CHHA National Conference 2011

The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA) held its 29^th annual conference and AGM in Yellowknife, NWT from June 16-18 with about 140 people attending. Delegates attended from across the country, including the NL Chapter (from St. John's, Corner Brook, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Gander, CBS, and Mount Pearl). The sessions were excellent as was the weather (24 degrees and sunny every day) and a good time was had by all.  

The theme for the 2011 Conference is "Drums of Hearing - North of 60°." A full line-up of educational workshops was held with topics such as: Audiology in the North, Living with Tinnitus, Storytelling, Rights of Hard of Hearing, etc. Many speakers were local from Yellowknife and Northern Canada. The opening ceremonies and the closing banquet were highlighted by the appearance of drummers from the Dene Nation. The conference also had a variety of table top displays from companies representing the many areas that affect the everyday lives of hard of hearing people including displaying and demonstrating the latest technology as well as a product showcase. A Fish Fry at Back Bay and a Silent Auction were also held which proved to be very popular with attendees. 

At the closing banquet a number of CHHA National Awards were presented, of which five awards were received by people from NL, including the association. These included: 

The Bette Moulton Award - CHHA-NL Seniors Video

Marilyn Dahl Award - Art Norris

Lynn Wheadon Education Award - Susan Brown

Winifred C. Corey Award - Paul Brown

Dr. Norah Browne Professional Award (Inaugural) - Quenton Currie, Aud.

On behalf of everyone at CHHA-NL, congratulations are extended to all winners on your achievements and many thanks for your efforts on behalf of the association. Many thanks also are extended to Irene Dunn, CHHA-NL Administrative Assistant for organizing everyone's itinerary, which went smoothly.

 The 30^th Anniversary of CHHA will be marked in 2012 with the hosting of the annual conference and AGM in Ottawa, Ontario from May 15-17.

February 8, 2011

 Scholarship Program

The Deadline for Submissions is Approaching Fast!

 All applications must be received by March 1, 2011.  Late, unsigned or incomplete applications will

not be considered nor will applications be accepted by e-mail or fax.

Please mail your completed application to:

Canadian Hard of Hearing Association Scholarship Program

2415 Holly Lane, Suite 205, Ottawa, ON   K1V 7P2

Voice: (613) 526-1584   Toll Free: 800-263-8068

Fax: (613) 526-4718    TTY: (613) 526-2692

Applications are available on the website:  www.chha.ca

February 7, 2011

January 24, 2011

CHHA-NL congratulates Western Health on the launch of their Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Program. Download the press release (PDF format)

MEDIA RELEASE

(Corner Brook, NL, January 12, 2011) Western Health is pleased to announce a new program to screen hearing in all infants born at Western Memorial Regional Hospital. Through the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Program, infants born after January 1st will receive a simple hearing screening test where the infant listens to soft sounds and a specialized piece of equipment detects whether a response from the hearing organ is present.

December 6, 2010

The Liberated Learning Youth Initiative still has spots available to participate in the testing of Hosted Transcription Service (HTS). Now we are accepting students from any age currently enroll in a postsecondary institution in Canada.

How this system works: simply record your lecture; upload the audio to HTS and HTS will transcribe your class into a multi-media transcript so you will have the most accurate study notes possible. Apply to participate at www.transcribeyourclass.ca or contact Janice Stevens at janice.stevens@SMU.CA

The deadline for CHHA National Scholarship Applications is March 1, 2011.

For more information on eligibility criteria and application forms, please visit the CHHA National Web site at http://www.chha.ca/chha/scholarships-index.php

October 12, 2010

Red Hot Alert!

Private Member’s Bill

to make the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) less discriminatory

to hard of hearing persons

needs your support!

MP Peter Julian, NDP-Burnaby-West, has tabled Bill C-577 – An act to amend the Income tax Act (hearing impairment).  The purpose of the Bill is to clarify the terminology used that currently confuses the authorizers able to sign the DTC forms.

 The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA) along with its partners the Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (CASLPA), the Canadian Academy of Audiology (CAA), and VOICE for Hearing Impaired Children have been working to correct this iniquity but WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Tell your Member of Parliament how important it is for you or your family member to obtain the Disability Tax Credit. If you are receiving it already tell your MP that you support the Bill and you hope that they will support it on behalf of Canadians with hearing loss.

Email, call, fax or visit your Member of Parliament to ensure that this Bill is taken seriously and passes all readings in the House. Please cc us on all your emails, inform us of your visit or telephone calls, and send us copies of your letters. Send to currie.ab@gmail.com  Visit the CHHA website for background information and links to obtain your MPs name and coordinates as well as a link for Canada’s media.

English - www.chha.ca/chha/dtc.php    

French - www.chha.ca/amec/dtc.php

Its time for action…

Its time to let your voice be heard…

Its time to give visibility to this unseen disability!

 October 5, 2010

"OTTAWA – Today Peter Julian, (Burnaby-New Westminster), tabled Bill C-577 An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (hearing impairment) which would increase inclusiveness for people with hearing disabilities by allowing fair access to the Disability Tax Credit".  Read the full press release here.

 September 13, 2010

Research Project on Students With Disabilities and Career Aspirations

If you are a university or college student with a hearing, visual, speech or mobility impairment, we need your help for a study researching ways to support students with mobility or sensory impairments in their career aspirations.

Involvement:

Participants will be asked to take part in a 1-on-1 interview which will ask about what experiences they have had with helpful and unhelpful forms of support for assisting them to reach their career aspirations.  Your participation is important in order to help develop helpful strategies and programs for assisting students with mobility or sensory impairments in reaching career goals.

Need to be:

Participants must be currently enrolled in a post-secondary education program, be no older than 30 years of age, be able to converse in English, and identify as having a permanent mobility or sensory (hearing, visual or speech) impairment.

Researcher:

Stephanie Berry, Faculty of Education, Counseling Psychology Student, University of New Brunswick.

For more information or to participate in this study, contact Stephanie Berry at 506-292-8876 or Stephanie.berry@unb.ca

August 18, 2010

The Harper government is moving to eliminate the Canada census long form questionnaire and replace it with a voluntary survey. The long form was sent to 20% of households and is a critical source of information about diversity, employment, income, education and other characteristics of Canadians. It is essential to business, research, planning and good public policies and programs. Stakeholders ranging from the business community, to university researchers to social justice advocates are raising their voices to oppose this move.
 

We call on the Canadian government to reverse its decision to eliminate the mandatory long form Canada census questionnaire. The information collected through this form is critical to understanding the character and diversity of Canada. The long form questionnaire is an essential tool to enable business and social planning, research, and development of programs for the well-being of Canadians.

 Sign the Petition

News Stories

Danish Hearing Aid Manufacturer Helps Newfoundland and Labrador Families - read the story here

USA Today - Hearing Loss Hits 1 in 5 teens.  Read the article here

American Medical Association - Change of Prevalence of Hearing Loss in US Adolescents.

Healthy Hearing - Coping with Hearing Loss: Hearing Problems Affect Entire Family

May 19, 2010

Canadian Hard of Hearing Association - Reference Document Canadian Hearing Aid Subsidies

May 13, 2010

The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association - Newfoundland and Labrador introduces an Audiology Scholarship for residents of Newfoundland and Labrador.

For more information, please see the Scholarship and Bursary section of our Web site.

The Lions Club of Gander making a presentation of $1000.00 to the Gander Branch of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association.

CHHA Gander Branch making a presentation of Hushh-ups to Gander Academy.

INFORMATION REQUESTED FROM CHHA MEMBERS

Captioning and Court Reporting Program

NAIT has recently proposed program cuts, and the Captioning and Court Reporting program is one of the 13 programs identified. The proposal was presented to Advanced Education and then to NAIT’s Academic Council, which met on Friday, April 9.  At the meeting on Friday, both the NAIT Academic Staff Association (NASA) and the NAIT Student Association (NAITSA) requested further information from the programs before proceeding. The issue of program cuts was tabled, and the program has been asked to provide relevant additional information for the re-scheduled meeting on Friday, April 16.  

As part of this submission, we are requesting input from stakeholders to clarify and counter some information that has been provided to the government. This is a critical time for the program, the reporting profession, and consumers of CART and broadcast captioning. Without a strong response from all stakeholders, the result will be permanent damage to the profession and consumers of its services. Accordingly, we are requesting individual CHHA member’s feedback and support. SEND YOUR RESPONSE BY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14.

1.       Please send your response in the form of an email to the Program Chair at anneh@nait.ca - do not provide an attachment. Insert the following subject line: Stakeholder Feedback on NAIT’s Proposed Suspension of the Captioning and Court Reporting Program.

2.       Your email will be included with feedback from other stakeholders and used to provide information to decision-makers with respect to the program suspension.

3.       The body of the letter should open with the following list of decision-makers, and the email will be sent by the Program Chair to the appropriate areas during the review process.

         NAIT Academic Council

NAITSA (NAIT Student Association)

NASA (NAIT Academic Staff Association)

NAIT Academic Management Team

NAIT Board of Governors

Government of Alberta, Advanced Education

Premier’s Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities

Please reference the following issues from your perspective in the body of your email:

1.       How have you benefitted from the skills of graduates of the Captioning and Court Reporting program, who work as CART Providers, broadcast captioners, and legal reporters?

2.       How does having the Captioning and Court Reporting program at NAIT contribute to NAIT’s reputation and brand – i.e. meeting the communication needs of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities.

3.       Outline the potential negative impacts that would result from the suspension of the Captioning and Court Reporting program – i.e. lack of CART providers and impacts on the deaf and hard of hearing community, including education of students; fewer broadcast captioners and reduced communication access for the deaf and hard of hearing community; increased difficulty for multi-stakeholders in meeting targets of human rights legislation, etc.

4.       Any additional information that you deem important to this issue.

We understand that this is an emotional issue, but please balance your feelings with relevant facts and evidence in your email. We thank you for your quick response to this urgent matter.

Please direct any questions to:

Anne Henderson, Program Chair

Captioning and Court Reporting

780-471-8351

anneh@nait.ca

From CHHA Ontario Chapter

The following message was sent to the CRTC on their online complaint form. Please feel free to voice your concerns as well.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register.asp?lang=e

The Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association is concerned about the Closed Captioning appearing on HDTV TVs with a digital transmission via Rogers Cable in Ottawa. We have noted that Channels 5, 6, 9, 21, and several others are all displaying a new format for captioning that is extremely hard to read. They are providing captions but our association believes that the accessibility is being compromised with the new format. 

What is CRTC doing to standardize captions for all broadcasters? Currently the format for captioning can be very different from channel to channel. However the captioning provided on HDTVs with digital cables is horrendous. We dot want this to become the norm in Canada.

March 29, 2010

http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2010/99.aspx

(No. 99 - March 11, 2010 - 11:15 a.m. ET) The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, today announced that, with the support of all provinces and territories, the Government of Canada has ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at United Nations headquarters in New York City.

“Canada is committed to promoting and protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and enabling their full participation in society,” said Minister Cannon. “Ratification of this convention underscores the Government of Canada’s strong commitment to this goal.”

“Canada is proud to have been one of the first countries to originally sign the Convention in 2007,” said Minister Finley. “The ratification of this agreement is just further acknowledgement that Canada is a world leader in providing persons with disabilities the same opportunities in life as all Canadians.”

“Today is a momentous day for Canadians with disabilities and their families,” said Bendina Miller, President of the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL). “CACL is thrilled that Canada has ratified the Convention. Canada has been an international leader on disability and human rights, and through ratification can continue to play this important role. CACL looks forward to working with the Government of Canada on implementing and monitoring compliance with the Convention.”

“The Government of Canada’s ratification today of the Convention is a historic event for Canadians with disabilities,” said Marie White, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. “It signals the end of an era where people with disabilities were seen as objects of charity. Ratification of the Convention makes real our goal of recognition as full and equal citizens of Canada.

“Ratification of the Convention puts an end to the medical model and opens exciting new opportunities for building a more inclusive and accessible Canada. Canadians with disabilities applaud the Government of Canada for this historic action.”

“As the Government of Canada continues to play a leading role with respect to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in sport, we wish our paralympic athletes the best of luck at the upcoming Paralympic Games in Vancouver,” said Minister Cannon.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations intended to protect the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. Parties to the Convention are required to promote, protect and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities, and to ensure that they enjoy full equality under the law.

There are approximately 4.4 million persons with disabilities in Canada—about 14.3 percent of the population.

December 18, 2009 - Free Resources!

CHHA National has published a Noise Thermometer for hearing prevention.  Download this free PDF resource today!

CHHA-NL has recently received many requests for it's International Day of Persons with Disabilities poster. We now have a revised version of this poster available as a free resource - it can be downloaded and saved in PDF format or JPEG (graphic) format. 

The CHHA Young Adults (YA) group have produced their own podcast show called HOHTV on facebook and below is the link to view it..

It is a wonderful accomplishment and I think they should be congratulated on this huge effort and wonderful initiative.

Enjoy!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxRFI7JiD3I

Press Release

December 3, 2009

For Immediate Release

Government of Canada Tables in the House The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Canadians with Disabilities Celebrate This Milestone Event

Today, Minister Peter MacKay, on behalf of the Government of Canada, tabled in the House the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).  This is the final step in the process of Ratification of the Convention, one that has been eagerly awaited by Canadians with disabilities.

"Not since the inclusion of disability in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms have Canadians with disabilities seen such substantive attention given to the rights of persons with disabilities," said Steve Estey, Chairperson of CCD's International Committee.  "This is truly a historic day for persons with disabilities and we applaud the Government of Canada's commitment to promoting and ensuring the rights of Canadians with disabilities," said Estey.

"Creation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at the United Nations was a 5 year process and at every step of the way people with disabilities were centrally engaged in the discussions," stated Marie White, Chair of CCD.  "The Government of Canada included people with disabilities in their official delegation to the United Nations during the development of the CRPD and they funded the disability community to provide advice on Articles of the Convention as they were developed.  Our expectation is now that, once ratification is complete, they will centrally include us in the development of a national action plan to make real the promises of the Convention," said White.

December 3rd, 2009 International Day of Persons with Disabilities is truly a day of celebration for Canadians with disabilities.  Our Government, by moving forward with the final steps of ratification of the CRPD, has made it clear that the issues of Canadians with disabilities are of national importance and deserve substantive attention.

"Disability has not been and is not a partisan issue.  All parties in the House of Commons have supported development of the CRPD and ratification of it.  Today Canadians with disabilities say thank you to all Members of Parliament and to all Parties who have worked over the years to bring us to this milestone moment in time," said Estey.

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For More Information Contact:

Marie White, Chairperson, CCD - (709) 739-8233 Laurie Beachell, National Coordinator, CCD - (204) 947-0303    (Cell)(204) 981-6179

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