My first experience with hearing loss occurred in kindergarten. When the teacher asked the class to listen to and respond to questions through headphones, all I heard through them was garbled speech. The audiologist later told my parents that I could hear normally, but that I just needed to pay attention. From the age … Continue reading
Filed under Can’t Live without Captions …
A Sneak Peek into Lipreading Mom’s Real Life Show
Welcome to this week’s episode of Lipreading Mom’s Real Life. Today, our guests include: a slightly frazzled mom of three… her adorable daughter who is home sick with a fever… her oldest son who is off to school… and her charming five-year-old boy as he waits for the kindergarten bus to arrive. (Hubby is off … Continue reading
Ten Things I Want My Children (And You) to Know
My book, Confessions of a Lip Reading Mom, is dedicated to my husband and our three children. And for good reason. All they have ever known is a mom who must read lips to hear them. A mom who asks for sentence repeats. A mom who answers many a question with, “Huh? What was that?” … Continue reading
Meet My Friend, Wendy, Who Is Going Deaf and Blind
A couple of weeks ago, I met for lunch and swimming with my friend, Wendy, and her children. As the two of us watched our kids splash and jump around in a neighborhood pool, Wendy and I chatted about her hearing loss and blindness. I had so many questions to ask her that I couldn’t … Continue reading
Hop in Your Car and Come to Open Captioned Drive-In Movie with Lipreading Mom
Will you come along on an exciting trip with Lipreading Mom in a history-making event? Tonight, I head to the first-ever open captioned drive-in movie shown in the good ol’ town of Kansas City. The featured film: Monsters University. And I won’t be alone—dozens of deaf and hard of hearing residents and their families will … Continue reading
Five Survival Tips for Summertime Gatherings with a Hearing Loss
It’s summer, oh glorious summer! But for the 1 in 10 people with hearing loss, it’s also the most challenging time for communication. Lipreading Mom should know. I’ve had 12 years of hearing loss experience. The whole family is packed around the picnic table, busily chatting about their good fortune and laying food onto their … Continue reading
Captioning Advocates Are Needed! An Interview with the Collaboration for Communication Access via Captioning (CCAC)
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 … Continue reading
Captions Come with Choices: A Guest Post by CaptionFish.com
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 … Continue reading
Captions Go Back in Time: A Look at Movie Captioning Past and Present with YourLocalCinema.com
Have you wondered why many of us—Lipreading Mom included—are so passionate about captioning and accessible entertainment? As someone with hearing loss, I know the benefit of having captions, assistive listening devices, and other accessible technology. It is the difference between understanding media and not. I asked Derek Brandon, editor of YourLocalCinema.com in the United Kingdom, … Continue reading
Captions Past and Present: An Interview with Closed Captioning Pioneer Larry Goldberg
Did you know that closed captioning dates back to 1970s’ government programs? Or that the first reflective-glass captioning devices used in movie theaters were modeled off of bike helmets? Lipreading Mom recently interviewed the pioneer of cinema captioning technology—Larry Goldberg. Known as the inventor of rear-window captioning theater technology, Goldberg is director of the Carl … Continue reading
