Cohousing-L Mailing List: hearing assistance at cohousing conference

[barbara keppel (71612.340]

Out of curiosity, I wonder if there are other hearing impaired 
folks who plan to attend the North American Cohousing Conference 
in Oct. and need some kind of assistance? Are there others like 
me who need to have speakers use a mike? Who can't participate in
conversations if there is a lot of background noise? Any of the 
rest of you have tinnitus? Have any of you requested hearing 
assistance?

FYI, Massachusetts leads the nation in provision of a new kind of
hearing assistance. A group of court reporters has been specially
trained to work with the hard of hearing and deaf. In June, I 
attended a conference at which every speaker and every comment 
and question from the floor was recorded verbatim by a team of 
these reporters using regular court stenographic machines 
attached to lap top computers. One of them sat next to me at all 
times so I could read the dialogue on her laptop screen. It was 
just amazing. I actually knew what the other panelists had said 
as soon as they said it.

This was an innovative conference for other reasons so it was 
important for a transcript of the conference to be made 
available. For me, it was technology in the public interest.

BobBI Keppel
Portland, Maine