0n (02 Aug 05) George Pope wrote to Cindy Haglund...

 GP> On (01 Aug 05) Cindy Haglund wrote to all...
 CH> Hi there everybody. Ready for a little able rant?

 GP> Always! *G*

 CH> Once upon a time oh 11 (!) years ago when I had just given up on
 CH> hearing 'aids' (there has to be a better more apt name for those
 CH> things...)

 GP> why?  Seems that "hearing aid" is straightforward &
accurate. . .

 It's a misnomer George because so many hearing abled people think
it's an Instant Cure-all. It's not.

Some ignorant (expletive deleted) hearing people think if you are
wearing a hearing aid you should be able to hear perfectly.

It's not like with eyeglasses. More is involved than just volume. No
hearing aid no matter how fancy can deal perfectly with tone loss and
background noise.

 GP> Would you prefer, "Aural Assister"? *G*

 Nah.. The problem isn't in the ugly name. It's in the ugly attitude
attached to it.

 GP> So is telephone sex = "aural sex"? *G*

 Sound sexy!  but just as misleading.

 GP> Oh, related, are TTY operators forbidden to convey sexual stuff, or do
 GP> they just read whatever's written?

 No idea but I wouldn't do that... :) People on both sides complain
ops are crabby and rude well that's often due to having to deal with
crabby rude users (both the hearing and the hoh/deaf person.)

 GP> and just got my TTY (very happy until I found out many
 CH> hearing folks "won't use them because they don't (gasp) want to
 CH> (gasp) have to talk through an Operator...(gasp!!!)...- I wrote an

  GP> Oh, too damb bad to them!  wah wah wah! Call them a wahhhh-mbulance!

 Imagine. Just TRY to imagine my feelings when my mother of all people
said "We won't use that... We don't want to talk through an operator'....

Dad and several other members of family would use it with me a bit but
they could NOT for the LIFE OF ME talk to ME directly. They spoke to
the operator and treated me like a third party. It didn't matter how
many times I or the operator explained how to talk to me directly. You
may as well have been talking to a brick wall. My sister and mother in
law were the only ones who could do it right. I used it only once to
conduct business (calling our vet) and got hun g up on because the
receptionist thought I was as a telemarketer...

I was on top of the world about getting this TTy thinking I'd be able
to chat with anyone I wanted to on the phone. NOPE! NOPE! Talk about
having your bubble burst.
..................

 CH> Can you help it though? THEY put it there. The ones who refuse to meet
 CH> us half way with our efforts to ease communication with them.

 GP> Why not write a follow-up article explaining this further POV?

 shrug. The mag is gone Lemon Twist I think it was called. More a
pamphlet than a magazine. Maybe I'll do a search on other such
magazines. I don't want to be militant about this but I do get very
angry about Ignorance about disabilities. You'd think College Educated
persons would know better? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I've seen more
compassion from a rock than some of these people. I don't think
therefor level of  education has anything to do with being considerate and
caring....

 GP> And can I get a copy of your original article, please? (in email okay,
 GP> if you prefer)

 I no longer have it. It was okay but not that good. It just pointed
out how TTY's open doors for the hearing impaired. Well it does, but
only for other hearing impaired persons and the FEW hearing people who
can look beyond their own bleeping self conscious selfishness. There
are not too many of those around either.
........

 CH> Perhaps the better thing to do is to communicate the way you are able
 CH> with those willing and write off the rest who are too self centered to
 CH> even try.
 GP>  CH>
 CH> End of rant. What say.

 GP> I think you said it all in that second last sentence
("Perhaps...") ;)

 Yeah. Right on.


Cindy

... Ever since I gave up hope, I feel much better.

--- PPoint 3.01