Moving at a glacier pace by Warren Brown

Photo by Luca Galuzzi - www.galuzzi.it

I agree that overall awareness and empathy for those with differing abilities has increased somewhat over the last 50 years. Steps such as closed captioning at movie theatres, better access for those with physical disabilities, audio versions of UU World are all wonderful. And while I think its important to acknowledge such gains, I worry about being too self-congratulatory. As a society - and more importantly as UU communities - we ARE moving at a glacier pace. That is cause for concern. I truly believe that the progress we have seen so far only represents the very lowest of the low hanging fruit. What we have done is to address the most visible and least threatening problems. Its natural to see people in wheelchairs or with walkers and want to help - and we rightly should support and applaud those efforts. However, if we were to dig just a little deeper we would see how unaware we remain of the huge number of those who have to struggle in other ways to engage in our communities. We don't see hearing loss. We often turn away from those with mental or emotional challenges. The fact is that there are many who would like to join us who could if we were more conscious of their obstacles and sincere in our desire to learn how to help.

As an advocate for those with hearing loss, I have become most aware of the issues they face. How many times have you been in a large gathering of UU's when someone stands up to speak and refuses the microphone? "I'll speak up," they say not considering those who can only hear with the help of the sound system. How many UU churches have acoustics so bad that it's hard to understand even for those with mild hearing loss? Often people avoid those places. How many are under the misconception that FM headset systems in our sanctuaries are the solution for those who have trouble hearing services? Headset systems don't address the some of the most basic requirements to help people hear. So many of us never realize that there are countless members of our congregations who struggle to hear everyday.

UU's should be on the forefront of inclusion not only for those with hearing loss but for all who face disabilities of any kind. It's not that we don't care. It's just that we don't know. That needs to change. We need to step up our efforts and bring awareness to these problems. We must strive to pay closer attention to those around us. We should never assume that because its easy for us to participate, that others share the same experience. All of us can raise our level of empathy for our neighbors. To that end, I'd like to promote a workshop "Reaching Out To Those With Hearing Loss" that EqUUal Access, Carol Agate and I will be presenting at General Assembly. I hope many of you will join us Thursday, June 26 between 4 and 5:15 pm in the Rotunda. Let us all take BIGGER steps to include those of all abilities into our UU family.

The (Star)Bucks Stops Here

In early March of this year, a group of deaf people were holding their monthly meeting at a Starbucks in lower Manhattan.  Part of a national effort called Deaf Chat Coffee, they were gathered together to socialize over coffee and pastries purchased at the coffee outlet.  Suddenly, their meeting was interrupted by police officers who had been summoned to the store by Starbucks workers.  The workers claimed that the group was creating a disturbance, conducting a meeting without a permit, and were not purchasing items from the store.  None of these allegations were true and the police officers apologized to the group, finding no illegal conduct.  In addition to harassing the group by calling the police, one Starbucks employee allegedly laughed hysterically at the speech of one member of the group and other deaf customers claimed that they were refused service.  In one case, a Starbucks employee who knew some sign language tried to assist the deaf customers and was reprimanded by another employee.

When a complaint was filed with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and other upper management staff, an executive apologized and tried to assuage the group by offering them a preloaded Starbucks gift card.    That wasn’t enough for these customers and they promptly filed a lawsuit, now pending in Federal Court.  (To their credit, Starbucks subsequently published a post on their website decrying discrimination in any form and outlining the ways in which they intentionally support Deaf partners and customers.)  http://www.starbucks.com/blog/starbucks-on-inclusion-of-deaf-community/1262

For those Unitarian Universalists who don’t think that matters related to inclusion of people with disabilities is a social justice issue, think again.  If this action had been perpetrated against a group of LGBT persons or persons of color, the uproar would have been deafening (no pun intended).  But because it happens to a group of people whose rights are not nearly trumpeted as much as those of other marginalized groups, it gets a 10 second spot on the local news right before sports and weather.

There are a group of UU congregations who are planning a joint worship event in the fall.  The idea was raised to hire a sign language interpreter for attendees who are deaf.  I was told that there was resistance to the idea since some members of the planning committee felt that it wasn’t necessary.  Thanks to the persistence of one member of the committee, the idea was adopted and the interpreter was hired.

We have a long way to go in recognizing and acknowledging the rights of people with disabilities, both in the outside world and within our Unitarian Universalist communities.  Let’s start talking about it in our congregations.  I’ll be happy to discuss it with you anytime, perhaps over a cup of coffee?

  

With respect,

Mark Bernstein, CERG  Consultant and UUA Liaison to Equual Access

The Better to Hear by Warren Brown

“I was able to hear everything. I didn’t have to see the speaker’s lips like I did in the past.” For years, Cheryl relied on lip reading to understand the Sunday morning service at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron. Despite the church’s public address system, Cheryl, who has severe hearing loss had trouble understanding the words even with the benefit of hearing aids. Then, everything changed. The church installed a new assistive system, a hearing loop that transmits the sound of the service right to Cheryl’s hearing aids. After the service, Cheryl was elated, “I could even understand the words the choir sang. I was never able to do that before!” What makes the sound she now hears so much clearer is that all the background noise is eliminated. The words from the pulpit microphone go directly into Cheryl’s ears.

The key to the system is a simple loop of wire that circles the room. That loop is connected to the sound system and produces a magnetic field which can be picked up by a T-coil (telecoil) within the hearing aid. By simply pressing a button that activates the T-coil the sound from the PA is reproduced into the wearer’s ear. Wireless headsets that work on the same system are available for those without t-coil hearing devices.

According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the number of Americans who suffer hearing loss is some 38 million and growing. As many as 30 to 40 percent of those over 65 have some impairment. That’s why more and more UU churches have been installing loop systems.

Recently, the American Academy of Audiology and the Hearing Loss Association of America have started the Get in the Hearing Loop campaign to help promote the installation and use of hearing loops in the United States. They advocate the widespread availability of loops, from airports to theaters, from banks to taxi cabs - just as they are in Europe. Loops can even be installed in people’s homes. A family room can be looped so that a hearing impaired person can hear the television or stereo without turning the volume way up, which even makes it more comfortable for non-hearing impaired family members.

Hearing Loops are not an expensive technology. For churches, depending on the size and construction of the building, one can be installed starting at less than $2000. Congregations can do simple installations themselves. However, it’s a good idea to seek the guidance of a certified supplier.

This year at General Assembly the EqUUal Access booth in the Exhibit Hall will feature a display on hearing loops from Brown Audio Service. For more information about hearing loops in general, visit Hearing Loop.org or contact EqUUal Access.

Looping Your Sanctuary by Carol Agate

Are you planning to build a new sanctuary or remodel an existing one? Now may be the perfect time to install an induction loop around the perimeter. The loop will allow people who wear hearing aids to hear all the voices coming from the microphones right in their ears.
You may wonder why they would need that if the sound is already being amplified. That's because loudspeakers distort sound. Our brains do wonderful things with the sounds our ears pick up and deliver to them. But when those ears lose the ability to hear well, the brain can't do a competent job of interpreting the sounds. The brains of people with normal hearing are capable of interpreting those distorted sounds and understanding what comes through the loudspeakers. But for the brains of people with hearing loss the amplified sounds remain distorted. An induction loop sets up a magnetic field and hearing aids that have telecoils pick up those voices and put the sounds right into the ears, just as though the speaker was one foot away.

You may already have installed an FM transmitter and have receivers that you distribute to congregants and guests. If so, good for you! But do you find your ushers don't know where the receivers are kept, the batteries are dead more often than not, or the ear buds or headset pads are to hard to keep clean or to keep changing? When people with telecoil-equipped hearing aids walk into a looped sanctuary, no equipment is needed. All they have to do is flip a switch on their hearing aids.

Even if you aren't remodeling you may be able to install a loop.

Untangling the Measuring Tape by Rob Spirko

When I was a kid, running around with the other kids in the neighborhood, playing war games, I would sometimes have my character sustain a pretty serious injury, often losing a limb. In retrospect, it was kind of weird. It certainly didn’t interfere with the burgeoning “geek” identity I was developing. Looking back, I wondered why I did that, until one day it hit me: back then, I wanted an obvious disability. Something evident at a distance, something that people would understand immediately. If you’re missing an arm, well, you’re missing an arm. If you have to ask people to repeat themselves, if you talk funny when you do that… What do people know about that? If you have to explain why you go off to speech therapy every day after lunch time, you start developing a sense of yourself as different.

Years pass, and you can mostly forget it. People don’t mention it so much. Occasionally, a college professor, with the best of intentions, will ask you in his office if you’ve considered “doing something about your mouth,” something vaguely dental or surgical, because he seems to think that’s the cause of your odd quality of speech. Or later, your dissertation director, again with the best of intentions, will caution you not to disclose your disability in your job letter, because “you don’t want to give them any reason to doubt your ability” before they meet you. (And she’s probably right—people with disabilities are less employed than the temporarily able-bodied.) Someone, your own child perhaps, tries to whisper something to you, and all you can do after that stream of hisses and clicks is look at them helplessly and shrug. You’re made acutely aware, again, that you’re different, and that others can tell.

W.E.B. DuBois, in The Souls of Black Folk, talks about what being marked as different in a racial context does to your psychology. He says, “It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.”

That’s the condition of stigma, that double-consciousness. You know what normal is, primarily because you are not it. The “normal” have the luxury of not knowing. They don’t need to measure themselves by that tape. They know it exists on some level, because they have to reassure themselves of their own normality by holding the tape up to people who don’t fit. If you can hold the measuring tape up to someone else, you never need to hold it up to yourself.

The act of pity means setting yourself up as better than. You can’t pity an equal. That’s why people with disabilities don’t want pity. If a stigma were simply the mark of difference, it wouldn’t be a big deal. We’d all live in our UU paradise, letting our freak flags fly. But a stigma says, “You can pity this person—here’s someone you are better than.”

That’s probably why I don’t mind when little kids ask, “What’s that thing in your ear?” They’re not doing it with an agenda— they’ve just seen this weird thing in your ear, and want to know what it means. It reminds me of when I was small, and saw a man at Myrtle Beach who had one leg. I pointed it out—quite loudly-- to my parents, who felt an appropriate amount of middle-class horror and hushed me up. I was on the verge of walking over to him and saying, “My ears don’t work. What’s it like for you?” Sure it would’ve been inappropriate, but kids can get away with it. They’re still learning how to use the measuring tape. And your hushing them up and hustling them off doesn’t make that tape go away--it only shows them its power.

I try to answer the kids as directly as I can: “I have trouble hearing. You know how glasses are for your eyes? Hearing aids are like that for your ears.” I can’t undo the way we value normality, the way we stigmatize difference. But what I can do, I hope, is give them something of a different measure.

*****

Rob Spirko teaches English at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He and his wife, Jennifer Spirko, live in Maryville, TN, where they attend Foothills Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

An Induction Hearing Loop Comes to Brooklyn

Last October, an audiologist and member of the First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn, Margaret Weber, read an inspiring article in the October 24, 2011 Science section of the NY Times on the Induction Hearing Loop called:  “A Hearing Aid that Cuts Out all the Clatter.”  She had been doing her own research on the loop and with this great exposure in the Times, Margaret felt that she was ready to discuss the technology with other members to see if they agreed that it might be the right time to bring the Loop to Brooklyn.  Enter members, Kay Corkett, who was serving on the Board of Trustees, and Kathy Ivans a school psychologist. They both became as enthusiastic about the Loop as Margaret and determined to write a proposal to the Board suggesting a special fundraiser to install the loop in the First U Sanctuary.

The major point made by the NY times article was that the Hearing Loop sends sound from a microphone directly into hearing aids equipped with a telecoil (a device originally developed years ago to enhance the sound from a telephone).  With the sound coming directly into the hearing aid, the surrounding noise in the room is eliminated. Without the Loop, hearing aids amplify everything, both what you want to hear and what you don’t want to hear.  So the sounds of creaking floor boards and pews, shuffling of feet and bodies and the reverberation of sound on surfaces interfere with hearing.  That’s also true for those with no hearing loss, but those folks are able to tune the background noise out while hearing aids amplify it.

The Induction Hearing Loop is literally a thin cable that runs invisibly from an amplifier around a room and back to the amplifier making a loop. The technology has been around for 70 years and is in wide use in Europe and parts of the US, and now it is becoming more widely used in other parts of the country in schools, churches, and concert halls.  For example, the New York City MTA has installed the Loop in 400 of the token booths that have clerks and microphones.

So, having met numerous times to discuss their research and proposal strategies, as well as obtaining bids from audio companies, Margaret, Kathy and Kay completed a five page proposal and took it to the Board.  They asked the Board to consider fundraising for the Hearing Loop in the annual end-of-year appeal letter to the congregation. The proposal was accepted.

First Unitarian is a 169 year old land-marked building, so research has shown that it is very difficult and extremely expensive to provide access for those members and visitors with mobility challenges.  But the installation of the Hearing Loop has at least been one step taken toward garnering the support of the congregation to put energy and money behind the goal of providing access for full participation to those members and visitors with hearing loss.