Can you hear well when it’s noisy?

Do you struggle to hear in lots of noise? Lipreading Mom has a confession to make: I do. Restaurants, group socials, my children’s school events, windy outdoor venues. Even with my hearing aids, these places are a challenge for my ears.

I recently interviewed a representative with Phonak, a large manufacturer of hearing technology based in Switzerland. A couple of my questions concern the problem of hearing in noisy situations and how Phonak is addressing the issue. Is there any hope for those of us with hearing loss in these situations?

Lipreading Mom: Phonak has several new hearing aid products publicized on its website. What sets these newest hearing aids apart from what is currently on the market (i.e., Phonak Audéo Q, Bolero Q, Virto Q, and Naída Q, water-resistant products)?

Phonak: The “Q” from those product names stands for Quest, our new platform. The Quest platform was introduced in October 2012 and was presented with our BTE and ITE products Bolero Q and Virto Q. This platform is based on the unique Binaural VoiceStream Technology. The unique ability to stream in real time, bi-directionally, with the full audio bandwidth has already led to Phonak hallmark features such as ZoomControl and StereoZoom. By leveraging deep audiological insights obtained from hearing care professionals that work with Phonak products every day and pushing the boundaries of technology even further, Binaural VoiceStream Technology™ is now able to help our clients hear and interact better in the most challenging situations. These include listening in a windy situation and listening in loud noise. With the development of the new features Speech in Wind and auto StereoZoom Phonak has conquered two more challenging sound environments. You can watch an interview of Phonak Senior Research Audiologist Gurjit Singh talking about the benefits of Binaural VoiceStream Technology here.

Wind noise has always proved a challenge to hearing aid wearers with even a gentle breeze disrupting clarity. Speech in Wind first detects the wind noise level in both hearing aids. Then, through sophisticated binaural processing the results are compared in real-time. The aid with the better speech signal is identified and the good signal is streamed to the other side. The resulting increase in speech intelligibility has been measured to be as high as 40%. You can watch and hear a demonstration of Speech in Wind here.

The second new feature, auto StereoZoom, is the only technology capable of narrowing the focus sufficiently by using Binaural VoiceStream Technology™. This leads to a significant 3 dB improvement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For users this means an improvement in speech intelligibility of up to 45%. Thanks to the technical enhancements of the Quest platform, StereoZoom is now integrated into the SoundFlow automatic program. This eliminates the need for users to make manual adjustments. The hearing aid automatically focuses on the voice they want to hear, allowing them to effortlessly interact in the most challenging of hearing environments. You can watch and hear a demonstration of auto StereoZoom here.

With the introduction of Audéo Q and Naída Q in April we have further expanded the Quest platform with two new product lines and now offer targeted solutions for all degrees of hearing loss. Audéo Q enhances the spontaneous acceptance and enables more signal, less noise and better understanding in more listening situations – even with open fit. The new Tinnitus Balance Portfolio – available with Audéo Q – offers hearing care professionals essential tools to support a variety of tinnitus management philosophies. The Water Resistant Naída Q product family delivers premium performance for people with severe to profound hearing loss.

Additionally to the Quest platform for hearing aids We also recently announced Roger, a new digital standard that we describe as ‘bridging the understanding gap’, in noise and over distance, by wirelessly transmitting the speaker’s voice directly to the listener. Its speech-in-noise performance has already been scientifically proven to surpass that of today’s existing FM and equivalent digital wireless microphone systems.

How it works is that the person with hearing loss simply attaches a tiny Roger receiver to their hearing aids or CI, while the speaker wears a Roger wireless microphone, such as inspiro, to complete the Roger system. This technology transmits the speaker’s words, without any distracting background noise, to their hearing aids/CI’s, which really helps the listener to better hear and understand what’s being said.

Roger is available first for the school market, from June this year, meaning it will enable thousands of children with hearing loss to hear, understand and do better in school.

I noticed there is a link at Phonak.com in which to have one’s hearing tested online. How does that work?

The basic approach of the test is to make a so called SPIN test (speech in noise). So each sound is a combination of a speech signal and a background noise. The speech sounds and the background sound are separated to create different signal-to-noise ratios.

The background noise is a noise signal (e.g. White noise, Pink noise, ICRA noise, etc.) and equal for each speech sound. The sound samples are presented in a 3×3 matrix and are visually supported by pictograms. When the user starts the test the sound examples are randomly presented, 3 times each. The user then has to select the pictogram of the identified speech sound or has to press “No understanding”.

Depending on the result for each sound sample the SNR is increased (“No understanding” or wrong selected sound pictogram) or decreased (by identification of the right speech sound).

For an accurate measurement of your hearing ability, you should always consult with a qualified hearing care professional.

In this manner a SNR threshold as a measurement for the hearing capabilities of the user can be estimated.

Before starting the hearing test the user has the opportunity to set the presentation level of sounds. A rough calibration can be done by a presentation of an appropriate sound example and setting a moderate loudness level by the user. As second input information the age and the gender of the user is also asked. This information can be used to estimate the age-related hearing loss for the final result presentation.

At the end of the hearing test a summary with pre-defined user information’s for further recommended actions is presented.

It is important to keep in mind that this online hearing screening is for informational purposes only. Taking a hearing test online does not replace a professional hearing evaluation. For an accurate measurement of your hearing ability, you should always consult with a qualified hearing care professional.

What is the Hear the World Foundation, and how can LipreadingMom.com readers support its work?

The Hear the World Foundation is a Sonova Group Initiative and is committed to improving the quality of life and promoting equal opportunities for people with hearing loss globally since 2006. The Foundation has a special focus on projects that support children in reaching their development milestones and realizing their full potential in life regardless of their hearing loss. To date, the Hear the World Foundation has been involved in over 45 projects on all 5 continents and has, thus, already given thousands of people with hearing loss the chance of a better life. Further information on the Foundation’s project work is available in the activity report.

Starting in June Hear the World will also be focusing on prevention and education in addition to its worldwide charitable work.

Topics will include:

Babies and hearing loss (June/July 2013), with stories on the legal situation and handling of new born screenings in different geographical regions, special topics like cesarean and newborn screenings, information on types and degrees of hearing loss and how to deal with it (hearing aids, CI)

Development of speech and language capabilities (September/October 2013), with stories on the reasons for hearing loss in children, warning signs that a child suffers from hearing loss, Role of hearing for speech and language development as well as tips for parents on how to support their child with hearing loss in daily life situations.

Education and hearing loss (November/December/January 2013/14) with stories on the situation of children with hearing loss at school, the concept of inclusion, challenges for (regular) schools, teacher, pupils and parents as well as technological solutions to support children with hearing loss in their education.

People can help Hear The World advocate their objectives by:

1. Liking them on Facebook and spreading the word through social media.

2. Help them reduce hearing loss, by encouraging friends and family to protect and cherish their hearing

3. Make a donation to help them enable children with hearing loss to have access to hearing health care, an education, integrate into the community and realize their full potential in life.

4. Invite people that you know to apply to the “52 children” program that gives one child in need per week the gift of better hearing.

Phonak’s HearingLikeMe.com allows anyone touched by hearing loss to share their experiences. How can LipreadingMom.com readers get involved?

HearingLikeMe.com is an online community for those who have been touched by hearing loss. The site features stories of children and adults who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, as well as the parents, spouses, and hearing professionals who care for them.

Membership is free, and it opens the door to forum discussions, the opportunity to share a personal hearing loss story, and a world of videos, articles and comments about the challenges — and successes — of hearing loss. It is advocacy in action.

When your audience gets involved with HearingLikeMe, they immediately become part of a special community. The more involvement we have, the stronger the community becomes.

Shanna, you may want to visit our “Spread the Word” page, where we have a number of digital assets that bloggers and journalists can download or copy for use on their own site. If you have any other needs, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Please feel free to share any other information about Phonak, its services, and products.

Phonak has recently decided to invest more resources and energy to engage directly with people on social media channels. We are aware that people talk about Phonak on those channels and we want to be part of those conversations in order to improve the overall experience people have with our products . In this regard we are making an effort to consolidate our presence and would like to invite everybody that is willing to have a conversation with us to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter or Google+. You can also subscribe to our official Youtube channel and for those interested we even have a presence on Instagram where we would love to see more pictures of people with #Phonak hearing aids

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Readers—Share Your Experiences

How do you cope with noisy hearing situations? Please share your comments below—Lipreading Mom likes to read them.

A sneak peek at the Stop Hearing Loss Bullying Campaign Video – Premiering May 24th

This week, May 19-25, is Stop Hearing Loss Bullying Awareness Week. Help Lipreading Mom promote this cause—as well as the worldwide premiere of the Stop Hearing Loss Bullying Campaign Video, which premieres online via the campaign page this Friday, May 24.

What is the Stop Hearing Loss Bullying Campaign?

This spring, a group of 12 people, including Lipreading Mom, got together to brainstorm how to stop the troubling phenomenon of bullying among people who are deaf or have hearing loss. Each person answered the question: Why do I support Stop Hearing Loss Bullying? Then the participants submitted photos of themselves to Lipreading Mom. The photos included their faces, hearing aid or cochlear implant side profiles, and hands using sign language.

How You Can Help

1) Spread the word to all your contacts about the Official Stop Hearing Loss Bullying Page.

2) On Facebook, “like” and share the #Stophearinglossbullying page.

4) On Twitter, tweet the following message: “I support #StopHearingLossBullying. Join me at http://LipreadingMom.com!”

Watch for the Video Premiere this Friday, May 24, at LipreadingMom.com!

I like my ears. Don’t you? Show Me Your Ears

When I got my first hearing aids in 2003, I was anxious. What would the world sound like amplified? Would I enjoy the noise? It wasn’t until nearly 10 years later after receiving my third pair of hearing aids that I was actually excited about my new ear technology. Not able to afford hearing aids this time, I had been contacted by ReSound to see if I’d like to sample their new hearing aids, the Versos. I said sure.

Who did I tell when I could hear the sounds of birds or wind chimes for the first time in years? My three kids. “Your mom can hear that!” I’d announce, a huge smile on my face. “Isn’t that so cool?”

As Lipreading Mom, I wonder how many other folks have had cool hearing stories like mine.

I asked Mary Rapaport with ReSound, which has launched the Moments Maker campaign for these “hearing moments,” why it is important to share what we hear.

Lipreading Mom: When and why did the Moments Movement begin? Who inspired this movement?

Mary Rapaport: The idea for the movement was inspired by the launch of Verso – our latest product – and the stories we started collecting from our hearing healthcare providers about how they were using the product to help patients. We are proud of our technology and how it can help create these moments, but we started to notice that as our customers told stories about moments they had been able to make happen for their patients, they really just lit up. Their energy and enthusiasm was infectious. And inspiring. We got really excited about being a part of making those moments happen and wanted to hear (and share) many more of them. It’s the impact that these professionals have on the lives of patients that reminds us all why we are in this business.

If someone wasn’t a ReSound customer, how can he/she participate in and support the Moments Movement?

You don’t have to be a ReSound customer to participate. We know that there are so many professionals across the country that have terrific stories – they can participate by visiting our website www.gnresound.com/moments and submitting their moments online.

How would you answer this question—”I would like to participate in the Moments Movement, but I can’t afford hearing aids. How can ReSound help me?”

The Moments Movement is to celebrate the joy that hearing healthcare professionals provide to their patients by providing them with hearing instruments. It also allows patients to share the wonderful experience with hearing instruments or with the hearing professional they work with. We want to make people aware of the importance of addressing hearing loss.

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Readers—Who Did You Tell When You First Could Hear?

If you have a special hearing ‘a-ha’ moment, I would love for you to share it below.

Photo Credit: StarkeyHearingFoundation.org

Lipreading Mom receives emails from readers with the same question—How do I pay for hearing aids? For many, the price of hearing technology is just too much. Insurance doesn’t usually cover hearing aids, and not everyone has a nest egg built up to purchase these expensive devices.

In my “hearing loss life,” I’ve owned three pairs of hearing aids. All but one pair were charged to my credit card. The second pair was manufactured by a company named Starkey.

In an ongoing look at hearing aid manufacturers, Lipreading Mom recently contacted Taylor Joseph with Starkey Hearing Foundation in Minnesota about the company’s programs to provide hearing aids to those who can’t afford them.

Lipreading Mom: When did the Starkey “Hear Now” program begin, and how many candidates have been fitted with hearing aids thus far?

Taylor Joseph: Started in early 1988 by Dr. Bernice Dinner, Hear Now officially became part of the Starkey Hearing Foundation in 1999 to meet the growing demand for hearing help. Since then we have provided hearing aids to more than 50,000 people through the program.

With our extensive international mission schedule, many people don’t realize that Starkey Hearing Foundation has provided more hearing help to people in the United States than to any other country. We do this through domestic hearing missions and the daily efforts of Hear Now. Each person we help is fit with brand new, top-of-the-line digital hearing aids that are customized to their hearing loss.

How would you respond to this concern expressed by many of my readers at LipreadingMom.com – “I need and want hearing aids, but my insurance doesn’t cover them and I can’t afford them. How can I get financial help for hearing aids?”

That’s a concern we hear every day. Anyone in need of assistance should contact the Hear Now program – 800.328.8602 or hearnow@starkeyfoundation.org to see if they qualify. Hear Now is a program for people who have no resources to acquire hearing aids, so if it is not the right fit for them, our coordinators can direct them to other assistance programs as well. More information can be found here: http://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/programs/hear-now/

“Alone we can’t do much. Together we can change the world.”

How did Starkey’s overseas work with hearing aids and the deaf/hearing loss community begin? How many people have been fitted with Starkey hearing aids globally through this program? How can interested volunteers get involved with these missions?

Bill Austin has been giving the gift of hearing to people in need for as long as he’s been in the hearing industry and officially founded Starkey Hearing Foundation in 1984. To date we have provided more than 1 million hearing aids worldwide. The work started in the U.S., but hearing loss knows no borders. We soon expanded into Mexico, South America and beyond and have now provided hearing care in more than 110 countries. Currently, we fit more than 100,000 hearing aids annually.

Bill Austin always says, “Alone we can’t do much. Together we can change the world.” We live by that philosophy and know it takes the strength of many to truly make a global impact. People can help in a number of ways:

1. Follow us and spread the word through social media.

2. Collect and donate used hearing aids to our recycling program that can be used to help someone need overseas.

3. Help reduce the dramatic increase in hearing loss in you people, by encouraging friends and family to protect their hearing and Listen Carefully.

4. Donate money or hold a fundraiser to support our efforts. We’ve seen some amazing success stories with individual fundraising. Lucas Morang is 14 and has raised more than $33,000!

5. People looking to assist on missions can reach out to us at info@starkeyfoundation.org.

What type of work does Starkey do with companies (such as Scholastic) to promote healthy hearing practices? What is involved with the Vow-to-Act movement? How can LipreadingMom.com readers get involved with Listen Carefully?

We launched Listen Carefully in 2011 as an education and awareness program that aims to reverse the dramatic increase in preventable hearing loss among young people. The message is simple: Your hearing is fragile. So don’t listen loudly. Listen Carefully.

Miley Cyrus, Jordin Sparks, Larry Fitzgerald, Adrian Peterson and many others have joined us to spread the word and let people know that the majority of hearing loss can be prevented through simple daily actions, like lowering the volume on an iPod or using earplugs at a concert. Through the Vow to Act people can commit to taking measures to protect their hearing and encourage friends and family to do the same.

In May 2012, we partnered with Scholastic, Inc. to further educate young people on the issue and have potentially reached more than 500,000 students through our nationally-accredited teaching guide. It’s available to everyone for free download here: http://www.scholastic.com/listencarefully/

Your readers can help us by spreading the word through social media (using the hashtag #ListenCarefully on Twitter) and in everyday conversation, Vowing to Act themselves, or sharing the message with a school in their area and encouraging them to use the teaching guide/message with students.

Please take a moment to explain any other Starkey Hearing Foundation programs, which may be of interest to LipreadingMom.com readers.

At Starkey Hearing Foundation, we use hearing as a vehicle to reflect caring and improve the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world. By providing the gift of hearing and showing people in need that we care about them, we are hoping to help them achieve their full potential. We want to empower them and give them hope for a better life, which in turn, gives them the opportunity to do the same for others.

The important thing to remember is that you don’t have to give away 100,000 hearing aids to make a difference. Helping at a homeless shelter, serving as a mentor or even just smiling and saying hello to a stranger can have a huge impact. You just have to show someone that you care.

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Readers—If you have hearing aids, how did you pay for them?

Share your experiences below.

Lipreading Mom with Author Tara Chevrestt-Hightower at the DCC

I love visiting museums. Don’t you?

Lipreading Mom is fortunate to live in the same state as the United States’ only Deaf cultural museum. The Deaf Cultural Center and William J. Marra Museum (DCC) in Olathe, Kansas, houses artifacts from the Kansas School for the Deaf (located across the street) and much more… State and national Deaf history displays… A prototype apartment wired with Deaf-accessible technology… A captioned movie about the Deaf culture… Hands-on sign language classes for all ages… Artwork by Deaf artists.

Photo Credit: Deaf Cultural Center

Did I mention the museum’s tour guides are some of the friendliest on the planet?

What I Learned at the Deaf Cultural Center

A few weeks ago, I held a book signing for Confessions of a Lip Reading Mom at the DCC. Director Sandra Kelly (who is hearing) sign-interpreted while I did a book reading, allowing the event to be accessible to all. She did the same thing for my 2009 book signing event for Lip Reader. Regardless of hearing ability, we all felt welcomed by Sandra and her volunteers.

A week later, I returned with a friend who had traveled from Utah. Tara Chevrestt-Hightower is an accomplished author who, because of her own profound hearing loss, was eager to tour the DCC. We were greeted by Chuck, a bubbly tour guide who happens to be Deaf. Chuck spoke and signed while leading the tour. He made sure to face me and Tara so we could lip read him. Tara, who doesn’t use sign language, chatted with us about her experiences growing up as a lip reader. It was interesting to learn how much Tara, Chuck, and I had in common as people who rely on lipreading.

Afterward, Sandra explained that the DCC is inclusive of all communication methods—sign language, lipreading, cued speech, speaking, assistive listening devices, pen and paper. No one at the museum is frowned upon if they don’t use sign language. Sandra made such an impression on Tara that she flew home the next week and blogged about how the museum helped her better grasp her identity as a person with hearing loss.

I met some kindred spirits in Tara, Sandra, and Chuck.

Deaf Cultural Center Director Sandra Kelly poses for Lipreading Mom’s Show Me Your Ears!

Lipreading Mom with Chuck, the DCC’s very friendly tour guide

If you are planning 2013 travel, I highly recommend a visit to Kansas and the DCC. Maybe you’ll learn something cool that you can share with Lipreading Mom.

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Have You Ever Visited the Deaf Cultural Center…or Another Deaf-Friendly Museum?

I’d love to read your comments! Take a moment to share your experience with me and fellow readers by commenting below.

As a Lipreading Mom, I spend most of my days attempting to read the lips of three young children. Difficult? It can be, but I’ve gotten lots of practice at it.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Csaba Solymosi with a site called Lipreading.org. The site, which offers online lipreading training, intrigued me for obvious reasons. If there were an online resource that could improve my skills at lipreading my three children, I’d jump at it! Wouldn’t you?

Csaba recently took time to answer my questions about the site.

Lipreading Mom: How did Lipreading.org start?

Csaba Solymosi: Lipreading.org was born from the frustration both a hard-of-hearing friend of mine, and I, suffered; there was no resource online for practicing how to lipread. Lipreading is useful to a lot of people: There are roughly 28 million people in the US with hearing issues and as we age and lose hearing, many of us will want to learn lipreading. (Estimates of Baby Boomers who will have any degree of hearing loss range from 20-60%!)

Inspired by sites like Coursera and Khan Academy, we both recognized the importance of deliberate practice – the uncomfortable, methodical work of stretching your ability. This was extremely hard to achieve outside of lipreading classes, but the interactive nature of the web presented a new approach to this.

Our vision was breaking the learning process down into simple 10-minute sessions, that anyone can include in their daily routine. Real hands-on practices by using simple games, with real people lipspeaking words, and sentences, allows one to make a mental prediction of what’s being said, and have immediate feedback on it. And finally, by personalizing the lessons to one’s current level of skill, we can make the best use of their learning time.

What is your personal experience with lipreading?

Going out to events in London, pubs, and restaurants are full of noise hazards: people can’t understand each other, let alone have productive communication. The feeling of helplessness, of missing out what’s being talked about, and the lost opportunities of making new friend was really frustrating.

I started researching how to read lips, faces, and body movements to make up for my shortcomings; but it made me realize there just aren’t many practical resources—exercises, tips, how-tos—on the web about lipreading.

So I turned to the scientific literature: the process of lipreading has been studied, and researched for 40 years, and there are tons of whitepapers on computer-based lipreading teaching; but the actual training programs are usually thrown away, got obsoleted, or simply unavailable after the study. Based on this, and interviews with experienced lipreaders, I started reproducing a number of training programs, and using it myself.

I started noticing early results on the second week, and the quality of conversations sharply get better after the second month.

Do you agree with the term speechreading or lipreading as a concept for reading lips and interpreting visual cues? Why?

A common misrepresentation of the fact, that only 30% to 40% of sounds in the English language are distinguishable from sight alone, is that lipreaders can only understand 30-40% of the spoken words.

Competitive lipreading shows an entirely different picture. At the annual lip reading competition by Better Hearing Australia, “The majority of people, even if they have learned lip reading struggle with the test and score somewhere between 40 and & 50%. However, there are a few skilled people who will score as much as 96%.”

How can they achieve such precision with this limited visual perception? One of their secret lies with meta-communication: by using both visual, and contextual clues, and doing some common-sense “guess work”, both content, and intention can be inferred. Occasionally, reading body language even goes *beyond* the verbal communication, by showing subtle clues of tiredness, or desire of the speaker.

I believe, that the goal of lipreaders is reaching mutual understanding with the speaker, and anything that can help reaching this understanding, is worth learning. Our ultimate goal is to give such holistic understanding, so that you don’t have to feel left out from conversations ever again.

What tips do you have for a person wanting to learn lipreading?

Probably the best method would be one-on-one training with an expert mentor; unfortunately, this also tends to be the most expensive. Another might be taking lipreading classes, but for one reason, or another, most people enrolling in lipreading classes fail to show up after 4-6 weeks.

Personally, I tend to learn best when immersed into a problem, by doing real hands-on practice, so I started deliberately paying attention in conversations to the speaker’s lips. This helped not only learning lipreading, but also gaining a deeper understanding on the topic. There’s something magical going on when others notice you really pay attention to them!

So my tip would be: Engage in conversations! Don’t let speaking take the better of you. Communicate your hearing needs, and don’t be afraid of asking the speaker to slow down, or articulate. Best learning comes from time, and practice.

And whichever method you choose, our course can complement on those gloomy afternoons when no one else is around, so you can stay in shape.

We have a handful of other tips available at http://www.lipreading.org/tips-for-lip-reading.

Any other helpful lipreading suggestions or background information about Lipreading.org?

Like language learning, lipreading training acts like a muscle: the more you train, the better you become. And while there is no good substitute for putting the hours into it, by investing 10 minutes twice a week, our adaptive training program aims to pack the most amount learning in the least amount of time.

For more information and to join an online lipreading course, visit Lipreading.org.

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Readers — What Do You Think?

Do you have any questions or suggestions when it comes to the skill of lipreading? Comment below.

One of Lipreading Mom’s favorite organizations is CCAC—Collaboration for Communication Access via Captioning. Founder Lauren Storck leads volunteers worldwide on a variety of captioning advocacy projects. One of them—Show Me the Captions—promoted going to see captioned cinema films and encouraged everyone to ask for theaters to “Show me the captions!”

I recently asked Lauren a few questions about CCAC, how to get involved in captioning advocacy, and a new CCAC project called CaptionMatch.

What position does CCAC take on the issue of cinema captioning when it comes to open captions versus closed captions on personal devices (captioning glasses, CaptiView, rear window captioning)?

CCAC distributes as much information on this as possible, and encourages inclusion of quality captioning where none exists now. Therefore, we don’t “take a position” or frame it as one “versus” any other. As the founder and president of the CCAC, now an official non-profit organization, we focus on the mission and identify about ten major “categories of life” that require captioning inclusion, and one is entertainment within which cinema falls. Movies, as everyone knows are hugely enjoyable, not only for relaxation and entertainment, but also as the social activity that so many people in all countries deserve to participate in. Equal access is vital.

In terms of Open Captioning compared to Closed Captioning—there are various views among CCAC members, friends, and followers, up to about 4000 of us. In general and in brief, we believe that many members of the CCAC would select OC these days (though we have not conducted a poll about this; we have active discussions online for all members).

Having said that, many support CC using the devices because they allow many more opportunities to go to the movies (not restricted to certain showings only). With the devices, it seems very important to have enough devices (not always available yet), and that all are in good working order, before being distributed to customers. Some find the eye movements required to be cumbersome, yet many report satisfaction.

How did CaptionMatch start?

CCAC itself developed with some good planning, and to tell you the truth, rapidly grew from ground up. We love the energy of so many members now, and we want to keep membership free to encourage everyone with an interest in equal access to join, and to facilitate projects with good established groups (that charge for membership). We always seek ways to support annual CCAC expenses, kept to a minimum so far, yet they add up. CCAC is all volunteers, has no paid staff, pays no rent, and we’d also like to plan some meetings, do some needed web development, and carry forward some new advocacy needed.

By “popular demand” primarily, CCAC applied for official non-profit organizational status in 2012 (with added costs). We asked ourselves (myself with family and friends), “How can we support this project and have it become even more effective for the unique CCAC mission?” The idea of CaptionMatch hatched!

CaptionMatch is a clearinghouse, the only one of its kind we know about. The aim is to extend CCAC advocacy new ways, make it easier for anyone (any consumer, company, or organization) to ask for any kind of captioning, and offer providers a new way to find extra work if they were interested. It’s international also, and there’s a lot of basic “education” involved too – for consumers asking for the first time, and for some providers who seem to like our suggestions. Providers pay a small fee to participate. In brief, it makes captioning happen.

What are the benefits of CaptionMatch for the deaf/hard of hearing/hearing?

CaptionMatch is already used well, as we continue to develop the system online and hope may more register soon and use it to support the CCAC. CaptionMatch has a double bonus—you find the CART or captioning you need, and you show your support for the CCAC organization. The revenue from CaptionMatch will contribute to CCAC ongoing advocacy and annual costs (yet a lot of fundraising is going to be needed also, to keep the CCAC going).

Specifically for us (I am deafened for 12 years), for “consumers,” CaptionMatch offers a simple way to learn more about access for yourself and others. A consumer places a “request” online (it’s anonymous until a “match” is made). Providers who are interested send in replies which are sent to the consumer (also anonymously). The consumer gets a lot of good information about costs and systems needed, and can ask all the questions they want to ask of the providers. After the consumer selects a provider to work with, we send contact details to both and they do the planning needed for inclusion of captioning or CART.

A lot of people don’t know they can ask for CART for example, if needed for full communications; or that they can request captioning online for a webinar. A lot of producers of media, theater managers, or even some teachers and others, don’t yet understand our need for real time captioning for so many everyday things. CaptionMatch offers a lot of good examples on its website. In summary, CaptionMatch addresses some of the “hassles” we have published about (see http://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2013/04000/Advocacy_in_Audiology___The_Case_for_Captioning.11.aspx for 12 reasons why people may not “just ask,”).

As for cinema captioning, which country has been most responsive to CCAC’s efforts to promote it—the USA or U.K.—and how so?

Many advocated for cinema captioning long before the CCAC was born, in both countries (USA and UK) and indeed in other countries. Each region has its own local groups, often groups for the deaf, deafened or people with hearing loss, and also to note, many countries show “foreign films” for many years with subtitles for local audiences. Subtitles (captions) indeed help people learn new languages sometimes also.

CCAC shares and invites information from many recent cinema captioning advocacy groups, e.g. individual advocates such as you Shanna (a.k.a. Lipreading Mom), and others, as well as fantastic group efforts such as the one CCAC co-sponsored in 2012 with ALDA groups and HLAA groups (“Show Us the Captions”). There’s a summary of that on the CCAC website.

We also communicate with cinema captioning advocates and groups regularly all the time. To name a few, active groups in Utah where they show OC every month, a new group in Michigan; other USA locations, in addition to France and the UK where open captioning is enjoyed. Anyone from any location is welcome to join the CCAC and suggest a new cinema advocacy project to meet his or her local needs.

Any other information about cinema captioning and CCAC?

The only thing to add here perhaps is the “extension” of cinema viewing to Internet entertainments. As many reading know, seeing movies online, not to mention all the other videos, television, and new entertainments (e.g. web series that are completely new, never having been distributed anyplace else earlier) are a major CCAC captioning advocacy interest now. Read more on the CCAC website at http://ccacaptioning.org.

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Read More in the Lipreading Mom Captioning Series

- Captions Come with Choices: A Guest Post by CaptionFish.com

- Captions Go Back in Time: A Look at Movie Captioning Past and Present with YourLocalCinema.com

- Captions Past and Present: An Interview with Captioning Pioneer Larry Goldberg

- Captioning Goes to Court: An Interview with Attorney John Waldo

- Join the Lipreading Mom Captions Campaign

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Readers—Lend Your Support to Captioning Advocacy

Contact the CCAC through its web link above, or comment below to share your ideas or questions about promoting worldwide captioning.

When Lipreading Mom wants to see a captioned movie, I type in the URL Captionfish.com. The site allows me to search for movie theaters by zip code that provide captioned first-run films on any day of the week. It lists dates, times, and locations offering these movies. Nice and convenient, huh?

In my ongoing series of blog posts about captioning, I asked Nanci Linke-Ellis, one of Captionfish’s partners, to provide her company’s viewpoint on technological choices offered for captioned films. From open captions to personal captioning options (like cupholder devices or captioning glasses), theaters provide a wide range of ways for people with hearing loss to enjoy movies. But what does the future hold?

A Few Words from Captionfish

Captionfish considers itself technologically neutral when it comes to movie captioning. One of our partners, Nanci Linke-Ellis, started the open-captioned program in 1993 with great success. But as people clamored for more films, showtimes and locations, it became virtually impossible for theatre owners to keep up the demand for 35mm prints and had to wait for digital solutions, which were 10 years late to the scene.

Deaf/hard of hearing (DHH) audiences were not happy about having to wait 20 years to see some progress beyond limited open captioned screenings and Rear Window Caption-equipped auditoriums. Now that digital has arrived, there are three different types of captioning systems available in theatres. Many patrons have the option to choose which theatre to attend based on their preferred technology. Whether it be the Sony entertainment access glasses, CaptiView or USL, inc, both cup-holder devices, there is something for everyone. The Captionfish website lists the technology used in each theater for a patron’s information. But it also provides captioned trailers so you can decide if you want to see any given movie.

Patrons must remember that this is first generation technology (think pagers in the early 90′s) and it will improve over time as more people use the equipment. Our challenge is getting more people to know it exists. Nearly 50 percent of all theatres in North America have captioning\assistive listening devices (ALDs)\Described Video access available. Not all theatres promote it with signage or in advertising so many people don’t know to look for it. This is one of our priorities for the next several years.

In the very early stages of the captioned film program, Universal, Paramount and New Line Cinema (now owned by Warner Brothers) were the most enthusiastic. Again, in 2013, every major (large) distributor now provides caption files on the digital hard drive from which theatres project films. Regal Entertainment was the first to order across-the-board Sony Entertainment Access Glasses in all of their venues. They are still in the process of being installed and deployed, but they are getting there. It takes time to get it right, working properly with a well-trained staff in place.

Our biggest priorities are getting theatres to advertise on Captionfish.com and send patrons to our site to find showtimes, etc. Signage in theatres saying they have the equipment available is critical. We are also looking to the future where there will be a captioned trailer to “test” the captions at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the feature film, a much more complex problem then it appears on the surface.

Another future project of ours is to get a group of engineers together and have them look at all of our neck loops, direct connect cables, etc. and find a way for us to use whatever assistive technology we might have for our hearing aids or cochlear implants. It’s commonly known as “plug and play.”

Captionfish is not perfect. We are a company of three people for whom this is a labor of love. We appreciate feedback, being notified of theatres not on our list, problems with equipment that we might be able to bring to a theatre’s attention. 39,000 screens means a LOT of people are involved in the process.

Next, of course, is making sure that any new technology platform that is developed, resolves accessible issues before it’s manufactured, just like they do for the blind\low vision and wheelchair patrons. We are no different. We love our movies and other forms of entertainment. It just happens that for many patrons, our disability is invisible.40 million people are affected by some form of hearing loss. That’s a lot of movie tickets that could be sold. They need to be reminded of this all the time.

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Read More in the Lipreading Mom Captioning Series

- Captions Go Back in Time: A Look at Movie Captioning Past and Present with YourLocalCinema.com

- Captions Past and Present: An Interview with Captioning Pioneer Larry Goldberg

- Captioning Goes to Court: An Interview with Attorney John Waldo

- Join the Lipreading Mom Captions Campaign

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Share Your Comments

Do you have a question or comment relating to this article? Post your thoughts below.

Can you lip read us?

Your home (or car) is filled with lots of kids. Do you…
A) Attempt to lip read them all no matter what?
B) Try to lip read them all, then take a long break?
C) Make them sign to you?
D) Run and hide?

That is the silly question I posted today on my Facebook page. Follow the discussion (and add your thoughts) here.

If you are deaf or have hearing loss, what is your preferred means of communication with children? I created this acronym to remind my three children of what I need.

The GATS! Reminder

G – Gently get my attention before you begin talking!
A – Always face me while you speak so I can read your lips!
T – Talk to me in a quiet room where it is easier for me to hear!
S – Speak slowly and clearly!

Lipreading Mom knows that kids aren’t born with the ability to communicate in a way that I always understand. That’s why a good reminder is due for every little one who attempts to chat with me. And thank goodness for this reminder because I plan to have a houseful of kids coming for playdates this weekend. Can you say GATS!?!

Related Reading
Lipreading Tips for Parents and Grandparents

To celebrate the recent launch of Confessions of a Lip Reading Mom, I am going on a book tour…a cyber one.

During the months of April and May, I am asking all my blog followers who have a blog of their own to consider hosting me as a guest on your site. This would consist of posting an interesting and fun question-and-answer article about Lipreading Mom and the new book. If you need help with the questions, no worries. My publisher, CrossRiver Media, has compiled a list of cool questions about my hearing loss, writing, and Confessions of a Lip Reading Mom, and I’ve included some snappy answers.

Anyone who would like to participate in the Book Blog Tour receives a complimentary e-book version of Confessions of a Lip Reading Mom once my guest blog posts.

Interested in the Book Blog Tour?
Comment below or contact me. Thanks so much for your support!