#HearingLoss #ReasonableAccommodations #NDEAM
Ugh. RantWoman has been struggling with hearing loss for a while. Boring details. One ear hears A LOT better than another. Paying attention to LOTS of Medicare news, RantWoman needs to get herself to a hearing test ASAP before benefits change at the beginning of the year. In the meantime, RantWoman is trying out LOTS of measures that actually help.
RantWoman's work takes her to lots of environments where part of the work is listening to people across big rooms. Sometimes there are movable mics but they can be unreliable. Sometimes people are soft-spoken or don't hold the mics well. RantWoman really does not have it in her to bellow PLEASE USE THE MIC or PLEASE EAT THE MIC as often as the gesture would be helpful. But onward!
One success point: last year for some of these sessions, the person doing CART transcription brought a tablet and helped RantWoman make the font large enough that she could read along as speakers spoke. This helped A LOT. It was visually tiring and a little bit got in the way of paying attention to body language, but it helped a LOT. For subsequent sessions, RantWoman also brought her own laptop and just relied on the captions link.
When RantWoman is in video conference calls, she now turns captioning on whenever she can. RantWoman realizes she really needs to nudge one organization about this topic. On this organization's calls the norm is definitely not to turn on cameras, but RantWoman needs to make the point that some people have enough vision to read captions. One of these days RantWoman will comment separately about both improvements in transcription quality and sometimes really funny transcription errors.
Next we come to Air Pods! Last summer RantWoman and a friend were sitting in an Amtrak station attempting to have a conversation. Friend at one point asked "I have an extra pair of Air Pods. Would you like them?" RantWoman tried them while they were paired to friend's phone. YES! They made a difference. But train stations are not great places for sustained interactions with technology directions. Progress got as basic help from a couple Google searches but not far enough for pairing success.
Air pods Round 2
A quiet place. An annual autumn jaunt east of the mountains to a weekend retreat. A lot of people who go to bed earlier than RantWoman. Some fussing with directions. Pairing SUCCESS! Figure out the Android Sound amplification function. Grab a few YouTube videos through the Wifi without disturbing the Early to Bed crowd. Head into a small group discussion the next day. Phone on table. Airpods in ears. Figure out to use the Phone audio, not the Media audio. MUCH more energy for interacting with the content of the conversation!
The only quirk: RantWoman had to take the Air pod out of her good ear when she talked so she did not have to listen to herself twice,
Last week RantWoman had two more rounds of small group discussion in big room full of several small group discussions. One of these exercises came with a small portable Karaoke machine and a mic. SO COOL for the small group. Not so great for small group report back without a mic for soft spoken people across the room.
One small twitch: RantWoman is the sort of flake who might like gloves on strings through coat sleeves just like little kids get. Airpod size is VERY cool, but RantWoman frets about an Air pod falling out of her ear and getting lost in papers or on the floor. For now RantWoman will COPE. RantWoman will grumble but will cope, at least long enough to get a real evaluation.
