Posted by: “Brenda Battat, Executive Director” [1] battat@hearingloss.org

Sat Dec 5, 2009 5:13 pm (PST)

Original Post here: [2] http://brendabattat.blogspot.com/

* The HLAA Board of Trustees met November 6 and 7, 2009, in Bethesda,
MD. A wine and cheese reception was held on Friday night and several
leaders of professional and consumer organizations attended to meet the board members. The meeting was held for the first time in the
newly-renovated conference room in the HLAA offices. Audio visual and
assistive listening systems were coordinated by Joe Duarte of Duartek
who donated his time to design, order, and install the equipment.
Ampetronics, a UK company, donated the low-spill loop that was
installed under the carpet during renovation. We also have infrared for confidentiality. We have two flat screen TVs� one for CART and one for PowerPoint presentations. Colin Cantlie from the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association donated one of the TVs.

The Board approved the 2010 budget that included the addition of an
administrative assistant for the national walk manager. The Treasurer
reported that HLAA is in a sounder financial situation as a result of
better than expected revenues from the Nashville convention, the walks, and careful management of expenses. The 990 was approved and will be posted to the website. Three new board members were welcomed: Diana Bender, PA, Joe Montano, NY, and James DeCaro, NY. A new ad hoc
membership committee was established to be chaired by Joe Montano.

* The walks are over for 2009. We met our very ambitious goal of 1
million! and there are still donations to be posted. We are working on
getting 2010 walks up and running and preparing a final report for
national sponsors on all 2009 walks.

* The web chat on hair cell regeneration by Douglas Cotanche, Ph.D.,
broke all HLAA web chat records with 85 participants. To view the
transcript go to [3] http://www.hearingloss.org/Community/transcripts.asp

* Video of CBS News Report on VRS Indictments: The CBS Evening News
report by Katie Couric on the indictments for Video Relay Service fraud can now be viewed with closed captioning on the website of the
Connecticut Council of Organizations Serving the Deaf.
[4] http://ccosd.org/2009/11/20/vrsfraud/

* The big news all over the Internet is the Google/YouTube initiative
to caption videos on YouTube. HLAA staff attended the announcement in
Google’s Washington, D.C., office. Twenty hours of video are uploaded
to YouTube every hour. Video producers can easily caption their videos
as Google has developed software to automatically write the time codes
for the captions. All the video producer has to do is upload the
transcript. Then viewers click on the transcript button and captions
will be generated by machine through voice recognition. Google is
testing this with 13 educational partners to get feedback and improve
the program. The captions allow the videos to be searched by text and
even to search for specific text in the video. Also the captions can be subtitled in 51 languages. So a video could be viewed in other
languages. This is an amazing innovation. The scale is enormous and
brings captions to a very visible place on the Internet.

* FCC Field Hearing: Broadband Access for People with Disabilities
[The following excerpt is from the HLAA comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission for their Field Hearing on the need for broadband access for people with disabilities by Lise Hamlin, Director of Public Policy and State Development for HLAA on November 6, 2009. at Gallaudet University. Full text of the comments will be available after December 15, 2009, on the HLAA website and via the December 15 eNews.]

I am here today to provide another aspect on the issue of disability
and broadband. Members of HLAA tend to be adults with some kind of
hearing loss, ranging from a moderate to severe, even profound loss.

We find that we use every tool in the communication toolbox; residual
hearing with hearing aids, assistive listening devices, speechreading
and other visual clues, text, as well as sign language. Our members
typically are not two feet in either the world of people who can hear
fully, or the world of people who sign as their primary mode of
communication. A little of all helps us communicate.

I want to emphasize the need to remember that the disability community
is not monolithic. It would be far easier if we all could be
accommodated in the same way. But we can’t. Providing only enough
bandwidth to allow spoken words would exclude people who need broadband access that is fast enough and clear enough to be able to read sign language. Likewise, people with hearing loss who use their residual hearing need broadband that is visually accessible, and includes audio so we can plug into the computer and use our residual hearing, and also provides for text, preferably real time text, so we can read what we missed. We need all three provided to make broadband truly accessible. This can be done today.

Still, we are at a crossroads. Broadband presents people with hearing
loss both a great opportunity, and a great threat. It provides us with
the opportunity to level the playing field. Because much of the
Internet is text-based, it has the potential to also provide accessible connection to family, friends, employers, health care providers, teachers, professionals, entertainment and cultural activities. This translates into better jobs, better health, and with it, the possibility of greater inclusion for a better quality of life. But, if broadband becomes inaccessible or unaffordable to people with disabilities, we are excluded from all of the possibilities that are now available to those who can hear, and those who can afford it.

Broadband providers charge substantial fees to access services. They do not offer discounts to people with hearing loss when they are not able to access information. That’s why we need the Commission to step forward and mandate access companies are not providing on their own.

–
Posted By Brenda Battat, Executive Director to Brenda Battat, Executive
Director at 12/05/2009 06:41:00 PM