Imagine this:
You are pregnant. You know what it is like to give birth. You are deaf. You ask hospital in advance for a live on site interpreter for the birth. Hospital says no. You sue. You lose because hospital convinces a magistrate that video remote interpreting (VRI) is good enough.
Despite reports in news that they will give you a live interpreter when the birth happens you are forced to have VRI. AND the VRI fails as you are giving birth!
You are having surgery. Then at an important time before surgery, in recovery, or in the hospital room, VRI fails.
You are in the emergency room. Right when it's needed the most, like during treatment or post-treatment instructions and discharge, VRI fails.
There is no backup and the hospital refuses to call for a live interpreter. All attempts at getting the medical people to write are failing.
Just how unacceptable are these scenarios/situations?
According to the National Association of the Deaf position statement on VRI, "If a deaf person uses sign language, hospitals should provide a qualified sign language interpreter..."
Seems there's no consensus in the courts about what "effective communication" actually means.
There's a petition going around related to the case mentioned above:
Bethesda Hospital East: Apologize to Margaret Weiss and Respect Deaf Patients' Needs!
Use this hashtag in social media and Twitter! #DeafChoice
Showing posts with label communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label communication. Show all posts
Friday, July 24, 2015
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Researching Your Knee Replacement - Part 1
Not researching your upcoming surgery and asking your doctor questions can backfire in terms of nasty surprises and then some arising from false assumptions. Even I had a few unexpected things pop up. This is not a surgery to take lightly. It's something that *WILL* change your life to a degree and the road to recovery will take a LOT of work.
Robin's Total Knee Replacement site was the first I visited. She underwent two total knee replacements (TKR). It's got links for TKR and hip replacements sites. Her knee's inability to straighten out at first mirrors me at the moment, as seen in her TKR entry updated July 1998. Exercise and walking can help in straightening it out more, including swimming.
Marie wrote Is a Total Knee Replacement Worth It? Her experiences nearly mirror mine. It was worth it despite being in a rehab facility for 3 weeks. I went from bedbound to using a walker.
While beds in hospitals and some at nursing homes and rehab facilities are adjustable in height, your own bed may not be. It may help to keep something nearby to get up onto it if it's higher than normal.
Robin's Total Knee Replacement site was the first I visited. She underwent two total knee replacements (TKR). It's got links for TKR and hip replacements sites. Her knee's inability to straighten out at first mirrors me at the moment, as seen in her TKR entry updated July 1998. Exercise and walking can help in straightening it out more, including swimming.
Marie wrote Is a Total Knee Replacement Worth It? Her experiences nearly mirror mine. It was worth it despite being in a rehab facility for 3 weeks. I went from bedbound to using a walker.
While beds in hospitals and some at nursing homes and rehab facilities are adjustable in height, your own bed may not be. It may help to keep something nearby to get up onto it if it's higher than normal.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I Have Selective Hearing?
The post by The Rebuttal, Bullying and the Deaf, reminds me of a lot of this stuff that happened to me long ago, especially around middle school up til mid high school. I posted about teasing and mistreatment here on the blog back in October 2007, Growing Up Deaf, parts 18 to 21.
I'd nearly forgotten about a few quotes until it was mentioned in the article. More specifically, halfway down, "you can hear well when you want to," "you have selective hearing," and "you're not deaf, you can hear" would sometimes be directed my way if I had a hard time understanding someone. Just because I heard someone say something or talk doesn't mean I understood them.
Jeez, accuse a deaf guy of having a hearing loss and attempting to communicate, willya?! Hey, hearie, can I accuse you of having such an insensitive attitude?
I'd nearly forgotten about a few quotes until it was mentioned in the article. More specifically, halfway down, "you can hear well when you want to," "you have selective hearing," and "you're not deaf, you can hear" would sometimes be directed my way if I had a hard time understanding someone. Just because I heard someone say something or talk doesn't mean I understood them.
Jeez, accuse a deaf guy of having a hearing loss and attempting to communicate, willya?! Hey, hearie, can I accuse you of having such an insensitive attitude?
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Growing up Deaf - Part 9
Speech therapy
Around the second year of kindergarten in Kentucky and/or first grade, I had speech therapy. I believe I did quite well, so I never went for a long time. It was, if I remember right, an Easter Seal Society thing in the downtown area. I'm hoping that next time I'm back I'm back in KY, I can go visit them again and see if by chance they'll still have my records.
They had all kinds of methods to help out in the therapy. One method that seems to have stuck with me today, even though I almost never used it, having used it twice in about 10 years, is when you feel someone's throat and lipread them. Then there was the requisite mirror on the wall. That "throat feel" method I used in a couple interesting ways. Once it was at a computer show on a friend's computer running a game, which had a narrator talking in demo mode. While watching the narrator, I put my hand on the speaker, and listened to the narrator talk. I understood just about everything. For a training video one time using the same method, I understood everything. Doing it on a human is the same process. It takes practice, but in some cases, will wear you out quickly. However, it's not for everyone.
Then for fifth grade, we had the occasional speech thing. The therapist would have us sit in a line of chairs and go from there. At one point, she had us "flicker" a candle with our breath without blowing it out, saying certain words. I blew it out just for the heck of it with an overly-pronounced "P" sound. It was around this time when I started learning sign.
Even today, while I talk well and am understandable, I still manage to mangle or mispronounce words at times. Even hearing people think I'm hearing when I talk. Again, in these times, there was no encouragement to learn sign and use it. My parents were told not to learn sign, but to keep me talking as they were afraid that if I was to learn sign, I would quit talking. It seems no one thought of total or simultaneous communications long ago. It was either oral or sign. This would later become an emotional sticking point with adoptive mom and I, seeing how much I missed over time.
However, who am I blaming for this issue of not signing? I'm not blaming my parents for that, even though they listened to the so-called "experts" at the time. The issue back then and still going today as I've said before is not to force a deaf or late-deafened person to become "hearing." The hearing loss is still there.
Best thing to do is to give them the tools they need for effective communications, which is total and/or simultaneous communications. Learning to talk and using your voice is one way to 'please' the hearies out there. Adding on sign language 'rebels' against the hearing people in a way, and still allows you to communicate. I will also repeat one thing I've said before... Hearing and understanding can easily be two different things for those with hearing losses. Just because something is heard, if at all, doesn't mean that it will be understood and known.
Next - Attending elementary school.
Around the second year of kindergarten in Kentucky and/or first grade, I had speech therapy. I believe I did quite well, so I never went for a long time. It was, if I remember right, an Easter Seal Society thing in the downtown area. I'm hoping that next time I'm back I'm back in KY, I can go visit them again and see if by chance they'll still have my records.
They had all kinds of methods to help out in the therapy. One method that seems to have stuck with me today, even though I almost never used it, having used it twice in about 10 years, is when you feel someone's throat and lipread them. Then there was the requisite mirror on the wall. That "throat feel" method I used in a couple interesting ways. Once it was at a computer show on a friend's computer running a game, which had a narrator talking in demo mode. While watching the narrator, I put my hand on the speaker, and listened to the narrator talk. I understood just about everything. For a training video one time using the same method, I understood everything. Doing it on a human is the same process. It takes practice, but in some cases, will wear you out quickly. However, it's not for everyone.
Then for fifth grade, we had the occasional speech thing. The therapist would have us sit in a line of chairs and go from there. At one point, she had us "flicker" a candle with our breath without blowing it out, saying certain words. I blew it out just for the heck of it with an overly-pronounced "P" sound. It was around this time when I started learning sign.
Even today, while I talk well and am understandable, I still manage to mangle or mispronounce words at times. Even hearing people think I'm hearing when I talk. Again, in these times, there was no encouragement to learn sign and use it. My parents were told not to learn sign, but to keep me talking as they were afraid that if I was to learn sign, I would quit talking. It seems no one thought of total or simultaneous communications long ago. It was either oral or sign. This would later become an emotional sticking point with adoptive mom and I, seeing how much I missed over time.
However, who am I blaming for this issue of not signing? I'm not blaming my parents for that, even though they listened to the so-called "experts" at the time. The issue back then and still going today as I've said before is not to force a deaf or late-deafened person to become "hearing." The hearing loss is still there.
Best thing to do is to give them the tools they need for effective communications, which is total and/or simultaneous communications. Learning to talk and using your voice is one way to 'please' the hearies out there. Adding on sign language 'rebels' against the hearing people in a way, and still allows you to communicate. I will also repeat one thing I've said before... Hearing and understanding can easily be two different things for those with hearing losses. Just because something is heard, if at all, doesn't mean that it will be understood and known.
Next - Attending elementary school.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Defining Total/Simultaneous Communications
This is a response to Patti Raswant's blog post as well as the DBC requests.
There seems to be some confusion about what total communications and simultaneous are. I was brought up via the oral method as a child, but then started using simultaneous communications later on. I often use sim comm when I'm with other deaf and with those who don't use or don't know sign language.
Observe these URLs;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Communication
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_Communication
http://deafness.about.com/cs/communication/a/totalcomm.htm
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/SupportServices/series/4010.html
Simultaneous communications, according to what I was told and experienced multiple times, is the use of speech/lipreading and sign at the same time. Total Communications is the use of all means of communications whenever. Meaning, in the course of the day, someone goes through speech therapy, and then at home, uses sign language. It's not time-sensitive.
There seems to be some confusion about what total communications and simultaneous are. I was brought up via the oral method as a child, but then started using simultaneous communications later on. I often use sim comm when I'm with other deaf and with those who don't use or don't know sign language.
Observe these URLs;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Communication
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_Communication
http://deafness.about.com/cs/communication/a/totalcomm.htm
http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/SupportServices/series/4010.html
Simultaneous communications, according to what I was told and experienced multiple times, is the use of speech/lipreading and sign at the same time. Total Communications is the use of all means of communications whenever. Meaning, in the course of the day, someone goes through speech therapy, and then at home, uses sign language. It's not time-sensitive.
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