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White Cane Awareness Day | Mark Your Calendar

Where We've Been | Community Collaboration

White Cane Awareness Day

Image Description: background image of American Flag print featuring red and white stripes and white stars on a blue background. Dark grey rectangle is centered with the words Blind Americans Equality Day October 15 and showing a small illustration of a white cane.

“The white cane, in effect, makes our hands and arms longer, so that we can assess the situation, and move quickly and confidently. The white cane allows us to avoid obstacles, find steps and curbs, locate and step over cracks or uneven places in the sidewalk, find doorways, get into cars and buses, and much more,” National Federation of the Blind. Using a guide dog or assistive technology for independent travel both require the person to develop white cane travel skills first.

On Oct. 6, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the first White Cane Safety Day proclamation in an effort to raise awareness that people who are blind carry a white cane as a mobility tool. 

In 2011, President Barack Obama proclaimed Oct. 15 as Blind Americans Equality Day, recognizing the achievements of people who are blind and the white cane as a symbol of their independence. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 12 million American adults experience partial or total blindness. The leading causes of vision loss are cataracts, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa and glaucoma.The leading cause of deafblindness is Usher Syndrome.

Image Description: Blind man crosses the street in a crosswalk with the assistance of a white cane and guide dog.

Correct answer is A. When driving near a blind pedestrian who is carrying a white cane or walking with a guide dog, you must slow down, yield the right-of-way, and then proceed with caution. Be prepared to stop your vehicle in order to prevent injury or danger to the pedestrian.

For additional information contact

Ellie Carlson, MA, COMS, GDMI

ellie.carlson@state.co.us | 720.948.8707

Outreach Consultant, Deafblind Specialty

Mark Your Calendar

• COEHDI Meetings

• Save the Date: Quarterly Commission Meeting

• Deaf Blind Citizens' Council Meeting (DBCC)

COEHDI Meetings 

Screening Task Force

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

from 11 a.m.-12 p.m.

Contact astredlerbrown@coehdi.org for the link

This task force continues to meet monthly on the second Tuesday of the month due to the high volume of activities.

Alliance

Friday, November 17, 2023

from 10-11:30 a.m. 

Contact info@coehdi.org for the link

The COEHDI Alliance meets the third Friday of each month from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Meetings are open to the public and members of the public are invited to submit a public comment. Contact kcue@coehdi.org for Zoom

Save the date: Quarterly Commission Meeting

Deaf Blind Citizens Council (DBCC) Meeting

Thursday, December 14, 2023,

3:45-5:45 p.m.

Contact eleanor.carlson@state.co.us for more information or Zoom link.

This meeting is held every other month on the third Thursday. Anyone is welcome to attend whether they are deafblind themselves, a family member, a professional working with deafblind individuals, or a stakeholder of the deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind communities. Online registration is required.



Where We've Been

• Deaf Awareness Night at the Colorado Rapids

• Deaf Safari Day at the Denver Zoo

• Colorado Assistive Technology Expo

• CRID Annual Convention 2023

Deaf Awareness Night - Colorado Rapids

Image Description: Members of the deaf communities attend Deaf Awareness Night at the Colorado Rapids and learn about resources available to them at the same time. Interpreters were on site, and the Rapids won!

In honor of Deaf Awareness month, we co-hosted Deaf Awareness Night at the Rapids on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. 

The event was amazing! Students from Rocky Mountain Deaf School signed the national anthem on the field, and there were multiple exhibitors hosting booths for resources.

Deaf Awareness Night tickets sold out, and the Rapids beat Austin, 1-0!

Deaf Safari Day at the Denver Zoo

Safari Day Access Now at the Denver Zoo was held on Sunday, Oct 1, 2023.

CCDHHDB joined over 550 community members at the zoo enjoying interpreted and captioned sessions, over 25 exhibitor booths, games, prizes, and more. This annual event is a community favorite for resources, community and camaraderie.

Image Description: CCDHHDB outreach staff members Katie Cue and Luke Adams host the booth at Safari Day Access Now at the Denver Zoo.

Colorado Assistive Technology Expo

Image Description: Lorri Dean of Relay Colorado and JoAnne Hirsch of CCDHHDB share information at the Colorado Assistive Technology Expo, September 15.

It was a free event with more than 35 assistive technology vendors providing hands-on learning for all areas of disabilities. More than 400 attendees, consumers and professionals, learned what new products were available to increase independence for all.



Assistive Technology is any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities.

Exhibitors provided demonstrations of their products for hearing, vision, mobility, autism, medical, speech, cognitive, and so much more.

CRID Annual Convention 2023

Image Description: Colorado's Lead Certified Deaf Interpreter, Kevin Harrer, presents with Lead ASL/English Interpreter Christine Pendley on Gatekeeping at the CRID conference October 6, 2023. (Photo courtesy Jenny Miller)

The Colorado Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf held their annual conference in Lakewood, Colorado. On Friday, October 6, 2023, Kevin Harrer and Christine Pendley presented two sessions. There were 22 participants who attended "How to obtain a Colorado Legal Credential - The What, Why, and How" and 44 participants who attended the "Interpreters as Gatekeepers: Understanding PPO” session.

In addition to the presentations, CCDHHDB’s auxiliary services unit hosted a booth at the conference and connected with service providers for rural auxiliary services, legal auxiliary services, and deafblind services.

Community Collaboration

Colorado EHDI Grant

Colorado EHDI recently applied for a competitive supplemental grant opportunity that was offered by our federal funder last spring. Our application was designed to be administered, simultaneously, with our current grant. The aim of these supplemental funds is to investigate child language outcomes.

We recently learned that Colorado was awarded one of these competitive grants. As a result, our work will expand. We are well-positioned to study child language outcomes because we have had a child language assessment in place for more than 30 years. 

The Family Assessment of Multi-Disciplinary Interactional Learning for the Young Child (aka; The FAMILY Assessment) is an assessment that has withstood the test of time having been used for more than three decades. People familiar to many of us have supported the implementation of The FAMILY Assessment: Allison Sedey, Research Associate at the University of Colorado; Christy Yoshinaga-Itano before her; Colorado Hearing (CO-Hear) Resource Coordinators at CSDB; Ashley Renslow, Early Education Coordinator at CSDB; and others to just name a few. Having language and developmental data from The FAMILY Assessment allowed us to write a fundable supplemental grant. Coincidentally, the next round of federal EHDI funding is heavily-focused on child language outcomes.



The delicate art of talking about hearing loss

By Paula DeJohn and Katie Cue

Note - this article was proposed as a collaboration with Paula DeJohn, Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) member and editor of High Altitude Hearing. It was published in the September 2023 issue.

Thank you to Paula for the opportunity to work together and for granting us the permission to reprint the article in this month’s Navigator.

How do you let a new acquaintance know you can't hear them, and why? "Sorry, I'm a little hard of hearing," HLAA Denver Chapter member Barb Nguyen explains. Member Paula DeJohn is not so polite. "I can't hear you," she says, or, "I don't hear well." Member Alan Stanley is still trying to get out of the habit, from his military days, of saying "Do what?" "We're deaf," member Charlene Davis sums it up.

"Wait, is that deaf, or Deaf?" Katrina (Katie) Cue, Ed.D, might chime in. Katie is the outreach and consultative services manager at the Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind. She wears hearing aids, uses sign language, and was in the "hearing impaired" program at her school. Her academic research and consulting experience have led her to explore both the ways people hear, or don't hear, and the words people use to express different ways of hearing, as well as the social and emotional impact word choices can have.

It seems "deaf" need not mean "totally deaf", as some deaf people have hearing aids, but still use sign language. Some people with little or no hearing loss prefer to sign with each other. Member Brian Monson, for example, has hearing aids but signs fluently. His parents were deaf, and that's how he learned.

So, what do we call our particular kind of hearing? What is insulting, what is patronizing, and what is just plain confusing? Take "hearing impaired." Once a common term for the less-than-deaf condition, it is almost cringeworthy now. Even "hearing loss" draws objections from people who were born without hearing, so could never really "lose" it. Katie shares her own experience below.

Katie's story: the meaning of "deaf"

This identity journey may change over time. Growing up, I claimed I was "Deaf" because I was proud to be deaf and it signified that I was a member of the Deaf culture and the Deaf community. And I still am (proud and a member). However, over time, I have come to use "deaf" because it feels more appropriate and inclusive to me. The more I dive into Deaf studies, the less I felt comfortable using a "capital D" designation as I am comfortably bicultural and bilingual; I have hearing family members and friends that I communicate with verbally and in sign, I wear hearing aids, I have a cochlear implant myself (that I don't wear often). I have colleagues that feel differently and use "Deaf" and that is fine. There is no right or wrong label to use; it is only what you personally prefer and feel comfortable with.

In fact, in my doctoral dissertation I studied how deaf people learn to navigate the hearing world as well as defining hearing culture. I even got so tired of having the "Do we capitalize "Deaf" or write it in lowercase "deaf" conversation every time we sat down to publish something that I suggested we do a research study on D/deaf—and the answer was as clear as mud.

Deaf on the phone

The paper I published with colleagues in 2019 in Scientific Research recounts how an earlier researcher, James Woodward, found a man using American Sign Language and asked him how he identified his hearing. The man replied, " I am Deaf, but I can hear and speak through a phone.”

I am also firmly rejecting those who "police" the labels that people prefer to use. In general, I find most members of the Deaf communities to be accepting and respectful of a person's preferred labels but there are always a few folks with extra-strong opinions. I have had people insist that I must have gone to a Deaf school because of my ASL fluency. I have also had some insist that I am obviously "hearing-minded" because I wear hearing aids. Ah well, you can't please everyone.

Basically, we decided to adopt using "deaf" (lowercase) unless specifically referring to Deaf culture, Deaf community, Deaf schools, or a person's preferred naming conventions.

It's your choice

Which leads me to... a person's preferred naming convention. I often tell people, deaf or hard of hearing, that it is absolutely up to them what they prefer to be identified as. It is a personal decision—along the lines of one's preferred pronouns, if you ask me. I have a colleague, who, when I first met her, did not sign, had two cochlear implants, and was identified as being hard of hearing. I asked her how she preferred to be labeled, and she answered, "Well, I can hear, so I am hard of hearing."

I explained that the hard of hearing label could refer to audiological status, yes, but I also knew plenty of people who prefer to be labeled as "deaf" despite hearing quite well and technically being hard of hearing. I also have hard of hearing friends who have "worse" hearing levels than I do and they label themselves "hard of hearing" because they wear hearing aids and speak.

The terms have two layers: audiological status, or how the outside world perceives and labels us, and the identity level, which is how we perceive and label ourselves. Some choose the label "hard of hearing" to firmly attach themselves to the hearing world. But there are others who sign and have deaf friends and refer to themselves as "hard of hearing". Meanwhile, I have seen people who label themselves "deaf" even though they hear and speak quite well and don't interact with many deaf people.

But...be kind

In the commission's Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program, we have tried to steer away from terms that seem negative or imply a deficit. We might tell parents of a newborn "Your baby has been identified with hearing differences."

We use terms such as hearing differences, hearing levels, and hearing status, which are more positive and neutral, so as to reframe being deaf as just a difference in a human experience rather than a medical calamity. And we always respect what people prefer to use and try to educate people on outdated terms when possible. The term "hearing impaired" seems to have simply fallen out of favor and come to be considered derogatory. It's a bit sticky, however, because many blind people say "visually impaired" and that's their preference. I know deafblind individuals tend to prefer "deafblind/DeafBlind/low vision".

Paula's view: Context matters

As a writer, I want to avoid embarrassing or insulting people regardless of their characteristics. As Katie points out above, terms go in and out of fashion and it can be hard to keep up. I myself have been introduced as "my friend Paula, she's hearing impaired" and I admit it stung a little. But I've thoughtlessly used it in an HAH story or two.

Because I joined HLAA when I was new to hearing loss, I followed their use of "people with hearing loss." However, like many politically correct terms, it can get awkward in writing. Sometimes if I try to replace a single noun or adjective with a four-word phrase, I may lose some readers.

When I want to communicate in person but keep it simple, I say whatever I think will get the point across quickly. I've told people I'm "deaf-ish." 

I will say this: Next to my front door is a sign reading, "Firefighters please note: In this house are two adults (one is deaf) and a black cat." I do not want to burn up while a firefighter tries to figure out what "identified as an individual with hearing differences" means.