By Colin Cantlie
During the Hearing Loss Association of America Convention in Orlando in 2006, NCRA member and captioner Deanna Baker, RMR, asked me to become a (consumer) member of the NCRA Captioning Community of Interest Committee after speaking about the captioning concerns in the United States and Canada. We agreed that consumers needed to be involved in the professions of realtime reporting, captioning, and CART. By the end of that conversation, I was hooked - along with another committed advocate, Joe Gordon of New York.
In the fall of 2006, Mr. Gordon and I participated in a telephone meeting with NCRA's Captioning Committee. Thanks to Jeanette Christian's excellent CART abilities, we gained full access and participated in the teleconference discussions. I was truly moved by how the rest of the committee members accepted us. Deanna and I believed that consumers play a pivotal role when strategizing for captioning and CART activities. I hope that Mr. Gordon and I played a strong and important role during the telephone meeting, as well as during the discussions before and after the call.
One idea born from the meeting was that Deanna Baker would moderate a consumer panel presentation at the 2007 mid-year conference in Vancouver, B.C. The panel would include three consumers: Dr. Marilyn Dahl of Vancouver, B.C., founder and past president of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association; Mr. Nate Paterson of Bellingham, Wash., a hard-of-hearing student at the University of Washington; and me. I, like Dr. Dahl, am a past president of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association. As it happened, Dr. Dahl became ill prior to the convention and was unable to participate. Mr. Paterson and I provided our personal views on the barriers to accessible communication, thus reinforcing the importance of both captioning and CART in our daily lives.
The session was successful so we decided, once again, to offer a consumer panel at the annual NCRA Conference in Dallas this past August. The session started with the panel asking the audience questions and then allowing the panel comment. Then the panel members answered questions from both the moderator and the audience. On the panel this time were: Mr. Joe Gordon, Ms. Tommie Wells, Mr. Chris Sutton (HLAA Staff), Ms. Ester Kelly (Deaf Action Center of Texas), and me.
As a consumer, I was excited by the interactive discussion. It was progressive, informative, and very supportive on both sides of the issue. I greatly appreciated the candor of all who expressed their thoughts during the session. There is a great need for better communication and understanding of the people who supply the product to the people who receive the product.
As the moderator, Deanna Baker made the point, "We do not always know who the client is nor do we always understand the concerns of the client." It is because of this that the session was provided at the Dallas Convention -- to get to know all of the parties better.
From the perspective of the consumer, we were delighted to have been given this wonderful opportunity to share our ideas with the providers of captioning and CART. Together, we have common issues such as quality, commitment, and -- most of all -- on-going development and training of people who wish to enter the field of realtime reporting. The question now comes up about the requirement for funding; after all, it is proven that a need for captioning is there and will be for the time to come.
The work continues, and we have only scratched the surface. Working together provides us with a strong network for effective and accessible communication. The work has only just begun.
Colin Cantlie is a member of NCRA's Captioning Community of Interest, where he serves as a consumer advocate.
November 2007