MARK YOUR CALENDARS

HLAAKC 

​February Coffee Social

Thank you for those that joined us at on Feb. 19th for an informal coffee social at Paint, Glaze & Fire.  It was fun chatting about the many advocating opportunities Kansas City has for us.   We will see you at our next social Saturday Feb 28 when we go to the movies, which we will explain below.

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InnoCaption and Inno CapTalk Demo​          Saturday, March 7, 2015 10am-Noon

Shawnee Mission Library    13811 Johnson Dr. Shawnee, KS 66216

Inno Caption & Inno CapTalk Demo Event FB Invite March 7th 10-Noon

Join Hearing Loss Association of America Kansas City Chapter for a demo of InnoCaption and Inno CapTalk.  InnoCaption is a mobile phone app for the deaf and hard of hearing that want to use their own voice to talk to others, but struggle hearing what is being said by them. Now, receive captions of what the person says when they say it with virtually no delay and with confidence from the convenience of your smartphone. Plan to come to this very informative meeting to get all your questions answered in person by the InnoCaption staff.   Both InnoCaption app and Inno CapTalk app will be demoed March 7. CART(real-time captioning) provided between 10-11.  Remaining time for questions and answers without CART.

Here is a small glimpse of what the new communication CapTalk app can do and why medical, fire, police and EMTs will want to know about this.

For example, if police pulls over a deaf person or say a HoH person at night and shines flash night in the eyes, which hampers lip reading,  and deaf/HoH tells officer of their disability or shows deaf visor place card,  officer can open Inno  CapTalk on his phone and everything police says is captioned on phone so deaf/HoH driver can understand everything!  No interpreter needed. Seems driver would be more protected from police abuse, like you have seen in some stories from misunderstanding between deaf/HoH and police.

Please invite city officials to understand so money is allocated if police, fire, EMT, medical professionals need to use app.  Subscription to Inno CapTalk is free.  Only if CapTalk app is used, it will be charged by minute, but very reasonable.

CapTalk is in beta phase,  but to be released within next month. A member of Hearing Loss Association of America KC Chapter and ​Sandra Kelly of Deaf Cultural Center have seen Inno CapTalk demoed and find it very impressive, a must share with everyone.​

Here are a few other examples of how Inno CapTalk can be used:

Imagine first responders on the scene of a car crash, unable to communicate with the driver because she’s deaf. A deaf college student struggling to participate in class discussions with hearing classmates. Or a grandfather losing his hearing, trying to make out what his grandchildren are laughing about. This happens every day. There are between 48 and 50 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United States. And the tools to help them participate in the kinds of face-to-face conversations we take for granted are limited. Until now.

Imagine those first responders using a simple app to talk with their car crash victim. What if that college student and grandfather could pull out their smartphones to get near-instant captioning of those conversations? The app could be used in operation room or recovery room.   That’s InnoCapTalk by InnoCaption.  InnoCaption made it possible for the deaf to have phone conversations with those who can hear. Now InnoCapTalk makes it possible for them to have face-to-face conversations with those who can’t sign.

The InnoCapTalk service uses the same back office system and patents that are used on the InnoCaption product.  InnoCaption is from phone to phone whereas InnoCapTalk is connecting that phone or windows platform (meaning a laptop) directly, so what is being said in person can be captioned immediately, thus allowing a deaf or hard of hearing person to engage in any conversation, class or meeting.  It can also serve as a language translation service.

Inno Caption do not have the InnoCapTalk portion of their web page developed yet, but please go to www.innocaption.com to see an overview of their InnoCaption service.

The following video was shown at the National 2014 HLAA Convention:
Innovative Captioning for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Mobile Phone User.​

InnoCaption is passionate about helping people reconnect to their world.  Visit InnoCaption at www.innocaption.com to learn more about their captioned voicemail and Text-to-Speech (TTS) features.

HLAAKC Extends Invitation to OPEN Captioned Film Fans

As many of you know, Crown Center Screenland frequently schedules OPEN captioned current released movies every month.  Sadly, they no longer operate as a movie theater after Feb, 26 of this year.  We are very grateful for the last two years of OPEN caption movies at Screenland!

If you have already experienced Open Captioned movies and are disheartened with the news of Screenland closing, do not fear, Alamo Drafthouse has announced they will begin showing a first-run movie starting on Saturday February 28 around lunchtime.  Then possibly again on Saturday, March 14th.

Soon Alamo will announce which movie will be open captioned. Alamo is very excited to give this opportunity to our deaf and HoH community!

It is with great hope to have many people patronize theaters to show our appreciation of letting us relax with open captions! Such a treat!

Please spread the word and SHARE with everyone you know!

HLAAKC Annual Picnic

It isn’t too early to mark your calendars for our annual picnic.  This year it is on May 30th from 4:30 to 8:30.  It is once again being held at Shawnee Mission Park, shelter #8.  Come spend the afternoon and talk with representatives of various companies working with the Hard of Hearing and Deaf communities.  Enter for your chance to win one of several donated raffle prizes and, of course, have dinner.  If you haven’t experienced an HLAAKC picnic yet, May 30th is your next chance.  We are currently taking reservations for our vendor booths, so hurry and reserve your spot today!

We want to hear from YOU!

Do you have ideas for topics you would like to have covered?  Suggestions for a location for informal social meet-ups?  Maybe your favorite coffee house?  We’re always looking for event ideas

Interested in volunteering?  Contact a committee member or email us at hlaakc@gmail.com. Your HLAAKC committee members are: Denoya Novovesky, Terri Shirley, Gretchen Mortier, and Rob Jefferson.

HLAA NEWS

 HLAA Convention 2015 — June 25-28, 2015

We’re looking forward to the 2015 Convention … because it will be just a few hours away in St. Louis, MO! Be sure to check http://hearingloss.org/content/convention and the HLAA Convention 2015 Facebook event page regularly for updates!

If you’re not already a member of HLAA, we encourage you to sign up now — HLAA members receive discounts on convention registration, among other things (click here for a full list of membership benefits).

​HLAA honors US veterans with FREE memberships, either Digital or Non-Digital, complimentary for one year.  HLAA offers a convention registration at no charge too!  ​

Email us by replying to this email so ​your local chapter can tell you how to become an HLAA member today!

​Hearing Professionals reading this today, please tell your clients about HLAA!  We have so much to share with them.​

​​We wish you the very best and hope to see you soon at an upcoming local HLAAKC event or at the National Convention in St. Louis!

The HLAAKC Team