Documenti di Didattica
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Published by the European Federation of Hard of Hearing People Edited by Marcel Bobeldijk and Niels-Henrik M. Hansen. Deadline for the next newsletter is June 1. /2012. Please email your material to nh@niels-henrik.dk
NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2012
SIGNAGE - AN IMPORTANT PART OF ACCESSIBILITY TO HARD OF HEARING PEOPLE. Read the story page 14
EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
The year 2012 started very successfully for EFHOH. A lot of events and actions took place and we are pleased to have a new member organization in Poland called PFOS. Copenhagen Lidia and I were present for EFHOH at the European Union Presidency Conference on Disability with the theme Accessibility and Participation = full inclusion of people with disabilities in Society. Also Knut M was present at this event in Copenhagen and he represent the Disability Council of Norway. Important is to know that accessibility is a concern for everyone, not only for people with disabilities. As the demographic changes lead towards an ageing population in Europe, accessibility should be taken in to account across a wider range of policies than just disability policy. We need to make sure that products, services and the built environment are accessible to all, regardless of their ages, ability, or status in life. Universal design is already used with success but there are many areas in which it has not yet been adopted to any great extent. Jerusalem I was in Jerusalem, together with the other IFHOH board members for the IFHOH spring board meeting. And also for the Bekol (the Hard of Hearing organization in Israel) accessibility seminar in the Hearing Centre in Jerusalem. It was a great honor for me to give a presentation about the situation in Europe and accessibility in general. It was nice
to listen to the very interesting presentations and to meet so many enthusiastic hard of hearing people. Brussels Lidia Best and I also participated in the Spring 2012 European Platform of Deafness, Hard of Hearing and Deafblindness meeting with the great support of our young speechto-text reporter Simon Best (son of Lidia). He did a great job so that this platform meeting was accessible for Lidia and me. We have a very nice logo now and we will sign our agreement cooperation paper at the EDF AGA 2012 in Copenhagen. EUD has made a nice video clip http://eud.eu/videos. php?action=view&news_id=167 Warsaw For me it was really nice to be back in Poland after so many years. In 1991 I was also in Poland for the IFHOHYP Summer holiday/camp in the south of Poland. And now in the weekend of 1 March I was back in Poland, but this time only in Warsaw, where we held our spring EFHOH board meeting together with a seminar organized by our new Polish member organization for Hard of Hearing People. In this EFHOH newsletter you can read an article about this event. PFOS, welcome in our EFHOH family and in behalf of the EFHOH board thanks for organizing the very interesting seminar and we wish you success as a board team and other members of PFOS success in all your work to make Poland accessible for Hard of Hearing People. Bergen We as EFHOH board are looking forwards to meet you at the IFHOH world congress in Bergen/Norway. This event starts on Monday 25 June with the EFHOH Annual General Meeting (AGM). At 09.00 is the registration desk open and we start 09.0 with the AGM. Yes correct, we start one half hour earlier so that we have more time to discuss the many topics on our AGM agenda. In the afternoon at 14.00 the IFHOH AGM is started and in the evening the opening ceremony of the IFHOH World congress is held. Subtitling It will be fine when you as our member, answer our letter about subtitling and it is very important that you send the actual percentages of subtitling in your country, to us before the 1st of May. So as you know, last year Lidia and I made the EFHOH policy paper about Subtitling in Europe. We need from you the up to date subtitling percentages and the prognosis for 2012, so that we are able to make an updated version. This all for our goal subtitling of all TV programs for everybody across Europe.
Museum project In this EFHOH newsletter you can read an interesting article about the Dutch museum project in the Netherlands. Do you have also a project to make museums more accessible for hard of hearing people in your country? I hope to meet you in one of the accessible museums of Bergen/Norway, the beautiful city where we hold our IFHOH world congress 2012 in summer. Call It would be fine if you are able to write an article for one of the EFHOH newsletters of 2012, Also this year we try to make 5 EFHOH newsletters for you and all your members. Yes we make the EFHOH newsletter also for the volunteers and hard of hearing people in your national and local organisation. You can send your article to our email address efhoh@hrf.se Warm Regards, Marcel Bobeldijk President of EFHOH.
EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
A SYMPOSIUM on ACCESSIBILITY
Saturday 2 February the Bekol symposium on accessibility was held, with the participation of the International Federation of Hard of Hearing People (IFHOH) board members. It was a great honour that I had the possibility to give a presentation about the current situation of accessibility in Europe. Other speakers were, Ido Granot, the executive director of Bekol, he gave a presentation about accessibility in Israel. Anat Shalev, interior designer, she informed us about designing our homes for better hearing. Dovrat Nutman, audiologist of Bekol, her presentation was about Telecoil, the Gateway to hearing richer tones by means of hearing aids. Naomi Schik Porat, audiologist of Bekol, she informed us about Public accessibility, things you should know. This symposium was very well accessible for hard of hearing people, by means of loops and speech to text reports. The lectures were also translated from hebrew into english and from english into hebrew by speech to text support. It was very nice to participate in this symposium, and to be able to meet people of Bekol. It was also interesting to visit the Hearing Information Centre. In the photo you see the speech to text reporters, working for the IFHOH board in the english language,For the Israel participants they worked in the hebrew language, you see this on the big screen in Hebrew. More information about the IFHOH board meeting in Israel in the next IFHOH Journal.
EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
tive and yet.not seen aggressive. I was very pleased with the positive response from students, showing the need of this kind of confidence building training for affective advocacy and lobbying. One of highlights was a visit to the National Theatre on Thursday 29th March, where I was able to experience IR loop system and live captioning. The event at the theatre was possible thanks to a project called Beyond silence and darkness. The project receives public funding to enable those with hearing and vision loss to enjoy the theatre in Warsaw.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank my fellow Board members for the support they gave to help raise awareness in Poland and to all those who participated in the seminar. Special thanks to the Board of the Polish Foundation of Hard of Hearing also to Shalom and INTEGRACJA for help in making this event possible. Please read the report written by the participants of the event, it was so inspiring to see young people getting active in advocacy. Lidia Best Smolarek EFHOH
EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
ing person. I wear hearing aids since childhood. I grew up among hearing people. However, I met with the Deaf, but I do not feel part of their world. I have always felt strange, alienated in this group, and among the hearers I was a third wheel. Here, in the group of hard of hearing I thought this is it. I understood everything. I was able to function normally. Im happy that I could meet such people. I was one of the participants of the show in the theatre. I usually do not use like going to theaters, because I did not understand whats going on. There were subtitles above the stage and I used an FM system in order to understand the actors better. I left very satisfied. Id love to go to another show, of course, with subtitles. The second day assertiveness training was
held. The training was in my opinion, very nicely done by Lidia. There was discussion about how we should behave in a given situation. Each participant told a story and how they behaved. Next, Lidia explained if that persons behavior was appropriate or not, providing her reasons. I left the training wiser and with more self-confidence. I saw the first time Speech to Text interpreting. I liked it, but it would be nice if it were also in Poland, because then I would understand more. I hope there will be more such meetings :) By Paulina Lewandowska & Magdalena Rosowicz
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EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
An interview with
Knut Magne-Ellisen
When did you get for the first time in contact with EFHOH? I was a member of the committee preparing the forming of EFHOH. Can you tell something about yourself and your work at local and on national level in your country? I started as Secretary general for the Norwegian organization of HoH in 1986 and was working fulltime until 199. In 2004 I was elected as Chairman for the HoH clubs in Oslo and in 2006 I was elected as President for the national organization of HoH in Norway which with its 55 000 members is the largest organization for disabled in Norway. I have decided to leave my position as President at our congress in June 2012. When did you join the board of IFHOH/EFHOH and why? Who were in the board? What have you done within IFHOH/EFHOH? I was elected as board member in 2007 and as Vice-President in 2010. I have been especially interested in building a strategy for EFHOH with both strategic and operational goals. What is your opinion about the role/tasks of EFHOH as a European NGO for HOH people? Since decisions made by EU have a big impact on all nations in Europe, it is important that we can be the voice of HoH. Even if we have seen some improvements the last years, it is still many challenges!
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Can you tell something about your experiences in EFHOH? I think the voice of EFHOH has become stronger and stronger and that decision makers now are listening to us. We have and shall have a board who work well together and where each one istruly engaged in giving HoH a better life. Can you tell something about the co-operation between EFHOH with IFHOH and IFHOHYP? I think the relation is good. But there will always be some improvements. I am very happy that we in IFHOHYOP have so many engaged young people which I hope we will also see in EFHOH in the future. What was for you personally the most important subject/moment/topic in your period? Accessibility in general and building new organizations of HoH. What was the most sad or difficult moment/ topic in your period? Nothing special, but we need a better economy so we can be more active in areas where we should
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EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
An interview
Jan Lamby
When did you get for the first time in contact with EFHOH? Through conversation with former Secretary Monica Steorn, Sweden, and when attending national meetings in my organisation. Can you tell something about yourself and your work at local and on national level in your country? I have been active in my organisation over 25 years. The last decade I was the President of the County organisation, the District, which is an umbrella organisation for the local clubs. When did you join the board of IFHOH/EFHOH and why? Who were in the board? What have you done within IFHOH/EFHOH? I was elected Secretary in 2005. I was asked by our President at national level, if I was willing to be a candidate for the election. I have been interested of the international work and especially in the field of accessibility. This has been my main task in the board, apart from being the Secretary.
with
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What is your opinion about the role/tasks of EFHOH as a European NGO for HOH people? Very important, we still have a lot to do. We all often experience many examples of bad accessibility all around Europe. Can you tell something about your experiences in EFHOH? During my time we have had excellent boards, with good and open discussions. The only failure was when one board member very unexpectedly left in the middle of her term of office. But no one could be blamed for that, and the gap was filled up on the next election. Can you tell something about the co-operation between EFHOH with IFHOH and IFHOHYP? The relation EFHOH IFHOH is a good one I would say. But there is still some constitutional uncertainty, because EFHOH once was created out of IFHOH and formally EFHOH is regarded as a Region of IFHOH. This situation is not clearly visible in the EFHOH Statutes. EFHOHs relation to IFHOHYP is good I suppose; and of course very important: We need to get the young people involved, and when they leave the youth organisation because of age, we hope they will be interested to work in EFHOH. What was for you personally the most important subject/ moment/topic in your period? Loop systems and subtitling; In the first topic EFHOH hosted through our Swiss member an International Conference in 2009, which was a success and was followed up by a second one. In Subtitling we have managed to get support from the European Parliament and the European Commission. A great improvement of our advocacy. Personally when we got an agreement with HRF in Sweden to have our office there; and administrative support from an assistant person there. That meant a substantial lowering of EFHOH Secretarys work-load, which in turn enables myself to put energy and time in more important tasks. What was the most sad or difficult moment/topic in your period? Most difficult and something EHFOH still suffer from, was probably when the board member mentioned above left. Because she was responsible for the website, and no one of the remaining board members had sufficient knowledge to become a real web-master. Today it is extremely important to have a good and interactive website. Unfortunately for volunteer organizations like EFHOH, this costs a lot of money if its done by professional people. How do you see the future of EFHOH?
I see a bright future of EFHOH, although there is a economic cloud hanging over us at the moment. I hope that we through better and closer contacts with the decision makers in Europe, are able to lower the current barriers to hard of hearing people in Europe. Congresses, like Vancouver and the loop system conference are very important. What do you think about their role in future? The world congresses are business that belongs to IFHOH; what they decide is up to them. But I think it is important for both IFHOH and EFHOH that these congresses continue to be a meeting place for both people from hard of hearing organizations and professionals; thus creating a good exchange of experience. What were you going to do in your free time when you had left the IFHOH/EFHOH board? As I am still in the board, I dont think about that situation yet.
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EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
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The reason was that it would consume too much time, energy and money, if we tried to make a new standard. The BGM followed the proposal in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2010. By this decision, there is now only one symbol for accessibility to hard of hearing people which is fully accepted by the organisations of hard of hearing people. This design should be promoted and used world wide. Of course the sign is no guarantee for the functionality of a hearing loop. In the EFHOH Accessibility Guidelines we provide good information about the installation of loops and accessibility in general. A strong recommendation when using the symbol now adopted by IFHOH, is to add some kind of explanatory text or commentary. The symbol, with or wihtout the small T, does not clear enough explain what kind of accessibil-
ity you provide. Examples: In a cinema it could mean it is equipped with a hearing loop; but it could also mean the film shown has subtitles. Another example: A hotel wants the show on their website they are accessible to hard of hearing people. Does it mean the rooms have tactile devices like vibrating fire alarm/alarm clocks or are the meeting rooms at the hotel equipped with hearing loops? Correctly used, signage is an excellent way to provide information, not only on site, but to enable people making plans for visiting cinemas, museums, theatres and much more. Conclusion Use this symbol! Written by Jan LAmby
Note: The standard does not specify the colours used in the symbol. The left picture is the geometrical construction of the symbol, taken from the ETSI standard. A recommendation taking into consideration the needs of persons with visual impairmment: The ear, the stripe and T in white; the background in a sufficiently dark hue of blue, green, or black. (In Sweden there exists a standardized method of measuring contrasts, provided by the Scandinavian Colour Institute.)
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EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
Revised Article about CCAC Meeting in London on 11th March 2012 for EFHOH publication
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the top right, top left, lower right, and lower left, off to the sides of the main stage. All panels had the same lines of text, the captioning being good and accurate. It was only the language of Shakespeare that was a little difficult to understand at times, Old English. Lauren continues here: It was wonderful to meet Giacomo and all the others in London, who took time and joined the working meeting, some of us coming from far away. As all reading know, meeting face to face (as you will do in Norway soon) is so nourishing. Several others were unable to attend on this day, due to various reasons, and we hope all keep in touch for this project and developing collaborations. The energy and level of discussion at the meeting was high and it was suggested we continue to meet in person whenever and wherever we can, and to continue discussions online. A smaller team met again in London also, to plan THE FILM and to move ahead as quickly as possible in this ambitious new project for volunteers. Time is short and flies! The team is working hard and needs your help! Please read the page on the CCAC web about THE FILM now, and help us find video submissions. Do one yourself, or with a friend. Its fun and easy to do, using your camcorder
(web camera) or any mobile phone with video, or similar. We really want your contributions! And they are due before the end of April please Email ccacaptioning@gmail.com to request how to submit your segment. We will use a dropbox system, so as not to overload anyones computer. We ask all to follow the same simple script, or parts of it, speaking in English. A professional editor will select the pieces from all videos we receive. We aim for a fast-paced video, delivering the message that We are everywhere and we want access to everything to mirror these statistics: The World Health Organization states that, in 2004, over 275 million people globally had moderate to profound hearing impairment (one in five people globally). . When the film is ready, we hope to have the premiere at a major international conference this summer. After that, it will be freely available to all your associations for distribution. Finally, we thank the Sponsors for the project so far. Their generous contributions will help make this project a reality, and we invite you to read more about sponsorship here: http://ccacaptioning.org/sponsors-international-mediacampaign/
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EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
The European Platform of Deafness, Hard of Hearing and Deafblindness had their spring meeting on 15 of March in Brussels. EFHOH was presented at this meeting by Lidia Best and Marcel Bobeldijk. For the first time the meeting was accessible to us with thanks to the great support from Simon Best (Lidias son) as our speech to text reporter. And I can say to you that he did a great job. Other representatives at this meeting were, EUD EURO/CIU EDBN FEPEDA Mark Wheatley and Annika Pabsch Hendrik Fehr Ricard Lopez and Lucy Drescher Guus Coenen and Bernard Daly
Signing of Agreement - at the EDF AGA in Copenhagen in May we will sign the formal agreement co-operation paper. Press release - we will make a press release to inform other about the intentions of our Platform and present ourselves to the public. Seminar at the European Parliament - the idea is to organise a seminar in November 2012 atthe European Parliament related to our main topic on accessibility (statistics, communication, access to information). Logo - the platform have now a logo. News from organisations - it was very interesting to receive the information what are other platform members activities. Very nice to know that and see the lot of interesting topics and policy papers they are working on. Our next Platform meeting is 18 of July2012 and of course Lidia and I will inform you in the EFHOH newsletter about the results.
Topics of the meeting: EDF response to European Accessibility Act - in general all the platform organisation were happy with the EDF Response to the Public Consultation with a view to a European Accessibility Act. We sent this some weeks ago to all our EFHOH members. EDF Board candidate - we are looking for some candidates for the EDF board elections 201.
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ACCESSIBILITY ACT: A BINDING LEGISLATION IS THE ONLY EFFECTIVE OPTION SAYS THE DISABILITY MOVEMENT
Pressrelease: EDF Copenhagen, 4th March 2012 /// The leaders of the European Disability Forum gathered on the rd and 4th of March in the capital of Denmark for their board meeting. This meeting was organised just before the Danish Presidency Conference on Accessibility and Inclusion where the disability movement will present how the EU has to improve accessibility for 80 million citizens with disabilities. 18% of the population in Europe remains unable to enjoy their full right for mobility, which prevents persons with disabilities access to studies, to work, and more generally to full integration in society. The leaders of the disability movement have focused on five crucial issues where the EU institutions can bring a major change: -The access to the internal market through the European Accessibility Act, -The EU legislation for accessibility of websites -The anti-discrimination directive -The integration of disability in the EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 -The alarming effects of the economic crisis 1 Upcoming European Accessibility Act is a key milestone The President of the European Disability Forum Yannis Vardakastanis stressed that No goods and services should be allowed on the EU internal market unless they are accessible for persons with disabilities. We call on the European Commission to come forward with a strong proposal for legislation on accessibility before the end of 2012. For EDF, to be effective this Act should have: -a scope as broad as possible -a clear and extensive definition of accessibility covering all aspects and domains including among others e-services, safety even in case of emergency, and mentioning the need for interoperability and affordability of accessible goods and services. -a clear reference to the relationship between accessibility, sustainability and quality of life during the whole life circle cycle -basic accessibility requirements for goods and services in the frame of Universal Designs approach. Hosting the event, the chair of Disabled People Organisation Denmark, Stig Langvad reminded: Lack of accessibility will not reduce costs. On the contrary, it will bring more costs to member states. This is why the crisis cannot be the excuse for lack of action. The organisations of persons with disabilities should be fully involved in the shaping of the act as well as during the monitoring and evaluation phases of its application. 2 Accessibility of public websites Under the Digital Agenda, the European Commission for Europe committed to produce legislative proposal on accessibility of publicly-related websites. It is now time to act and the European Commission must propose binding EU legislation ensuring that public websites and websites delivering basic services of public interest are made accessible as soon as possible and no later than 2015. A web-accessibility legislation giving the focus on access to content is complementary to a binding Accessibility Act which targets accessibility of goods and services. EDF believes both are necessary. The anti-discrimination directive The disability movement urges the members states to go ahead with the anti-discrimination directive and make sure persons with disabilities and other groups have the same rights as any other European citizens. 4 The integration of disability in the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020 The MFF is one of the indispensable tools to promote equal opportunities and accessibility for persons with disabilities for the next decade. EDF board members have adopted a resolution to ensure the inclusion of the rights of persons with disabilities in the MFF being in process of negotiation this year. The disability movement wants to add a new article to mainstream disability. This new article would cover all issues that the European Commission has to mainstream and should include the rights of persons with disabilities and in particular the CRPD. This resolution also calls to include accessibility for persons with disabilities as a condition in the legislative proposal for the MFF in order to ensure that all EU financial instruments wont create more barriers for people with disabilities in Europe. This proposition also covers all the European Union external action instruments. The promotion of Human Rights and the inclusion of 1 billion persons with disabilities worldwide has no borders. 5 We wont pay for the economic crisis The EDF calls on the European institutions and all the Governments of Europe to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities are not undermined by the current responses to the economic crisis. EDF President Yannis Vardakastanis stated: Right now, persons with disabilities are struggling to keep their salary, their pension and their social benefits. Although we have been ensured by the European institutions that persons with disabilities would not pay for the crisis, extremely negative effects of the austerity measures are being reported. This is unacceptable: 80 million European with disabilities dont want to pay for the crisis.
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EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
Ho Chi Minh City, Feb 19th, 2012 Dear Sir or Madam, People with hearing impairments are comprised about 2.5 million (or .2 percent of total population) in Vietnam. As they have got low educational attainment and cannot find jobs as easily as others, most of them are very poor. The most important reason of all is that many cannot access hearing aids which are considered supportive ears for the Hearing Impaired in their early intervention. Established in 2011, the Center for Research and Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (CED) has been considered the pioneer in serving the Hearing Impaired in Vietnam. Its mission is to promote the full integration of the Hearing Impaired into the society through education. CED has been providing various services to uplift the Hearing Impaired, their parents and their teachers through counseling, advocacy, publication and training on sign language, lip-reading, lifeskills, teaching methodology and employment skills. Being aware that the inaccessibility of hearing aids much prevent children with hearing loss to maximize their potential abilities and possibility, CED has recently tried to create the Hearing Aids Fund. The Fund mainly aims at providing used hearing aids and early intervention to poor children with hearing loss. CED would like to request individuals, companies and organizations to donate any new or used hearing aids or little financial support for the continuing operation and development of the Fund. CED do commit to use all kind supports on Hearing Aids Fund to help the Hearing Impaired better study and communicate with others for their more confidence and social integration. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact CED at email founder.ced@gmail.com or maytrothinh.ced@ gmail.com Warmest regards,
Duong Phuong Hanh CED Director Cel: 84-909 114 006 (text only) Email: hanhdpvl8@gmail.com
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EFHOH NEWSLETTER
| APRIL 2012
HARD
F HEARING
PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE
You cannot miss the IFHOH World Congress 2012 in Norway, the Land of the Midnight Sun!
The last World Congress was in Vancouver, Canada in 2008. The next one will be in Bergen, Norway, June 25 to 28, 2012! The theme for the World Congress in 2012 is
ne pas manquer, le Congrs mondial IFHOH 2012 en Norvge, le pays du soleil de minuit !
Le Congrs mondial prcdent a eu lieu Vancouver, Canada en 2008. Le prochain sera Bergen, en Norvge, les 25 au 28 juin 2012 ! Le thme du Congrs mondial 2012 est
W W W.IFHOH2012.NO
2012