So recently I've been going through the application process for some internships. I just want to contrast two different situations that have happened. A little bit of background information first. BYU constantly has different tables set up in the student center, the Wilk, for companies looking for interns.
The first company was Holland America and Princess Cruises. I had picked up a few brochures because there wasn't a person sitting at the table in the Wilk at the time. When a representative showed up I walked over to talk to her. I typically don't speak orally, so I pulled out pen and paper to talk to her. My first question was the all important one, what accommodations do you make for Deaf people. You should have seen her face. She went from excited to talk to a possible intern to disappointed in about five seconds flat when she realized that I couldn't hear her. She began by listing the jobs that I can't hold with their company and then said she didn't know what accommodations if any the other jobs had. I wanted to make sure it was competely clear and so I asked her if I couldn't be hired for those jobs just because I can't hear. She wrote back that, that was the exact reason. I have to admit I was really angry at that point. Before walking away I spoke orally telling her I thought that was interesting because denying me a job just because I can't hear is blatant discrimination and completely illegal.
The other situation could not have been more different. I went to the Disney College Program presentation on campus. Like normal I had two interpreters with me to make communication easier. The staff from Disney worked with me to be set up for the presentation. They kept the lights up during two movie clips so I could watch the interpreter. The recruiter is also learning ASL, he practiced signing to me. He let me know that there were a variety of jobs available to me regardless of whether I can hear or whether I speak orally. He also let me know that Disney would make all the necessary accommodations for my living arrangements. Disney would provide things for the doorbell, fire alarms all of that at no charge to me if I was selected to work for them.
It's always interesting to see how people deal with my deafness especially with jobs. These are just two of the many experiences I've had but I think they show the best and worst scenarios.
Rachel
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Winter Semester
Ok so I still haven't finished writing about Christmas. Sorry, I'm working on it but we had a very busy Christmas break. So in the meantime ( by the way totally didn't know meantime was one word until today) I'm going to update all of you on how this semester is going.
I'm currently taking ASL 102, New Testament (Part 1), Statics, Calculus 1, and Technical Writing. Thus far I've had a pretty good start to the semester. I've only encountered a few problems. The most prominent one came from my English class which is on technical writing. As everyone knows I use interpreters during class. This means that I normally sign and the interpreter will voice for me ( for more information about voicing check out my last blog, I know shameless plugging). For this class we have to do several presentations. The problem occurred when I asked my teacher after class how he wanted to time me. He had been using his watch, which obviously wouldn't work so well for someone who can't hear the alarm.
My teacher then made a rather grave mistake. He asked me to present orally, meaning he didn't want me to use ASL during my presentation. He went on to say that he felt that using an interpreter for the presentation made it the interpreter's presentation and not mine. Many people will read this and wonder ok, where's the problem I don't see it. The problem is that is completely inappropriate and flat out illegal to ask that or bring that up with a deaf or hard of hearing student. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's just flat out illegal for a teacher to do that. One of the ironic things is that my teacher uses in the canal hearing aids.The other ironic thing is that my husband had been encouraging me to do the presentation orally and I had been considering. After the mistake on my teacher's part I've decided to present using ASL. I want to stand up for my rights and do what I'm most comfortable with. My husband is fully supporting my presenting in ASL, mostly because the teacher made him mad.
On a funny note, a very funny situation happened in my religion class. Every day we start with a prayer. If you pray then you have to introduce yourself to the class and answer three random questions. The class asked me how I met my husband, my major, and then my teacher walked right into a huge no-no. My teacher asked me what is the most important thing we should know about "hearing impaired people". I signed back instantly, (without trying to be snarky) not to call us hearing impaired. The entire class including both of my interpreters and my teacher burst out laughing.
Being Deaf at a hearing school certainly has it's ups and downs, it's funny moments and it's hard moments. But all in all, it's not half bad. Next time more about communicating with hearing people (when I don't speak) and eventually I'll post about Christmas.
love you all
Rachel
I'm currently taking ASL 102, New Testament (Part 1), Statics, Calculus 1, and Technical Writing. Thus far I've had a pretty good start to the semester. I've only encountered a few problems. The most prominent one came from my English class which is on technical writing. As everyone knows I use interpreters during class. This means that I normally sign and the interpreter will voice for me ( for more information about voicing check out my last blog, I know shameless plugging). For this class we have to do several presentations. The problem occurred when I asked my teacher after class how he wanted to time me. He had been using his watch, which obviously wouldn't work so well for someone who can't hear the alarm.
My teacher then made a rather grave mistake. He asked me to present orally, meaning he didn't want me to use ASL during my presentation. He went on to say that he felt that using an interpreter for the presentation made it the interpreter's presentation and not mine. Many people will read this and wonder ok, where's the problem I don't see it. The problem is that is completely inappropriate and flat out illegal to ask that or bring that up with a deaf or hard of hearing student. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it's just flat out illegal for a teacher to do that. One of the ironic things is that my teacher uses in the canal hearing aids.The other ironic thing is that my husband had been encouraging me to do the presentation orally and I had been considering. After the mistake on my teacher's part I've decided to present using ASL. I want to stand up for my rights and do what I'm most comfortable with. My husband is fully supporting my presenting in ASL, mostly because the teacher made him mad.
On a funny note, a very funny situation happened in my religion class. Every day we start with a prayer. If you pray then you have to introduce yourself to the class and answer three random questions. The class asked me how I met my husband, my major, and then my teacher walked right into a huge no-no. My teacher asked me what is the most important thing we should know about "hearing impaired people". I signed back instantly, (without trying to be snarky) not to call us hearing impaired. The entire class including both of my interpreters and my teacher burst out laughing.
Being Deaf at a hearing school certainly has it's ups and downs, it's funny moments and it's hard moments. But all in all, it's not half bad. Next time more about communicating with hearing people (when I don't speak) and eventually I'll post about Christmas.
love you all
Rachel
Friday, January 6, 2012
"Voicing"
I know I've been a slacker lately about posting, sorry I'm trying to do better. This post is going to be a little out of sequence because I'm also working on writing all about the holidays. My posts about Christmas break are going to go up after this one. So no one shoot me for being out of order.
With the start of the new semester I'm assigned interpreters for my different classes. Some of the interpreters I've worked with before and others I haven't. But the interesting phenomena I want to talk about in my post is "voicing." When a person does not speak, whatever the reason, and only signs the interpreter will "voice" for them. Essentially the interpreter is interpreting everything that person is saying for other people who don't sign.
Normally with my classes and interpreters I speak for myself but not always. Sometimes it's easier to sign what I want to know and often it just feels so much more natural. It also depends on the interpreter and how familiar we are with each others signs. I find that the more I use ASL the less inclined I am to speak orally.
It's just a very interesting thing to watch someone speaking like you (not for you, it's an important difference). When an interpreter voices for someone they are speaking as that person, never for that person. There are many different views on the use of voicing especially for late deafened adults. A lot of people think that if you can speak you should. Thus they believe that voicing promotes a certain level of laziness. I disagree with that idea. An interpreter voices for me because I make a linguistic choice, I choose to use a different language that I'm frequently more comfortable with. Also it's very hard to switch back and forth from ASL to English. If I'm already watching my interpreter and conducting the class in ASL it's unnecessary to switch back to English to ask a question then back to ASL to receive the answer.
For example today in my technical writing class we introduced ourselves to another member of the class. I signed the entire time and allowed my interpreters to voice for me. I felt much more comfortable doing that and it was a much more enjoyable experience for me. Take my very biased opinions about voicing with a grain of salt and think about it. Would you choose to have someone voice for you?
Rachel
With the start of the new semester I'm assigned interpreters for my different classes. Some of the interpreters I've worked with before and others I haven't. But the interesting phenomena I want to talk about in my post is "voicing." When a person does not speak, whatever the reason, and only signs the interpreter will "voice" for them. Essentially the interpreter is interpreting everything that person is saying for other people who don't sign.
Normally with my classes and interpreters I speak for myself but not always. Sometimes it's easier to sign what I want to know and often it just feels so much more natural. It also depends on the interpreter and how familiar we are with each others signs. I find that the more I use ASL the less inclined I am to speak orally.
It's just a very interesting thing to watch someone speaking like you (not for you, it's an important difference). When an interpreter voices for someone they are speaking as that person, never for that person. There are many different views on the use of voicing especially for late deafened adults. A lot of people think that if you can speak you should. Thus they believe that voicing promotes a certain level of laziness. I disagree with that idea. An interpreter voices for me because I make a linguistic choice, I choose to use a different language that I'm frequently more comfortable with. Also it's very hard to switch back and forth from ASL to English. If I'm already watching my interpreter and conducting the class in ASL it's unnecessary to switch back to English to ask a question then back to ASL to receive the answer.
For example today in my technical writing class we introduced ourselves to another member of the class. I signed the entire time and allowed my interpreters to voice for me. I felt much more comfortable doing that and it was a much more enjoyable experience for me. Take my very biased opinions about voicing with a grain of salt and think about it. Would you choose to have someone voice for you?
Rachel
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Discoveries and Updates
So this post is going to be pretty random. I've decided to just do a sort of all around update. First let me start by saying I'm sorry, I really do try to make time to post I promise! Second things have been pretty interesting around here. Alex and I decided that he is going to be enlisting into the Army. It was a huge decision and it was made with a lot of thought, prayer and talking. He's gaining weight and really progressing on his way to joining the Army. He's already gained 7 lbs and he only has about 7 left. What else is new, hmm. Oh I discovered that I'm in love with brussel sprouts and spinach. Seriously add bacon especially to brussel sprouts and I'm in heaven.
I also agreed to try hearing aids. That was another huge step because quite honestly I did not want hearing aids. I'm going on Thursday to sit down with the audiologist and test out hearing aids. The specific type that she wants me to try are behind the ear hearing aids also known as BTE hearing aids. The specific model comes in 3 levels, each level is supposed to be better. Level 5 are basic BTE hearing aids although they are digital which is important. Digital provide more clarity and can help distiniguish where sound is coming from better as well. Level 7 is a step up from Level 5 in terms of clarity and stuff, Level 9 is obviously a step up from that. The audiologist wants to try each and see which will work best for me. Although she felt the last time we talked that my speech discrimination is so poor that I probably won't see any extra benefits from a Level 7 or 9.
Other than all that I've just been dealing with the typical college student problems. This week is my finals week but I promise to write a post about how the next audiology apointment. So that is my update and to everyone going through finals as well, good luck!
Merry Christmas
Rachel
I also agreed to try hearing aids. That was another huge step because quite honestly I did not want hearing aids. I'm going on Thursday to sit down with the audiologist and test out hearing aids. The specific type that she wants me to try are behind the ear hearing aids also known as BTE hearing aids. The specific model comes in 3 levels, each level is supposed to be better. Level 5 are basic BTE hearing aids although they are digital which is important. Digital provide more clarity and can help distiniguish where sound is coming from better as well. Level 7 is a step up from Level 5 in terms of clarity and stuff, Level 9 is obviously a step up from that. The audiologist wants to try each and see which will work best for me. Although she felt the last time we talked that my speech discrimination is so poor that I probably won't see any extra benefits from a Level 7 or 9.
Other than all that I've just been dealing with the typical college student problems. This week is my finals week but I promise to write a post about how the next audiology apointment. So that is my update and to everyone going through finals as well, good luck!
Merry Christmas
Rachel
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Music an unique challenge
Here is another post, just like I promised! Please enjoy. Growing up I had a special love for music. I played the clarinet for several years. Even though there was a great deal of work involved in honing my skills it was work I enjoyed. Nothing was quite as wonderful as listening to a piece the school band performed. One piece in particular still stands out to me now, although it's been several years. The piece is called the Great Locomotive chase. It was a thrilling piece of music and it honestly felt as if a train was speeding by us as we played.
This semester my husband encouraged me to pick my clarinet up again. He wanted me to have something to relax with every week and to enjoy. He knew how much my music had meant to me growing up. My music class is always an interesting challenge. For the most part music is just sound, pleasant sound but nothing distinguishable. Playing my clarinet is always an interesting challenge. I don't hear the sound correctly. So if I'm supposed to be playing softly I don't hear it at all. It's a very odd feeling to be honest. I can feel the air moving out of me and I know I'm pressing the keys but there's no sound to me.
I've had to completely relearn how to play music. My teacher has also had to completely change how she teaches. At the beginning of the semester she would still bring her clarinet to class. She would play hers thinking I would be able to hear the difference between her playing and mine. After a few weeks she realized it wasn't working at all and stopped. She's changed from snapping the rhythm with her fingers to tapping it on my leg so I can feel what I can't hear. Now I regulate my volume by my breath control not the sound. Also I use a metronome that uses a light and an app that shows me how loud I'm playing.
At the beginning of the semester my music class was probably my biggest frustration. It was hard to have to relearn how to be a musician. But now I really enjoy going to my class. While it's a challenge it's an enjoyable challenge. Also the biggest surprise is that I'm actually pretty good. I have a recital coming up in which I'm going to be playing a few Christmas songs. My teacher thought Christmas music would be easiest because I've heard it before, I'm excited to show my family how well I've done this year. I'll make sure to post a video of the recital!
This semester my husband encouraged me to pick my clarinet up again. He wanted me to have something to relax with every week and to enjoy. He knew how much my music had meant to me growing up. My music class is always an interesting challenge. For the most part music is just sound, pleasant sound but nothing distinguishable. Playing my clarinet is always an interesting challenge. I don't hear the sound correctly. So if I'm supposed to be playing softly I don't hear it at all. It's a very odd feeling to be honest. I can feel the air moving out of me and I know I'm pressing the keys but there's no sound to me.
I've had to completely relearn how to play music. My teacher has also had to completely change how she teaches. At the beginning of the semester she would still bring her clarinet to class. She would play hers thinking I would be able to hear the difference between her playing and mine. After a few weeks she realized it wasn't working at all and stopped. She's changed from snapping the rhythm with her fingers to tapping it on my leg so I can feel what I can't hear. Now I regulate my volume by my breath control not the sound. Also I use a metronome that uses a light and an app that shows me how loud I'm playing.
At the beginning of the semester my music class was probably my biggest frustration. It was hard to have to relearn how to be a musician. But now I really enjoy going to my class. While it's a challenge it's an enjoyable challenge. Also the biggest surprise is that I'm actually pretty good. I have a recital coming up in which I'm going to be playing a few Christmas songs. My teacher thought Christmas music would be easiest because I've heard it before, I'm excited to show my family how well I've done this year. I'll make sure to post a video of the recital!
Going to the Deaf Ward
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, things got really hectic and I let it slide. I'm trying to work on it so here is a brand new post. Hopefully I'll have another one up sometime today, so I can start getting caught up.
So as everyone knows I'm a Mormon (if you didn't ummm, wow this is awkward. How did you miss that one?). My Church is a world wide church so our congregations (or as we call them wards and branches) are based on geography and sometimes language. In my local area there is a ward for the Deaf. I've been trying it out and it has been absolutely wonderful! It's a family ward so there are members of all ages. There's also a nice mix of people. Not everyone who goes to the ward is Deaf. Some people are Deaf, others are hard of hearing, and we even have several hearing people. There are people with hearing aids, without any aids, with cochlear implants or other implant devices. It just depends on the person.
It's also nice to see such a mix. Sometimes the person with the hearing loss is the child in the family or the parents or for couples only one of the spouses is Deaf. Before going to the Deaf ward Church was starting to become something I absolutely dreaded. I didn't want to go and sit for three hours completely unaware of what was being said. Also while my Relief Society tried a little but they never found a way to include me or to make me feel welcome.
Now when I go to Church people aren't staring at me if I sign a hymn and I don't sit lost during the service. I understand what's going on and I'm even starting to make some friends. It's really helped that my ASL teacher and her husband go to that ward. Trisha and Brandon have helped so much in smoothing this transition. They've kept an open office policy so if I ever have questions or need to talk I'm welcome to drop by at school. Also as silly as it is, it's nice to have at least one person happy to see you on Sunday! I'm excited for another Sunday in my new ward!
So as everyone knows I'm a Mormon (if you didn't ummm, wow this is awkward. How did you miss that one?). My Church is a world wide church so our congregations (or as we call them wards and branches) are based on geography and sometimes language. In my local area there is a ward for the Deaf. I've been trying it out and it has been absolutely wonderful! It's a family ward so there are members of all ages. There's also a nice mix of people. Not everyone who goes to the ward is Deaf. Some people are Deaf, others are hard of hearing, and we even have several hearing people. There are people with hearing aids, without any aids, with cochlear implants or other implant devices. It just depends on the person.
It's also nice to see such a mix. Sometimes the person with the hearing loss is the child in the family or the parents or for couples only one of the spouses is Deaf. Before going to the Deaf ward Church was starting to become something I absolutely dreaded. I didn't want to go and sit for three hours completely unaware of what was being said. Also while my Relief Society tried a little but they never found a way to include me or to make me feel welcome.
Now when I go to Church people aren't staring at me if I sign a hymn and I don't sit lost during the service. I understand what's going on and I'm even starting to make some friends. It's really helped that my ASL teacher and her husband go to that ward. Trisha and Brandon have helped so much in smoothing this transition. They've kept an open office policy so if I ever have questions or need to talk I'm welcome to drop by at school. Also as silly as it is, it's nice to have at least one person happy to see you on Sunday! I'm excited for another Sunday in my new ward!
Friday, September 16, 2011
Intro Time!
Introduction Time
So the whole point of this post is to introduce the blog and what I'm going to be writing about. I wanted to do this blog to give family and friends a chance to know how things are going. I get a lot of questions and since I don't really use the phone anymore this seemed like the best way to keep everyone up to date. Also I think blogging about it will help get everything out there, well at least out of my head. Let's tackle the title first, shall we. The title is living in a world going silent, the reason for it is that recently I lost a lot of my hearing.
Time to tackle a really big question: what happened? To be completely honest I don't know. I woke up one day and I could barely hear anything. You would think a day like would be amazingly eventful right, yeah not so much. I got up and at first didn't really notice that much of a difference. The first time I really noticed was when I stepped into our bedroom. I came out a few minutes late to an annoyed husband. Alex asked me, "Didn't you hear me calling your name?" I shook my head no, I hadn't heard anything. I did notice I was having difficulty making out what he was saying. I shrugged it off and we headed to the pool. After swimming for a while I remember getting out of the water and noticing how quiet everything was.
It wasn't long before Alex noticed something was off. He kept complaining when I asked him to repeat himself over and over again. He made me get an appointment with an audiologist for that Wednesday. I was a little nervous going into see the audiologist. The audiologist ran a comprehensive hearing test. I remember sitting in the chair starting to worry. I could see the audiologist flipping the switch and it felt like an eternity before I could hear the sound. The audiologist suggested drops and using something to remove a serious buildup of ear wax. He said that until my ear was completely clean there was no way to get an accurate hearing test.
We went home and gave the ear drops a go. When we went back in, I was worried. The audiologist gave my ears a look and gave the all clear for another hearing test. He ran the comprehensive hearing test again. I knew at times how loud the sound must have been by the pained look on Alex's face. It was clear that something was wrong by the look on the audiologist's face. He then ran a bone conduction test, which sends the sound straight through the bones behind my ear. This test is used to determine if the problem is with the inner ear or the middle ear.
The bone conduction test was almost identical to the comprehensive test. The audiologist told me the news, I had auditory nerve damage. He said there was no real way to know what had caused it. He said that I had severe hearing loss and would need hearing aids. That was one of those moments in life where you feel like the entire world has frozen.
So now I'm learning to deal with my hearing loss. For the most part I have a positive attitude. I know that there is no known way to bring my hearing back (no hearing aids don't make you hear again). So I feel no need to dwell on it. I want to focus on what I CAN do not what I CAN'T hear! I'm also learning ASL and lip reading but more about all of that another day. So this blog is just going to be about hearing loss and living with it, basically how my life is going. It's intended for family and friends. I'll try to post semi often, maybe once a week or so.
So the whole point of this post is to introduce the blog and what I'm going to be writing about. I wanted to do this blog to give family and friends a chance to know how things are going. I get a lot of questions and since I don't really use the phone anymore this seemed like the best way to keep everyone up to date. Also I think blogging about it will help get everything out there, well at least out of my head. Let's tackle the title first, shall we. The title is living in a world going silent, the reason for it is that recently I lost a lot of my hearing.
Time to tackle a really big question: what happened? To be completely honest I don't know. I woke up one day and I could barely hear anything. You would think a day like would be amazingly eventful right, yeah not so much. I got up and at first didn't really notice that much of a difference. The first time I really noticed was when I stepped into our bedroom. I came out a few minutes late to an annoyed husband. Alex asked me, "Didn't you hear me calling your name?" I shook my head no, I hadn't heard anything. I did notice I was having difficulty making out what he was saying. I shrugged it off and we headed to the pool. After swimming for a while I remember getting out of the water and noticing how quiet everything was.
It wasn't long before Alex noticed something was off. He kept complaining when I asked him to repeat himself over and over again. He made me get an appointment with an audiologist for that Wednesday. I was a little nervous going into see the audiologist. The audiologist ran a comprehensive hearing test. I remember sitting in the chair starting to worry. I could see the audiologist flipping the switch and it felt like an eternity before I could hear the sound. The audiologist suggested drops and using something to remove a serious buildup of ear wax. He said that until my ear was completely clean there was no way to get an accurate hearing test.
We went home and gave the ear drops a go. When we went back in, I was worried. The audiologist gave my ears a look and gave the all clear for another hearing test. He ran the comprehensive hearing test again. I knew at times how loud the sound must have been by the pained look on Alex's face. It was clear that something was wrong by the look on the audiologist's face. He then ran a bone conduction test, which sends the sound straight through the bones behind my ear. This test is used to determine if the problem is with the inner ear or the middle ear.
The bone conduction test was almost identical to the comprehensive test. The audiologist told me the news, I had auditory nerve damage. He said there was no real way to know what had caused it. He said that I had severe hearing loss and would need hearing aids. That was one of those moments in life where you feel like the entire world has frozen.
So now I'm learning to deal with my hearing loss. For the most part I have a positive attitude. I know that there is no known way to bring my hearing back (no hearing aids don't make you hear again). So I feel no need to dwell on it. I want to focus on what I CAN do not what I CAN'T hear! I'm also learning ASL and lip reading but more about all of that another day. So this blog is just going to be about hearing loss and living with it, basically how my life is going. It's intended for family and friends. I'll try to post semi often, maybe once a week or so.
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