News You Can Use



Hearing Loss Association of Oregon Meeting Dates

You are invited to attend and participate in the quarterly meetings of the Hearing Loss Association of Oregon. Meetings are generally held at the Albany General Hospital. To confirm meeting dates and times, and to get directions, please contact Bob Russell at  bhrussell@frontier.com  or (503)614-9730.

3/17/2012
6/16/2012
10/2/2012
12/15/2012

Survivor's Manuals Available

Do you have your own copy of Hearing Loss Association of Oregon's very popular booklet " Facing the Challenge - A Survivor's Manual for Hard of Hearing People" ( PDF 2.2M ) . We have distributed more than 42,000 of these Manuals and the orders continue to roll in.

Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors, Audiologists, Hearing Aid Specialists and other professionals who work with hard of hearing and late deafened people find these books to be wonderful resources for themselves and their clients. Many people have ordered additional copies to share with family and friends.

You can see the current edition of the is at  Survivor's Manual (PDF 2.2M ) .

And you can order copies by sending $4 per book or $35 for each 20 books to:

Hearing Loss Association of Oregon.
PO Box 22501
Eugene, OR 97402

or

 info@hearinglossOR.org  or call (541)689-7242

Our state newsletter, "Hear it is!" can also be requested from the address above.


Community Access Hearing Assistive Technology Program

In April of 2000, the Oregon Hard of Hearing and Deaf Alliance (OHHDA), an advocacy coalition of over 25 public, non-profit and for-profit organizations representing Oregonians with hearing loss, applied for a two year grant with the Meyer Memorial Trust to fund a Hearing Assistance Technology project. The goals of the Community Access Hearing Assistive Technology Program, CAHAT for short, are to enable people with hearing loss to function at parity with hearing people and to improve communication among those with hearing loss through the availability of hearing assistance technology. In October of the same year, the Meyer Memorial Trust approved the grant of $48,000 "to purchase hearing assistance technology and equipment for statewide distribution."
(The Meyer Memorial Trust was created by the personal philanthropy of Fred G. Meyer and is in no way connected with Fred Meyer, Inc.)

The intent of the program is not to replace the requirements of entities mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to provide accessibility for hard of hearing and deaf individuals participating in their programs. Rather, the purpose is to make assistive equipment readily available to the general hearing impaired community.

Equipment ranges from small and large FM systems, to loop systems, infrared systems, closed captioning equipment used with TV or with a projector and screen, wireless and hard wired mics, lapel mics, mixers, base transmitter, etc. To ensure a successful event, please reserve the equipment well in advance of your event whenever possible and allow time to visit with your site representative about which equipment would be the most appropriate for your event or meeting. Also allow yourself time to learn how to properly set up and use the equipment prior to your event. Brochures about the program are available at each site.

For more information about the CAHAT program or to arrange to use the equipment at your location, please contact:

Duane Davis, Coordinator
38932 River Drive
Lebanon, OR 97355
Home 541-259-3027
Cell 541-401-5103
 Davis838@gmail.com 

Wayne Seely
Phone (503)981-8847
 dwseely@wbcable.net 

U of Oregon Moves the Bar for Athletic Facility Access

Captions at Autzen Stadium

The University of Oregon announced that it is offering open captioning of the stadium announcements at its football stadium, and continues to investigate doing the same at its other athletic venues. UO will then become the national pace-setter in making college athletic facilities accessible to fans with hearing loss. The captions will be displayed on the scoreboards, visible to all attendees from any seat. A remote captioner working through a telephone or internet connection will convert the public-address announcements, penalty calls and intermission information into text form, accessible to anyone unable to hear what is being said. See the photo that accompanies this article of the captions on the DuckVision screen at Autzen stadium. The announcement came after almost two years of ongoing advocacy efforts by individuals in the Eugene, Oregon area, and after a series of meetings between the university athletic department and representatives from the Oregon Communication Access Project (OR-CAP). The continuing cooperation between the university and the advocacy groups allowed this outcome to be reached without litigation or animosity. The driving force behind the advocacy effort was the completion of the Matthew Knight Arena, the home of Oregon's basketball and volleyball teams. Several members of the Hearing Loss Association of Oregon contacted the athletic department, and joined an ongoing effort to design disability-friendly features for the new arena.

The university initially offered to provide captioning displayed on portable hand-held devices. After field testing the devices, though, the advocates felt that they did not provide effective communication for a number of reasons that they enumerated in writing to the U of O.

While these concerns were taken seriously, university officials were initially uncertain about how scoreboard captioning could actually be undertaken at the Knight Arena. Technical advice was given by Carol Studenmund and Lisa Monfils from LNS Captioning in Portland. Carol demonstrated to U of O officials that the screens on the central Jumbotron scoreboards could be reconfigured to slightly reduce the vertical dimension of the replay screen, making room for two lines of captioned text below. This solution was acceptable to all parties in the negotiations. After resolving the arena problem, the university turned its attention to its other athletic facilities. It was able to make scoreboard captioning a reality at its football facility in time for the home opener in September 2011. It expects to provide captioning capability at the baseball park in time for the 2012 season, and at its track facility not only for the spring track season but for the Olympic Trials that will take place in Eugene during the summer of 2012.

Stadium captioning has been an ongoing legal challenge. Facility managers have said that one does not need to hear the public-address announcements to enjoy a sports event. However, one court ruled that the announcements, etc., are all provided "for a reason," and therefore, if it's something that enhances the overall experience for the hearing fans, it's something that the deaf and hard of hearing fans are also entitled to enjoy.

The polite but persistent advocacy of the OR-CAP and HLA-OR members, the technical savvy from LNS and above all the good work and good will of Mike Duncan and the University of Oregon athletic and technical people have created a national model for accessible athletic venues.

The Oregon Communication Access Project (OR-CAP) is a non-profit membership corporation whose purpose is to enrich the lives of individuals with hearing loss by making public places accessible through means such as captioning. It is a sister organization of the Washington State Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP). John Waldo, an attorney with a significant hearing loss, is counsel to both groups.

For more information about the Oregon Communication Access Project click on  www.OR-CAP.org 


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