[nfb-db] DB Division Officers and Outreach

Sat Aug 22 22:45:56 UTC 2015

Maurice,
I am sorry to hear about your continued hearing loss. This is very similair to vision loss, in that every time you lose a little more, you have to readjust. Its frustrating to say the least.
I am a proponent of going to HKNC. I was just like you several years ago, losing hearing, looking for a career, but not knowing where to go, who to listen to, and or what to do. I was a full time student at a major university, struggling, and not doing a very good job at ignoring the reality of my situation. One day, my state blindness agency staff and the HKNC rep sat me down and said, you really need to think about going to HKNC. My first question, was why, but their answer was somethinjg I already knew. My second reaction, was absolutely Hell No. I was on a track and my goal was to get to that point. Over the summer I got new hearing aids, and although they helped, it was only a bandaid. I over that whole summer went around and around about how I didn't want to go, how I would have to take a whole year out of my life, I would be leaving home, going to a new place, son and on. I went to HKNC for a tour, I did not like it, people were nice but it was different and so were the students. During that same tour, I had lunch in the lunch room, sat a table with other people who were deafblind. With one person, I could hear fine, two people a little harder, three people no longer could hear at all. We spent the lunch period, saying what did you say, can you repeat that. A light bulb went off in my head, I was just like these people, and that they were not different from me. I still sturggled with the decision. My counselor did the application even if I didn't want her to. It was submitted. And I got a class date in November. I go off to HKNC, at first I thought I knew what the classes I wanted to take were, and some of them were correct, but others I had no clue until I got into them. I was a blind person for my entire life, so I had blindness skills. I already knew braille, how to cook, and how to use a commputer. The difference is that, all of the different techniques that a deafblind person learns. Going to HKNC opened up doors, gave me a whole new world. You have to go there and make every minute, class, technique, information, and relationship worth wild. I pushed the staff to go above and beyond what they would normally teach a deafblind person. I was able to complete my training in 9 months, even after having some major health set backs. I enrolled back into my university degree in the fall. And found that life was much easier, there was not much of a struggle. I came out of HKNC more confident in myself, my abilities, what I needed, and how to deal with my deafblindness. I was able to graduate and was hired soon after. 
So my point is, if you have high goals, going to HKNC will help you reach those goals. 
This is my experience, if you chose not to go to HKNC then that is fine, if you do then GREAT! 

Marsha drenth  
email: marsha.drenth at gmail.com  
Sent with my IPhone  
Please note that this email communication has been sent using my iPhone. As such, I may have used dictation and had made attempts to mitigate errors. Please do not be hesitant to ask for clarification as necessary. 

> On Aug 22, 2015, at 6:04 PM, maurice mines via nfb-db <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Good afternoon, I would’ve responded and/or commented on this thread earlier, but I’ve been having computer issues all week long. So I have a bit of the delimiter to ask everyone what their thoughts are regarding an issue that I’m having. Recently I began to put together a third the paperwork to apply for an internship that deals with technology at Helen Keller. A couple weeks ago while doing all that I had a new hearing test, it revealed that I’m continuing to lose hearing. So while talking with non-deaf blind friends, they have suggested that it might be time to think about asking my state agency distend me to Helen Keller as a student, in order to potentially get a full evaluation about how to handle the continuing hearing loss into the future. Any thoughts on this conundrum? On the one hand, applying for the internship would be absolutely wonderful for me and a employment/professional development sense, but if I’m continuing to lose hearing what would be the point of actually attempting to get this internship in and getting it only to find out that there may be more that needs to be done than just getting new hearing aids? Because in a conversation over the phone, with my counselor she seemed to suggest rather strongly that the hearing aids are at best a Band-Aid that needs to be put on probably a bigger problem. Any thoughts? Please forgive me for changing the focus of this thread? If I write anymore in this subject I will certainly change the subject line.
> 
> Sincerely Maurice mines.
> message phone number, 505-369-3283.
> Amateur radio call sign, kd0iko.
> note the text of this email has been dictated by using Dragon 4.0 for the Mac, if there are errors in the text of my email message, the errors may be the result of either of the software or the dictation process.
> If you don’t understand something that I’ve written, please ask me?
> I will do my best to clear up any misunderstandings.
> Thank you very much for reading this.
>> On Aug 22, 2015, at 3:28 PM, Marsha Drenth via nfb-db <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Janice, yes, I was thinking of Angie's list. Do you happen to have her latest updated list of resources? I can't seem to find it. It's probably buried in mountains and mountains of emails.
>> Hope you're well? Thanks!
>> 
>> Marsha drenth  
>> email: marsha.drenth at gmail.com  
>> Sent with my IPhone  
>> Please note that this email communication has been sent using my iPhone. As such, I may have used dictation and had made attempts to mitigate errors. Please do not be hesitant to ask for clarification as necessary. 
>> 
>>> On Aug 19, 2015, at 9:45 PM, Janice Toothman via nfb-db <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Marsha,
>>> We should let Alice Eddy know about Jennifer because, she has California as her DB Outreach state.
>>> 
>>> Marsha, by any chance you weren't thinking of our mutual friend, Angie Orlando and her list of DB groups that she compiles of resources.
>>> 
>>> Janice
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On 8/19/2015 8:16 PM, Marsha Drenth via nfb-db wrote:
>>>> Jennifer,
>>>> Your in California, yes? If your in the San Diego area, I know there is a Blind center, that has meetings for deafblind persons. Doing a google search for agencies, organzations, and groups in your area might be a good start. I know someone who lives in California who is deafblind who might be able to help you. If your connected with your states blindness rehab agency, asking your counselor about other deafblind folks would also be good. If you were to contact the HKNC rep for california, could also be a resource to lead you to other deafblind folks. 
>>>> When I was looking for support with my hearing loss, it took looking and getting in contact with the right person, and then the deafblind world came to be open right in front of me. 
>>>> I know there is also several facebooks groups for persons who are deafblind. 
>>>> Oh, I know someone who also compiles a list of resources on facebook and off facebook that I should post here. 
>>>> Hope this helps in some way.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Marsha drenth  
>>>> email: marsha.drenth at gmail.com  
>>>> Sent with my IPhone  
>>>> Please note that this email communication has been sent using my iPhone. As such, I may have used dictation and had made attempts to mitigate errors. Please do not be hesitant to ask for clarification as necessary. 
>>>> 
>>>> On Aug 18, 2015, at 8:26 PM, Jennifer Woods via nfb-db <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> How can I find out more about DB conventions in my area? As well as contacts for DB in my area?
>>>>> Thank you
>>>>> Jennifer
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Jul 14, 2015, at 8:38 AM, Cathy Miller via nfb-db <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hi Delcemia:  That's a terrific idea.  Arlene is actually working on polishing the list of new officers in order to add the list to the records of the Federation.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I would also like to suggest that we provide a list of outreach team members along with the states covered by each member.  Randy and I attended three national deaf-blind conferences over the last four weeks, and we came home with contacts for West Virginia, New Mexico, and possibly some other states as well.  I can never seem to find the outreach team information, and I don't have two days to dedicate to locating it.  If someone can put their hands on the Outreach Team members with their states, please send it along.  It would be great to have this in, for example, a Word document that I could save to my home screen or desktop.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Delcemia, I heard your name at the DB meeting during National convention, and i recognized it from the list.  I was thrilled that you were there.  I hope you felt welcome and that you enjoyed your time with us.  We know that you will find value here, and we hope that you will continue to share your ideas.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Cathy Miller
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Sent from my iPad
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