Using (Land/ Cell Phone) Phone at home: Bluetooth hub / adaptor

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The following info comes from Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing:

Bluetooth for home phones
There are a couple of options here.

1. VTech makes a Bluetooth cordless phone system. Item # LS6245. This can be paired to the Bluetooth adapter. If you have the Bluetooth adapter paired and connected to your cellphone, you will need to forward your cellphone to the VTech phone and then disconnect the cellphone from the Bluetooth adapter (the disconnect option is in your Bluetooth menu on your cellphone). The reason you need to do this is that the phone (cellphone or regular) takes priority in the Bluetooth adapters. The two phones will be competing for access to your Bluetooth adapter. So if you are talking on the cordless phone at home and a cellphone call comes in – if the cellphone is not disconnected from your Bluetooth accessory, then the cellphone may kick you off your cordless phone call. It’s best to have just one phone connected to your Bluetooth accessory at a time. The benefit of having the cordless Bluetooth phone is that you can be about 10 metres (30 feet) away from the phone in your house and still be able to get a phone call wirelessly with your Bluetooth adapter.

2. For non-Bluetooth home phones (which is most phones) some of the manufacturer's make an adapter to attach to your phone and convert it to Bluetooth. After some in-house experimenting here, it appears that some of the manufacturer’s Bluetooth phone adapters are compatible with other manufacturer’s products (for instance the Oticon phone hub works very nicely with the iCom and uDirect. While I can’t say for sure – it will most likely work with the other Bluetooth adapters as well.

Posted via email from Ann Reflection

Communication Strategy for hearing impaired: Visualizing the Scenario

Tuesday Tips: Planning Ahead – Visualizing the Scenario

Imagine you were visiting Montreal and you know some French, enough to get by. However, you haven’t used your French in eons. You want to go to a local boulangerie to buy some fresh baguettes. If you’re like me, you would practice in your head exactly what you want to say (I want one baguette, please – en francais, of course). Then you are going to practice what they might say back to you (That will be $4.95 – again, en francais). Of course, you may want to practice something that’s totally off topic (Where did you get that dress), but that wouldn’t fit the context (or maybe it will).
Visualization is a technique that is often used by athletes in preparation for difficult maneuvers. We can use the same when approaching difficult communication situations.

• Envision the scenario that is about to happen. Important visual and aural cues are missing with hearing loss, but the brain can fill in the gaps if you know what is happening.
• Anticipate what is going to be said. In a place like boulangerie, there are certain phrases that are commonly used. Practice those phrases. The practice would help your brain to be prepared for what is about to be said.
• Different situations means different possibilities. So what you might expect in the bakery would be different from what is said in a doctor’s office from what is said in a restaurant. Context is everything.

Visualize the scenario and anticipate the speech and your brain will be warmed up for each and every difficult situation. Just like many things, planning ahead can help you to avoid unwanted pitfalls.

Posted via email from Ann Reflection

Communication Strategy for hearing impaired - Lighting

Tuesday Tips: Lighting

The amount of light in the room is not the first thing you think about when you talk about hearing. However, you can hear better if you see better. Think of the last conversation you had with somebody standing in front of a brightly-lit window. It wasn’t fun, was it? There are often shadows that can fall on people’s faces. That makes it hard to see their facial expressions and lips, which are important to the context of any conversation. Then there’s that awful glare from staring towards the window too long. I can see imprints of light in my eyes just thinking about it.

• Increase the light if it’s too dark. As romantic as conversations in the dark are, it may not be the best for your communication. Turn on the lights and you’ll often have an easier time talking to each other.
• Move away from glaring sources of light. So as with the brightly-lit window scenario, it may be best not to stand right by that window. It can be tiring for all talkers involved and harsh shadows on the face just don’t look endearing.
• Put your back to the window. If it’s not too bright, then the window can provide just the right amount of light. However, you will likely want your back to the window so that the light falls on the face of those you’re speaking to.

Posted via email from Ann Reflection

Assistive Technology Co-operative: Community Needs Assessment

Assistive Technology Co-operative: Community Needs Assessment

A co-operative is a business organization that is owned and operated by a group of individuals who become members for their mutual benefit. In order to become a member, you must make a one time share purchase. To learn more about co-operatives, and how they may apply to assistive technology, click here.

In order to better understand what people with disabilities, their families and supporters think about the idea of an assistive technology co-operative we are launching a community survey using small group meetings in various communities as well as an on-line questionnaire.

Please help us to better understand if an assistive technology co-operative could help you to meet your needs or the needs of someone you know.

Take a few minutes to fill out our online-survey by clicking the link http://bcatcoop.wordpress.com/

Posted via email from Ann Reflection

Bluetooth compatibility – Accessing Technology with your Hearing Aids

Bluetooth compatibility – Accessing Technology with your Hearing Aids

Posted via email from Ann Reflection

Reflection when initiating systematic literature review

Here I am in the library again, the only location that I can do work: initiating systematic literature review for my directed study. Here is the wiki(http://hinf490.pbworks.com) for it

The following is my reflection:

What is the information need for laboratory data?

What is the audience? Audience matters in the area because expert knowsledge and computer literacy affect the cognitive process of the information processing.

What is intrinsic to raw clinical laboratory data?
- mostly numeric
- unit matter
- time matter
- some canned text, some free text
- some image
- some sound
- usually flat structure
- few have hierrchary or network when combo-test is ordered, e.g. complete blood count
- some calculated, e.g. total creatinine clearance
- context matter, depended on personal / family health history.

For my systematic review, should I exclude medical images? and just focus on multi-variants?

Hide in Dungeon for six months!

I must say that I had horrible summer. Taking six courses and work at the same time is not fun at all, particularly complicated with the exhausting co-op job applications and interviews. Thus I hide in the sweating computer lab night and day. I realized how much I missed the lovely summer nights, lantern, travel, photography and pottery!
With my favorite fall color, I found my norm again today. I will come out of the dungeon!

Which cell phone in Canada have hearing aid compatibities?

Beside microphone volume, and sound clarity, radio frequency interference from the cellular phone with hearing aids is a huge obstacle for hearing aid users.

Some cell phone create a magnetic field that can be coupled with a telecoil-equipped hearing aid while some other fails. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission ( FCC ) has mandated that cell phones have to test for hearing aid compatibilities and report microphone ( M ) rating and the telecoil coupling ( T or t - coil ) rating. The scale for hearing aid compatibility ranges from one to four providing four possibilities: shaky ( M1 or T1 ), fair ( M2 or T2 ), good ( M3 or T3 ), and excellent ( M4 or T4 ). Canada does not have this regulation.

In preparation to get myself a new cellular phone, to replace the one that I lost, I asked telus, who still carries my contract, for a list of dealer who have workable demo. So I can go and test them with my hearing aids before spenting money. The link of dealer that the representative sent me was not accompanied with information of which dealers have workable demo. I went to dealers and they have dummy phone only. As a person with hearing impairment, I have difficulty phoning the dealers one by one to ask if they have workable demo. Plus, I am not allowed to "test" the phone without actually buying the phone, which is very inconsiderate.

I did some internet research and find that both motorola krzr and BlackBerry(r) Pearl(tm) Flip 8230 smartphone have hearing aid compatibility (HAC) of M3, which is great.

However, the dealer was unheard of this terminology.

Due to the bad experience with cell phones, I was not willing to commit more of my money before having trials on them. Therefore, I chose Motorola krzr, which is a "pay and talk" phone on sale. However, I would like to make use of the text-based communication (email, messaging) which is offered by BlackBerry(r) Pearl(tm) Flip 8230, and are much more useful for me, if I can have trial on them first before being committed for another 3-year contract.

Oh, there are some links I found from my internet research.

Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Page on how to buy hearing aid compatible phone

http://widhh.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-buy-hearing-aid-compatible.html

Motorola's page on HEARING AID COMPATIBILITY

http://direct.motorola.com/ens/accessibility/Hearingaid.html

Experience No Interference by Using Hearing Aid Compatible Cell Phones

http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/experience-no-interference-by-using-hearing-aid-compatible-cell-phones-514101.html

Hearing loss group complains to FCC about iPhone:
They want Apple to make it usable for those with hearing aids

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9037999

iPhone and M3/M4 hearing-aid compatibility?

http://theappleblog.com/2007/02/26/iphone-and-m3m4-hearing-aid-compatibility/

I strongly suggest that Telus mobility put a summary page on their web site about hearing aid compatibility (HAC) on their line of phone. Since they are one of the two CDMA providers in Canada, hearing-aid users turn to CDMS providers for their portable communication needs. (Yes, GSM providers are rule out, because of the interference of the phones with hearing aids). Please be considerate for hearing aids user. They are a growing consumer population and willing to spend money on accessories to make their phone works for them. People who posted on the above website have buy bluetooth device, conducing neckloops, captioning service, and visual voicemail. By introducing hearing aid compatible phone and making their informationeasier to find, the business of Telus or Bell business will expand despite the depression. 

UVic Library Reflection - A pair on bench under Full Moon, the first

UVic Library Reflection - A pair on bench under Full Moon, the first night that the fountain is refilled in 2009.
Originally uploaded by annchou

I returned from the Craigdarroch Ceremony last night. When I walked past the library. Something special caught my eyes. My beloved reflection of the library was back. UVic must decided that the winter was surely over and refilled the pond again. It must be the first night that the pond/fountain was filled. The reflection was perfect without the running fountain. When I checked fountain this morning, the fountain was on, and no more perfect reflection.

Deliver Simplified Skype Project - Again!

Well, today, we got it installed and run on a Dell laptop that we lend it to the requester to try. Originally it is to be delivered two weeks ago. However, somewhat silly, we didn’t notice that the requester had a mac until we are at her home, long after 2 months of development! So to save time, we are lending her computer instead of finding another binding with will work with mac. The principal user in the request is going to use a window-based ASUS Eee Top 15.6-Inch Touchscreen PC, nonetheless.