• With the approach of the fall Walk4Hearing™ events, successful kickoffs have been held in several cities including Boston, Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Salt Lake City.
Many more parents are joining and participating in the Walk4Hearing™. We want to be responsive to them and also provide more parent resources. While this was not part of our program framework for 2010, we are very pleased that it is happening. When opportunities arise we must be flexible to enough to seize the opportunities and challenges. The resources we have for parents to date include:
> A Wiki for parents developed by Marcia Finisdore, former President of the HLAA Board of Trustees and a parent of children with hearing loss. This is a place where parents can find unbiased information to empower them to make decisions for their children. To see the Wiki and to refer parents to it go to www.kidsandhearingloss.org . This is an ongoing project so if anyone has articles, pictures, or profiles of families that to add to the Wiki, please send it to Marcia at marcia@kidsandhearingloss.org. We welcome your feedback.
> The November issue of Hearing Loss Magazine is for parents. Their stories will tug at your heart strings and the pictures of the children are beautiful.
> A flyer to hand out to parents at the walks designed by our wonderful volunteer Hollace Goodman. See it at http://kidsandhearingloss.org/
> The keynote speaker during the Opening Session of HLAA Convention 2011, June 16 -19 will be Christopher J. Artinian, Chief Executive Officer and President of Morton’s Restaurant Group, Inc. The Artinian family is the subject of the Oscar-nominated film Sound and Fury, which tells the story of brothers: Chris, who was born with hearing, and his older brother Peter, who was born deaf. Both brothers married and both had children who were born with hearing loss.
• Planning for the HLAA Convention 2011, June 16-19 at the Hyatt Regency in Crystal City is going very well. Many of our convention materials refer to the location of Convention 2011 as Washington, D.C., yet in the same breath we say that it will be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. That can be confusing! To take the mystery out of Crystal City and see the convention highlights to date go to http://www.hearingloss.org/convention/.
• HLAA has notified the chairman of the board and president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that they have been selected to receive the HLAA National Access Award for 2011. They have already responded positively and are looking into our request to present the award on stage at the Kennedy Center before a captioned performance of “Wicked” to have more exposure for captioning and to use the occasion as an educational opportunity about communication accessibility for the general audience.
• Above is the new logo for the “Get in the Hearing Loop” project…a joint educational effort of HLAA and the American Academy of Audiology (AAA). A brochure on telecoils is complete and now in the design and printing phase. The brochure will be on the HLAA website and downloadable. It will be made available to members in states and chapters to distribute at places such as health fairs, and throughout their communities. A September webinar on telecoils is planned.
• The HLAA webinar held on August 19, 2010 was brought to viewers by Clear Sounds Communication Inc. The topic was technology for use in the workplace and 60 people attended. This is an example of presentations by companies that are promoted as “infomercials”. Hearing Loss Association of America does not endorse products or services. HLAA infomercial webinars are designed to provide consumers with up-to-date information on products and services. To view the webinar go to http://www.hearingloss.org/Community/transcripts.asp.
PLEASE NOTE: Beginning with the September webinar, the HLAA webinars will require preregistration. Once a registrant is registered they will receive the link to join the webinar and will also automatically get a reminder the day before the webinar with the link. If the registrant does not attend the webinar, the next day they will receive a link for the playback. There is no charge to attend HLAA’s online seminars but registration is now required.
Register today for the HLAA Webinar for September 15, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. EDT. The Guest speaker will be Brad Ingrao, Au.D., and his topic is "Getting the Most from Your Hearing Aids with Real Ear Measurement." Detailed information about this webinar and guest speaker can be found at www.hearingloss.org.
• We continue to work on several Federal proceedings: the Access Board on Acoustics, the Department of Justice on movie captioning, the Department of Labor on affirmative action for federal contractors, and the FCC on hearing aid compatible cell phones,
• Barbara Kelley, HLAA deputy director represented HLAA at a reception for the initiation of a capital campaign for a new School for the Deaf in Lexington, Kentucky. Former President Bill Clinton was the guest of honor and Starkey was the presenting sponsor. The HLAA Kentucky state chapter coordinator and other HLAA chapter members were in attendance. We plan to follow up with a request that President Clinton become involved in helping us fight stigma of hearing loss.
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