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From: Suzanne Yoder <suzanneyoder2001@...>
To: HOHAudiologists@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 8:12:25 PM
Subject: [HOHAudiologists] Summarizing
I will try to summarize a bit about our dealings with the board. Each year the board changes, so our response has been different every year. After the convention I usually draft a letter as a representative of the group’s interests. The letter goes to the board and to the academy staff letting them know what happened or didn’t happen. Sometimes we get a good response, sometimes they seem to care less. This has been ongoing for the last 5 years. One year (2005 I think) Catherine Palmer, PhD was the convention chair and she was also my professor at University of Pittsburgh (while I was working on my AuD). She was very responsive and asked “how can we do better” and when the convention came around it was better. The following year we wrongly assumed that they would know to continue the services. Hardly any accommodations were in place (2006). Apparently the new board was not “on board” and I wrote a letter again. This time I posted it on SoundOff and got big response. Some of the SoundOff readers thought I was whining and that we were blowing it out of proportion. Several responses were harsh and supporters were mostly quiet. We did get some support off the list and I know that a lot of people want us to succeed in our “fight” but they don’t want to be in the middle of the battle. After that SoundOff letter was posted the Academy Staff and Board discussed our issues at their meetings (or so I was told) and we followed up with them throughout the year to make sure they didn’t forget about us. We also had an opportunity to look at the ALD providers/products to assess whether or not they would meet our needs. Unfortunately, our involvement was still limited. We asked that we have more involvement that we form a committee just for accessibility issues and we asked that we be utilized as volunteers. This was also barely recognized. We were told to volunteer as anyone else would and if accepted as a volunteer we would be contacted. Not all volunteers are accepted, apparently and my application was “rejected” on the basis of “all positions are filled.” I don’t know why they reject our help every year, but they do. My name has become synonymous with “trouble maker” and I am convinced from a scathing letter I received from AAA Staff that I am considered “the only one with a problem.” Even though I have tried to “represent” the group… this has not gone over as I hoped. I have tried instead this year to “repair my relationship” with the staff and thank them as much as possible for what the have done and recognize some efforts in the right direction. I would like to approach them differently this year with a real group response. I believe this may be possible with some of the internet tools available. I am currently looking into the PBWiki tool but need some help to know how to use it.
Does anyone know who the new convention chair is for 2008? If you know please post it. Also, if you know the chair personally, please, please contact them.
Also, if you have a desire to read old postings and open the documents uploaded to the website, you will find more information about what has been done over the last five years.
Keep the posts coming!
Suzanne
-----Original Message-----
From: HOHAudiologists@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:HOHAudiolog ists@yahoogroups .com] On Behalf Of Rachel Berman
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2007 1:36 PM
To: HOHAudiologists@ yahoogroups. com
Subject: [HOHAudiologists] Re:AAA
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
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