Hearing Loss LIVE! Talks Maclain Drake

Maclain Drake is well known hard of hearing artist who makes inclusive music venues for Deaf and Hard of Hearing with his company Vibe Music.

But in Utah he is also known as an inspiration to the hard of hearing community because of his continued advocacy for inclusivity of those with a hearing loss. He works with our local movie theaters and helping them to understand not just closed caption devices but the importance of open caption movies. 

He recently went to his local city hall town council where he was able to advise them on what his accommodations would be to attend and be part of the community.

He also works with national hearing aid companies to help test and advice on products.

For us here at Hearing Loss LIVE! he is a reminder on what we can do to educate and participate in our local community to further educate inclusivity of folks with hearing loss.

We hope our podcast and blog inspire you to get more involved at a local level! 

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Video version of this podcast is found at: https://youtu.be/ZnFk625FoHU remember to subscribe and share and like us. We want to grow our tribe!

Transcript

Hearing Loss LIVE! Talks with Maclain Drake of Vibe Music.
Julia: Welcome to Hearing Loss LIVE! We have special guest, Maclain Drake, with us this week. Here in Utah, he is one of our favorite accessibility youngsters. He is very passionate about helping the hard of hearing population as he himself is a hoh. And quite the comedian, as you can tell. Some of the things that we've done with him have gone around his music. And I want to say it's called Vibe. Is that correct? Is that what it was labeled a couple years ago?
Maclain: Yeah. Vibe Music Events is long name but Vibe is for short. It's probably what most people reference as. Yes, that's correct.
Julia: And I remember here at the Sanderson Center, he brought in one of his dance floors that vibrates to the music and they looped it as well. It was pretty awesome. I think Chelle can talk more about it because I think she got to experience it. I think I was captioning that day. And he does a lot of work to help for accommodations for those with a hearing loss. And I think one of our biggest issues we want to get across to you guys with a hearing loss, if you are not asking for these accommodations, the work Maclain puts in to making sure movie theaters have open captions and there is accessibility for those who are deaf at hard of hearing at major events like the vibrating dance floor. We got to start asking for these accommodations, I think, is my big plug and takeaway. And so I'd like Maclain to talk about his work with accommodations, including joining his city council to work on understanding people's hearing loss and how that accommodation looks.
Julia: And Chelle can bill in some more information about Maclain in his background because I think they have a little bit longer history than I do, if that makes sense. Maclain, you want to start or Chelle, do you want to start?
Maclain: Ladies first. I mean, I have to let Chelle start or else it'd be rude of me. So go ahead, Chelle. I like hearing compliments about myself, so why not get more? Let's go.
Chelle: We love Maclain. He is our favorite hoh and he grew up with a hearing loss. And what has inspired me and probably others, a lot of others too, is that he was in plays in high school and musicals. And even with his hearing loss, he was singing. I think he's done modeling and he does some acting on the side too, so he's never really let his hearing loss slow him down and he's just gone for it, whatever it is. Music accessibility, the dancing, the vibrating platform, it was awesome. Well, I'll get up on it, dance. There's some burning man background there where I used to stand against the wall of speakers, the burning men, so that I could feel the push of that music. Well, I don't have to be in that lot of an environment anymore when I get on Maclain's platform because I feel the vibration there. That's great. And it's looped too. So we've just always loved Maclain. And I think he's an inspiration and he goes out and he is always looking for people to be accessible no matter where he's at. I'll let Maclain go now.
Maclain: Oh, just take a turn. Well, I mean, I don't know how to top that really. Yeah. I mean I did plays in musicals growing up. I think growing up with the hearing loss, my mom... I got my hearing loss genetically from my mom. That's how I got my hearing loss. And I think from growing up with her, I think it was all about view, like how she viewed hearing loss of how she just didn't make it seem like it should affect me. None of my parents really made it a big issue. Really, the only people who made it seem like it was an issue was society and the stigmas around it, which is just why I've always just done what I wanted to because when someone tells me I can't do something, I just go, well, I can.

And I think, also, I think that's why I did musical theater in high school, just because I think that at least during the time I was in there, it's how people put the outcasts of school, like, oh, those are the weird kids. And I'm like, wow, I'm already weird because I have a hearing loss, so it doesn't really affect me if I go through musical theater. And in musical theater in plays, it allowed me to be as loud as I wanted because guys were not naturally loud who were in high school. They were very to themselves. So it worked out in that favor and then yes, all the concert stuff but yeah.

There's a lot of different things I do. I just love trying to be a part of the solution, whether it's for the death or the hard of hearing or for really any disability in general, because I think there's just a lot of perspective. I think a lot of different sides don't have about the other and the more I can help bring perspective and be a part of the solution to make everyone it's life a little easier, I think that's the end goal for me since it's already hard enough as it is in our society. That's kind of the general outline. So I appreciate your guys' kind words.
Chelle: So, Maclain, tell everybody that you played Han Solo.
Maclain:bOh yeah. Actually for Christmas, my family gave me a picture of me as Han Solo, this giant picture. It's like the only picture of myself in the house and it's just me as Han Solo. Yeah. That's actually how I became friends with the owner of the first concert I did. A buddy of mine, I was on a film set and we were walking through the next scene and he was like, "Hey, Maclain, has anyone ever told you you look Harrison Ford?" I was like, "I don't know." I'm just like out of the loop of pop culture in general. I'm just not very much into that. So I didn't know anything about Star Wars and he is like, "I think you would make a good Han Solo." And I was like, "Oh, that's a jedi." And he's like, "You can't say that loud because the Star Wars community would get really mad." I'm like, okay.

So yeah, I played Han Solo twice now. I still don't know why people think I was like Han Solo but, I mean, it's cool. I get act like I can shoot a fake gun. So yeah. I like it. Yeah.
Chelle: Now I want to move on to your business, Vibe Music Events, and can you tell us more of what you're doing there and how much we need the hard of hearing community to show up?
Maclain: Yes. I mean, the whole concept for Vibe Music Events is essentially providing an inclusive space while making the experience better for everyone. So that's where the whole platforms come into play because I learned how to do welding because of making those vibrating platforms. I didn't know how the weld before then, but I had a couple buddies who were like, "Yeah, we'll show you how to weld. We don't know what you want to do. We can help you." And so there's videos of me in a suit welding the platforms when I first started them. But yeah, the whole concept of Vibe in general is just making inclusive space for those with disabilities.

Typically, it's more of like concerts because I love music and shows in general. But I think that's why I branched into movie theaters and other things like that because I have a love from movies in general. But yeah, it's definitely when I first started doing concerts, I realized how much the lack of the hard of hearing community and deaf community didn't go out and support events as much as I would hope they would.

And I think it just goes because they don't... I don't know if they don't feel comfortable with their hearing loss to an effect to where they want to go out to an event that's for them or if it's just because they're scared of what it looks like. But the whole premise of the concerts I throw is they're just a normal concert is just made accessible because that is the right thing to do. And because there is no accessibility, that's currently at majority of the music shows or festivals that I go to. So I want to be the beacon into which that standard should be. I hope that there's more hard of hearing people that show up to these things.
Chelle: Okay. I'll go again. I know Maclain so well and I love his work and stuff. And I just wanted to say that a little while ago, I think it was in November, we interviewed or podcasted with Vicky Turner of Turner Captioning and Reporting. And she likes to make concerts accessible too. And if people request it, she'll go in and she'll do the captions for the music. And she said, show us how much work goes into it. And I know that you and I have talked about Listen Everywhere. And maybe how you put that into venues possibly.
Maclain: Yeah. Yes. I do a lot of different testing. Listen Everywhere is definitely one of those conversations. And I think a lot of companies like me doing that, just testing because I want to make sure whatever I do use for concerts, whether it's an induction loop for Listen Everywhere or something Son Nova has, I just want to make sure I'm always providing the best accommodations, the best solution for our communities, whether it's two different times of form accessibility.

But yeah, the same way is where if people request of it for concerts, I would be more than willing to work with festivals or concerts they want to go to make sure they are accommodating because that's all it is at the end of the day. People need to be the voice of what they want to see happen. The reality is I can only do so much advocating in a week, but the reality is, say like a country concert, I'm not going to go to a country concert. But if my mom was like, "Hey, I want to go see [Letta 00:11:31] and [Bellum. 00:11:31]" I'd be like, I'll go and make that accessible all day for you. But you have to ask for accommodations because if you don't care enough to make those hand requests, then I'm not going to care enough to go and try and help with that request. It's a two way street.

And so I think it's very much important that people be as vocal as they can to what kind of service they demand so then that way the people who want to be a good ally, whether it's me or captions or whatever it may be, we know that if we're going to spend the time to help make it accommodating, we know it's going to serve someone who really cares about it at the end of the day, if that makes sense. I think that makes sense.
Julia: So one of the things... And we've been pretty vocal and I think people are starting to get the fact that we're bringing people in here saying you need to ask for accommodations. We are here to help you. So let me ask you this Maclain, when someone isn't sure what accommodation they should be asking for, have you had those types of requests to you about, I want to go to this venue, I want to watch this, do you know what I need to ask them? I would love some advice for people who might be watching our podcast or family listening to it to say, oh, mom, you want to go to such and such. You need to go to the manager and request cart. And this is how you do it, or this is who you can call and ask how to do that. Does that make sense?
Maclain: Yeah.
Julia: I know what I want in my head but help us give some ideas.
Maclain: Yeah, no. I mean, the best way, I think, for any kind of situation is, I think, there's not really a wrong way in my opinion of how to ask those kind of questions. Like the Megaplex, the reason why I started working with them was because I went to so many movies and I posted about it so often to where they reached out to me and they're like, "Hey, can you stop making these kind of posts?" Obviously, I was trying to be as nice about it, but it got to a point where they were offering me blind accessibility for my hearing loss. And I was like, that's clearly not a good thing.

And so that ended up turning into... they introduced me to one of the higher ups at Megaplex and he was like, "Maclain, I don't think we have any accommodation issues." And I'm like, "Okay. All right. Well, you tell me what you want me to ask the front desk." And I will never forget it because cause he's like, 'Yeah, no. They're fully trained in everything. Go ahead and ask whatever you want." I'm like, "Okay." I go up to the girl and I'm like, "Hey, I want some accommodations for my hearing loss." And she's like, "I don't know what that means." And it just proved the point of which again, it's just no one ask about these things. So these things are not talked about enough at businesses, whether it's to the people who are new at the business to the higher ups of the business, the higher ups saying things are being handled but they're not. And the well ends, whether it's an entry level job, they don't know what that is because of many different reasons.

So I think the best way in general is just ask. If you don't even know what you want but you know that there should be something and that you want there to be something, whether it be captions or inductions, or if you have a preferred message and you're like, can I get an induction loop? And they're like, well, I don't know if we can provide that and like, well, can we start a conversation? So then that way, if that's not what it is, that's the best solution, at least we're going somewhere with this conversation because I think a lot of businesses, they provide RF systems and they think that fixes the problem for people like my mother or for me, which it doesn't. I don't want to wear headphones over my hearing aids. It doesn't solve anything. And I don't think it solves it for a lot of hearing aids or deaf users or stuff.

And so I think it's just having healthy dialogues and trying not to make it [inaudible 00:15:52] as possible. Just being a whatever business you go to, you just go, "Look I want accommodations. What do you have?" And they go, "Hey, try this out." Like Herman, the reason why that conversation happened was I went there and I was like, "Hey, I want to know what your accommodations are." And they gave me the, "Do you shape accessibility?" And I was like, "Okay. I'll definitely try it."

And so I sat through that meeting wearing that and they saw me take out my hearing aids to put it on. And so I went up and spoke and I was like, Look, I appreciate the accommodations. I know you guys are trying to put your best step forward. And I Imagine this isn't a conversation you get often from the residents. And so that's kind of why I would love to be that person to figure out whatever is the best accommodation, because clearly this doesn't work because I just had to take out my hearing aids, which are $6,000 for something that you probably spent a hundred dollars on. And I don't think this is probably the best solution. And they were like, "Yeah, you're right. We just don't have these conversations." I think it's just dialogue between businesses and people who need or want accommodations. And does that answer that question? I just talk way too much sometimes. Sorry I hope I answered that effectively.
Julia: No, I love what you have to say and what I find very interesting is here in Taylorsville, I'm going to call the city out, they have the Sanderson Center for the deaf and hard of hearing yet their city meetings are not accessible with captions and they do not actually reach out and see if anybody in the hard of hearing industry or deaf culture would like to be on the city council or be involved.
Maclain: That's crazy.
Julia: Yet they post every day how much they're growing. They wouldn't even answer my emails when I asked to be on the Taylorsville city. When I worked for the center, I asked them to post our events and that they come in and talk with us and zilch from the mayor's office. So I really I'm excited that you're on Herriman’s council.
Maclain: Yes.
Julia: This is great. I think it's great news for me.
Maclain: Yeah, it's definitely, like I said, I think it's just dialogue. I think a lot of people who probably would want to help with the solutions just don't get communicating the problems that we have. I know from Megaplex, that was a big thing. They're like, we want to be that. The problem is there's just not enough that speak up about it. So it's like in their view, and obviously I speak to them because they're probably the most, in my opinion, for all the business, besides listed technologies, but their accessibility company, if that makes sense, but Megaplex, they always go, is there more we can do? Is there more communities we can help? Because I even know they do things like high functioning autistic children because of their issues.

And so they talk to me and it's just dialogue. We just need to know what are the issues because we think we're doing a solid job and we're communicating what we want to happen but if they're not happening, we need to be told that they're not happening or if you're not happy, we need to be told that. And obviously, it's hard to get in touch with [inaudible 00:19:25] companies, but again, it's just like we always say in the hard of hearing community, it's just like greasing will get something sometime something. Is basically, you have to keep working at it at the end of the day. You can't expect it to happen overnight. Especially if you're the only person who's asking for it.

Just like with me in the music industry. I'm the only one in Utah, from what I understand, probably in the US, I've been told internationally, but I don't know all the companies that do things that goes about how I want to fix the issues in general, because there's deaf events and then there's hearing events, but there's not something that's for deaf part of hearing and hearing people, which is problematic, because it should be like that. Because if that people have to go out make their own events and hard of hearing people need to go make their own events and they all love music, well, why don't we just incorporate that to the music industry. And when I talk to higher ups for music industry stuff, they're like, we just don't know what that is. And there's not enough dialogue. And so that's why they asked me for a lot of insight.

And so yeah, all I say is you just have to communicate what you want and it's always intimidating but once you do the first couple, you realize it's going to be the same process of people are going to look to you probably more for guidance on what you think is good enough or not good enough, in my opinion.
Michele: It is a real catch 22 situation where you get accessibility available for events or whatever and then no one really knows about that. So there's a lack in getting the word out about it. Also, the hard of hearing are very unaware of what's available to them and that's, I think a huge, huge problem. I mean, even me, I was in the habit of not using the telephone for so long that when Capto came out and I got it, I just never thought about using it because it's that muscle memory. And I run into it a lot. I mean, when I go to hotels and ask for '88 kids and they say, we don't have those. And I say, 'Well, yeah, you do. You're required by law to have them." So the supervisor comes out, but then I spend 20 minutes teaching them how to use it.

And I can see why some people don't ask for things because the hard of hearing community has a real... it's just too much trouble attitude, I think. And those of us who really stick it out and try to educate are few and far between. And I just don't really know what the solution to that is. I know people who advocate for the hard of hearing and the deaf and who get these accessible features in place are really frustrated that people don't use them. But again, I can see on the other side, like the theaters in my town of Duluth, they don't maintain their captioning devices really well. They're always dead. They're not properly charged and it is too much trouble. Don't give me a free movie because I'm not coming back just to repeat this experience. So I really wish there were an easy solution to this, but I'm not sure there is. What are your thoughts on that?
Maclain: You, I think you definitely have some points to which it's definitely going to be a process. I know when I do a lot of these different interviews, I think definitely a unanimous thing is that there's not a lot of kids my age who ask for it, ask for accommodations. I think there's a lot stigmas, especially in my age demographic which is really unfortunate. I wish I met more people who are more open about their hearing loss, who want to do more change in our society because unfortunately, I think businesses listen to a younger person more because they're like, oh that guy's going to come back repeatedly and blah, blah, blah. And it's very interesting.

But, yeah, I do agree that it's definitely, especially with movies, even though it's something I do for the Megaplex and Larry H. Miller in general is I go and test out these things, but I can just tell just like half the time, it's like a 20 minute process just to figure out what they already have. It's like, 'No, you do have an induction loop. Do you have a neck loop." And they're like, "No, we don't." And I'm like, "No, you do. I know you do. I know you do." And they're so confident with what they're telling me.

I mean, I know there's a disconnect. I know there's so many different, it's hard at a movie theater and stuff, but it's definitely problematic to someone who may not be trying to push for accessibility changes. They're just trying to go out and enjoy the real world and their friend tells them, oh, this should be accommodating, and then the accommodations aren't there or they're being told that. And then they're like, okay. So I just wasted my time and now I just feel like an idiot because I was confident it wasn't something and this guy's confident there is something.

Anyway. Yeah. I agree. Again, I think it's definitely just a change of perspective. I think it's again, it's the bigger the numbers are behind what we're asking for or what people want or the things that our community enjoys the most, I think the more businesses will start to catch on because one person going every week or every other week to request something isn't enough for a business to go. Unfortunately, it's not enough for them to be like, we got to change and put all this money behind this one problem because it seems like it only affects one person. It strength in numbers kind of thing. I feel like you asked another question and I just forgot what it is. So I apologize. If I remember what it is I will... But yes, that's my thoughts on that.
Chelle: This is Chelle and I think you answered it for the most part. And the solution would be, I think for the most part would to get more of us asking the time. And again, this can be even our hearing family and friends going and asking for it too to help us to make it more well known, to create the awareness.

Now Maclain talks about the Megaplex and they have started doing open captions. So one day, I treated my whole family, I think there was seven of us all together. My two kids, my older two kids are starting to experience hearing loss now. My daughter more than my son, but both of them were like, "We noticed a difference now, mom." So I'm like, "Well, let's go to this open caption movie at the Megaplex." And so we all seven of us went and sat together and we watched In Canto because you can't lipread with cartoons at all. So my kids who grew up with captions absolutely still depend on him. And they were like, "This is so cool." I only want to come to the open caption movies now because this is what they've had all their life. And now that they have some hearing loss, they're like, "I'm going to go." So I had to show them because it's a little bit tricky on the website to find how to get the open caption viewing. So I showed them and said, this is it. And they said, "Oh, we're going to start going now too."
Maclain: Yeah. I remember what I was going to say to Michele's point, which was, I think a lot of the issues, and this is why I like working with the higher ups of like Son Nova and Listen technologies is unfortunately, at least in the US, a lot of the problems or a lot of things that we are requesting changes for, it all costs money. And it's unfortunate that it's so expensive for some of the things that we want that happen. Like induction loops, getting them permanently installed, it can cost a lot of money. And I don't feel like the government fixes those issues as effectively as they should or they don't put their foot down as effectively as they should. Even to the effect of like hearing aids or just anything accessibility wise because I think businesses are like, we want to help but also these things are expensive. And it's not really effective on how we're going to and spend all this money.

I think that's another worry is there's so many different products are now coming out. That's another thing to which obviously we're definitely getting into many different things. But I worry there's so many products even with captioning and stuff like that. I know a lot more people been asking about captioning, but now there's so many different of vices for captioning and it's like, I don't have time to test all these things. And now over the counter hearing aids and just so many different things and it's getting all expensive.

Anyway, so that's another thing that I know businesses have communicated. It's like these things are expensive so we need the communication. I think they need the communication to make sure that look, we're going to spend a lot of money. So please make sure that we're spending the right money on the right things because if we're spending on the wrong thing, the next time we can do or fix this problem is like five years from now because it's expensive, which is unfortunate. It speaks to the level of capitalism and accessibility which is unfortunate, but it's a necessary evil currently until there's a better solution. So yeah, I just wanted to make that point too.
Julia: Thank you. And I know you've got to leave pretty soon for city council.
Maclain: Don't worry about it. If we go past it, I'll tell them I'm busy because, I mean, the reason why they brought me on the board, I just... If it takes an hour the board understands that the whole... I'm involved with the deaf and hard of hearing community. So whenever you guys get enough, it's all good.
Julia: Any other questions, thoughts? I do want to stress two takeaways that I think were brought up here. One, the community needs to be more involved in what their accessibility looks like and requesting it. I think I've said this before, if you've got a favorite playhouse getting ready to do upgrades, can you sit down with them and discuss what would work best for you and being an annual member to their plays or musicals, whatever it is they put on. One, the more you educate businesses on what they need to know, the more businesses will reach out to people like Hearing Loss Live and take trainings that teach their employees sensitivity around hearing loss and advocacy and different products that are out there to help them incorporate them in their businesses. I didn't say that very elegantly, but we all know that's how I speak.

So get involved as a community member. If you don't know what that looks like, reach out to us, we can connect you with people who can help you learn the different products that you can take. We're not asking you to get one kind of product. We're asking you to look into what helps you participate out in public and make it known that we are here and we're here to be involved and we want to be included. We want inclusivity, not working so hard to represent ourselves. I want that clear to businesses. It's time for you to start looking at hearing loss one size does not fit all. If you don't understand that, please come to Hearing Loss Live info@hearinglosslive.com and we can set up a training with you on what that looks like. We have a great workshop that helps you understand. We're not asking you to step away from deaf culture. We're asking you to include us in the hearing loss culture, whatever your business is.

Anything else before I jump off my soapbox and say goodbye? Thank you, Maclain. It was exciting to have you. I think people have figured out we're doing accommodations this week or this month. Actually we have a couple of different talks with people that we are excited because they are inclusive with all types of different disabilities. Maclain do us proud on Herman city council and help us-
Maclain: I'll try.
Julia:
... help us get more people involved in your city legislation culture. That's awesome. And your state council, that's where we can make a difference, right?
Maclain: Right.
Julia: All starts there. And join us next week. I think we have a special guest again from. Sorry. My lip reading is not [crosstalk 00:33:51].
Maclain: It's me again. I'm coming back.
Julia: The rest of the week.
Maclain: Right. They asked me though, we need to book you out for the next year because you're [inaudible 00:34:00], I'm like, Hey, you know what? My mom would be like, I agree. I'll listen to that every single week. No, I'm sorry. I just had to... Anyway, it's not me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to disappoint everyone. I don't know who it's.
Chelle: This is Chelle. Next week, we'll talk about the emotional side of hearing loss and how much grief we can experience with hearing loss.
Julia: Yep. And I think that follows along with our accommodations when we have to explain over and over and over again what our needs are, how stressing and the grief we've faced with that.
Maclain: That's a good topic. Holy shit. That is a good topic. I know my mom would love that. Holy cow. I want to make sure she listens next week.
Julia: Nice.
Maclain: I mean, she'll be listening ever since now that you are working with it, but she'll listen next week. But I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. And this always make everybody please be the voice to which you want to see the good future. And it's the more that you can speak up, the more the people around you will help you with whatever you need in life. It may not seem like that, but I think that's the number one thing with anything with accommodation, since I think your friends once they see how much it means to you and obviously how hard it is to even talk about these things and go in public and just ask for the bare minimum. I think people around you will start understanding and being more sympathetic and start bringing it up more.

I think that's really a big, big thing. And it's the whole reason why I want to do so much work in this community is because my mom, it's so hard for her to talk about her hearing loss. And so because she gave me a very fortunate upbringing, I just want to make sure that if she's able to do that for me, I'm able to help those who may be scared to do that or don't want to go and talk to a big corporations that I have no problem doing that because I know that it's the right and people shouldn't be scared to ask to be taken care of just like any other individual with whatever they would want in life.

So please be the voice to what you want. And if there's anything I can do to help you guys out or anyone who's listening, feel free to reach out. I love you guys. I love everyone here on this podcast, Michelle, Chelle, and sometimes Julia. I sometimes like you. No, she's [inaudible 00:36:40] she did captioning. So anyway, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. It really means a lot. And I look forward to all the future episodes.
Julia: Thank you, Maclain. We look forward to seeing you next week and from hearing loss live, bye.

Join us next time when we talk hearing loss and emotions.