BC Hands & Voices

Fun Family Picnic 2022

Posted on May 18, 2022 by BC H&V

WHO: BC Hands & Voices, Guide By Your Side, BC Early Hearing Program, CHHA BC Parents’ Branch, Family Network for Deaf Children – Deaf Youth Today (DYT)

WHAT: An event for deaf/hard of hearing children, their siblings and parents and children with their Deaf/hard of hearing parents (CODA). Join us for a fun day! We will provide:
• Fun foods like popcorn, frozen treats & carnival treats
•Entertainment and games for the kids
• An opportunity to mix and mingle with other families and with youth/young adults who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Please bring with you:
• a picnic lunch for your family
• lawn chairs or blanket to sit on

Rain or Shine! Free admission! Donations gratefully accepted at the event.

WHEN: Saturday June 11th, 10:30 am to 2:00 pm

WHERE: Victory Hill/ Provincial Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services 4334 Victory St., Burnaby BC

CONTACT/ RSVP: Registration is required so we know how many people to expect.
Please register online by June 6th at www.fndc.ca/familypicnic

See PDF flyer here>> Fun Family Picnic 2022
PDF Flyer in Traditional Chinese (繁體中文): 2022 picnic tc
or in Simplified Chinese (简体中文): 2022 picnic sc

Posted in Events, Simplified Chinese 简体中文, Traditional Chinese 繁體中文 | Comments Off

Hi, I am a Cardiac Surgeon and I am Hard of Hearing

Posted on April 28, 2022 by BC H&V

Author: Dr. Janet Ngu

Growing Up & Diagnosis

I was born and raised in Malaysia in a very loving and supportive family. No one in my family had a hearing problem and hearing screening tests were not routine in Malaysia, therefore my hearing difference was not diagnosed until I was 12 years old. Fortunately my speech and language developed in spite of my reduced auditory access, but I was having increased difficulty in school and daily life. For a very long time, I thought it was my problem that I was being inattentive or being careless. When the diagnosis of bilateral moderate-severe hearing levels was revealed to me, ironically, I had a sense of relief – it was not my fault! My mother and my aunt who were with me at the doctor’s office were in denial and I remembered them anxiously asking the doctor if there was anything that could be done.

First Hearing Aid

A month later I got my first hearing aid for my right ear, in which the hearing loss was more profound – yes, I only got one despite the fact that I have bilateral hearing loss. We thought one would be sufficient as I was not completely deaf. Honestly, I hated my first hearing aid – it was a pure sound amplifier with a significant amount of feedback. As I was wearing only one hearing aid, my localization of sound was significantly affected. I stopped wearing my first hearing aid after barely two months. Looking back, I wish I had more information and education after the diagnosis. I would have gotten bilateral hearing aids and undergone proper training and adjustment, which could have made my initial experience with hearing aids much more pleasant.

Challenges Along the Way

Without any hearing enhancement tool or skills, I managed to excel through my secondary school education (equivalent to junior and high school here in Canada). I put in extra effort on my own. I requested to sit in the front row. Not only so that I could hear better, but I also picked up lip reading. I borrowed notes from my classmates on a daily basis to make sure that I did not miss any information from the classes. I was exhausted every day as I had to work so much harder to make sure that my academic performance was on par.

Fast forward a few years, I got accepted into medical school. As you can imagine, the challenges were even more enormous. First of all, we had a big class of 150 medical students in my year. The lecture hall was so large that sitting in the front row and lip reading were simply not enough. There was also significant doubt whether I could survive a clinical setting where communication is critical. I finally went back to audiology and got a pair of hearing aids with much improved technology. My life changed for the better since then. I started to wonder how much I had missed throughout those years without hearing aids. With the same pair of hearing aids, I survived and excelled through my lengthy and challenging medical school and cardiac surgery training. Of course, not without bumps in the road.

Keep in mind that wearing hearing aids does not restore hearing completely. I still face difficulties in group meetings or social events when there is significant background noise. I still highly depend on lip reading. Without a doubt, the mask mandate during the pandemic definitely worsens the challenges for us. Take heart, I am not saying this to discourage anyone. I just want to acknowledge that there will be ongoing challenges for hard of hearing individuals, but it does not mean that we should be defeated. We can still live our lives to the fullest potential and we are all equipped to achieve goals that are bigger and higher than what we could ever dream of. In fact, we are even better equipped as compared to others. I believe that when one sense is compromised, other senses will be enhanced imparting a wonderful opportunity that others may not have. For me, I have a heightened sense of my surroundings which enhances my ability to observe minor details, which is especially useful in a surgical setting.

Lessons I’ve Learned

Personally, it has been a challenging yet fulfilling journey for me so far. I take pride in all of the challenges that I have overcome so far as these have cumulatively shaped me into who I am today. Count your blessings instead of your problems, knowing that what we focus on grows. Be open-minded to new technology, treatment or alternative communication methods, and do not even consider those as a label of disability. We shall continue to educate and support each other. There shall be no fear – being fearless is the real courage. Parents, please believe in your children that they can achieve everything they aspire to. Being deaf or hard of hearing is only a part of our identity, but it is neither our definition nor our destiny.

Last but not least, here is a little video clip that I would like to share with you all: http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1156891&binId=1.1166252&playlistPageNum=1

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Parent Connect Night on Zoom – Keep Calm & Ask a Dad

Posted on April 10, 2022 by BC H&V

To register please visit: https://tinyurl.com/2925ny4s

Download our flyer here: KCA Dad Night 5.7.2022 flyer

Posted in Coffee Night, Events | Comments Off

Thoughts from a Grandma

Posted on March 20, 2022 by BC H&V

Written by Karen

What were your feelings when you first found out about Lily’s (your granddaughter’s) identification as having a hearing loss?

Lily was such a beautiful, healthy baby that the diagnosis blindsided us. The biggest question was how and why did deafness occur in this precious baby. Hoping against all odds that the diagnosis was wrong.

Reality sunk in and the biggest need was to support the parents who were processing this new reality. The baby was flourishing and content. We were inundated with information that was foreign to us and hard to assimilate.

We were on a steep learning curve. Early Intervention services were there from the first supporting the family and providing all of us with hope that dealing with deafness was doable. One step at a time. Also trying to make sure toddler big brother didn’t get pushed to the sidelines. A perfect job for the grandparents.

How did you support your granddaughter and her family moving forward?

Once the dust settled we needed to know how to help this baby no matter what. She needed all the family to be engaged, face the diagnosis and help where needed.

In other words she needed to be treated like a regular baby but with a specific identifiable need. Her parents were both fully involved with whatever was offered. As grandparents we needed to learn about hearing aids and the myriad challenges that accompany trying to get a three month old baby to “cooperate” in wearing them.

Our daughter was involved with early intervention services from the start and educated us as grandparents so that we were on board at all times.

We treated our granddaughter like any baby, lots of cuddles, facial expressions, play, books – all the normal stuff and talking to her so that sound was not foreign to her when her hearing aids were in.

How have your lives benefited from having a dhh grandchild?

On a positive note our whole world was opened to children who are hard of hearing or deaf. We learned of resources available to the children of B.C. up to five years of age at no cost to the families. We also were encouraged as grandparents to be involved with all aspects of the services offered. I went to a basic sign language class for families of deaf children so that we could communicate with our granddaughter at an early age.

The early intervention preschool classes observed through a two-way window were very instrumental in tutoring me how to communicate with and encourage her. The staff were amazing and so welcoming to family involvement.

The journey with our granddaughter has educated us in the challenges facing the deaf community, the tools that are available for babies and up – hearing aids and cochlear implants and the need to support those with challenges of any kind, not just the spectrum of hard of hearing and deafness.

What else would you share with grandparents who are just starting this journey?

Above all do not treat your grandchild any differently from any other grandchild, each child is unique, love them unconditionally, engage with them and give them support and encouragement as needed.

Posted in Articles, Families to Families | Comments Off

Asking for Accommodations Can Be Easier Than We Think

Posted on February 24, 2022 by BC H&V

As your kids get older and start showing interest in different things, you may start putting them into various classes and workshops on their own. That’s definitely been the case for our family. My child is a preteen and has loads of different interests, many of which we pursue online. While they have good access with their devices (using either a streamer into the laptop or bluetooth connected directly with their hearing aid), they also rely heavily on captioning (for example when the background noise in our home is loud, or the speaker on screen is quiet).

As families with dhh children, we’re all familiar with the importance of captioning and interpreting for increasing access to language. Captioning is always turned on in our home for TV and movie watching. It’s just something we do. However, this isn’t the case for everyone.

Did you know that the closed captioning option isn’t a standard feature when joining a zoom call? Neither did I, until the pandemic forced us all more online. My kids’ piano lessons and martial arts classes were taught online for much of last year and while we were using different platforms I noticed the ability to turn on closed captioning wasn’t available for zoom (it is a clickable feature for Google Hangouts, Skype, Facebook and Youtube).

How to set up captioning in Zoom:

As my own workplace started conducting more meetings online I became familiar with creating more accessible meetings through zoom with closed captioning. Please see the following link for instructions: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/4409683389709-Enabling-or-disabling-closed-captioning-and-live-transcription-services

This made me think about how many other organizers may not know about this! My child attended a four-week babysitters’ course online and before the session started I contacted the organizer and asked about closed captioning. In my request email I also sent along the zoom support link for easy reference. In my experience, people are more likely to help you if you help them do it. They were very surprised but supportive of the request. They had never been asked, nor did they know that this was an option they needed to toggle. While there was some nervousness about the accuracy of captioning and a fear that it could auto-caption “some bad words in error”, they agreed to try. I offered my experience as both a parent (who would never blame the host for that) and as an attendee (we use closed captioning on every meeting and have found it to be very accurate, not to mention its worth for accessibility for all attendees). In the end, the answer was an enthusiastic yes!

This is also something that can be turned on for pre-recorded material on some platforms! My child’s Science class is done online with all pre-recorded material. I noticed that there was no option to turn on the captioning, so I contacted the school. Again, they were unaware that this functionality wasn’t available and quickly converted all the lessons for her grade as well as others.

This summer we attended an outdoor movie at a friend’s home. While it was no big deal to ask a friend to turn on captioning, it occurred to me that this could also be done for a public event, where a simple request to the organizers could end up benefitting many attendees!

In all situations the organizers have been grateful for the information and the request to have their courses and classes be more accessible for everyone. Now when I register for classes online, I try to remember to ask ahead of time. When I get my registration email, I pop off an email to the organizer asking for this option.

Hopefully this will become standard practice as we move forward, but until then you can share the link above with your hosts and just start getting into the habit of asking for accommodations. I try to involve my preteen when I do this. They’ll sit beside me as I type out the email and sometimes I ask them to dictate what I should say. It’s excellent practice for everyone.

BC Hands & Voices Post Note:
Hands & Voices has recently published a helpful document for making online meetings accessible for all, which could also be shared. Take a look here: https://handsandvoices.org/pdf/covid-19/Guideline-Accessibility_Online-PhoneMeetings_18Mar2020_Final.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3svACZ-k81f9t1MuPZiZNOEfiRT1JCi8soN47aTN9YM8bO0FwS_AUQ3g8

Posted in Advocacy, Articles | Comments Off

“Birds & Bees” Basics for Parents of Young Children with Sexual Health Expert Saleema Noon

Posted on February 23, 2022 by BC H&V

We’re delighted to host Saleema Noon, leading sexual health educator in our province. Renowned for her work in schools, and a familiar face in our media, Saleema will tackle this serious topic in a way that is fun, light-hearted and current. In this open and informational session, parents will explore sexual health, understand why we should be discussing this with our children at a young age and why it’s especially important for our deaf and hard of hearing kids to be well educated in this area. Learn words, concepts & signs that are easy to use, leaving you well equipped to answer questions children ask. BC Hands & Voices board member Levi Traxler will show us how to teach the same concepts and vocabulary in ASL.

This workshop will focus on children 0-12 years old. Professionals are welcome to register.
ASL interpreters will be provided.

Tuesday, March 29 at 7:00pm –9:00pm
Location: Online – Zoom
Register to receive the Zoom information: https://tinyurl.com/2p82t8at

Download our flyer here: Saleema Birds&Bees 3.2022