Adjusted transcript for Tom’s Jaunt Through Ears Years on Feb 15, 2024. [Thomas Watson III] 18:52:39 {There was some chit chat here before I started recording. Words in squiggly brackets aka braces added by Tom after recorded, clarify some caption goofs, and removed some irrelevant lines.} [Pat Dobbs] 18:54:55 Hi, Tom. [Thomas Watson III] 18:54:59 Hey there. [Pat Dobbs] 18:55:04 How are you? [Thomas Watson III] 18:55:05 Getting settled. [Pat Dobbs] 18:55:26 I'm happy to hear that. [Thomas Watson III] 18:55:32 I'm pretty much ready for the presentation, although as usual it's longer than intended. [Pat Dobbs] 18:55:41 It's longer. [Pat Dobbs] 18:57:25 What time? What did you say? [Tom Watson III] 18:57:29 It's not quite 7 in the actual session doesn't begin until 7 15 Oops. Need to make my looks {meant Lips} visible. [Tom Watson III] 18:58:06 Hey. Aha! Andy. And 2 more people. [Tom Watson III] 18:58:15 Well. And I think I recognize that name. [Pat Dobbs] 18:58:27 Hi, Owen. I'm glad you're here and Gary. And Gwen and Andy. [Tom Watson III] 18:59:04 Next. [Owen Logue] 18:59:11 Hey, Gary. [garyschilmoeller] 18:59:13 Hi, good day. [Owen Logue] 18:59:15 Yes, hi, Fad. {meant Pat} [Pat Dobbs] 18:59:18 Oh, and you should. You're a big hotshot and being you should introduce yourself. [Owen Logue] 18:59:25 Okay, lot of people know me as OJ. originally from, I know him. Much of my lifetime but also worked many years at the University of Maine. Previously I was the head of the main educational center for the different heart of hearing. In Portland that provided educational services for over 700 deafening children in this state of Maine. Who the staff of 80. It was really incredible, you know, but it's also during COVID, which was really tough. [Pat Dobbs] 19:00:04 Yeah. [Owen Logue] 19:00:04 You know, had to deal with, you know, remote learning for all the children and, We also had a lot of influx. Of African students that came. From the Congo and and parts of Africa that was really interesting educational challenges. To meet their their knees {needs} and So also, and some of you know that I were the previous death {deaf} Olympian that was on 2 US 18. And last, May, 2022 by, my coach see, U.S.A. team in Brazil. And, that was really exciting. So. I, to go to Taiwan this summer, but I'm not sure. That I have, that I've met qualifying standards. I'm not sure I'm gonna go. But hopefully I'll go to Tokyo in 2025. So with it. Yeah. [Pat Dobbs] 19:00:54 Good luck. Thank you. [Tom Watson III] 19:01:19 Yeah, I just wanna add that it's gonna be a tough. To follow like Gary {and Owen}. {...} [aunt judy] 19:05:41 I'm here. {...} [Tom Watson III] 19:14:19 Occasionally jump back to see if somebody's waiting here. But yeah, I am gonna start the presentation now. {...} [Tom Watson III] 19:14:29 First off, any objections from the people here as far as recording. [Pat Dobbs] 19:14:35 Go ahead, go ahead, Tom. [Tom Watson III] 19:14:38 Okay. {...} [Owen Logue] 19:15:13 Looks like you are sharing right now. Recording right now. I see it. [Tom Watson III] 19:15:19 Here we go. Okay. So Welcome. [Tom Watson III] 19:15:31 And, basically we're going to be taking a very short trip Through the past 60 or so years of my life. And how my years have affected. What I've done and what I am planning to do. And I thank the hearing last {Loss} association of America and particularly the Downing's [Downeast} chapter of Maine. For helping me. Get to the point where I can do things like this. [Tom Watson III] 19:16:05 So since the, There's 12 slides here and it took about an hour to get through them last time. I'm gonna be going a little bit quickly. But there will be a couple breaks for our questions and whatnot. And in the meantime, please put your questions in the chat so we don't forget them. [Tom Watson III] 19:16:33 Okay. Just to give you a heads up as to what we're going to be talking about. [Tom Watson III] 19:16:40 I'm gonna talk a little bit about who I am. And it looks like everybody's familiar with the HLAA, so I'm gonna just sort of.Gloss over that. Then I'm gonna go sort of in chronological order in my life. What has happened and then up to what is happening now? [Tom Watson III] 19:17:08 So in my early years Basically first half of my life. My ears were pretty fine. I couldn't hear things like pecalows {piccolos}, but.Really nothing that was a problem. I did encounter some things that in retrospect prepared me for how to handle hearing laws. Which was good. [Pat Dobbs] 19:17:29 Yeah. [Tom Watson III] 19:17:39 So then. School in college I basically solidified a lot of my interests. Basically, I'm interested in computers. Technology, history. And  a few other things. [Tom Watson III] 19:18:01 And near the end of college is when my hearing changed Enough to be noticeable. [Tom Watson III] 19:18:09 Then I moved on. Into a career in medical software for 25 years. That sort of gonna be the Really the guts of this talk. During that time, I encountered social media, internet, etc. After the career. I retired kind of early. Due to ears and some other things. And I've been moving around a lot pretty much my whole life. And some of that has definitely been due directly to the hearing. [Tom Watson III] 19:18:53 Right now. I'm involved in advocacy for hard of hearing folks. And that's the main reason why I'm giving a presentation here to sort of Get a better idea of what we're doing and what we can do. To make that better. [Tom Watson III] 19:19:17 Finally! I have a little contact information. A little bit about some other organizations that have helped me through my life. And they're kind of related to hearing. And then a sum up of the key points. [Tom Watson III] 19:19:35 So just quickly I'm gonna go back and. Do you have any? Hands raised or anything here? Nope. Or if anybody's waiting to get in. Alright, back to the screen. [Pat Dobbs] 19:19:52 Hey, Tom. [Tom Watson III] 19:19:55 Oop, Pat! [Pat Dobbs] 19:19:58 Can you see me? I wave my hand. If somebody has a question. But. [Tom Watson III] 19:20:03 I can sort of. I don't really have enough room on my screen for everything. Okay, so did you have a question here?  Okay, moving on. [Tom Watson III] 19:20:41 I have a little autobiography here in reverse chronological order.{ …}, longer version is actually on The Downey's [Downeast] website. Under the about page. If you click on my name in particular, that'll get you there. But this is {...} A little bit more in depth. About some of the things that we're going to be talking about tonight. And I'm gonna go from bottom to top here. Quickly. [Tom Watson III] 19:21:22 So growing up. Things that I liked were. The medieval nights. Nature hiking and such. And just playing and learning things. And as mentioned, I also did some moving and actually got Later on. Work in college and what not. Then I found social media. Then the health really became a big deal in my life in the 2010s. And then the plague basically, COVID led me to where I am now. In the hearing last Downing's {HLAA Downeast} chapter. [Tom Watson III] 19:22:31 So. Because the years are important. And because I'm assuming you know about audiograms I ended up making sort of a make-shift one. [Tom Watson III] 19:22:48 And while preparing for this, even though I'm a pack rat and I have stuff going back to 1970. It turns out I only have 2 actual audiograms of my hearing desk {tests}. And none of them are on this chart. But this gives you an idea as to what's happened. [Tom Watson III] 19:23:14 So again, the top of the chart going across horizontally, that's normal hearing. Middle of the chart is Basically moderate to severe hearing loss. And then the bottom is basically you don't hear anything As far as words. And you can sort of see. Low frequencies I've had for quite a while. Whereas the high frequencies dipped down quite a bit quicker.  And that's consistent with what.They believe caused my hearing lash {loss}, which is the nerve. Behind the clock clear {cochlea}. In other words, the auditory nerve actually in the brain.And that limits some of what works for me and what doesn't. So that That's my ears. That's that's what my ears are. And basically all I can hear now is a drag camera. Okay, and the transcript Translated, Jack Hammer. As a drag camera. I wanted to add more humor to the meeting, but I guess I don't have to. It's doing it for me. [Tom Watson III] 19:24:54 Okay, so while time is limited, we're gonna jump in a little bit. To my early years. Again, as you noticed. Started out good except at the really high frequencies, which really didn't matter much Except for music classes. And things like that. Wasn't an impact.  I didn't really notice the ears except when I got an occasional Bug in them.  Literal bug. And I got bugs of that nature because I was out hiking with my family. … when I wasn't out hiking I was reading magazines about nature or … history or, you know, whatever caught my fancy at the time. Within 6 years would move 3 times early early in life. That coupled with getting eyeglasses early on Short {sort} of put me outside the social norms I got a little bit of teasing but really not as bad as I've heard Others have had in various ways. … Due to hearing loss and due to other factors. But I do know what it's like to be outside looking in. And honestly, In a lot of cases, I actually prefer being outside. In both senses of that word. [Tom Watson III] 19:26:54 Now going back to the eyeglasses. That was a very noticeable change. It was annoying, but the glasses really worked as far as giving me vision except in certain situations. Such as swimming. Where, you know, something would get on the glasses and I wouldn't be able to see beyond. So in general it was just a nuisance. [Tom Watson III] 19:27:40 {...}. About mid 70’s i actually read an entire unabridged dictionary. For those who don't know, that's about a one foot by one foot book. {and} about 8 inches thick. I read the whole thing. So that's where my terminology comes from. If there's new connotations to words, I probably won't know about it for a long time. So if I use something that is offensive, it is entirely unintentional. Do call me on it, make me aware of it. [Tom Watson III] 19:28:49 Okay, so right here I'm gonna take a little break and see if there's any questions. [Tom Watson III] 19:29:02 Okay, first question in there {the Chat}:  was my hearing last{?} diagnosed and did they do a scan? To see … about it. [Tom Watson III] 19:29:15 Sure {sort} of and yes, that'll actually come up. Oh, couple of slides from now. So. It is probable that it is the nerve, it has not been absolutely confirmed.  On the other hand, it is not genetic as far as immediate family or any relatives that I ever knew about. And that's what the cochlear implant guys tried to convince me it was after a 30 min desk {test}. So again, that's something I'm going to mention a little bit later and more detail. [Tom Watson III] 19:30:10 Pat? [Pat Dobbs] 19:30:12 Hi, I have a question actually from everybody. And that is. [Pat Dobbs] 19:30:20 How much do your eye glances {glasses} Effect. How do I say it? The comfort of your eyeglasses and hearing aids. [Tom Watson III] 19:30:32 It's not bad when it's just the glasses and hearing aids. If you add a hat, a sweat band And you know, some other, you know, like music device. It gets very heavy very quickly and things will follow {fall off] all over the place. So not a huge impact, but it is noticeable. And I tried contact lenses but could never get them in. [Pat Dobbs] 19:31:05 Tom, I was curious to get to hear what that, how other people were affected by their hearing aids and eyeglasses. Cause I see Gary and Gwen wear eyeglasses. Andy, I can't remember if you wear glasses, but I'm just curious. I don't wear eye glasses, so I'm really looking for, you know, just feedback from other people. [garyschilmoeller] 19:31:31 I can. Report that for me, it's not the eye glasses, it's been the mask during COVID. I've not had. [Tom Watson III] 19:31:41 Hey, forgot about that, but yeah, that was a struggle. Particularly taking them off. They'd rip everything right off the face. [Gwen LaPointe] 19:31:55 This is, this is Gwen. I've worn glasses and had hearing aids for a long time. And they they kind of coexist. Sometimes I get so because the glasses, the bows of the glasses, Kind of get squashed in by the hearing aids, but most of the time. You know, it's a lot to have them behind you. Yeah, it's a lot of stuff there, but I get used to it and I don't really think about it now. [Pat Dobbs] 19:32:34 Got it. [Tom Watson III] 19:32:40 Okay, we have one more question here. [Owen Logue] 19:32:41 What Gary said about the mass {masks}. I thought the mass was one of the wars {worst}. Experiences ever. During the COVID period when people wore masks. And I found it really irritating when news reporters were outside And they insisted on wearing the mask. And you know anything with the news you couldn't live {read lips} where you do anything. There's a great article. And, and the Portland Press, I hope you can look it up. It features me talking about the title is, Read my list if you can. And it's a really good. About. No, talking about the issue and how it impact. Social emotional development. Human react, I mean everything about it is just really extremely well written article. I'll see if I can find it and I'll post it up to you, Pat. But, you know. [Pat Dobbs] 19:33:37 Perfect. [Owen Logue] 19:33:40 I was really concerned about the deaf children I worked {with}. Because they were for you know, and when they got past the mass {mask} They could no longer read that expression above the nose. You know. They couldn't read this part of the face. And so they didn't understand emotions anymore. Because they couldn't understand the teachers. Their friends, everything. It was just really a very hard time in life for {...} children and adults as well. [Pat Dobbs] 19:34:13 Yeah. Oh, G, Andy asked if you can post the link. That would be great. [Tom Watson III] 19:34:16 Okay. [Pat Dobbs] 19:34:23 I love it. What did you say? Hear me if you can. [Owen Logue] 19:34:27 Upgrading. I'll try to find I'll see I can do on my phone. [Tom Watson III] 19:34:42 If not, email me after the meeting. [Owen Logue] 19:34:45 Okay. [Tom Watson III] 19:34:48 So I want to move on now because I do have a fair amount to cover here, but that is a wonderful point. And I will be short of. Talking a little bit about that shortly. Okay, so. Basically covered what we're talking about and a little bit about my life in general. [Tom Watson III] 19:35:28 And now we're gonna sort of move into. How hearing has truly affected that life. So college years Again, for reference, this is 1980 through 1989. …I was sort of in and out of college over that time.2 colleges. Now, ears seemed fine to me. I wasn't having trouble. But it's turns out that it is most likely A stereo next door to me, freshman year in the dorm. That literally never turned off.That triggered the hearing loss.  At the HLAA convention last year, I also found out that … not only can noise grass {cause} damage to the nerve, but anything.That stresses you out. Can actually twist that nerve to the point where the signals don't get through. So that sort of reinforced, yes. This was at least. Part of it. And one of the later audiologists said the pattern of my lush also matched That situation. So that's why they believed it was the. Central {nerve behind the cochlea} . But again, during college it didn't really consciously affect me. [Tom Watson III] 19:37:24 Now in high school, I got introduced to computers and that sort of shifted me. From oh I wanna be a nature park ranger to I wanna work with computers. And that became my major. And for a minor. Something that was relatively new at the time. History of science and technology. And I'm sort of more interested in the technological. Stuff. Then the science side, although I dabble in just about everything except chemistry. So. I know a lot about what is possible. Computers just sort of overlap everything. They can do so many things. That it just fascinates me [Tom Watson III] 19:38:26 Now while doing that. I encountered a non-hearing. Obstacle that affected my emotions really badly to the point where My survival was on the line. And I realized that. If you don't have hope. In other words, if you're not optimistic that things have a chance of being better, even if it's a low {chance,} Then you're gonna miss out on a lot of other things That are good. [Tom Watson III] 19:39:04 And I also ended up. Doing a lot of daydreaming during this time to try to work things out. And a little quote that I ran into recently was I dream, therefore I am. It's sort of a Rephrasing of something. That a historical figure said way back that's fairly commonly known. [Tom Watson III] 19:39:34 Again, during this time, I was introduced to sign language. And because of my interest in knights, I was introduced to an organization In which I'm active currently. That deals with medieval history, particularly the fun parts of it. [Tom Watson III] 19:39:53 And those were both extracurricular activities. What's not on here is I also. Ran a projector for a speed reading course and picked that {up - not: } out. And that's important because that's really The one skill that I've learned that I would Truly recommend to others if I had to pick one that's the skill . [Tom Watson III] 19:40:24 And I learned. How to learn things over the years. So my short-term memory is good but my long-term memory is very poor. That's why I tend to record things for my own use. And that's why I asked about recording upfront. As far as this meeting. Now this presentation will also be useful to others, probably. So that's a bonus. [Tom Watson III] 19:41:02 Okay. Getting into the nitty gritty here. So starting in about 1990. I began my true work. And I was. Basically programming medical software and also because there were so few people in the company at that time. We had to do other things. Packing {talking} on the phone to find out what the hospital guys wanted. And a whole bunch of other things that were just sort of. Unrelated but the ears were basically required to do the job. [Tom Watson III] 19:41:56 While doing the coding, I saw some code. That … handled names that sound familiar. I mean, similar. And that was important because when somebody came into the emergency room. And they'd be really, you know, trying to talk fast to get all the information. To the person entering the data. If you don't have that data attached to the proper person. It's not gonna do much good. And one thing I noticed. Was that sounds that are similar? Really have nothing to do with how they're written. And the code that did this was also quite complex. So it. It was, it was fascinating. But I didn't think of anything beyond the coding aspects at that time. [Tom Watson III] 19:42:58 And early on I was using a hearing aid, tried an amplifier. And then later on. The phone just Got too difficult to use. So I end up sort of … reducing what I was doing as far as my. Actual duties were concerned. And luckily the company made that pretty easy. [Tom Watson III] 19:43:31 And again, I'm not going in order here, but. [Tom Watson III] 19:43:37 Because we kept expanding. We kept adding buildings, but it was mostly within Massachusetts that this was happening. I was in Massachusetts at the time. Most of my life in Massachusetts. So I moved {to another} building and then I'd say, oh, I need a doctor nearby so that I can get to them during work. Somewhere during that I lost a lot of my records. Particularly for those years. No {now}, I normally have a stack {of papers} about yay high {2 feet} for any category that I'm interested in. This {stack about 2 inches high} is the thumb {sum} total. Of 30 years of hearing loss. Grand total of 2 audiograms. So. That was something that surprised me when I went back. To make this presentation.  But it's also important that {?? moves + dictionary} and the language that I mentioned {are} where my definitions of words come from. Because later during my career I was talking more by email than by phone. And the recipients. Started getting angry. And I couldn't understand that. But it was because they were misinterpreting what I wrote to other connotations of the words. Which was definitely not my intent in any of the cases. Later yet. … we have a building out in Minnesota. We have a building in Georgia. Well, I can't cry {drive over} to clean up those. Mission interpretations in person anymore. …. The ears really affected my career Arc. [Tom Watson III] 19:45:41 Now these other bullet points are sort of Things that happened that weren't directly related to work but happened during the career. [Tom Watson III] 19:45:53 Going back to the top. I first noticed Trouble with the TV. I was turning it up constantly. But I didn't really think too much of it. I thought, oh, it's just the TVs having trouble. And then one day they [others in the house} said Well, you know, when you come in late at night after working too long. You're coming up the stairs really slowly trying to be quiet. And what they heard was a herd of elephants. [Tom Watson III] 19:46:38 So that, that's when I consciously realized, hey, something's wrong. And started seeing audiologists and whatnot to see what was going on. And ended up getting the hearing age {aids}. [Tom Watson III] 19:47:01 During the career Another type of duty that we all have. Is being available for jury duty. I got called at least 3 times for that. But I never actually served on a jury. i basically told them I can't guarantee I'm gonna be fair. To everyone involved! Because the likelihood that I'm not gonna hear something Is really high! And there's a huge difference between things like “do” something and “do not” do something, even though that's a very small word. Now the reason I'm mentioning that is because in February there's {an} entire week now devoted to Raising awareness of hearing lost in the legal judicial setting. I couldn't find the name of it off hand, but there is a week. Just for that You know, like one of those national, oh, it's national cat day or whatever. But it's a little bit more … involved than that. [Tom Watson III] 19:48:30 Again, during this time. Once I realized the hearing loss I said, okay, it's time to travel now rather than waiting when … I may not be able to walk or I may not be able to hear anything at all. So I bounced around quite a bit, traveling. French since  {for instance} Thailand’s New Year. And that was both fun and A way to maximize. What I can do when I could do it. In … fact {that} played out later on. [Tom Watson III] 19:49:14 And as I mentioned, At work. When my superiors started also realizing that I had hearing loss. They tried to help me out, you know, by booing {moving} me to jobs that didn't need the ears as much ...But they didn't really Have anywhere to go to get answers. You know, for any employee that will be at any stage of hearing loss. There was nothing that either of us knew that was anything remotely related to. Places like the Hearing Last {Loss} Association of America. So while we were trying, we were sort of stumbling around in the dark there. [Tom Watson III] 19:50:02 And I gotta move on a little bit quicker here. Okay, one more slide and then another little break. [Tom Watson III] 19:50:18 Okay, again, during my career in medical software. I found some other things. And this is sort of random order here. But early on I found the internet. I found chat rooms. I found email. And all 3 of those things. Have been a constant in my daily life ever since. Very useful. [Tom Watson III] 19:50:52 When I found Facebook That also proved pretty much a daily thing. That was about. A little bit before midway through my loss.  And that brought up both humor. It gave me an ability to keep in touch with people that I moved away from or reconnect to people I'd moved away from. And do all that without the phone, which was the most frustrating part of my life. [Tom Watson III] 19:51:29 I began to actually maintain a website. For the medieval organization. Shortly after retirement. Well, because of that, I thought I knew what maintaining a site and tail {entailed}. And, I volunteered for that duty in our HLA chapter. Well, it turns out there's rather more involved. In that, then. I truly realized I'm not going to go in the details but  it's a very good thing that our vice president is also savvy in that area of computers. [Tom Watson III] 19:52:15 So some of the things that both of our organizations do. Since mean {Maine} is such a you know big state. Geographically. We have things like this meeting. With Zoom, we had other meetings. You know, with different technologies such as Google Meet. And. I noticed early on. That a fair number of platforms did not have {captions}. And at that point I was really relying on captions. [Tom Watson III] 19:52:54 So I went back and said, oh, well, there's social media. And that has hashtags such as this. Little, symbol right here {#}. Yeah, you can put in that people will search on that. Marketing companies will search on. And it will get the attention. Of people who monitor the internet.  Now Zoom wasn't responding at all to people who weren't paying for it. So I made up a tag, Zoom is awful {#ZoomIsAwful}  because Hey, anything that was on it. Was worse than an old silent movie to me. It just You know, I'd be sitting there looking at a screen like this for 30 minutes. And, you know, with the speed rating, I've read it in 30 seconds. Or less. Probably a good deal less. So it was something that I felt I really needed to do.  And luckily other people were doing that as well. And we did get Zoom's attention. [Tom Watson III] 19:54:14 Again, during this time, I was looking for technology as ways to Cope with the hearing loss as far as actually hearing. What people were saying. Start it out. [Tom Watson III] 19:54:34 For instance, sprint capel around 2010. It was okay, it was a bit slow. But at that point I didn't expect too much. Now, up to this year. Using a different captioning phone system. It never got any better than what it had been in 2010. 14 years of technology and don't change. That's not good. So that's one of the things that sorta Is off my radar now. [Tom Watson III] 19:55:16 Now, I did find a no tap {an app} on iPhone that is good in a lot of situations. But it fails in a lot of other ways. Found some other wraps {apps}. Found ways to caption phone calls coming in on cell phones. But that {took} The convention last year to actually get set up and working right. So as a result of all that. What I found is there's nothing out there. That gets you through all the situations in life. And it seems to be divided among. Phone calls. Working … one on one or with very small groups of people. [Tom Watson III] 19:56:13 And Something else that I've actually forgotten here. For the moment, but there's nothing. That for the general public. Really works, you know, in situations where somebody's up on a stage speaking to a big group of people. And there's nothing that really works in a classroom setting unless you're in an official school setting. So that is something. That either we can advocate more for or at least Find a link to better stuff. Somewhere along the way. [Tom Watson III] 19:57:03 And finally. The only reason I actually kept a phone. Was computer online forms required {it.} … and. In general, most of those black {block} things like saying, hey, You can't get me via the normal voice phone you have to text me. There was no way to tell them that. So that brings us back to the frustrations and emotions.  So I'm going to stop here for a bit and take some more questions. Starting with what's in the chat. And as you can see, I sort of ramble on a little bit. So Okay, I'm not seeing anything in the chat, so please. Where's your hands and whatever's Wave your hand to get my attention for any questions. [Tom Watson III] 19:58:12 Okay, Pat. [Pat Dobbs] 19:58:15 So I'm just curious. Does anybody have a similar story? To Tom, is anybody similar? Did like did people lose their hearing at about the same time as Tom? [Pat Dobbs] 19:58:31 I actually did. I started to lose my hearing when I was 19. So little different, but. [Pat Dobbs] 19:58:42 Yeah, o Jay. [Owen Logue] 19:58:46 I lost my, I lost my hearing at {early}, so I'm kind of different in terms of. Sounds like most of you lost your hearing later in life So. But I have {?}, for those of you in your situation. [Pat Dobbs] 19:59:00 Yeah, it's so interesting depending on when you lost your hearing. There's always a slight difference. One thing that I've noticed. I don't know if this is true, but the younger you lose your hearing, the better a liperator {Lip reader}you are. Do you buy that everybody?  [Andy] 19:59:25 I lost my hearing at both {birth}. And I don't know, yes. It's even not. And notice I know how good I am at lip reading, but I also need to see your eyes. And people wear sunglasses. It's really hard for me to read their face, even if I can see the lips, which is interesting. [Pat Dobbs] 19:59:42 Really? [Andy] 19:59:44 The other thing is too, I think, Losing your hearing loss and not having diagnosed until you're older. Really impact your ability to process speech. With my cochlear implant now and with my hearing aid. I'm pretty much at. 80, 90% of what hearing people can hear. But that's only what I can hear. But speech discrimination, understanding speech is a whole different issue. So I still need the lip reading {and} the captions. [Pat Dobbs] 20:00:16 So interesting how people say, can you hear that? And the answer is yes, we can hear it, but we have no idea what Yeah. You know, I remember I went to a presentation. [Pat Dobbs] 20:00:29 Oh, Tom, sorry, go ahead. Tom, do you want to say something? [Tom Watson III] 20:00:37 Okay, just a note on a lip reading. I heard this from a statistician during college in fact. People who take a lip reading course and haven't been exposed to it early. Only about 5% of them can do it. Contrast that with speed reading, which 95% of people can do. Big difference. So basically if you don't grow up. Lip reading or or not young enough so your brain can really wrap itself around that. It gets harder as you age. And I can literally {lip read} very few things. But I am aware that people Need it so when I was carrying masks all the time I always had one that had a clear area over the mouth.I never actually had a reason to use it. But I had it if it was needed. [Pat Dobbs] 20:01:51 Oh, go ahead, AJ. [Owen Logue] 20:01:54 So, one thing is that, Couple of things. One is that even the best liperator is estimated 25%. You know, so I would fall in that category that I would, that well, but I often got into trouble. With double negatives. You know, where someone would say something. And I might respond angrily because I think they say something Opposite of what I think is being said. And the people who know me well will say  Wait a minute. Did you understand what I just said? And I'm so appreciative when people do that to me, so I don't go down a rabbit hole. So that's 1 point.  The other thing. That, you know, I know the deaf community extremely well. In the job community, those who, you know, use American sign language and do not. Use speech for example, they do not you don't see them lipering at all. I mean, that's like a nice thing and negative. They will not. You know, so it's like, you know, if you don't sign, then that's it. Communication shut down. So, it's really interesting. I've observed that over my career. You know, looking to see if, but I would have to offer and sometimes they, they call SIMCOM when they, when they sign and speak at the same time.I looked to read their lips, you know, because I'm not always able to read their size {eyes}. [Owen Logue] 20:03:19 So I just, there's a lot to be learned. You know, for those who are late different {deafened} adult, about the kind of the cultural, … the ... history behind that. [Owen Logue] 20:03:33 You know, it's much, much better now, like, 30 years ago. Oh, maybe more like 40 years ago. 95% deaf. Mary, death. Which was just downing, you know, so it was looked upon down, look down upon if you were deaf and dated or married a hearing woman, it would very much frown upon. But now it's {ok} because largely because of cochlear implants, you're seeing more and more acceptance. Assimilating into society, you know. To include. Hi, hearing people into your life and it's really interesting evolution that I've seen in the last 40 years. [Pat Dobbs] 20:04:16 That's true. That's 2. There really has been an evolution. And there's been a lot of. How do you say? Arguments over should you get a cochlear implant or not. But then the argument over the over the counter hearing is I mean, you wouldn't think that ideology would be so controversial. But it is. Yes, {Tom?} thank you {Owen}. [Tom Watson III] 20:04:50 I'm actually gonna touch on all of these things a little bit later in the presentation. [Pat Dobbs] 20:04:57 Okay, great. Thank you, Tom. [Tom Watson III] 20:05:02 But it's good to hear that up front so I know sort of how to focus. Well, I'm saying a little bit for this group. Anyhow, any other questions at this point? [Pat Dobbs] 20:05:17 No. Thank you. Good. [Tom Watson III] 20:05:20 Let me just check something, okay. I'm going to ship {skip} back to the presentation now. …  Okay, so We covered my career we covered. Work. So now we're sort of moving on beyond work. And this would be 2014 just to give you a sense of where I am. Chronologically. When I left work, I knew ahead of time I was going to be doing that. So. One thing I planned was a long trip to New Zealand and Australia. I was there a little over 6 weeks. And this one {went} quite well. … the hearing age {aids} were working well for me at that point.  Again, other than the phone. For instance, I spent One day {of} that vacation. Nearly 6, 7 hours. Just clacking {talking} with a credit card because a phony charge had appeared on it. And in fact, I needed a second person with me. To interpret some of the things that the person on the other end of the phone said. When the hearing age just wouldn't catch. The words they were saying. [Tom Watson III] 20:07:05 The other thing that nearly derailed the whole trip Was a boat ride. Before I got on the boat, I asked, Hey, are we gonna get wet? Because hearing aids can't. {handle} water well. And they said, no troubles. Nobody's really gotten more than a drop of water on them. Well, we get out there. And the ways {waves were} coming from 2 different directions and were higher than the both {boat} by a good margin. So the water was literally boring {pouring} over our heads. And I spent that part of the boat ride. Hey, to {holding onto} my glasses with my hearing {aid}, it's fire into my hand as {tight as} could be to try to keep it dry. Wonder of wonders that actually worked.  The other wonder was that we didn't get bounced right off the boat. Entirely. And I already mentioned that. Swimming with glasses in there is an issue. And top that off with not being able to. Hear are their {other} people when the line of sight is blocked by waves. Could have been a survival issue. So, hearing is important. [Tom Watson III] 20:08:40 Not {another} thing that happened on that trip. nearly missed a flight when they changed the {terminal but didn’t} Show that on any of the screens until the last possible instant. In fact, I was lucky that they showed it at all at that point. Airlines weren't nearly as friendly as they are recently. To hard of hearing folks. But all in all, it went very well because of the hearing aids and because I knew How to deal with certain situations. And had some things that worked. [Tom Watson III] 20:09:23 So after that trip I moved up to Maine. And first house. I absolutely loved that house. But because I relied on the internet so much. When it went down. At random, for an entire week. Every year, 4 years running. … well. I'm gonna be out of touch with emergency people and with other people that I need. You know, to talk to right then. So I ended up moving.  Now a couple of months after that. They introduced texting services to the, 911 one emergency stuff. If I'd waited just a little longer, I'd still have my dream house. But that didn't happen. [Tom Watson III] 20:10:25 Okay, so I'm at the next house. Again, about 4 or 5 years. And lo and behold, the ears drop down. Quite a bit more during that time and now I can no longer hear most vehicles approaching. Well, the road on a hill. {and a} curve. … people are going way over the 45 mile an hour posted {speed limit}. So last summer had at least 3 near misses with other cars. And I'm like, I gotta get out of here. And at that point, that's when I moved to where I am now. That was completely unclaimed {unplanned} and Had a whole slew of Murphy's log along with it that I won't get into now except to say up until last Thursday. I was like a chicken with a Ted {head} cut off.  [Tom Watson III] 20:11:32 Moving back a little bit to other things that happened during This time, well, Maine is noted for snow. I was, struggling {shovelling} and managed to lose my … driver's license. So I'm on the internet. Looking around. And happened to stumble on something that apparently is …. At the beer {bureau of} motor vehicles, there's this thing called Sure {Certification} of Deafness or Hard of Hearing. Well, I filled that out. Got my. Dr. To sign off on it. And now my license actually has an icon on her. What that means is if the police pull me over. They'll know I won't respond to verbal commands. Now that's a whole lot safer for both of us. So that's a good thing in my opinion. And again, … that certificate is optional. You're not required! To fill that out. [Tom Watson III] 20:12:58 During the break it was mentioned that letting people know your heart {hard} of hearing has raised awareness over the years and I've been doing that since. Oh, about midway. True? {through} My life? Actually, {thru} my hearing loss stage of life. Doing things like saying oh you're too far away you might as well be trying to talk to me from the Andromeda Galaxy. Or Well, I can only really guarantee I'll hear what you're truly saying at arm's length. Raising it in a way that they'll understand. Not just saying I can't hear. Or can't hear well. But saying here's what you have to do to Let me hear. And most people have been responsive to that. So a little bit more about that later, but that's just shorter. That's where it came up in the slides. [Tom Watson III] 20:14:06 Now at the point where I shifted to the second house in Maine I was also evaluated for a Cochlear Ring Plan {Cochlear implants}. Now, during that. I found out that Facebook has Groups for death {deaf}. Part {hard} of hearing, implant,s and combinations of those 3. And I got a little heads up as to what the Implant process entailed and how complicated it can be. But I was still, okay. You know, I know the hearing aid isn't gonna last much longer. So let's investigate this.  Well, it turned out Mass eye and ear down in Boston. Which specializes in only those 2 parts of the body? Wouldn't even let me schedule an appointment other than … In person or by phone. Now the phone was so frustrating to me over my life. I actually drove 5 hours each way just to do that. In Persian! {person} Now some of that is actually {due to} Legal and health restructured {regulations}. Which I didn't realize quite at the time. Even though Our … medical software company had an entire staff dedicated to keeping our software up to date with all the legal changes.I wasn't a part of that, but I knew it existed. So. Sometimes! The restrictions work against us. And that's something we have to find ways of dealing with. [Tom Watson III] 20:16:19 Oops. Hang on a moment. [Pat Dobbs] 20:16:19 Hey, hey, Tom. [Pat Dobbs] 20:16:22 Where, only 15 min left. [Tom Watson III] 20:16:29 Okay, so now we're getting to the present. And we're getting close to the end of things here. And just to let you know, this is scheduled to go till 9, but the presentation itself will probably take only about 10 {to} 15 more minutes. [Pat Dobbs] 20:16:52 Because it really ends at 8:30. [Tom Watson III] 20:17:03 I gave … more time. Everything takes longer than you think. So I'm going to just stop the sharing for just a moment here. Okay, we still have most of the people. So again, I'm gonna try to wrap this up somewhat quickly. It's one more in depth screen and then it's Zip {zip zip}. [Tom Watson III] 20:17:38 Okay. So right now I'm getting much more involved in the advocacy. for hard of hearing and deaf folks. And, this shorter {sort of} came about from things like social media ... From being involved in this group. And from learning about the implants and whatnot. So part of that is things like finding out that Facebook has a caption quality group. I'll post a link to that later. But I actually give them, Either something is doing really poor accuracy on the captions or isn't doing them at all in That back to the legal requirements. It's now required that they do this. So we're pushing them. On that. [Tom Watson III] 20:18:50 I've had very positive feedback to both. Personal lots {interactions} of hearing and talking about others. Hearing loss. And that seems to be a little bit unusual. Based on what I … know on Facebook and I've heard about, you know, other stories. A lot of times there's stigma associated with definition or hearing loss. So. That's been something that luckily I haven't had to deal through. [Tom Watson III] 20:19:26 I've done things like, okay, if I attend a class. I'll talk to both the person that's talking there and whoever's …  giving them {the talk on} The stage. … And tell them, hey. There are ways to help us. Help hard of hearing folks. Look into it. [Tom Watson III] 20:19:54 Now along that line. The convention last year for HLAA, which was the first one I'd ever gone to. Was also the first time that I'd seen captions. Shown for a speaker who was … just talking live and not anything prepared. So now I know for a fact it is possible. I also know that HLAA knows how to do this. So another type of convention that I've been attending since 1995 Hasn't been responding to my efforts to get them to do captions or whatever. But this time around I said Hey, HLAA knows how to do this and they did it and I can tell you who to contact there so you can do it next year. We'll see if they do, but. [Tom Watson III] 20:20:56 Finally, …, I know. How to tell people how to do things or where to look for the information which is In general, just as good these days. [Tom Watson III] 20:21:14 Now because we now have a chapter of HL in May {HLAA in Maine}. We're doing things. Like putting up flyers. We’re Sharing stuff on our website. We're getting people In May, more up to date as to what's Going on. With people who either have hearing loss or deal with it in any way, shape or form. Personally, I'm mentioning this. You know when I'm buying stuff at stores and using that Notes app in libraries when I say, hey, could you …  give our group a boost. And putting it on Facebook every once in a while. So that my friends know that I am involved in this. Now, since we're so new.  {i} realized there's a lot of information. Out on the internet about hearing loss and deaf and whatever. What I realized, our chapter needs to do is find some way True {to} make us stand out from that crowd. So that … my goal for the future is find ways to help our chapter do that. [Tom Watson III] 20:22:36 And now I'm going to move on to the wrap up and then questions. … Quickly a little contact information. I'm going to put this in the chat. With some other links. How to contact me? It's either their email, my personal email, which I don't mind giving out. Because it's been out there so long all the black sites have it and it's not a major problem yet. Or you can contact me being {via}. The Downing chapters. Website. Contact form. [Tom Watson III] 20:23:23 {another organization} That I found Oh, it's probably 8 years ago now. Is the association of late deaf and adults {aka ALDA dot org} Which got mentioned at the prior break. And that's becoming more important in my life since the hearing age. No longer work. [Tom Watson III] 20:23:43 And finally, where I have a lot of my fun and where I still keep my hand in on the computer end of things. Is the medieval organization. I have a link. To who I am on that. In that organization. Which involves a. A heraldry symbol which is basically a symbol saying this is who I am And … the major aspect on that. Is an ear. That organization also has people called Silent Heralds. Who are really the interpreters. At large gatherings. That use the sign language to tell other. deaf people what is going on there? And recently. Just in the past, oh! 3 or 4 years? They've started getting more up to date as to what a system listing devices are out there. For the hard of hearing folks. So. They're very much up to date on this  … It's very much dovetailing My life between the 2 organizations. Even though they're Wait {quite} distinct as to what they do. [Tom Watson III] 20:25:17 And final slide. Things to take out of this presentation.  Number one, as I'm sure all of you know, the hearing lives {loss}. Affects your lives in major, major ways. And the initial loss is not always obvious. To that person. So. If you know somebody who's just starting to struggle. Let them know that you're noticing this. [Tom Watson III] 20:25:53 Second point, emotions can sneak up on you, but {at} the weirdest times. Preservation {frustration} has been the most common for me, but… did get to the point where depression was a problem. To combat that. Humor helps? Having options helps. Playing helps, it reduces the stress. Yeah, actually clauses {causes} your nerve to degenerate. And. Stay optimistic even if things look {bleak}. There's always even a just a small chance that it'll get bad {better}. [Tom Watson III] 20:26:43 Things that worked for me? Speed reading, particularly for captions on TV when the actors are … shooting dialogue really fast back and forth. Hearing age {aids}. Chat rooms and other stuff on the internet. Asking people to rephrase what they said if 3 repeats didn't do it. That changes the frequency of the words they're using. It makes it more likely the hearing aids will catch her {them}. And finally, Advocating for hired {hard} of hearing. Folks and helping others who are doing that. [Tom Watson III] 20:27:28 What failed? Surprisingly, a lot of the technology.  In particular, on computers and phones, it changes the frequency. So it makes it harder. For my loss to actually pick up what's being said. Bye the time the hearing aid is programmed to adjust for that. I've dropped another level of hearing.  A lot of the speech to text steps either don't do what they say. Or too complex to set up. And that's coming from somebody who's been using technology all his life. I can't imagine what it's like for … techno{phobic} folks. Too many people talking at the same time. This is something that comes up in a lot of the online {meetings}. Basically somebody has to say stop. And get people to talk one at a time. That's the only thing I know that works for that. [Tom Watson III] 20:28:41 Wind is an issue. Even something as simple as a breeze from an air conditioner in winter. Blue {blew} words from people at the other side of the table away. My note chap {app} couldn't pick it up. It didn't realize anything was being said, let alone try to translate it. [Tom Watson III] 20:29:05 Couple other things there. So now I'm going to go back and. The rest of the session is for questions, comments, whatever. [Pat Dobbs] 20:29:19 It was really great. [Tom Watson III] 20:29:20 And I see a couple things in the chat area. [Pat Dobbs] 20:29:26 Time {Tom} it was great hearing about your experiences and your insights. [aunt judy] 20:29:36 Yeah, I thank you from New Jersey. [Tom Watson III] 20:29:36 Oh, I forgot to pull my links in the chat. I'm gonna do that before people have to leave. [Pat Dobbs] 20:29:49 …. so our next. [Andy] 20:30:09 Okay, Tom, why you're working on that? I am going to talk about … the presentation I'm doing next month. [Tom Watson III] 20:30:16 Here we go. So [Andy] 20:30:18 Yes. Tom, Tom, I'm talking, thank you. last summer, I've got to do a presentation for the National Convention of HLAA on cybersecurity and hearing loss. [Andy] 20:30:33 And I'm going to repeat that presentation in March. Now you might think, cybersecurity and hearing loss, … I just recently retired as a cybersecurity professional. …  So I'm really looking forward to giving that presentation in March and I hope to see you there. Thank you. [Pat Dobbs] 20:31:16 ... So that's gonna be the third Thursday {of the month} … March, the 21st. [Pat Dobbs] 20:31:25 I'm really excited. ….. [Pat Dobbs] 20:31:40 Have you found what you're looking for? [Tom Watson III] 20:31:48 Okay, just to let you know, folks, I'm back here. And one thing I like about Zoom is the transcript you can go back and see what was said while you're off dealing with computer glitches or whatever. So give me a moment to catch up and then I'll be back again. [Pat Dobbs] 20:32:07 Okay, Tom. [Owen Logue] 20:32:15 Take a look at the chat room that put up, Andy put up the link to the article. [Owen Logue] 20:32:21 And also apply called high bear solution {??}, which you might want to take a look at. I'm a consultant. [Pat Dobbs] 20:32:26 So that's interesting. Good. [Owen Logue] 20:32:31 Dear solution {??}. That kinda really change a lot of things and in the world. [Tom Watson III] 20:32:34 Hmm There it goes. [Pat Dobbs] 20:32:40 So, that's communication between deaf and hearing loss people. [Owen Logue] 20:33:00 I'm sorry, Pat, did you ask me a question? [Pat Dobbs] 20:33:02 Yeah, so I just was just checking that software. That communicates between deaf and hearing loss. [Owen Logue] 20:33:15 Yeah, so take a look at the website. It's probably a lot easier to explain the different products they have. But it's gonna make it easier for deaf people to like, make a hotel reservations, airline … reservation, you know, all that stuff like it's 2 way kind of thing. So a hearing person can speak to it and then we would translate into text. You know, so, and in 10 different languages. [Pat Dobbs] 20:33:37 That's great. [Owen Logue] 20:33:41 No, it's really pretty remarkable. There's a father and son that's been working on it for 4 years. And they're very close to. You know, releasing it. [Pat Dobbs] 20:33:51 Right, great, great, great. Thank you. [Pat Dobbs] 20:33:56 Time, thank you for your presentation. [Tom Watson III] 20:34:02 Okay, so something I'm going to mention about deaf and Deaf. On{our} HLAA site. We have a section called upcoming presentation. That typically has more details than the news section about our upcoming event. One thing I have on there right now that people may not notice It's a little footnote at the word deaf. And that links to it is. A little blur {blurb} about the difference between a lowercase deaf and an uppercase deaf. The latter {indicates} Deaf culture. {that}, was something I found out. During my college career,  I've sort of been on the periphery of the depth {deaf}. Stuff and never really Got up to speed with it despite a couple. Sign language classes. But I know something about it and I can point people in the right direction. Again, when you're reading, if you see an uppercase Deaf that's not at the start of a sentence. That has a particular meaning. So remember that. [Pat Dobbs] 20:35:21 Okay, thank you, Tom. Thank you. Okay, well listen, thank you so much. We've gone past our 8:30 deadline. [Pat Dobbs] 20:35:31 So I, I thank you so much, Tom. And it was so nice to sing {see} everybody. And. [Tom Watson III] 20:35:35 Well, that's your deadline as I say. One thing that's hard to do as a hearing large {loss} person is get on the same page when things are changing at the last minute such as this presentation such as what we were going to do in March. It's very easy to miss communicate and Either get the wrong time so you missed the meeting entirely. Or otherwise misconnect. And some significant things can get lost in the shrapnel {shuffle}.  So. That's just something that I noticed when we were talking about the times.I had 7:15 deny {to 9:00}. Pat had 7 to 8:30. And that makes a difference. Some people like to come into meetings late and just get the summary part.Other people like to get the whole thing. But again, that's why I'm recording this. So people who missed it for whatever reason. We'll have a chance to find out. A little bit about me. Because I am now. Available to the public in particular Maine via our HLAA chapter. So it's good for them to know a little bit about where we're coming from. [Pat Dobbs] 20:37:01 Right. Thank you, Tom. So I think we should call it an evening. Unless anybody has anything else, I want to say thank you so much. [Pat Dobbs] 20:37:13 So nice to see you all and hope. And hopefully we'll see you. For Andy's presentation. [Tom Watson III] 20:37:14 They saw a hand raised there? Was that just a wave? [Pat Dobbs] 20:37:23 I look forward to it. Good night. Good night. [Tom Watson III] 20:37:28 … saving the transcript. Everybody's gone.  Can't save the chat {Zoom did that because this meeting was recorded}, but I did save the links. ___ end of transcript ___   {to post links in Previous Presentations;   answer ??s and links,  mention where captions muffed vs why court week important + name of that week??}