Mark, your story is one of many that inspired me to do my Capstone project. I,
too, have been questioned on my ability to perform speech recognition tests and
listening checks. I have tried various techniques to make word recognition tests
as easy and accurate as possible and found what works for me. We probably have
all developed different methods that work best for us in order to perform the
tasks we need to do. I know that I am more than capable of doing these things
with the help of HATs and other modifications. I love being in this field and
working with other people that have hearing loss, so I think overcoming these
challenges only makes us better at our job.

One concern that one of my advisors and I had was: would I be discriminated for
my hearing loss when it came time to find the job I want? This led me to my
Capstone, in which I'm evaluating the effectiveness of several HATs for
assessing word recognition in an Audiology setting, in hope that it shows that
HATs can assist Audiologists and AuD students, who have hearing loss, in
obtaining accurate scores. And, thus, settle the issue of our ability to
perform this challenging, but necessary skill. I plan to talk a little about my
study at the Deaf/HoH meeting at AAA this year, even though I'm still working on
completing it. Anyhow, I hope to see you and everyone else this coming week!

Stephanie Schutzenhofer
3rd year AuD student
Washington University School of Medicine

--- In HOHAudiologists@yahoogroups.com, Mark Campbell <MarkCampbell@...> wrote:
>
> I usually don't pipe up on these boards, but I did want to share my story on
> some of the issues I faced when working on my Au.D.. I'm a 4th year right
> now, and will be graduating in May, and have a great job lined up in June!
> I'm very excited. However, in the beginning I did have ome challenges.
>
> After I was accepted, and after I had paid my first semester's tuition, I
> was called into the Dean's office (who is no longer there...) and she wanted
> to talk to me about how I would ever become an audiologist with having a
> hearing aid and cochlear implant. The reason she state that I may not be
> able to do my job was because I had requested CART in my classes. I had to
> explain it to her that I was more than capable, but had to sell myself. Now
> keep in mind that at this point I had never done a placement, and had I not
> been confident in myself, I may have just given up. She eventually said
> something like we would have to re-evaluate at a later date, but thankfully
> that day never came!
>
> Another incident was when I went on a 4th year interview with a major
> hospital. The director brought up how he wanted to "talk about the elephant
> in the room" ie. my hearing loss and how I could do word descrim. Would I be
> able to do MLV ? Again, I had to sell myself. Needless to say, I wasn't
> impressed with that facility and withdrew my application.
>
> Overall though, I think I have done very well with my studies and my
> placements. However, had I not been confident in myself, I am not sure what
> would have happened.
>
> Anyways, that's my story. I will be at AAA and look forward to meeting some
> of you!
>
> Best,
> Mark
>
> On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 11:16 PM, Suzanne Yoder <
> suzanneyoder2001@...> wrote:
>
> > Without taking an official poll, I would guess that 95% of the members
> > are hard of hearing/deaf practicing audiologists or hard of hearing/deaf
> > audiology students soon to be practicing.
> >
> > There are a few on the list that are retired hard of hearing/deaf
> > audiologists and just a sprinkling of folks who are not hard of hearing but
> > are audiologists with hard of hearing family or they have a VERY strong
> > connection with the issues that we discuss.
> >
> > I am so glad that you shared your story Lee, many of us have had to hurdle
> > our own barriers to be audiologists. I am very sorry to hear that your
> > career goals as an audiologist were never reached for the reasons you
> > mentioned. Why do you presume that your hearing loss was the issue? Did
> > your professors ever address the issue when you were studying for your
> > Master's? Please expand on your initial post if possible.
> >
> > ~Suzanne
> >
> > Suzanne Y. Yoder, AuD Doctor of Audiology Licensed Audiologist - PA
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> > To: hohaudiologists@yahoogroups.com
> > From: specialcritters@...
> > Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:35:38 -0400
> > Subject: [HOHAudiologists] Hi all
> >
> > I actually consider myself a former, or even never, audiologist. When I
> > graduated in, um, '92(?) I could never get a CFY despite having completed
> > the Starkey internship, presumably because of being a hearing aid user.
> > After several years I got a job for an ENT who turned out to be a druggie,
> > among his nicer traits. I then dumped audie altogether, but I still get some
> > of the magazines, which meant that I saw the article in Advance for Audies
> > this week. I'm now quite happy working in Vision, but I'm still interested
> > in HAs and ALDs some; they were, after all, my first love.
> >
> > Judging by the astonishing number of members of this group, and seeing that
> > at least some members are practicing audies, I have to say that IT'S ABOUT
> > TIME!!!!! Even if it's too late for me.
> >
> > Anyway, I probably won't be a member for long, but I really wanted to stick
> > my nose in to say "Hey!" and to see what's going
> > on.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -Mark Campbell
>