From: Karen.Keil@p0.f809.n104.z1.fidonet.org (Karen Keil)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: SHHH report 7 of 13
Date: 12 Aug 92 21:33:01 GMT
Reply-To: Karen.Keil@p0.f809.n104.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:104/809.0 - Fantasy Mountain, Golden CO
X-Fidonet: Silent Talk Conference

Index Number: 23913

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Part 7 of the SHHH Convention---Cedar Rapids, Iowa

June 27, 1992

Cedar Rapids, as part of celebrating Freedom Week, had a parade
downtown a couple blocks from the convention.  I saw a few
minutes of it and it even featured Uncle Sam walking on stilt
legs. There were lots of things going on in Cedar Rapids, among
them a 4-day barbecue being held across the street from the Five
Seasons Center.  A number of conventioners went over there for a
meal. I was told it was crowded and packed--no room to walk.  I
did not attend!

The weather so far was balmy and cool--sometimes I almost needed
a light jacket.  After all the talk about just how hot Iowa was
going to be, it actually turned out quite pleasant.  Denver, on
the other hand, had it hotter.

Workshops---

Stress Management and Relaxation Skills for Hard of Hearing People
by Julie Olson

According to program book: "One of the greatest stressors is
faulty communication.  By its very nature, hearing loss becomes a
gigantic stressor that creates and requires many changes in our
lives and in the lives of those around us.  Proper management of
the stress we experience is important to our health and wellness
as they relate to stress management and appropriate relaxation
skills."

The workshop was a little bit of a disappointment because I did
not learn much new.  Most of the techniques she showed I was
already doing.  There were some interesting parts, though. She
related writing a paper due the next morning on the computer and
printing it out.  The next morning, she was all set to go to
school except for a cup of coffee.  She put the paper on the
stove and left the kitchen.  She came back to find the paper
being burned on a hot burner---and she had only a half hour left
of time before leaving for the campus---and it took an hour to
get to the campus.  Great stress situation!!!! ARRGH!

She had humorous cartoons to illustrate her points...such as a
Viking wearing a helmet with the horns points attached to it
instead of the other way around and two Vikings saying one to the
other..."Don't bring attention to his hearing loss...he's
sensitive to it.''

A lady who sat next to me was named Mindel Stein Bobrow from
Maryland.  I asked her if she knew somebody named Kimberly Bobrow
and this is what she answered: "I was married to a Bobrow and
divorced in the 60s.  They all the Bobrows were related.  I
worked for 5 1/2 years for Meyer Bobrow, a cousin in the building
business."

Mrs. Bobrow was somewhat disappointed with the workshop and I
couldn't help but see that she rated all questions with a '5'
(poor).  Later, she was in another workshop I attended and I saw
out of the corner of my eye she rated that session with all '5's
too!

-------------

Just Do It!  The Art of Getting off Our Buts and If Onlys
by Nancy Mergenthal

"People with hearing loss often shortchange themselves
emotionally, intellectually, socially, and vocationally by
making excuses because of their hearing loss.  Learn the art of
motivating yourself to 'just do it' by identifying those negative
thoughts and learning how to change them to positive ones."

Some key points were:
     Patterns of thinking that keep us stuck:
          a.  Negaholism--"a syndrome in which people
unconsciously limit their own innate abilities, convince
themselves they can't have what they want, and sabotage their
wishes, desires, and dreams." (Cherie Carter-Scott)

          b.  Unrealistic Fantasies or Dreams--where we see so
many possibilities but we don't know where to start to achieve
them.

          c.  Excuses---making up excuses for not doing
something.

     To get unstuck:
     1.  look at ourselves, our abilities, our possibilities, our
potentialities and our goals realistically.
     2.  look at our hearts to see our unique calling and
purpose.
     3.  Mourn your loss (hearing)--to confront it and go on.
     4.  focus on what it is we want.  Identify our dream.
Identify the steps to achieve it.

It was at this session that Julia Rucker found me.  I was sitting
waiting for the session to begin when a young woman sat down next
to me talking about computers and modems.  It took me a moment to
collect myself and when I saw her name tag--then I knew.  She
asked me if we ever put a note on the community board trying to
get in touch with other Silentalkers (we hadn't).  She gave me
the voice phone number of the relatives she was staying with in
Iowa City.  This was the number I was trying to call via a relay
service.

---------------------------------

The State of the Art of Media Access
by Larry Goldberg and Katie Tryon

This session was about closed captioning and what new things are
being done.  They showed a clip from the Wizard of Oz with the
Munchkins and Judy Garland singing a song, and the captions
illustrating the songs were quite captivating. They made one of
the words blink on and off ('star') and made some words appear in
color for emphasis.  When Garland sang about the house beginning
to pitch, the word 'pitch' was tilted to the right in real
motion---e.g. printed in upright letters that then tilted right!
The captions even followed that action---if something was
falling, the caption fell with it. There were other interesting
effects on the captions besides these. You had to be there to see
it all.

One of the things discussed was about TV stations buying TV shows
that were originally captioned in prime time and then re-run them
without captions. The problem is that it costs more to rent shows
with the original captioning together.  The captioning and the TV
show aren't automatically together in a package.  We need to tell
the TV stations not to do that to 'save money' and also, it isn't
really ethically right to do it that way.

------------------------------

After the session was over, I put a note under the O'Keeffes' door
on the 3rd floor at the hotel about meeting Julia Rucker and then hurried
to my floor to get ready for the Amana Colonies tour at 4:00 p.m.

The Amana Colonies tour was interesting--stone, wood and brick
buildings for barns and other uses.  We passed by the Amana
factory that makes Amana appliances. We stopped by a few shops--a
winery shop where we sampled wines and a smokehouse where we
sampled smoked sausage and the ever present gift shop(!).  It
seemed like it was rush, rush, rush--we didn't tour the street in
Amana itself, but had dinner with German food served family style
at a restaurant named Ox Yoke Inn.

By the way, the Amana Colonies were founded by the Amana
Commune, a group of religious Germans who lived communally.  The
descendants no longer live that way, but they maintain the shops
and the restaurants that serve the food and other  products they
make.

After that, it was time to go back to Cedar Rapids through the
rolling farmlands made famous by the painters like Grant Wood
(who painted American Gothic).

Later that evening, the hotel phones weren't working so I made my
TDD phone call home using the pay phone in the lobby where I
ended up instructing three SHHH conventioners about my compact
TDD!

--------------------
To be Continued....

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