Lines of Communication

Sound Advice by Ruth D. Bernstein Ruth Bernstein, Hearing Access Advocate I have a long list of Valentines to distribute this year, all of them related to my hearing loss and new Covid-19 lifestyle. I will remember 2020 as the year when I, along with the rest of the world, learned how to communicate in various ways we had seldom used before. It is also the year I became a great-grandmother for the first time, and Isaac and Nicole, my grandson and new granddaughter, married. V

Sound Advice by Ruth D. Bernstein As an Ambassador, I know that asking for help is a good thing because I get access to the activities I enjoy. For many people, asking for help is very difficult because they are embarrassed and/or afraid to reveal their hearing loss. I have been fortunate because, in the early years of my hearing loss, I was part of a CHC support group for working people. There I learned how, when and why to ask for help, skills I continue to practice to this

CHC Partners with Google Accessibility Team Center for Hearing and Communication, we embrace a vision of communication without limits for all people with hearing loss. Since technology is central to the expansion of communication access, we are dedicated to keeping you informed of any and all tech innovations we think can help you hear and stay connected to the world around you. Toward that end, we’re excited to announce our partnership with the Google Accessibility team. Goo

I’m Still Hear: My Cochlear Implant Journey, Part 3 By Ruth Bernstein My life changed a lot after I became bionic. Before my CI, my hearing aids did not go on until I was ready to leave the house and came off, along with my shoes, when I walked in the door. I was physically exhausted at the end of every day because my brain was burning so much extra energy trying to understand what it was hearing. Now, I put my CI and hearing aid on when I wake up and take them off when I’m r

Tips for Better Hearing and Communication with Hearing Loss By Carolyn Stern, Asst. Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives For a summary of holiday communication tips click the link above. Otherwise read on for the complete post. The pandemic will prevent many of us from keeping our traditional ways of celebrating this holiday season with friends and family. While this is certainly sad, there is an opportunity for staying connected virtually – with the right technolog

The Virtual Fundraising Event on October 17, 2020 at 7PM (EDT) will be Hosted by Joey McIntyre, Actor, Singer, Songwriter CHC Gala 2020 honoree Alex Lacamoire (photo: Sweetlips) New York, NY – October 13, 2020 – The Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC), a leading nonprofit hearing health care center in New York that provides comprehensive services to people of all ages who are hard of hearing, deaf or deafblind, today announced its 2020 virtual gala to be held Saturday,

By Nancy J. Rennert, MD and Carolyn Stern, MBA Life this past year has certainly been different – and healthcare is different, too. With the Covid- 19 pandemic, our lives changed. Access to health care was restricted and people with hearing loss faced additional communication barriers due to the use of face masks and policies limiting in-person interpreters. With vaccines and declining infection rates, recommendations recently changed to allow certain groups of people to go w

Carolyn Stern, Asst. Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives By Carolyn Stern, MBA Assistant Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives As my routine health care appointments were cancelled a few months ago due to the Covid-19 shutdown, initially, it felt like a fun break from always being “so responsible” for keeping myself healthy. At the same, I felt uneasy because it’s been ingrained to never miss important preventative visits and screenings. While staying safe

Nurturing learners in difficult times Dana Selznick, MA, MEd Deaf Education Specialist The back-to-school season is underway, and it is definitely not business as usual. As a parent of a student with hearing loss, you probably have more questions than ever during these difficult times. Depending on where you live, you may be choosing between in-classroom education, remote learning or a blended learning option. Parents of children with hearing loss are particularly concerned a

By Carolyn Stern, MBA Assistant Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Carolyn Stern, Asst. Dir. of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives In a prior blog post, Zoom and Captioning with InnoCaption+ App, I shared how to make your Zoom calls accessible by viewing captions provided by the free InnoCaption+ app on your smartphone. In that post, I highlighted a nice feature that the user can choose to generate captions by a human captioner (like CART) or by an automatic speec

Overcoming anxieties and challenges to communication Janick Hickman, MS, is a mental health counselor with the Center for Hearing and Communication in Broward County, Florida. Janick Hickman, Mental Health Counselor Face masks have become a new way of life in the United States and all over the world. For children, especially, this can be a difficult and scary transition. Some of the feedback around the nation suggests that this experience may be anxiety provoking due to sensi

JAMA: Overcoming boundaries to care Ellen Lafargue, AuD, CCC-A We want everyone to be aware of an important article just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Otolaryngology: Overcoming Additional Barriers to Care for Deaf, Hard of Hearing Patients During COVID-19. This terrific piece alerts the medical community to the many communication barriers that deaf and hard of hearing people face when receiving medical care in a time when COVID-19 requires the

By Carolyn Stern Assistant Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Carolyn Stern, Asst. Dir. of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Did know you can use the InnoCaption+ app to make your Zoom calls accessible? As a loyal user of InnoCaption+ since it launched a few years back, I was thrilled to learn of this option. For those of you who don’t know, InnoCaption+ makes mobile phone calls accessible by displaying on the phone’s screen live captions of the caller’s voice ge

By Carolyn Stern Assistant Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Carolyn Stern, Asst. Dir. of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Now that I am more aware of captioning options, I am experiencing new ways of connecting with loved ones, friends and my community while doing our part in staying home. All of this Zooming, which may be getting out of hand at times, is a real boon for me. Videoconferencing through the many platforms available, combined with my two cochlear

By Carolyn Stern Assistant Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Carolyn Stern, Asst. Dir. of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Conducting work and social life through video conferencing is a big adjustment for everyone in this new environment. This is especially difficult for people with hearing loss who typically prefer or are better able to communicate close up and in person. Ensuring a good visual of each participant, strong quality audio, respectful communicati

By Carolyn Stern Assistant Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives While Zoom is probably the most popular videoconferencing platform, currently it does not provide automatic captioning of live Zoom meetings. Anecdotally, testing of an integrated automatic captioning feature is underway, but a release date is not known at this point. Until it is made available, here are some options for captioning your Zoom sessions. 3 Ways to Caption a Zoom Meeting #1. Hire a Remote L

By Carolyn Stern Assistant Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives Carolyn Stern, Asst. Dir. of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives While other events and programs are cancelled, coping and mastering hearing loss in various situations continues onward. At least that’s true for me. As a bilateral cochlear implant user, I need to continue hearing my best in my personal and professional life. Communication with my two school-aged children and spouse, as we do our part stay

Free weekly group devices demo Terrence Williams, Asst. Dir, CHC’s Berelson Hearing Technology Center Do you struggle to hear when you talk on the phone? Does your hearing loss make it  difficult to participate in meetings and social gatherings? Are you concerned about the safety of a loved one? You’ll be happy to know there’s a world of assistive devices and apps at your disposal— marvels of technology that can enhance hearing and communication, keep a loved one safe and pro

Google shares views on accessibility in Q&A Dimitri Kanevsky, Google Research Scientist All of us at the Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC) were thrilled to host our signature fundraising event, the Feast, at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers Monday, November 4th. Conceived as a celebration of The Power of Communication, this year’s Feast honored Google with the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for its dedication to ensuring that people with disabilities are not left out

CHC’s 108th Annual Meeting, June 10, 2019 The 108th Annual Meeting of the Center for Hearing and Communication (CHC), June 10th, was an occasion to highlight CHC’s transformative clinical services while showcasing the extraordinary achievements of individuals who are making the world a better place for people with hearing loss. The CHC Difference Steve Peikin, CHC President Steve Peikin, President, and Laurie Hanin, Executive Director, kicked off the 108th Annual Meeting by p