ALDAcon 2011 Day Three

Now that Halloween is over, I can get back to blogging about my experiences at ALDAcon. Last night I was too busy at the front door, keeping Rusty in, while handing candy out to costumed children to continue my story.

On Friday, convention goers had an exciting event to attend - Julius Caesar - the first live captioned play to be held in Indiana. History in the making, people! But alas, not for me. What I didn't mention before is that I was coming down with a nasty cold. So, I missed out on the play in order to get some additional, much needed rest. I heard rave reviews of the performance and the captioning from those who attended.

I wasn't the only one at ALDAcon who caught forty winks. I couldn't resist taking this photo of a dog who drifted off to sleep during one of the presentations. Yes, dogs are a common sight at ALDAcon. Service dogs, that is. I saw at least seven different dogs. They really made me miss Rusty more.

At lunch on Friday, the vendors were thanked and each were presented with a medal in keeping with the convention's racing theme. Then Rebecca Herr spoke on the subject of volunteering. I was excited about the chance to hear her speak at lunch and again the next day at a workshop. She has had a wide range of volunteer roles both in the nonprofit community and in business related organizations. Her passion for service is unmistakable and the interpreters and CART providers hands were flying as they kept pace with her words. In addition to sign language translation, for accessibility, each speaker who addressed us either at meals or at workshops, had their speech transcribed onto a large projector screen. This is known as CART which stands for Communication Access Realtime Translation. You can see a sample in the photo below:

After lunch, I attended a class on beginning sign language taught by Tess Crowder. As many of you know, I have already taken a university course in sign language a few years ago. This was a refresher for me. I found it helpful and fun. I've been thinking about taking a class again to learn more vocabulary.

Then I took another rest so I could attend the evening's big event, the I. King Jordan Banquet held at the Indiana Roof Ballroom. As I mentioned before, I came to ALDAcon as a last minute decision. So hopefully that excuses the fact that it never occurred to me that this banquet might be a dressy affair. I had nothing Cinderella worthy in my suitcase. If I'd been feeling better, I probably would have gone out and bought a dress, but I was in no shape for shopping. I went in my jeans and hoped I wouldn't stand out.

The room was lovely and the meal was exquisite. John Waldo was honored with the I. King Jordan Award for his legal work in making movie theater captioning a reality. Within two years time, movie theaters across the country are expected to be showing captioned films due to a class-action suit John participated in on behalf of ALDA, Inc. That's something we all can celebrate. Well done, John.

ALDAcon 2011 Day Two

My day began with continental breakfast and a newcomer's meeting. I enjoyed this event very much. It was informal in nature. Longtime members of ALDA and representatives from the ALDA board introduced themselves briefly. Then, we newbies took our turns introducing ourselves. When it was my turn, I mentioned that I write a blog, and one of the regional directors asked me the name of it. When I replied, "Speak Up Librarian", he smiled and told me he reads it. Nodding his head, he added, "That's why you look familiar." What a great start to my day! I was also blessed to meet two ladies in particular. One who had come by herself I made a special point of introducing myself to. It helped that I grew up near where she lived. As we talked we found we had other things in common as well. The other lady recently joined my ALDA Chicago group so I was delighted to meet her. Hopefully, she will be someone I can see again after the convention is over.

At the convention's opening session, race car drivers and cousins, Jaki and Tomas Scheckter were introduced. Jaki lives in South Africa. He has a hearing loss and has bilateral cochlear implants. His cousin Tomas arranged for him to get these implants at a hospital in Indianapolis. He even raised money for the operations. The Gift of Hearing Foundation also donated money. Today Tomas is a board member of the Gift of Hearing and Jaki is on the board of a similar organization in South Africa that raises money for children to receive cochlear implants. They told us these stories and then shared with us how exciting it is to be a race car driver. They explained how adrenaline rushes through their bodies during the race and afterwards leaves them feeling drained and empty. They love it and wouldn't choose any other occupation.

Jaki and Tomas Scheckter

Next, we had a luncheon which featured Patti Spitler as the keynote speaker. Patti worked for 23 years as a news anchor and entertainment reporter at WISH-TV in Indianapolis until she retired for health reasons. She has Meniere's disease, a permanent and progressive condition that causes dizziness and vertigo in addition to severe hearing loss. Her therapy dog, Louie, helped her overcome the isolation she experienced after retirement. Recently, she has returned to the television business with a new show that she hosts called Pet Pals. She is also a spokesperson for Hear Indiana.

Patti Spitler and interpreter

Then I attended two workshops in the afternoon. The first one was called "Living with Deafness: Positive Self Advocacy and Career Success". It was taught by college professor, Dr. David Baldridge, who is researching the workplace experiences of the deaf and hard of hearing. The second one was titled "The Resilient Self: Surviving and Thriving Through Your Deafness". This session was taught by Sally Skyer of NTID.

Here are a few photos from the Exhibit Hall:

The CapTel display. Many of the 

booths featured assistive technology.

The Scheckter cousins graciously signed our program
books and posed for photos at the Gift of Hearing table.
Learn more about this nonprofit organization here.

Each sponsor was given a trophy.
Wasn't that a nice touch?!!!

ALDAcon 2011 Day One

It was a last minute decision for me to attend ALDAcon (the annual convention of the Association of Late Deafened Adults) in Indianapolis. I had never been to an ALDAcon before and I had been holding out because I still felt guilty about being away from my family during my trip to Costa Rica last February. I gradually changed my mind after working on the program book and reading the descriptions about the wonderful events and workshops planned. I realized I would really be missing out and began to wish I had decided differently. Then, a miracle happened. The event's program and planning chairs emailed me and offered me a scholarship to attend in exchange for the hard work I had put in on creating their convention program book. I was thrilled to accept their offer.

I got involved with the program book at the request of Kim Mettache, the planning chair. She is the president of the Northwest Indiana chapter of ALDA which hosted this year's convention in Indianapolis. Kim's group was the chapter which introduced me to ALDA a few years ago. Over time I have become more involved with the Chicago chapter, but I have always stayed in touch with my friends from the Northwest Indiana chapter. Several of them are also members of the Chicago group too. Kim is one of the most energetic, upbeat people you could ever hope to meet. I was glad to be able to help her out even though I had never taken on a project like this before.

Fortunately, I had the assistance of Terri Singer, program chair, who did much of the work herself. My responsibility was for arranging the ads and converting the book into Publisher format for the printers. It sounds easy enough, but in reality it was hundreds of emails, several technical glitches to overcome, and many hours on the computer before the book was complete. Terri told me I really needed to come to the con and see it in the hands of the convention goers. She was right. When I was there and saw people using the book to plan their day's activities, I felt really glad that I had been a part of making it happen.

Capitol Building as seen from my hotel room

I drove down to Indianapolis Wednesday afternoon. I arrived in time to check in, meet my roommate (arranged by Terri), and grab something to eat at the mall attached to the hotel. As I was on my way to the food court, I ran into my good friend Jen and her mom. We joined up and had dinner together. Then afterwards, we all attended a convention sponsored captioned showing of The Big Year starring Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black. The movie was a light hearted look at three men's attempt to see the most different types of birds in a year. Apparently it's based on a book and is a real competition among birders. I had never heard of it before myself. In the theater I saw several of my ALDA Chicago friends and other people I knew. The captioning was terrific. The theater had moved up their installation of captioning technology to have it ready in time for the convention and generously donated tickets so we attended for free. Bravo, Regal Theaters.

Back at the hotel, I turned in for a good night's sleep and took a moment to contemplate my own Big Year. So much had happened to me since I had joined ALDA Chicago the previous October. Through accepting the position as Social Chair for the group, I had grown as a person. I had organized outings for the group, attended board meetings, learned to navigate and administer their website, and met many new people. I had been to Costa Rica with Discovering Deaf Worlds. I had been chosen as an Oticon Focus on People Awards winner and been to LA. Yes, this has definitely been a Big Year for me. The Association for Late Deafened Adults had been a big part of it so it was only fitting that I ended my year at their convention. I was coming full circle I thought to myself as I drifted off to sleep.