First Day of ALDAcon

Technically the first day of ALDAcon was on Wednesday night, but I didn’t arrive at the hotel until 7:00 and the only ‘activity’ was registration.  I picked up my nametag, totebag, and program book, and met up with the two ladies I had been e-mailing, Marilyn and Jane.  We ate dinner, chatted a bit about their Cochlear Implants, and headed off to bed because we’d been traveling all day.  There was a Hospitality Room set up with card games, board games, and puzzles, and there was a group of people having a great time playing and laughing, but I was just too tired.  Thanks to the altitude, I couldn’t really sleep though.

Thursday morning, we started with the Newcomers Workshop.  Cynthia Amerman, the President-Elect who had sent me that awesome welcome e-mail the week before, welcomed the 20 newcomers by name (she was too far away to see our nametags) and had us stand up.  Our first activity was a Bingo game, where we each had a Bingo card with descriptions taken from our Newcomer Form.  We had to go around the room and find whose name fix in each square, such as “uses sign language,” “has a Hearing spouse,” “enjoys gardening,” and “likes to write and knit” (that one is me!).  Next, Cynthia asked people to think of some advantages to being deaf.  A lady said that it’s easier to sleep because of the silence.  A man said that his room is right next to the elevator, but it doesn’t bother him because he can’t hear it.  Then she asked us to raise our hands if these had happened to us:  being embarrassed by bluffing (pretending you heard something and just nodding along), being accused of ignoring someone when you couldn’t hear them, losing friendships/relationships because of hearing loss, being left out of family conversations, and being exhausted from constantly straining to hear and understand.  Cynthia showed the sign for ACCEPTANCE, and said,

“You will find acceptance here, your home.” 

I think most of the room was crying at that point (myself included!).  Then another lady, Judy, got up to talk about communication.  She explained that ALDA “supports whatever communication method works for you,” because “if it works for you, it works for us!”  I just love this approach; it’s so inclusive and open-minded.  Judy explained that “we don’t have to bluff here!” because everyone can find a way to communicate—with signing, lipreading, or writing things down.  There were pads of paper sitting on every table in every room of the ’Con—even on every table in the hotel restaurants!  There were also small whiteboards that people could borrow.  She explained that the Sign Language interpreting done at ALDAcon is more English word order than ASL, and the interpreters mouth all the words to help with lipreading.

After the first workshop, we had some free time before lunch to tour the Exhibit Hall.  On the way in, I struck up a conversation with a Newcomer couple, Bob and Sarah.  Bob has been losing his hearing over the past few decades, and has Phonak BTE hearing aids and an FM system just like Brandt’s.  Sarah is the Hearing Spouse, and I couldn’t believe my luck that I had found a couple so much like Brandt and myself!  The three of us became instant friends, and we spent the rest of the ’Con talking and sitting together.  It was wonderful to be able to talk with Sarah about ‘Shadow Spouse’ issues like going to restaurants, being stared at while wearing the FM system, and having our husbands get upset when they misunderstand and think we’ve just insulted them.  She often had to repeat things for Bob when he missed them, and I knew exactly what that was like.  Bob recently missed being a Cochlear Implant candidate by only 8%, so I could definitely sympathize with that as well.  I was sad that Brandt couldn’t be there to meet them, but they got to hear ALL about him.

Our speaker at the President’s Luncheon was Cheryl Heppner, the executive director of the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons.  Ms. Heppner signs, lipreads, and has a Cochlear Implant and Hearing Dog.  She even wrote a book entitled Seeds of Disquiet:  One Deaf Woman’s Experience.  She is a hardworking advocate, focusing on improved telecommunications and captioning for television and movie theaters.  At the luncheon, she told us that the #1 gripe she hears from Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing people is about captioning.

The afternoon workshop I attended was “Organizing Effective Advocacy—Working Together to Build an Accessible World,” given by John Waldo, a deaf lawyer and founder of the Washington State Communication Access Project (“Wash-CAP”).  Mr. Waldo explained that advocacy done by individuals does not get much accomplished; the other end of the spectrum is filing a class-action lawsuit.  However, he suggested a middle ground—organized advocacy groups, such as his group Wash-CAP.  These kinds of groups are “more effective, comfortable, and strategic.”  When deciding what to advocate for, Mr. Waldo suggests developing a priority list, balancing what is “most valuable” versus what is “most achievable.”  Then, you must “identify who will say ‘yes,’ and who can’t say ‘no.’”  For example, when a movie theater company says it cannot possibly afford to install Rear Window Captioning, pointing out how many millions of dollars in profits they make every year can show them that they really can’t afford to say ‘no’!  If advocacy work is not successful, then you should consider exercising your legal rights.  Mr. Waldo said that word gets around fast, so this option doesn’t have to be used often to be effective, because it “gets the attention of the person who can say ‘yes.’”  His final suggestions for positive advocacy were:

• take and give credit
• publicize
• say “thank you”
• support and enjoy

Next was our guided tour of the Garden of the Gods park.  I was really dizzy and tired from the altitude, but I was determined not to miss the tour.  On the bus, I sat next to ALDA’s current president, Linda Dratell.  I told her about growing up with Aunt Louise, and about Brandt.  She was very interested in my story, and asked if I would be interested in starting an ALDA chapter in our area.  I know it would be a lot of work, but I’m intrigued at the idea!  We visited several areas of the park, and the scenery was breathtaking.  I love mountains, so I had a blast.

After the tour, we went out to dinner.  We had a private room in the restaurant, but there was music playing overhead which made it hard to understand people because it mixed with the noise from all the conversations going on.  Luckily, everyone that I talked to also signed when they spoke, so we were all able to communicate fairly easily.  I never would have been able to understand these conversations relying only on speaking or signing, but with both, communication was fairly easy.  It was amazing!

I took over 100 pictures at Garden of the Gods, but here are 3 of my favorites:

Panoramic with Pike’s Peak in the background

These rock formations are huge

Rockclimbers