ALDAcon 2010

I’m going to another conference, and it’s going to complete my trio of conferences for people with hearing loss!  Brandt and I attended the Hearing Loss Association of America conference last year, and the National Association of the Deaf conference last month; next week, I will be attending the Association of Late-Deafened Adults conference.

Each of these organizations has a different approach to hearing loss.  NAD members view themselves as a “linguistic minority” who belong to Deaf Culture, which relies primarily on American Sign Language for communication.  HLAA members aim to remain in the Hearing World as much as possible.  ALDA is the middle ground between the other two.  As the name suggests, it is aimed towards people who became deaf later in life, implying that they are culturally Hearing.  However, ALDA embraces many forms of communication, including ASL—the ’con even offers workshops on learning sign.  Here is their statement on communication (which I love!):

The Association of Late-Deafened Adults is about communication and acceptance of every deafened individual. Some people lip-read, some sign, some use hearing aids, some have cochlear implants, and some need to have others write down what they are saying—and at ALDA all the above is okay! ALDA’s official communication philosophy is “Whatever works!”

Members of ALDA call themselves “ALDAns,” the annual conference is the “ALDAcon,” and e-mails from members are signed “ALDA-best to you!”  It seems like an organization that strives to be easy-going and inclusive.  I honestly didn’t know much about it until last year, when I read about it for my certification as a Hearing Loss Support Specialist.  Then my Deaf friend Julia, who is a local ASL teacher, recently told me that she loved ALDAcon and suggested I check it out.

View of Pikes Peak
from Garden of the Gods

Unfortunately Brandt can’t go because of work (I know he said that about the Philadelphia trip and came anyway, but this time he’s serious), so I’ll be on my own.  My flight to Philly was my first time flying by myself; the flight to Colorado Springs will be my first time changing planes by myself.  But I’m determined not to worry about the transportation (Brandt was sweet enough to buy my plane ticket for our anniversary a few weeks ago, so I could afford the trip), and instead focus on how excited I am about attending!  I’ve never been to Colorado, so that’s really exciting, and there is going to be a group tour to the Garden of the Gods park, which has a gorgeous view of Pikes Peak.  Our tour bus is even going to have an ASL interpreter on it!  ALDA vowed to make this ’con the cheapest possible (it’s less than half my trip to Philadelphia!), as well as give enough time for sightseeing.

Since I knew that I would be way too shy to introduce myself to complete strangers once I got there, I asked one of the ALDAns in charge of the ’con if she could ‘introduce’ me to some fellow attendees over e-mail.  I have struck up an instant friendship with one lady (a Cochlear Implant wearer and fellow ASL student), and am about to e-mail another.  I’m a lot less nervous now that I have someone to meet up with—and practice my signing with!

The only other thing I’m worried about is the altitude.  Colorado Springs is about 6,000 feet above sea level (Pikes Peak is a whopping 14,115 feet tall, but I won’t be going to the summit), and I’ve never been at high altitudes for long.  The highest I’ve been is Clingman’s Dome, which is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains at 6,643 feet.  Brandt and I were only there for about an hour, and were gasping for breath.  My Colorado Springs visitor’s guide warns me to drink lots of water before and during my trip, so I’m going to make sure to stick to that.

Now I need to get back to studying my ASL.  ALDA-best to you!