This is a heartwarming story I came across about a Christian ministry that purchased digital hearing aids for a little HOH girl in China. Her deaf parents live in poverty and had no means of purchasing high quality hearing aids for her. Enjoy!
To Answer a Grandmother’s Prayer – Hearing Aids for Lu Jia
As of March 4, 2010, most YouTube.com videos will have a CC button on it that will allow users to view automatically generated captions. What a treat for deaf or hard of hearing people who – up until now – have been shut out of YouTube videos.
The speech recognition technology is far from perfect, but Google, who owns YouTube, expects to improve it. Users also have the option of editing the generated captions to make them more accurate.
Thank you, Google, for caring about accessibility for hearing impaired people!
As I mentioned in a prior post, I recently caught my first open captioned performance at the Denver Theater. The show I saw was the musical, Wicked. The cast, the props and the special effects were exceptional. I really had a good time and would love to go to another open captioned performance again.
At the time of this writing, all open captioned performances are held at the Buell Theater. You will want to take care to purchase seats that will give you a good view of the captioning screen. The captioning screen is located to the far left of the stage (as you face the stage), so the best sections to be in are the D or E sections. You can view the seating chart here.
My seat was in the D section, row A, seat 1, so I was 3 rows back, the first seat next to the aisle. This was too far to the right for me to see both the captioning and the performance at the same time. I had to physically turn my head to every time I wanted to switch from watching the captioning to the performance, or vice versa.
I would recommend getting seats that are further to the left, at least 6 or 7 seats in, so that you can see both the captioning screen and the performance at the same time.
Visit the Denver Theater web site to see a list of upcoming captioned performances. ASL interpretation is also available on certain dates. If you go, be sure to come back and share your experience with us! Enjoy!
On Sunday, November 15, we went to an open captioned performance of Wicked at the Buell Theater in Denver. We had a wonderful time and I will be sharing my experience in an upcoming post. But first, I wanted to post upcoming performances and dates where open captioning will be available for December 2009 – June 2010. All of these performances are for the Buell Theater:
For more information visit: http://denvercenter.org/planyourvisit/PhysicalAccessiblity/OpenCaptionedPerformances.aspx
People with a hearing loss easily misunderstand the spoken word. After all, there are certain sounds that we don’t hear very well, particularly high-pitched sounds such as s, f, sh, etc. In addition to that, there are so many words that sound similar because they rhyme.
So it happens quite often at our house where one of us will misunderstand what’s being said. This happened to me recentlhy, and I’m still chuckling over it, so thought I would share it with you.
Family Member: “I threw the drapes away. They didn’t look good.”
Viki: (Startled, I’m thinking to myself, how could that be? We don’t have any drapes in the house. We use blinds for all our window coverings.) “What do you mean?”
Family Member: “They were moldy.”
Viki: (Light bulb clicks on) “Oh, you mean the GRAPES. I thought you said DRAPES!”
Hee hee! 
Joyce Meyer is a well-known Christian inspirational speaker. She will be at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado:
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 7:00pm
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 10:00am and 7:00pm
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 10:00am
Sign Language interpretation will be provided for each session. A section will be reserved until 30 minutes before the start of each session. For more information, go to http://joycemeyer.org/OurMinistries/Conferences/denver09.htm
Admission is FREE, but expect to pay for parking.
In my prior post, “How NOT to Startle a Hard of Hearing Person,” I inadvertently left out a real gem of a tip. Therefore, in addition to the 4 tips I listed on that post, I would like to add one more:
5. One of the most effective ways to get the attention of someone who is hearing impaired without startling them is to flip the light switch on and off.
My family particularly uses this approach to get my attention when I am on another level of the house then they are. If I am upstairs and they are downstairs, flipping the hallway switch on and off is an excellent way to get my attention. But it also works well when trying to alert someone who’s in the same room as you to your presence.
Just don’t be annoying about it. Flip the switch on, wait a second or two, then switch it off. Repeat as needed. 
I was once told that the politically correct way of referring to a person with a hearing loss is to say they are “hard of hearing.” To say that a person is “hearing impaired,” however, was interpreted as derogatory. I really don’t even remember who first told me that, but it’s something I have heard numerous times over the years and I’ve always been somewhat puzzled by it.
As a hard of hearing person myself, I can’t say that I’m bothered when people refer to me as hearing impaired. Hard of hearing, hearing impaired, and even deaf all are accurate definitions of my hearing loss, in my opinion.
When I take my hearing aids out, I am pretty much deaf. The world becomes silent. I can’t hear voices, the telephone, or the vacuum. I can hear the dog bark if he’s in the same room with me, and an occasional loud thump, but that’s about it.
With my hearing aids on, I can hear voices and follow conversation so long as I can see the faces of the people conversing (I rely on reading lips to an extent). I can hear the telephone ring and the clicking of a keyboard. Sometimes I can even hear my cat meow. But I don’t hear these sounds the way normal hearing people do. Hearing aids don’t correct a hearing loss the way that glasses or contacts correct vision. So even with my hearing aids on I am still hard of hearing or hearing impaired.
I believe that some people feel the label “impaired” implies that something is wrong or abnormal with a person. Well, the truth is that something IS wrong with me. I can’t hear very well. My ears don’t work properly. However, I strongly feel that any kind of disability or impairment does NOT make anyone any less of a person. And I believe that disabled/impaired people should have equal access to the same things “normal” people have access to.
So call me hard of hearing, hearing impaired or deaf. I’m completely comfortable with any of those labels and I feel they are all appropriate descriptions of who I am.
Friday night, I was hard at work in my kitchen, preparing a dish of lasagna to serve over the weekend. While I stood at the stove gently stirring a pan of simmering sauce, a family member came up behind me and tapped my shoulder. I jumped – startled – and a spoonful of lasagna sauce flew through the air in multiple directions, splattering the stove top and the polar white kitchen walls.
Last I had noticed, this person had parked himself in the living room in front of the TV and was deeply engrossed in the news. He scared me, because I never heard him come into the kitchen.
Approaching a hard of hearing person from behind without startling them can be a tricky task! I thought I would share a few helpful tips I have on how NOT to startle a hard of hearing person:
Hard of hearing people will certainly appreciate the efforts you make to get their attention so they won’t be startled when you approach. I know I will!
By the way, the lasagna was a hit. But those white walls…they’ve got to go. It looks like I’ll be busy painting this summer.
Some years ago, I came across this fictional story of a deaf frog and found it inspiring. I’ve discovered that what this story illustrates has been true in my own life. There are situations when it is actually an advantage not to hear, whether physically or mentally, and this story touches on one of them. Enjoy…and be inspired!
The Frog Story
Author UnknownA group of frogs were hopping contentedly through the woods, going about their froggy business, when two of them fell into a deep pit. The other frogs gathered around the pit to see what could be done to help their companions. When they saw how deep the pit was, the rest of the dismayed group agreed that it was hopeless and told the two unfortunate frogs in the pit that they should prepare themselves for their fate, because they were as good as dead.
Unwilling to accept this terrible fate, the two frogs tried with all of their might to jump out of the pit. The other frogs shouted into the pit that it was hopeless, and that they wouldn’t be in that situation if they had been more careful, more obedient to the froggy rules, and more responsible. They continued shouting that they should save their energy and give up, since they were already as good as dead.
But the two frogs continued jumping as hard as they could and became quite weary. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to the calls of his fellows. Spent and disheartened, he quietly resolved himself to his fate, lay down at the bottom of the pit, and died as the others looked on in helpless grief.
The other frog continued to jump with every ounce of energy he had, although his body was wracked with pain and he was completely exhausted. Once again, the crowd of frogs started yelling for him to accept his fate, stop the pain and just die. The weary frog jumped harder and harder and—wonder of wonders—finally leapt so high that he sprang from the pit. Amazed, the other frogs celebrated his miraculous freedom and then, gathering around him asked, “Why did you continue jumping when we told you it was impossible?”
Reading their lips, the astonished frog explained to them that he was deaf, and that when he saw their gestures and shouting, he thought they were cheering him on. What he had perceived as encouragement inspired him to try harder and to succeed against all odds.
The moral of the story: Turn a deaf ear to people who discourage you. With hard work and a positive attitude, you can do almost anything you set your mind to and overcome any situation, no matter how hopeless it may seem. You CAN do it!
