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An (Almost) Accessible Day In The Life of Teens with Hearing Loss

Posted by Emma on January 19, 2011 at 9:33 am. Consumer Advisory Board

CaptionMax has a dedicated Consumer Advisory Board with experts in all kinds of accessibility. As guest bloggers, we ask our board members to  share their accessibility stories. Our next CAB guest blogger is Michelle Rich, an Educational Captionist/ Advocate for the Olathe School District in Kansas. She also loves advocating with production companies to provide captions, detailing the necessity of such, and encouraging those companies who are already providing captioning.

Subject 1:  Megan, 15, High School Freshman, Hard of Hearing
6:00am: The bed rattles and shakes with her snazzy multi-colored Shake Awake alarm and she rolls out of bed to start her day.
6:15am: A quick check of the captioned weather helps her decide her wardrobe for the day.
6:30am: Text messages from friends keep her up-to-date on all things social.
7:15am: Out the door with her iPod plugged in…rolling music and simultaneous lyrics on the screen.
10:00am: 3rd hour video clip with captions allow her equal access to media.
1:00pm: 6th hour streaming media borrowed from the Described and Captioned Media Program.
3:00pm: A bazillion text messages hit the phone and the day’s drama unrolls.
7:00pm: Off to the gym to work out while watching a captioned TV program.
8:00pm: A Friday night open captioned movie at the cinema.

Not that long ago, Megan’s day would have been a struggle to gain information.   Thankfully many pioneers in the field of access came before us paving the way to a leveled playing field.  They established laws that require companies to provide access to media.  They created standards for a consistent, accurate and artful representation of the auditory information.  Each day they continue to roll out the printed word and to address the rapidly changing formats in which media is delivered.

Subject 2:  Kyle, 20, College Sophomore, Profoundly Deaf
6:00am: The bed shakes and rattles him out of his deep sleep.
6:05am: The bed again shakes him and let’s him know it means business this time.
6:30am: Team workout with iPod and lyrics.
9:00am: Class.
12:00pm: Lunch with a quick update of scores on captioned TV.
1:00pm: Bus leaves for an out of town game…cell phone in pocket with text messages buzzing in and iPod blaring.
3:00pm: Baseball games with access coming through face-to-face communication and baseball signs.
9:00pm: Captioned game with the PlayStation3.
10:30pm: Rerun of “The Office” and then time to hit the books.

For Kyle, his access to the world at this point in time is both amazing and limited.  His school is unable to provide academic supports due to budget constraints.  Reality.  It is costly.  So he manages his academics the old-school way–  pre and post reading of classroom content, teacher notes, follow up with the teacher after class for missed information, studying with classmates, lip reading in class and following visual clues, and the use of residual hearing.  Not ideal, but he manages through determination.

For both teens, there is gratitude for access to academic and social information.  For both, there are needs.  For me, mom of both, I am forever grateful for the pioneers of accessibility and for those still working each and every day to deliver information in an accessible way.  It is a gift that is appreciated.

A Shout-Out to the Voices

Posted by Emma on December 15, 2010 at 9:41 am. Consumer Advisory Board

A pictures of a studio microphone

CaptionMax has a dedicated Consumer Advisory Board with experts in all kinds of accessibility. As guest bloggers, we ask our board members to  share their accessibility stories. Our next CAB guest blogger is Josh Miele, Ph.D.  Dr. Miele is a Research Scientist with the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute where he conducts research in the areas of audiotactile graphics and auditory displays. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired.  You can find out more about Dr. Miele on his LinkedIn profile, by reading his editorial comments on accessible technology at his blog, or by following his more broadly focused twitter feed @BerkeleyBlink.

As a hearing, speaking blind person, so much of the information in my world comes to me through the voices of others. There are voices in my clock and calculator, my computers and cell phone. I rely on the recorded voices that announce the arrival of buses and trains, and I am intimately familiar with the voices that narrate my books and movies. These voices may not be James Earl Jones or Patrick Stewart. They may have none of the sauce and swagger of Mae West or Jack Nicholson or even the temporary familiarity of the latest American Idol celebrity. The voices I’m talking about come without faces or bodies, without benefit of biography or pride of personality. These are the virtually anonymous working voices, the voices that provide access to information, the voices of infrastructure that I rely on every day of my blind life and usually take for granted.

An excellent example is the Time Lady. In the early ‘70s, the telephone had only one voice. She told us the time, encouraged us to “call the operator for assistance,” and warned us to hang up before she blasted our brains out with that ear-splitting pulsation of death that screamed, “HANG UP THE PHONE!” She told us when our circuits were busy, when our friends had moved, and even sometimes what number to dial to reach them in their new homes. She was even the first voice of voice mail, and her mellow, middle-American drone became, for me and millions of other young Americans, the voice of the telephone.

Recently I learned that she did have a name. Jane Barbe was responsible for virtually all of the telephone-related recordings in the United States before 1980. A little poking on the Internet reveals that the so-called Time Lady is now something of a cult figure. It seems that she was human, had an acting and singing career, a husband, children, and grandchildren. It turns out that she was from Georgia and that the American Standard accent she modeled so perfectly was an act, a vocal persona adopted to assure America that the telephone network was in the hands of helpful, competent, Midwestern professionals. But she wasn’t Jane Barbe to most of us – she was simply the voice of the phone, the voice we would know anywhere, telling us to please hang up and try our call again.

Other voices blind people know intimately, but about which we know practically nothing, are the narrators of talking books. The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) provides thousands of new talking books each year. These books are recorded by dozens of professional readers whose names we have come to know well but whose personalities are only shadows behind the books they have recorded. Of course, we can infer that Bob Askey probably likes westerns, that Martha Harmon Pardee may enjoy romances, and that Erik Sandvold is likely to be a sucker for pithy science fiction, but we never have a chance to discuss the books with them. Their recorded voices are tireless, reading a 20-hour book in a single sitting if we demand it of them. Without complaint, the voices are there in the middle of a sleepless night, on crowded buses, in sickness and in health. They read to us as we grow and mature, first reading us titles like Winnie-the-Pooh and Frog and Toad, moving on to All Creatures Great and Small, then Star Wars and Ender’s Game, and ultimately mature books like What to Expect… and Fatherhood.

These hardworking voices are the conductors of our trains, the readers of our books, and the describers of our movies. Our relationship to them is well-defined with an elegant simplicity, uncomplicated by the normal politics of human interaction: they speak, and we listen. But the reality is not so simple. Easy though it is to forget, there are people and lives behind the voices – people who take pride in their ability to melt behind the more important message and simply be the voice of the visuals, the book, the train, or the time.

Now the time has come for me to talk back. I recently read of the death of Terry Hayes Sales, a talking-book voice who spent hundreds of hours entertaining me as a child. As so often happens, I didn’t properly appreciate her until I heard the news of her death. Of course, voices are constantly going silent: Jane Barbe died in 2003, Don LaFontaine – the voice of countless movie trailers – died more recently, and the list will continue to go on and on.

So this is a shout-out to the people behind the voices of the past, present, and future: I break my silent part in our relationship to tell you that your words are heard and appreciated. The films you describe, the books you read, the announcements you make, and the samples you record are keys that help open accessible avenues in education, employment, and entertainment for me and thousands of other blind people. Thank you for describing the Backyardigans and for reading to me as I drift off to sleep. Thank you for announcing my bus stop and for identifying the color of my shirts. Thank you for your dedication, your commitment, and your willingness to let the information take priority over your individuality. It is because of you and your voice that we know that this recorded edition contains the entire text of the print edition, that the next stop is Sacramento and Fillmore, and that if we need help, we can hang up and then dial the operator.

Hikin’ Blind-84: Hiking the Grand Canyon

Posted by Emma on November 10, 2010 at 9:36 am. Consumer Advisory Board

CaptionMax has a dedicated Consumer Advisory Board with experts in all kinds of accessibility. As guest bloggers, we let our board members to  share their accessibility stories. Our next CAB guest blogger is B.J. LeJeune. She has many years of experience in the field of rehabilitation and blindness.  Her perspectives about blindness have been influenced by both her deaf-blind grandfather – who fell off the roof at age 80 while making some minor repairs – and her husband Bobby who lost most of his vision as a child.  Although Bobby hasn’t fallen off any roofs, he keeps B.J. pretty active with many other activities. Thanks, B.J., for sharing this fantastic experience!

by B.J. LeJeune

This morning on the Today Show, Marc Ashton and some blind hikers known as the FBC Canyon Crawlers from the Foundation for Blind Children in Scottsdale, AZ, shared their adventures of hiking rim to rim through the Grand Canyon.  The memories flooded back.

Hikin' Blind-84 Group Picture

October 1984, it was lightly snowing and the heat felt good as we huddled around the small campfire preparing for our hike through the Grand Canyon.  There were 15 of us from Arizona State University, and about half the group was blind or severely visually impaired.  We were “Hikin’ Blind- 84!” We had spent the night on the North Rim and although we had planned to make it a leisurely 4 day hike, our overnight camping permits for the first and last day had been canceled at the last minute.  It was all or nothing – 23 miles down and up. The group gathered and decided we had trained enough to go for it.  When we left the rim it was 9 degrees, and after about 2 miles it was in the 80’s.

A group of 5 gathered around the campfire in classic 80's coats.

Two hikes on the trail with a grand view of the canyon in the background.

A hiker resting on the side of the trail with a large pack.

We groaned some about having to carry our heavy clothing all 23 miles as it was stuffed in back packs pretty quickly after we left the edge. We forded creeks, climbed over rocks, went around a zillion switchbacks, laughed at the kabab squirrels fussing at us, and enjoyed the canyon – almost every step down.

Down at Phantom Ranch at the bottom, we set up camp – put up tents, hung our food on deer proof (not so you would notice) racks, laughed at our various adventures, and fell into a deep sleep – exhausted, but exhilarated.

Picture of Phantom Ranch visted by a small deer.

B.J. sitting and willing the tent to make itself.

Two team members setting up a tent.

The next morning the young blind man I was guiding, found his knee was swollen and painful from the downward hiking pressure.  We decided to get an early start so we could make it out before dark with the rest of the group. The Colorado River was raging and there was a wire foot suspension bridge that spans the river.  It is made out of heavy iron mesh and comes up to about mid chest level on either side and is wide enough to accommodate two way hikers. It sways a little, but it is secure.  Because people get a little freaked out looking down at the river through the mesh, some 1 by 12 boards had been laid across it lengthwise to make the crossing less scary.

Walking out on the suspension bridge with a waist high railing.

We decided it would be best if my friend walked directly behind me with his hands on my shoulders so he could stay evenly on the boards. We were the only ones out, so there wasn’t any traffic on the bridge.  The river was so loud, I could not understand him when he started trying to yell something at me as we made our way across, so I walked a little faster so we could get over to the other side.

A arial view of the suspension bridge across the Colordado River.

The boards were clanking with each step – and a little slick from the river water splashing on them. When we got to the other side he starting yelling at me and said something cheery like, “What, are you crazy?  Are you trying to kill us?” Apparently, I had neglected to mention there were sides on the bridge or that the boards were not just laying on logs.  When I explained that we had not been in any danger, he explained to me that if he could figure out how to get out of the canyon without me, my life would indeed be in danger!

The hike out was fairly uneventful if you take out the pain factor. We didn’t have to ford any more streams, but we did slosh through a lot of mule droppings and urine ponds at the switchbacks.

The narrow switchbacks along the trail.

How the mules could empty themselves at each turn was amazing to us.  At first we would go around, but after about 3 miles, we just barreled on through. It was a little scary when the mules passed because they get the inside of the path.  The hiking paths are not always that wide, and it is a long way down!

A faculty member brought his 12 year old son who was an aspiring geologist and who filled us all with wondrous tales of the different levels we were crossing through.  He was great a picking up different types of rocks for people to feel and after running back and forth among the spread out group must have doubled his trip through the canyon.  When we finally reached the South Rim, we were exhausted, sore and we were changed.  We were tougher, we were sorer, and we were more appreciative of the vastness of the Canyon, and perhaps how small we were by comparison.  Did I mention we were also pretty sore?

A sore B.J. LeJeune trying to get out of a van.

As guides, our eyes were focused mostly on the trail.  But we were also challenged to describe the beauty around us in ways that would communicate the grandeur and glory of the Grand Canyon.  We had seen lots of rocks and noticed subtle changes as we changed levels and as the sun changed its angle.  I was amazed at how many ways there were to describe a rock wall.  Sure wish I had had some of those CaptionMax describers around to make it a better, more interesting experience.

A hiker sitting on a rock above the vastness of the Grandy Canyon.

One of our group and his guide did the whole thing round trip over the weekend, putting in a grueling 46 miles. I could not even imagine!  After hearing the piece on the Today Show, I pulled out my old photos and even now, I think the Grand Canyon hike is one of my biggest personal achievements.  I was delighted to hear the FBC Canyon Crawlers had also experienced the rim to rim experience of the canyon.  My congratulations to each of them!  I’d love to hear their stories too.

Through the years B.J. has been in a variety of rehabilitation positions, but currently is at the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision at Mississippi State University where she serves as Training Coordinator.  Her background includes working with persons who are Deafblind, college age blind students such as her fellow hikers, counseling and teaching adults with vision impairments, and older adults with vision loss. She is also the founder and CEO of CARE Ministries, a national Christian organization serving persons who are blind and Deafblind.

Get to Know Jordan Richardson

Posted by Emma on October 27, 2010 at 8:26 am. Consumer Advisory Board

Photo of Jordon Richardson

CaptionMax has a dedicated Consumer Advisory Board with experts in all kinds of accessibility.  Now, as guest bloggers, our board members can share their accessibility stories. We’d like to introduce Jordan Richardson. He’s one of our younger board members and is such an inspiration at our annual CAB meetings. Take it away, Jordan!

by Jordan Richardson

Hey!  My name is Jordan and I am a 20 year old sophomore at the University of Minnesota.  I plan to major in political science and am thinking about minoring in philosophy.  After I get my undergrad degree I plan to go to law school and specialize in constitutional law (the philosophy will probably help with that).  Eventually, I want to become a judge, hopefully federal.  Oh yeah, I should mention that I am a blind student.  I am a blind student with a passion for the law and equal rights and equal access.  This is what drove me to law as a career.  I like to read, write (mostly fiction), hang out, play videogames, go horse back riding, and lots of other fun things.  Politically, at least right now, my views line up more with the democrat side of the issues, but I would like to consider myself independent (small “i”).  As far as campus involvement, I will be getting more connected with the Black Student Union.

In the blindness community, I am active in the Minnesota Association of Blind Students (2nd VP) which is a division of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota, an affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind (headquarters in Baltimore, MD).

This semester I am taking four classes.  They are History of Philosophy, Judicial Precess, Criminal Justice, and Spanish (4th semester).

I am proud to have been on the CaptionMax Consumer Advisory Board for 4 years now.

Well, adios!

Fun Foto Friday!

Posted by Emma on October 1, 2010 at 12:29 pm. Consumer Advisory Board

We forgot to post a Fun Word Friday last week because we were getting ready for our annual Consumer Advisory Board meeting. This last weekend was packed with lots of fun and also lots of engaging presentations. Here are just a few photos from our weekend. More will be shared on Wednesday! We can’t wait to tell you all about it.

CAB member getting ready for the meeting
Saturday starts with a meet and greet. There’s lots of catching up to do!


We had lots of great presentations this weekend. One of our favorites was our guest, Maria, from Discovery. They have such a great educational focus on their website.


More discussions. We learned so much!


We did have a little fun, too. It’s always great to discuss captioning and audio description for 3D videos.

Thanks to all those who attended our annual meeting. Our staff had a wonderful time and we’re ready to continue another superb year of making media accessible.

Meet Jane Cacich

Posted by Emma on June 2, 2010 at 8:24 am. Consumer Advisory Board

CaptionMax has a dedicated Consumer Advisory Board with experts in all kinds of accessibility.  As guest bloggers, our board members can share their accessibility stories. Now we introduce Jane Cacich.

My name is Jane Cacich and I am the Lead Teacher for the Vision Program of St. Paul Public Schools in St. Paul, MN. My career path has taken me from a Peace Corps volunteer to a counselor at MN State Services for the Blind to a teacher of students who are blind/visually impaired. I have always thought I work with the best students in the world in a field where teachers are innovative and impassioned about their jobs. Yes, at times it is frustrating especially with the onslaught of paper work and declining budgets. Still, all in all, there is nothing I would rather do and no other population of students with whom I would rather work. This enthusiasm must have been apparent as my daughter; a recent graduate of Loyola in Chicago will be starting a Master’s Program at Northern Illinois and will be a dually certified teacher in Vision and Orientation and Mobility. I am thrilled about her decision since there is a crisis in our field that is looming around the corner – the retirement of the baby boomers and the shortage of teachers being trained for the field of vision. There are some generous federal grants available to encourage college graduates to earn advanced degrees in vision and I am continually trying to get that word out. To that end, if there is anyone out there in the blogosphere who might be interested in these programs feel free to contact me at 651-603-4899!

On to accessibility. Being a vision teacher, it is all about accessibility, accessibility, and accessibility. We work hard to make sure that curriculum, classroom materials and activities that are available to students who are sighted are also available to our students who are blind/visually impaired. We are successful now more than ever but the system isn’t perfect. It has been wonderful (sometimes wonderfully frustrating) to see the advancement of technology and how it has impacted the lives of our students and teachers. I feel fortunate to have witnessed our students advancing from Perkin’s Braillers, slate and stylus, abacus and 4 track tapes to braille notetakers, portable CCTV’s, Jaws and Zoomtext, refreshable braille displays, Victor Streams and smart boards. As indicated above, this can be frustrating, as well. One of our current dilemmas is the mandated district tests now being done on computers. While Jaws and Zoomtext may help with some of this, it does not help in dealing with graphics, charts, pictures, etc. Also, there can be compatibility issues with the district computers or list serves. It is critical for any teacher in our field to stay current with technology because it is ever changing and sooner or later there are solutions. As lead teacher, I try to schedule ongoing professional development training on technology. Next week, we have an all day training workshop on the Mountbatten Brailler, a device that has been especially useful with our younger students learning braille.

I am one of those teachers preparing to retire and as I plan, I hope to include continued work in this field. I have been in the Peace Corps but more recently I have volunteered with an organization called Give Us Wings. I was fortunate enough to travel to Kenya and Uganda in 2005. At that time, I participated in bringing an ophthalmologist for the first time to a small village in Kenya. Glasses were prescribed and medicine was given to children with eye allergies and irritants. Most importantly 57 people were identified as having cataracts. When they were removed they were able to see clearly for the first time in many years. Most of the students I work with have eye conditions that are irreversible so it was especially gratifying for me to be involved in a project that actually restored vision to people nearly totally blind. I hope to do more of this type of work. After all, my daughter can handle things state side!

Elaine Dechter

Posted by Max Duckler on April 16, 2010 at 4:23 pm. Audio Description, Captioning, Consumer Advisory Board

With great sadness we are reporting that Elaine R. Dechter passed away on April 15, 2010.

Elaine was CaptionMax’s first Consumer Advisory Board member—back in 1997.

Elaine was one of the most passionate supporters of captioning there ever was.  She spent her time as a captioning advocate, raising awareness on a local level, where all great grassroots efforts start, in Santa Rosa, CA.  There, she promoted and eventually succeeded in her efforts to bring captioned movies to the screens of Northern California. She was also the Secretary and Treasurer for the Redwood Empire Center on Deafness.

With CaptionMax, Elaine worked with serious intent helping us develop our guidelines and stylebook, most of which we still follow today.  Her honest feedback and straightforward critiques were a pleasure to receive at the 10 board meetings she attended.   Elaine never missed a board meeting with us, which for her, meant leaving the house at 4AM, arriving in MN at 10PM and then taking the same travel home the day after the meeting.  She was always accompanied by her awesome companion dog, Tawny, until recently when Tawny retired and Norene took on the job.

Elaine took great pride in the other passions in her life, her daughter Ilana, her incredible skills in knitting—which she shared with the community through classes she gave on advanced kitting techniques, and of course her love of Northern California…”Max, when are you going to move the business to Sonoma County?  You’ll be close to the vineyards and the ocean—all the things you love so much!”

Elaine was not only a warm, caring, passionate supporter of CaptionMax, she was a dear friend to me and many other staff members.

Memorial services being held April 25, 10AM at Daniel’s chapel of the Roses, Santa Rosa, CA.

Please post your comments and memories of Elaine below.

Thank you,

Max

What is an Educational Captionist?

Posted by Emma on February 24, 2010 at 8:00 am. Consumer Advisory Board

CaptionMax has a dedicated Consumer Advisory Board with experts in all kinds of accessibility.  Now, as guest bloggers, our board members can share their accessibility stories.

First, we’d like to introduce Michelle Rich, an Educational Captionist/ Advocate for the Olathe School District in Kansas. She has been providing access to media for students with hearing loss for nine years.  She also loves advocating with production companies to provide captions, detailing the necessity of such, and encouraging those companies who are already providing captioning.

We should let her words speak now! It’s amazing how many talented people strive to make media accessible to all students!

I am an Educational Captionist for a large district in Kansas that serves many students with hearing loss, and I believe I have the best job in the world.  It’s fulfilling, challenging, varied, and enjoyable.  My main goal is to caption media for the classroom setting, to transform inaccessible media into accessible media in a short period of time.  But along the way, I have the opportunity to do much more.

Awareness of access issues is sometimes my first task.  I advocate with general education teachers to raise awareness of the critical need for access to the media they use in their classrooms.  I work within the context of an amazing team that consists of a variety of talented folks providing service from many directions:  teachers of the deaf, general educators, interpreters, transcriptionists, library media specialists, special education coordinators, under the umbrella of an innovative, forward-thinking district.  Since I’ve been doing this for nine years, many of the general educators I coordinate with are already on board with the need for accessible media and I move on to finding it or creating it.

Part of my time is spent being a resource for finding accessible media.  The Described and Captioned Media Program is an invaluable resource for borrowing educational media in a multitude of subject areas.  If a specific title is requested and not available for borrowing or purchasing, then I get busy captioning it.

The variety of subjects to caption is always refreshing.  I might be working on a piece of media from elementary to high school level, or from a core subject to a specialty course.  Researching terms for correct spelling or discerning a word spoken with an accent can be challenging, but it keeps the work interesting.   My favorite part of the job is delivering the finished product.  I know for that period of time for that student, the playing field is leveled.   I happen to think a few of the students who are visual learners or second language learners might benefit as well.  It matters, and it is very satisfying.

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