Hello Everyone!

In the meanwhile, I'm struggling with the log-in so apparently I need to
find a way to retrieve my forgotten user name and password! So hopefully
this email has gotten out somehow.

Wanted to say that it was nice meeting everyone at the meeting although too
brief and I didn't get a chance for one-on-one with most of you since the
meeting went over-time and most of you had to leave. It is comforting
knowing that this support group exists, and I look forward to seeing you
guys again in the near future.

I am glad to see that some improvements have been made regarding the
provision of ALDs! That's a progress on the part of this group effort. As
you can see, for us profoundly deaf audiologist/audiology students, we
require more needs and expect AAA to do a LOT more to meet these
accomodations such as expanding the use of captioning and providing
qualified interpreters. Many of you probably do not realize that the
interpreter we had in the meeting was not competent-I was informed at the
end of the meeting that the voicing of the interpreter did not match my
signed responses ( and didn't match Gloria's responses either). We were
unfortunately stuck with these interpreters through the entire convention
and cannot emphasize enough this mediocre service is not ACCEPTABLE.
Captioning is probably the best solution in my opinion, given the thick
content of the audiology workshops and the captioners are not biased
translators (they repeat verbatim). It may not sound idealistic at face
value to provide captioning in ALL workshops however with group effort on
our part and getting the word out, it may be probable to start somewhere.
The limit of the funding is not acceptable-we should try utilize the
resources of the hearing aid companies. We should also utilize the models
that other conventions have used to provide the services and evaluate the
possibilities. I'm very glad that Sam and Gloria will develop a petition
letter to push for more changes in the provision of services-many people
including hearing peers have already expressed interest in signing the
petition. I am very willing to contribute my time and effort in this cause.
It would not only benefit us the group, but it may benefit other
professionals as well more than they realize. If we are to be effective
audiologists, we need equal access to the information provided at AAA
convention. I'm sure these same situations would have come up in other
conventions non-related to audiology, and we would still have to work hard
to get our needs met. HOWEVER, it is shameful that these issues are
springing up within the field that serve hh/deaf clients.

Since the interpreter did not translate all the information accurately at
the meeting, can one of you summarize the history of dealings with AAA
board? I just want to have an understanding of what you guys have done up
until this point.

Thanks, and I look forward to the ongoing communication with you guys!

Rachel Berman
1st year Gallaudet Au.d student