SpeakUpLibrarian

Dead Battery at the Eye Doctor's
SpeakUpLibrarian When I went to the eye doctor's this past week, I mentioned to the receptionist that I wanted my phone number changed in my record. I explained that I couldn't hear well on my home phone but I have a "special cell phone that I can hear better on". For brevity's sake I skipped going into a detailed explanation of the hearing aid compatibility aspects of my Verizon LG. ...
Art and Storytelling Tech Culture Sun, Jun 21 2009

¡Me Gusta Musica Latina!
SpeakUpLibrarian Call me loca (crazy) but I love Latin music. When I listen to music in Spanish, I'm not focused on the lyrics I'm missing. I'm listening to the rhythm and romance of the music and sensing the emotion in the singer's voice. I know a little Spanish so if I catch a word or phrase here and there, it's a bonus. Listening to music in English is a different story. Then, I'm ...
Art and Storytelling Tue, Jun 09 2009

Shampoo Banana and other funnies at work this week
SpeakUpLibrarian During an informal department meeting my boss announced that he was going to "Shampoo Banana" the next day. Puzzled I turned to the Web Goddess for clarification. "You heard right", she assured me, "Shampoo Banana is a nickname for Champagne-Urbana. "Oh," I replied, "I thought he was having his pet groomed."This summer I've been fortunate to have the assistance of a w...
Language Art and Storytelling Culture Sat, Jun 06 2009

This Time I'm No Help At All
SpeakUpLibrarian Fancy Car with the Hood Up Originally uploaded by Sean_HWhen I was driving home from work on Monday, I saw my neighbor stopped at a stop sign on our street with the hood of his car up. I pulled alongside and asked him if he was having car trouble. No. Did he need a ride? No. He came over to my window and said, "Don't think I'm crazy, but I'm hearing kitten noises." I ...
Art and Storytelling Culture Wed, Jun 03 2009

I Know I Saw That Around Here Somewhere
SpeakUpLibrarian Every morning in the final moments before I leave for work, I'm always searching for something. Some days it's my purse, other days it's my jacket or shoes. On really bad days it's my keys. I'll be late for sure if I can't find those!Today I wanted to write about some intro to ASL videos I'd seen on YouTube a few years back. They were created by a girl from Canada and...
Tech Wed, May 20 2009

A Song by Sia
SpeakUpLibrarian One nice thing about having my coworkers aware of my hearing loss is that sometimes they show me something online I would otherwise have missed. A great example is this video of Sia performing on the David Letterman show last fall. I love Sia's artistry and her colorful hands using ASL to express the meaning of her song. Sia has an even more creative and beautiful ren...
Media Language Art and Storytelling Tue, May 19 2009

Tammy & Victor Cross the Amazing Race's Finish Line First
SpeakUpLibrarian The teams travelled over 5,000 miles from China to Maui, Hawaii for the race to the finish. For their first task, teams were required to season a 145 lb pig and then carry it dangling from a pole 200 yards to a luau. Margie & Luke although arriving in last place were smart and got the pig pole up on their shoulders. They passed Tammy & Victor and Jaime & C...
Media Mon, May 11 2009

Is Surgery Worth the Risk?
SpeakUpLibrarian I received the following comment on my blog post, "Does Research=Hope for the Hard of Hearing?" and I thought Steve's question at the end (which I marked in bold) was worth posing in a separate blog post so perhaps more of you will post an answer. I would especially like to hear from anyone who has had cochlear implant surgery to know if losing all hearing is one of t...
Tech Tue, May 05 2009

Margie & Luke Make It to the Final Three
SpeakUpLibrarian Last week's episode ended with Phil announcing that this leg of the race wasn't over yet and handing the next clue to the cheerleaders. Their task was to search a marketplace for a Travelocity Gnome (groan...isn't it time for a gnome target practice task? Oh, but I guess the sponsor wouldn't like that.) Jen & Kisha are stunned to discover they are still in the rac...
Media Culture Mon, May 04 2009

For my online friends
SpeakUpLibrarian I found this quote onmy friendship calendaryesterday and thoughthow appropriate it wasfor my online friendshipswith other deaf and hardof hearing bloggers."A friend listens with her eyes and her heart...and understands whatyou can't put into words." - AnonymousHope you are all having a good weekend!
Art and Storytelling Culture Sat, May 02 2009

Does Research = Hope for the Hard of Hearing?
SpeakUpLibrarian When my audiologist first told me about my hearing loss, she tried to reassure me by saying there was lots of research being done on my type of hearing loss. Today I read on Science Daily "How Human Ear Translates Vibrations Into Sounds: Discovery Of Ion Channel Turns Ear On Its Head" and wondered what impact this new information might have. Anyone who wears hearing a...
Tech Tue, Apr 28 2009

Carrying a Grudge Doesn't Slow Down Margie & Luke
SpeakUpLibrarian In last night's episode, it was apparent that Margie & Luke are still upset at Jen & Kisha. Luke stated, "I'm done. I'm not going to talk to them." The sisters said in an interview they were ready to move on and be over it. The two teams kept a wary distance from each other during this leg of the race.With four teams left, everyone was focused on making it to ...
Media Culture Mon, Apr 27 2009

Conflict at the Clue Boxes and Confrontation at the Pit Stop
SpeakUpLibrarian In tonight's episode the teams travel to China. This is a welcome development for Tammy and Victor who speak Chinese. Margie comments that traveling in countries that don't speak English is an eye opening experience for her. Luke states he would like to go to a country where everyone is deaf and signs. That's where he would have the advantage.In last week's preview we...
Media Language Art and Storytelling Culture Sun, Apr 19 2009

SpeakUp Librarian's Bookshelf
SpeakUpLibrarian Be sure and check out my new Shelfari Bookshelf in my blog sidebar located just below my avatar. For this collection I've selected nonfiction books on being deaf or hard of hearing and fiction books with characters who are either deaf or hard of hearing. These are all books that I've read and either learned from or enjoyed. If you run your mouse over a title you can s...
Media Art and Storytelling Culture Thu, Apr 16 2009

Really...I'm Not the Best Person to Ask!
SpeakUpLibrarian Tee hee. I have to share two hearing loss related anecdotes from the reference desk. On my shift today a woman came up to me and complained about another patron talking loudly on a cell phone. Hmm. Okay. I got up from my chair and walked back to the public computer area looking around for the offender. I could see that another person was annoyed about it as well."Whic...
Language Art and Storytelling Wed, Apr 15 2009

Margie Recovers for Another First Place Finish with Luke!
SpeakUpLibrarian Last week Margie frightened me when she fainted at the pit stop. She appeared to be suffering from heat exhaustion. I wondered all week whether she would be able to recover her stamina and continue this grueling race. Well, I need not have worried as Margie lived up to her "Bionic Woman" reputation by rocking all the tasks on tonight's episode.She easily assembled a ...
Media Culture Mon, Apr 13 2009

Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Bill Cresswell
SpeakUpLibrarian I'm finding myself becoming more "caption dependent" all the time. This week I went to a movie with open captions that I wouldn't have gone to otherwise. The movie (Duplicity) was so-so as I expected but getting to see the dialogue was very enjoyable. In my house, it's become standard practice to switch the captions on for a DVD as soon as the previews are finished. T...
Media Language Tech Fri, Apr 10 2009
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Speaking Up...but Is Anyone Listening?
SpeakUpLibrarian I took this photo in Chicago last week. Sometimes I feel like these figures. I'm trying to stand up for what I feel is right but no one's paying attention.Last month I wrote a letter to a theatre that shows one or two captioned films a month asking for more showings. I got no response. I heard recently from another member of my hearing loss support group that she and ...
Media Tech Legal Tue, Mar 31 2009

Overcoming Hearing Loss and Achieving Success on Her Own...
SpeakUpLibrarian I enjoy looking at life in a humorous way. For me it's very rewarding to make people laugh with a perfectly timed zinger. Even better would be to get paid to do it. When I was a child I sometimes pretended to be a stand up comedian like the ones featured on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. In my twenties I even put my hand to writing a few jokes of my own. Even no...
Culture Sat, Mar 28 2009

Collaboration, Communication, and Captioning at the...
SpeakUpLibrarian Photo creditToday was day two of my conference in Chicago. The Web Goddess and I arrived this morning in time for the complimentary breakfast- quite the spread I might add, not your usual muffin/bagel & coffee fare. We went to our first session which was on collaboration between libraries and IT departments. The Web Goddess said she will go bananas if she has to hear ...
Media Tech Tue, Mar 24 2009
ecnarb liked this

Difficulty With My Assistive Listening Device and Other...
SpeakUpLibrarian You might think that as a fan of the Amazing Race, I'm a confident traveler myself. Not so. Although I have traveled far and wide, I always get a case of the nerves just before making the trip. Today was no exception.My destination was Chicago. The Web Goddess and I are attending a conference there this week. Chicago should be a piece of cake, right. Nah, even though ...
Tech Mon, Mar 23 2009

Luke & Margie Caravan Through India
SpeakUpLibrarian Something new from the show producers: The opening sequence has spliced shots of the teams while on the race in with their publicity shots. Cool!In tonight's episode, teams travelled from the bitter cold of Russia to the welcome heat of India. Their destination is Jaipur known as the "pink city". Their challenge is to travel to a sacred tree and find their next clue. ...
Media Art and Storytelling Culture Sun, Mar 22 2009

Beautiful Sand Artistry
SpeakUpLibrarian Watch this incredible retelling of the Adam and Eve story as drawn in sand. The way she moves her hands reminds me of the beauty of ASL.
Language Art and Storytelling Mon, Mar 16 2009

Margie & Luke Finish First Again!
SpeakUpLibrarian In tonight's episode, teams board the Trans Siberian Railroad to travel to Russia. Only one train leaves that day for their destination and it's scheduled in the evening. This allows all the other teams to catch up to the flight attendants who were the first to depart from the pit stop. For AR fans, this is known as an "equalizer". It can be frustrating when your favo...
Media Culture Sun, Mar 15 2009

Protecting My Vision
SpeakUpLibrarian Green eyes originally uploaded by misstere.I wrote earlier this month about protecting the hearing I have left. That got me to thinking about how I might protect my vision as well. As my hearing proves less than reliable, I find myself depending more on my eyesight to understand the world around me. I've been a regular at the eye doctor's office since I was nine years...
Art and Storytelling Sat, Mar 14 2009

Insurance Coverage for Hearing Aids
SpeakUpLibrarian Today in Springfield, Illinois a hearing will be held to discuss a bill that would require insurers to provide coverage for hearing aids. The amount specified is $2500 per hearing aid every 3 years.You can read more about Senate bill #68 and follow its progress at the Illinois General Assembly website.This bill has the support of the Hearing Aid Action group. I receiv...
Tech Legal Wed, Mar 11 2009

Margie & Luke Use the U-Turn in Siberia
SpeakUpLibrarian Tonight's episode began with Margie & Luke discussing the newest twist in the game: the blind U-turn. On the Amazing Race, when a team is u-turned by another team, they are forced to go back and complete a second detour task. In past seasons, the team using the u-turn option had to post their photo up so everyone knew who was responsible. Hard feelings often ensued. N...
Media Art and Storytelling Culture Sun, Mar 08 2009

Protecting My Hearing
SpeakUpLibrarian As mentioned in a previous post, my hearing has stayed the same since my initial diagnosis of hearing loss in 2006. While making the adjustment to life with hearing aids, I have been conscious of my desire to protect the hearing I have. Here's why:According to the American Academy of Audiology, of the 36 million Americans with hearing loss, one in three were caused by...
Tech Culture Sat, Mar 07 2009

CBS Amazing Race and Captioned Video Clips
SpeakUpLibrarian Today I was on the CBS Amazing Race site and noticed that some of their videos are now offered with closed captioning. The only ones captioned so far are for clips of Elimination Station (where eliminated teams are sequestered until the end of the race). It's a start and I hope that CBS will caption more of their Amazing Race videos soon.
Media Tech Thu, Mar 05 2009

Tinnitus Poem
SpeakUpLibrarian Tinnitus isTheInteriorNoiseNo one else ever hears. AnInner earTingling that ringsUnceasing. TheSecret soundtrack of my life.This poem is dedicated to both Glenice and my Uncle Henry.Tinnitus is by speakuplibrarian is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Art and Storytelling Mon, Mar 02 2009

Margie & Luke Race Through Romania
SpeakUpLibrarian Bran Castle This week's episode brings the racers to Bucharest, Romania. When their destination is announced, I'm confused. Margie echoes my thoughts exactly: "I thought Bucharest was in Hungary!"Luke is shown interviewing that he doesn't want to rely on his mom for all his communication on the race. He wants to know for himself what the other teams are thinking. Lat...
Media Culture Sun, Mar 01 2009

My Hearing Test and Results
SpeakUpLibrarian Last week I went for a hearing exam. I thought I'd describe my experience and share my results and conversation with the audiologist.I was shown into the testing room and given a seat in a soundproof booth where I removed my hearing aids. My nose was sprayed with a solution to clear my nasal passages so I could get the best results possible. "The ear and nose are conn...
Tech Sun, Mar 01 2009

Margie & Luke Earn the Respect of the Other Amazing Racers
SpeakUpLibrarian Photo by CBS.This week's Amazing Race episode begins with reactions from the racers to Luke & Margie's first place finish. Margie is hailed as a "Bionic Woman". She is racing like a much younger woman! Luke was complimented by Tammy for being wonderfully observant. They are definitely a team to be reckoned with agree the other racers.Tonight the racers move on to Germ...
Media Art and Storytelling Culture Sun, Feb 22 2009

First Place Finish for Luke & Margie
SpeakUpLibrarian Hooray for Luke and Margie! The deaf son/hearing mother team on the Amazing Race arrived at the Pit Stop first. I was thrilled to see host Phil Keoghan sign "You are team number 1" to Luke!On tonight's premiere episode teams left Southern California for Switzerland. Along the way one team member was required to make a leap off a dam at the second highest bungee jump i...
Media Sun, Feb 15 2009

Universal Design means Design for All
SpeakUpLibrarian Last month I wrote a series of posts on online education and efforts to create more accessibility to course material for deaf and hard of hearing students. Before leaving that subject completely, I'd like to share what I've learned about universal design and how it relates to education. The Universal Design concept started in architecture. The most common example is c...
Media Language Sun, Feb 08 2009

Deaf Contestant on the next Amazing Race
SpeakUpLibrarian The Amazing Race begins again on February 15th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern (7:00 p.m. Central). I'm very excited that this season features Luke, a 22 year old deaf contestant, running with Margie, his hearing mother. On their bio page at the CBS website it says "Luke hopes to be a role-model for deaf people everywhere while proving that the deaf can do just about anything an...
Media Language Culture Fri, Feb 06 2009

ASL Bracelet Giveaway
SpeakUpLibrarian Would you like to win a lovely bracelet with your choice of either the word "hope" or the word "dream" spelled out in ASL? If so, head on over to KV Creative Designs and enter her giveaway. For a chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment at this post where you'll see a photo of her hope bracelet. The winner will be announced February 12.This giveaway is par...
Language Art and Storytelling Wed, Jan 28 2009

On the Fence: The Hidden World of the Hard of Hearing by...
SpeakUpLibrarian Hard of hearing people can find themselves stuck in the middle between the world of the hearing and the world of the culturally deaf. If that's how you've felt, then this is the book for you. Filled with poems and short essays describing the whole spectrum of the hard of hearing experience, this book by turns frightened me when discussing discrimination, saddened me w...
Media Art and Storytelling Culture Tue, Jan 27 2009

Adapting to Hearing Loss in Everyday Situations
SpeakUpLibrarian I read the following quote on Kim's blog: "Audiologists give you your hearing aids or implants, then act as if they’ve ‘fixed’ the problem. Their job is to help you hear better than you used to, not to help you adapt to deafness. Most of us who are late-deafened need to learn how to live like a deaf person....These are things an audiologist cannot teach you. Audiologi...
Tech Mon, Jan 26 2009

A Few Thoughts on Valkyrie & Movie Captioning
SpeakUpLibrarian Tonight my family went to see Valkyrie. My son has wanted to see it since it opened. I wasn't so sure but decided to go along with him and my husband. We had previously watched a documentary on the true story and the making of the film so we were familiar with the historical background.As soon as it started, I leaned over to my husband and whispered, "You'll tell me w...
Media Tech Wed, Jan 21 2009

Hard of Hearing Accessibility: 2020
SpeakUpLibrarian Thanks to Jonathan I came across this link to "Accessibility Collaboration" by Sami Virtanen. This article which describes "the Dream 2.0" or what the world could be like for hard of hearing people in 2020 was written by a 34 year old man from Finland for the CHHA-IFHOH (Canadian Hard of Hearing Association/ International Federation of Hard of Hearing) Congress of 20...
Culture Tue, Jan 20 2009

My Dream
SpeakUpLibrarian In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., here is my dream of what the world could be like for those with hearing loss.Accessible workplacesuniversities & collegescommunity adult educationK-12 schools & school eventsnews websitesplaces for worshiptheatres & cinemas home entertainmentWhat would you add to the list?To create your own Obama Hope like picture vi...
Legal Mon, Jan 19 2009

Local Hearing Loss Support Group to Tackle Theatre...
SpeakUpLibrarian Timing is everything. And being in the right place at the right time. Recently Eddie has been reporting on efforts in Kentucky to have theatres show captioned films. Then Kim spoke out about how she would like to have captioned films shown at her neighborhood cinema. At my request Kim posted the letter she wrote to the theatre manager. I vowed to do the same. But I al...
Tech Sat, Jan 17 2009

Making Online Education Accessible to the Deaf and Hard of...
SpeakUpLibrarian A third way that online education can be made accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing is through the use of speech recognition software by professors. Using this, lectures are automatically transcribed and displayed for all the students in the class to see. No more need for requesting a captioner. No more need for borrowing a classmate's notes.The Liberated Learnin...
Media Art and Storytelling Education Wed, Jan 14 2009

Making Online Education Accessible to the Deaf and Hard of...
SpeakUpLibrarian In my previous post, I wrote about what I've been working on at my library - transcribing podcasts of library workshops. Now I'd like to introduce a second approach to making online education accessible that is particularly helpful to those whose first language is ASL - using a webcam to show an ASL interpreter.Early last year I participated in a webinar (click for de...
Media Education Tech Culture Mon, Jan 12 2009

Making Online Education Accessible for the Deaf and Hard of...
SpeakUpLibrarian This past year I had my first experience with online education when I got the chance to design and teach a course on Web 2.0 for my library's staff. I worked on this in collaboration with our library's web manager who I worshipfully refer to as the Web Goddess. She had taken two courses on online education and knew more than I did about Web 2.0. I was a novice but a f...
Media Language Education Tech Fri, Jan 09 2009

Deafening by Frances Itani
SpeakUpLibrarian Growing up as a hearing child and then experiencing hearing loss in midlife it's hard for me to understand what it might be like to be deaf as a child. When I visited my local public library and saw Deafening by Frances Itani as a featured selection, I knew I had to read it.Deafening tells the story of Grania, a Canadian girl who becomes profoundly deaf at the age of ...
Media Language Art and Storytelling Education Culture Tue, Dec 30 2008

A New Tradition: Blog Caroling
SpeakUpLibrarian I just found out about a new tradition on the internet from my friend at Taylorstales-Genealogy. It's called blog caroling. To participate bloggers share the lyrics to their favorite Christmas carol.Immediately I thought of how this tradition is inclusive to those of us who are deaf or hard of hearing. Reading the words we can sing along in our hearts. I've been think...
Media Language Art and Storytelling Tech Fri, Dec 12 2008

Naperville Public Library: Insensitive to Deaf Needs
SpeakUpLibrarian Karen of Deaf Mom Shares Her World was denied access to a close captioned video yesterday at the Naperville Public Library. You can read the full story here.The problem for Karen was that her daughter needed to watch a performance of A Christmas Carol for a school assignment. The rest of her class was going to a theatre to see the play live. Unfortunately the theatre ...
Audism Legal Thu, Dec 11 2008

Reading the Silver Screen
SpeakUpLibrarian The night before Thanksgiving I went to see an open captioned showing of Changeling with my friend Diane. When I purchased my ticket, the teenaged ticket seller said apologetically, "It's not a problem is it that it's open captioned?" "No," I replied emphatically, "that's why I'm here!"Have you seen the trailer for this film? It's based on a true story of a mother who...
Media Tech Sun, Nov 30 2008