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From: Jack.O'keeffe@f26.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Jack O'keeffe)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: H E L L O !!!
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Date: 12 Jul 90 21:28:39 GMT
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[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

Hi, Mitch,
     Sorry you missed the SHHHBASH in Little Rock, but you were a
whole lot cooler at home.  Hot as hell's hinges there! Whew.  The
major new attraction (In addition to the Anniewich vs Miss Piggie
spectacular) was the First Annual Gathering of the Clan of Silent
Talkers.  As always, it was the PEOPLE who made the convention
worth attending.  Saturday evening we rallied 'round the RJ11
jack in my hotel room, Frank brought his Toshiba, Roy his Zenith,
Ann and Wayne were there, and a couple of young programmers that
Wayne found and was introducing to Fidonet/SilentTalk.  Laurie
was involved in a wedding at home, and didn't make the scene 'till
much later that evening.  Many of the program sessions would be
familiar to you if you attended Palo Alto, Chicago, Rochester,
and Bethesda.  As always, an attempt was made to advance the art
of assistive listening systems.  This year it was Audex trying
some new ideas.  The kindest thing I can say about that is they
did a helluva lot better than Oval Window did in Bethesda.  Still
quite a way to go, but we're progressing.  Realtime captioning of
the plenary sessions and some of the workshops was VERY WELL DONE.
American Data Captioning (Caption America) did the honors this
time, and they were great.  The captioned notetaking using PCs
and overhead projectors in other sessions worked as well as the
person on the keyboard.  There seemed to be a bit more oral
interpreting, and possibly a bit less ASL, but that's just an
impression - not a survey.

You made some really valid points in your recent post to Vixen.

 MT> but I'm happy to be using these B I G hearing aids (FM
 MT> reciever and microphone/transmitter) so that now people can
 MT> see that I'm hearing impaired. It really does make it easier.

Wish more folks would realize that, and not waste time and money
trying to get "invisible" aids to hide their hearing loss.  Those
little "stick-it-in-your-ear" thingies don't actually help much.
Some of the SHHHers wear fireengine red aids to be sure people
notice.  Ah well, people used to feel the same way about eye
glasses - now they are fashionable!  Maybe we need "designer" aids.

 MT> I'm in the unusual situation of beginning a national lecture
 MT> tour (I kid you not) to discuss issues of late onset hearing
 MT> loss and visual loss . . .

You will, of course, post your itenerary?  And I hope you will make
it to Denver next year for SHHHBASH VI and SilentTalk II (not to
mention the Anniewich / Miss Piggie rematch).

Best regards,

... Jack.

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