Hearing Loss LIVE! in FIVE: One Size Doesn't Fit All

Don't just check a box to show your public venue is accessible and call it good. Get with the community and be open to more accommodations.
#HearingLoss #HearingAids #AssistiveListening #Captions

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Transcript

Welcome to Hearing Loss LIVE in Five. 

Julia: Good morning and welcome to Hearing Loss LIVE in Five. We hope you're enjoying our material. Remember to like, subscribe and share. So I had an interesting thought process. And I'd like others to think about this and see I don't know, share with us how correct I may or may not be. We were talking about microphones and plays, FM systems, loop systems, ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, and all of that stuff in public venues. Athought process came across to me. We're really lucky here in Utah, we get a lot of input from our our theater groups. They listen a lot to what we want. Some act really well on it. Our Eccles theater and the production groups there offer captions for at least one of the events, or, you know, like one-- if it's a long running play. They offer one night that has captions as well as the FM system. We have another theater that went with a loop, but they do not offer captions. I don't know that anybody's pushed for captions the way the theater set up. The people who like to go there get the benefit with the loop. Well, Chelle and I were talking-- Oh, Salt Lake acting company also has a night where they caption. They also do audio description. They have the FM system, which is hit or miss, pending if you're using your loop or your headphones, and they they --they also have others. And now I'm rambling. This is gonna be a long five minutes, so I'm sorry. So I have this thought. This is what I'd like everybody to think about. Chelle and I kind of talked to you about it. Does it matter if you're familiar with the music, the script, when you're using just an FM system or a loop system? Does that make a difference on what you're going to understand and/or hear, per se,

Chelle: Yes, I can get by on just an assistive listening system if I know the play, if I know the music. So, this, this is the big thing for me. I'm not a musical fan for the most part. But when we did, when I saw Rock of Ages, because it's 80s music, and I am an 80s child, I knew all the music, and I could sing along with it, and I could follow the play really well with an assistive listening system while there. But if it's a play or a musical that I don't know if I'm just assistive listening, music will drowned out the lyrics, and background noise drowns out the dialog, so at that point, I need the captions to be able to fully understand the play.

Julia: Thank you for that. I would challenge people, folks out there, listening, watching, participating with this on our let's talk Tuesdays that are the first Tuesdays of the month, 6pm Mountain Time. Bring me some thoughts about how FM systems work for you. If it's the only thing you're using at a musical or a play, does it matter if you're familiar with the dialog, the play, the musical, and how that experience works for you? I'm not question. I'm putting the question in kind of weird, but I think that's what I'd like to know thoughts on from others. It is nice to have options. That's what I kind of want to get across. Captions don't work for everybody. FM systems don't work for everybody. You, you have to decide, are you in or are you out? Do you really want to go participate at that play that you may or may not enjoy? But I'd like people to share their experiences on why they use, what they use, and their benefit from it. I want to keep options open. I want venues to think about something more than I have an FM system, I've met the letter of law. How about let's have an option system that allows everybody to be included in whatever it is you're offering the public. Uh, wrong or right.

Chelle: Yeah, I actually prefer hearing loops for, over FM systems, the clarity and there's more there's more clarity with the hearing loop and more power. So things are more distinct and clear. But again, with a musical it doesn't help. But absolutely love them and meetings. So hearing loops are the way to go with meetings. But I'm still using lipreading, and depending on how big it is, I need captions. So options.

Julia: Yes, options make there be options, and if you're not asking for the options that work for you, options are going to go away. I hate to say it. If you guys aren't asking because you're afraid or scared, you need to be in our classes and learn your confidence and your advocacy skills, how to be proactive for something that you need, because if you guys don't ask, options will start to be limited again. Just so you know, the options are there because people spoke up and said something. Join us for one of our lipreading concepts, class or workshops packages we have for sale. We hope to see it at our let's talk on to the first Tuesdays of most months and Bye.