tuning my viola in a quiet side hallway next to the convention hall prior to playing. I plugged the aux mic into my body processor and switched to program 3 (which has my music program set for 100% auxiliary input) before playing.

And people actually stopped by to listen when I played. From the feedback I got, I knew I was generally playing in tune. Dr. Mead Killion, president of Etymotic Research, is a famous researcher in the area of acoustics and hearing loss. His company (http://www.etymotic.com) makes ear plugs for musicians, among other things. He was surprised I could play in tune because he has always had the impression cochlear implants did not transmit musical frequencies very well.

I brought my family along to the convention and we visited Disney World on Thursday and Friday after I finished playing each morning. But I decided to stay at the convention all day on Saturday. For one thing....I wanted to hear John play. I had also volunteered to report on a workshop which discussed music appreciation with hearing aids and cochlear implants. And last but not least, I still had not received any details regarding my performance on Saturday night at the reception before the banquet.

John's playing is incredible. And not only can he play the guitar, he can sing. In tune, no less. His many years of experience as a professional musician shone through in his playing. A small loyal group of hearing aid and cochlear implant users swayed to the Beatles music and other pop tunes he was playing. Edie Gibson, an audiologist at Advanced Bionics and Gallaudet graduate, signed the lyrics for members of the audience who needed it.

I was floored by John's ability to sing in tune...and felt wistful. I thought: this is what you shoot for if the CI processor can be programmed to provide accurate pitch information. And, I added to myself, I hope Advanced Bionics isn't expecting John and me to perform on the same stage tonight. I don't feel I should be on the same stage with a musician of his caliber.

Saturday afternoon, I finally get the details about where and when I'm to play at the reception. I would be sitting at a stool near a door leading into the banquet hall. I'd play for about 15 minutes. And John would be on the stage in the banquet hall performing while people are walking into the banquet hall. I thought: this will work. We would provide different musical flavors to add to the ambiance of the evening at different times before the banquet.

During the reception, I was supposed to play only 15 minutes, but enough people lingered to listen while I was playing so I decided to play half an hour instead while perched on a comfortable high chair. I ran though every memorized piece on my repertoire list and tried to remember to keep eye contact with members of the appreciative audience.

My last memory of the convention has to do with the male vocalist the Florida host committee invited to sing at the banquet. The convention organizers invited a high tenor who sang selections from I Pagliacci, Phantom of the Opera, and O Solo Mio. He even invited the audience to sing O Solo Mio with him(!) Deanna Baker, the caption writer, heroically wrote as much of the Italian lyrics as she knew on the video screen, but had to write "Singing in Italian" about halfway through the song. Of all the pieces he sang, the one that really interested me was the famous tenor solo from I Pagliacci. It goes like this: "Vesti la giubba e la faccia infarina....." (The male lead has to put on his clown's costume and be gay while his heart is breaking from his wife's infidelity.)

Although I could hear this tenor sing, I had a feeling of disquiet about the substantial number of banquet attendees who had high frequency hearing loss and in all likelihood could not fully appreciate this vocal music.

A few days ago, I spoke with a young man who was monitoring incoming/outgoing traffic outside the exhibit hall door. He had heard me play viola in the exhibit hall but said it didn't always sound good (the cello sounded better to him) and he admitted to having a high frequency loss.

I'm glad I agreed to play at the convention. To me, hearing-accessible conventions like this one allow me to meet new people, and learn from others--- musically and otherwise.

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The Institute for Persons Who Are Hard of Hearing or Deaf (IHHD) is a nonprofit Congressionally-funded agency dedicated to facilitating workplace and career advancement for aspiring professionals like you.

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- Article 3: Closed Captioning for movie theaters
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Editor: Here's the latest news about a movie closed captioning system from Personal Captioning Systems. You can learn more about this technology at www.personalcaptioning.com

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On Wednesday, July 12, 2006, at the Pickwick Theater in Park Ridge, Illinois during three regularly scheduled showings, deaf and hard of hearing audience members viewed first run screenings of the new Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest with captions discreetly displayed on small PDA units at the patron's seat.

The July 12th screenings at the Pickwick Theater were the first public demonstration of this state of the art captioning technology developed by Personal Captioning Systems, Inc. of Morton Grove, Illinois. ICODA (International Center on Deafness and the Arts) members were invited to use the new technology. A representative from Disney Studios also participated in this event.

Individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing are often left out of entertainment activities because captioning is rarely available. Many of these individuals would enjoy or once again enjoy a movie if word captioning were available.

For the last few years, portable small screen captioning display units have been providing this form of unobtrusive CLOSED captioning at live theater performances from Broadway to San Jose.

PCS uses state-of-the-art electronic, computer, and optical technology. Prewritten captions of the film were formatted to standard captioning with white letters on a dark background, 4-6 lines per screen and synchronized to the film using proprietary PCS hardware and software. The caption signal was transmitted throughout the venue so that an individual could read the captions from a wireless PDA supported by a flexible gooseneck at their chosen seat. (Any number of captioning display units can be in service at any given time.)

Following the film, audience members were invited to participate in an information gathering survey.

NOT one individual of the general viewing audience said that the PCS display interfered with their enjoyment of watching the movie. Of those who used a PCS display 93% found it "easy" or "very easy" to use.

With PCS captioning technology, EVERY seat at EVERY showing of EVERY movie film can provide the accommodation of text captions to those who would benefit in a manner that does not distract or interfere with others in the audience.

Photos and a summary of survey results will soon be available on our web site: www.personalcaptioning.com

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- Article 4: Short Takes
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Editor: Here are our picks of some additional stories that you may find interesting. For more, please point your browser to: http://www.hearinglossweb.com/news/curr.htm

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HLAA Presents Communications Issues to Access Board

Brenda Battat, Associate Executive Director of the Hearing Loss Association of America, recently presented several hearing loss issues at the Access Board Information Meeting on Communications Issues. The issues were:

1. Need for Continuing Education on Existing Guidelines
2. Information Presented Over Public Address Systems
3. Emergency Information Given over Public Address Systems
4. Acoustics
5. Setting Sound Input for Assistive Listening Systems in Different Venues
6. Access to Movies
7. Safety: Fire and Carbon Monoxide alarms
8. Volume Control for Telephones
9. Drive Through and Point of Sales Machines and Counters

For Brenda's complete comments, please point your browser to: http://tinyurl.com/frvhr

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An Assessment of Everyday Noises and Their Annoyance

A recent study finds that annoyance ratings for new wearers of digital hearing instruments are equally distributed across intensity and duration. This supports the concept that signal processing algorithms designed to reduce annoyance of noise should not only address stationary noise but also be able to efficiently attenuate transient noises.

Fingernails scraping down a chalkboard. A squealing smoke alarm. A jackhammer pounding through concrete. These are just a few of the images that come to mind when we think of sounds that are annoying. But this is just the tip of the auditory iceberg for new wearers of amplification. Annoyance of sounds comes in many forms and at many different loudness levels.

http://www.hearingreview.com/print.php?s=HR/2006/07&p=25

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Deaf man realizes dream of being cop

A familiar face on the Rochester Institute of Technology campus is pursuing his dream, one that makes him a rarity: becoming a police officer despite a hearing loss. Anthony Wallace, an All-American wrestler when he attended RIT, had worked as a campus safety officer there since 2003. His last day of work was June 30. He flew to Alaska two days later and was sworn in as a police officer in Hoonah, Alaska, on July 6.

http://tinyurl.com/zxglu

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- Classifieds
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Two online stores and one employment opportunity appear in this issue. (Ads appear after this brief table of contents.)

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Potomac Technology - Everything You Need Under One Roof!
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Employment Opportunity 1
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WCI. Providing Solutions for People with Hearing Loss.
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Employment Opportunity 1
LIFESIGNS Director - Los Angeles
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GLAD is an Affirmative Action Employer with equal opportunity for men, women and people with disabilities. For more information on the following positions, please go to: www.gladinc.org. The status of all positions is: Regular, Full-time, Non-Exempt, Full Fringe Benefits unless otherwise noted. All positions are open until filled.

* LIFESIGNS Director - Los Angeles

If interested for any of these positions then please submit resume and application to:

Jeff Fetterman
Human Resources Specialist
Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness, Inc.
2222 Laverna Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90041
V/TDD: (323) 550-4207
Fax #: (323)550-4204
E-mail: jfetterman@gladinc.org

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- Contact Information and Disclaimers
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