Why Can't I do that?

Every once and a while you meet someone you inspires you to look at your life a little bit differently. Last week I was lucky enough to meet that person at a CHHA-Hamilton meeting. Peter Stelmacovich is a trained audiologist and FM and SoundField Product Manager for Phonak Canada. Peter also wear a cochlear implant in one ear, a hearing aid in the other. Additionally, Peter is an active musician playing bass guitar in a band called Below the Belt. Finally, Peter is the author of a fantastic blog called "Deafened But Not Silenced", which details his life as a hearing impaired person. Listening to Peter speak made me realize that we apply limitations to our lives based on our perceived shortcomings. For me, there are things that I haven't done in years that I used to love to do simply because I think I can't because of my hearing. The biggest thing that I stopped doing because I didn't think I could anymore is playing music. To hear Peter say that he actively plays in a band made me think "why can't I do that?". Perhaps we all need that kick in the butt sometimes in order to really look at our lives and evaluate what we want to achieve, I know that in just an hour, Peter's talk did that for me.

Creating A Fair Online Experience

Recently, I was doing research on a website that provided instructional videos to explain how their service worked. The videos were narrated while instructional diagrams scrolled across the screen along with the voice over. After watching a few of the videos I realized that there are many people who are hard of hearing who would struggle understanding the voice over. What compounded this was that the website completely failed to provide text versions of their service information. It is unfortunate that this company completely missed the boat on making their website accessible to those who are hard of hearing or deaf. It is my hope that one day there will be requirements that will enforce captioning for videos online. Having mandatory captioning not only allows hard of hearing and deaf individuals a fair online experience but it also potentially provides more clients for an online business.

I am very lucky that my hearing loss is not so severe that I miss out on these things. It does however, remind me of all of the individuals I have met with hearing loss who struggle every day to interact with a world that is not designed to help them. Every day we are making progress by continuing to build awareness and advocating for the needs of those who are hard of hearing or deaf.

Happy New Year

I love moving into a new year because it is always a chance to look back on the year that was and reflect on everything that has happened. It's been a couple days into 2012 and I have had a chance to look back on the year that was. I regret allowing a few people to take advantage of me and my kindness. However, it is this same kindness that has benefited me in so many ways; I suppose the important lesson is to learn whom you can trust not to take advantage of your kindness.

I'm proud of my volunteer work. In 2011 I feel I made some great strides in helping the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association and my local branch step up to a more professional level. As is true with many groups run by volunteers, they rely on the strength of it's members. I believe I brought a skill set to the group that was drastically lacking. I'm looking forward to 2012 and continuing to use my skill and passion to further elevate the awareness of the group and the professionalism it operates with.

I wish everyone all the best in the new year. It's my hope that I will continue this blog with more regularity.

Happy New Year