The Hearing Loss Association of America hosts an annual conference where thousands of HLAA members come together to learn more about education, advocacy, awareness, and support about hearing loss issues across America and in the world.  This year, it will be held in the Washington DC area on June 16th through 19th.   Lucy plans to blog about her experiences at the conference.

I intend to bring back my experiences at the conference this year to our July 2011 meeting, where the Kansas City chapter attendees will speak to our time in Washington DC and what we learned from the conference.  There’s a whole host of workshops and sessions that will be vital to share with all of you, so I’ll be taking copious notes.

The Research Symposium topic this year is on “The Impact of Noise on Hearing” which for me is pretty interesting, as I just spent last Sunday at a NASCAR race and it was LOUD, and I noticed while a not-insignificant number of people wore hearing protection, I’m sure many more went without!  There is even an article on About.com about NASCAR races and hearing protection – http://nascar.about.com/cs/nascar101/a/hearingprotect.htm, hat tip to Kelly.  In the article, it states you should wear ear protection, even if you feel you look dumb wearing it.  The author then goes on to say, “If you’re afraid that they look dorky, would you prefer to have to wear a hearing aid?”  Thanks, author!

There are also a number of events outside of the Convention Hall that I’m looking forward to participating in.  There will be a young adult scavenger hunt that will allow people with hearing loss from ages 18-35 to connect and network, as there is a perception that HLAA caters more to older people with hearing loss, and young adults don’t feel like they fit in at HLAA.  Also, there’ll be a theatre performance of Wicked at the Kennedy Center, and it will be captioned for our enjoyment, which I am very much looking forward to watching.

Looking forward to bringing back more information for everyone!