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Mary-Beth Robie, Advertising Coordinator

Last year, I met Mary-Beth Robie at the Illinois Hands & Voices Mom’s Night Inn event. Mary-Beth grew up with Cued Speech and she currently works as an Advertising Coordinator. I asked her to share a bit about herself and her job:

I grew up in a rural area in northern Vermont and was the only known deaf cuer for most of my elementary and high school years. My parents learned how to cue through an audiotape narrated by Dr. Cornett, the inventor of Cued Speech. My two older sisters learned how to cue through osmosis as did I. To this day they still cue well even though they hardly ever practice cueing. My oldest sister would teach her friends some basic cues so they could communicate to each other in the classroom or around the school without anyone else understanding what they were saying. Since my parents cued all the time, I was able to access the same level of language as my siblings. My sisters also provided me with more language exposure through their cueing.

Cued speech requires lip movement when in use and I believe that has enhanced my ability to lip read people when I interact with random people in the real world on an occasional basis. While I had a hearing neighbor who learned how to cue at a young age, I didn’t meet any otherdeaf cuers until I went to college which inspired me to learn more about Cued Speech and how to give back to the community. I’ve become more involved by joining the National Cued Speech Association Board as regional representative of the Great Lakes region. I also serve as the
layout editor for the On Cue newsletter, a publication of the NCSA.

Tell me about your educational background growing up and going to college.

I was raised in a rural area in Northern Vermont. From K-12, I was mainstreamed with a Cued Language Transliterator (CLT). I attended SUNY Plattsburgh in New York for my first year of college, but discovered that the accommodations they promised me were not being provided so I decided to transfer to Rochester Institute of Technology. Again, once I arrived at RIT, I was not provided with a CLT so had to learn how to sign and be able to understand the sign language interpreters. Times
have changed since I left RIT and they have provided CLT’s for fellow students. So progress has been made on that end which is exciting for me.

What is your degree/s in?

My degree is in Digital Imaging Publishing and Technology, which is basically a Graphic Design degree.

Tell me about some of the jobs you have held prior to your current job.

I’ve been working since I was 13 years old, but through and after college I worked as a cashier at Target while searching for a full time job in the printing industry. I finally landed a job as a Production
Artist with a small printing company in Syracuse, NY. I worked there for three years before deciding I needed to move on in order to move up the ladder. I decided to accept a job in Oak Brook, Illinois starting out as a Photo Coordinator for an international printing company, RR Donnelley.
In my almost 2 years of working there, I have been promoted to Lead Photo Coordinator and was recently promoted to Advertising Coordinator.

What company do you work for and what is your position?

I work for RR Donnelley’s Facilities Management site at our customer location in Oak Brook, Illinois. I am currently making the transition into my new position as an Advertising Coordinator. As Lead Photo
Coordinator, I had to depend on a lot of internal communication to be able to coordinate digital images and the central database repository.

As Advertising Coordinator I will work closely with the Print, Merchandising and Advertising departments to ensure all information provided produced accurate retail content, required deadlines are met, and final client proofs and files to printers are provided.

Can you share a typical day on the job?

Before it used to be a lot of email communication and little interaction with co-workers, but they saw I had the potential to work with customers one on one, so with my new position there will be a lot more verbal communication going on. I have to ensure I meet the retailers needs as to what they want advertised in their store circular, posters, postcards, or any other type of print out. I enter a lot of information into the databases in which the artists depend on for accurate information in order to design to the retailers needs.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced on the job?

Meetings are a big challenge for me. I always have to make sure I understand everything that was said. I personally don’t like to rely much on other people for assistance especially since we work in a fast paced environment, but I always realize at the end that teamwork is important and I am there to please the clients and the only way that can happen is if I step up to the plate and ensure I ask for repeats or for a handout or summary of what was discussed in the meeting. Our meetings are rarely scheduled in advance. They usually are a spur of the moment type where it’s impossible for me to request for a CLT or CART to be present within minutes.

What are some ways you’ve overcome any communication challenges?

I am now a big fan of follow-up emails. Usually after I meet with a client, my boss or someone important, I will ask them to kindly send me a follow up email with what was discussed in the meeting. I have built up the confidence to email people back especially if I feel I have missed something that was included in the follow-up email. I do take an extra minute after a meeting has come to an end to warn them that I may ask questions about what was discussed. I think that helps lighten up the situation before it happens. Before I would spend too much time trying to figure out what they may or may not have said. I can tell you that method doesn’t produce much success.

What advice would you share with a deaf/hard of hearing person who is considering career choices?

Be confident and honest. Tell human resources or your boss-to-be what accommodations you need and be willing to negotiate with them to a point where it works for both of you. Don’t come off too demanding or you will scare them away.

November 13, 2008
Susan Elliott, Colorado Teacher of the Year

Susan Elliott rocks.

The Colorado teacher who teaches Social Studies at Highland Ranch High School has won the Teacher of the Year Award. Susan is deaf and teaches in a center-based program for deaf and hard of hearing students. Susan previously served on the board of Gallaudet University and currently serves on the board of Hands & Voices, a non-profit organization for families with deaf and hard of hearing children. Susan also served as a Commissioner for six years on the Colorado Commission of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing .

Check out the other news stories:

Susan Elliott, A Sign of Achievement

Deaf Instructor Named Teacher of the Year

**Photo courtesy of Hands & Voices.

November 12, 2008
You’re Not Really…Deaf, Are You?

You’re not really deaf– are you?

I stared at my teammate. We had played volleyball together for many years and she had interpreted for me and another deaf teammate during our huddles. This was the first time she had ever asked me questions about being deaf.

Yes, I said, nodding my head.

“But you’re not as deaf as David, right?”

“Actually, our audiograms show that he has better hearing than me,” I explained.  She looked at me with a puzzled look.

“But you have such good speech!”

So I explained more. How I couldn’t use the phone nor understand anything on the radio. I explained my speech discrimination scores– the scores that show how well someone can understand speech by auditory means alone. I score a zero in my left ear and a six percent in my right ear, a score obtained by a lucky guess.   The squiggly lines on the audiogram start at 90 and hover around 110 decibels. This is the level that I begin to detect sound without my hearing aids. The hearing aids help me to hear when someone starts speaking but without lipreading, captioning or sign language, the information coming in auditorily makes no sense.

She paused and looked at me in silence. “You have some great lipreading skills,” she said. I could see that she was digesting all this information in a new light.

This isn’t the first time that this has happened–it is something that happens frequently. That’s why hearing loss is often referred to as the “invisible disability.”   Often people are unaware at the incredible amount of work it takes to gather information and understand communication that goes on around us on a daily basis.   And others are often unaware of how much just slides by, because it’s physically impossible to get 100% access to all that goes on around us when the sense of hearing isn’t all there.

At a social gathering in Chicago, I chatted with fellow writers, most who knew me as Deaf Mom but were meeting me for the first time. I think few realized that I was lipreading entire conversations and there were chunks of the evening that I missed. For example, when the hosts got up in front and started talking, there really was no polite way to interrupt the middle of their speech and say, “Hey, can you say that again, I missed what you said?” So that kind of stuff slides right by. And to the casual onlooker, it probably seems like I’m getting access to the communication– there’s nothing to indicate that it’s sliding right over my head.

At a friend’s wedding, I was meeting an older woman for the first time and I missed something that she said. “Oh the music is so loud!” she said, and then proceeded to explain again what she said. I still didn’t understand what she said and I explained that I was deaf. She cocked her head to the side a bit, looked at me and said…

“Oh! But you seem so normal!”

November 12, 2008
The Last Lecture–And the Deaf Connection

“For the next BookHands meeting, we’re going to read The Last Lecture
by Jeffrey Zaslow,” announced Tanya Hammersmith. We had gathered at Patti Phadke’s house during the recent Sunday and had just finished a discussion of Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks. I was really excited about Tanya’s pick, because it was a book on my “must read” pile and it was going to be my selection for my own hosting turn anyway.

For those of you who are not familiar with Randy Pausch, you can view the The Last Lecture, a speech that he shared at Carnigie Hall after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The video is over an hour in length and is open captioned:

Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

Sadly, Randy passed away in July, but not without leaving many life lessons in his lecture. What was intended as a gift to his children turned into a gift that many of us can take away from his lecture.

When I first heard of Randy’s book, I noticed that it was written with Jeffrey Zaslow. The name seemed so familiar to me but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then I remembered: Jeff had a regular column in the Chicago Sun Times and he wrote a column on the Depcik family, a deaf family from Lyons, Illinois. Caroline Depcik and I had played volleyball together for many years–and Joe and I shared our honeymoon with Kay (Caroline’s sister) and her husband Paul.

I emailed Caroline to see if she could find a copy of the column but she said it was buried somewhere in the house. So I emailed Jeff Zaslow to see if he could pull up a copy that I could share. He kindly responded with a copy of the column and permission to share it:

Hi Karen,

Thanks for writing. You brought up a long-ago memory of my column on the Depciks, so I pulled it out of the WSJ library. (I’ve been at the WSJ now for 7 years). I enjoyed my time at their house…20 years ago!!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy The Last Lecture and please thank everyone at the book club for reading it.

All the best,

Jeff Zaslow

Deaf family of 7 shows silence can be golden

Jeffrey Zaslow

672 words

8 February 1988

Chicago Sun-Times

FIVE STAR SPORTS FINAL

35

English

© 1988 Chicago Sun Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved.

Caroline Depcik begins her letter bluntly: “Unless you’re a coward, what could be more fun and interesting than visiting a family of seven deaf people who live normal lives?”

As an advice columnist who makes house calls, I’ve asked readers to invite me for dinner. Caroline’s letter is so challenging, I have to visit her house first.

So I head out to Lyons and am welcomed by the Depciks with big smiles and cold beer. Robert and Rita Depcik are deaf. Their children – Michael, Valerie, Paul, Caroline and Kay – range in age from 18 to 25. All are deaf.

I quickly learn that in their world, I’m handicapped. As they converse effortlessly with their hands, my ears are useless. Luckily, the Depciks have also invited deaf friends who can hear to some degree or read lips well enough to translate for me. (The quotes that follow are translated from sign language.)

The Depciks are attractive, well-adjusted and love a good laugh. Responding to sign language commands, their dog does tricks for me – rolling over, playing dead.

Except for touches like flashing-light alarm clocks, their suburban home looks like any other. It is the dinner-table conversation that is so different.

Michael, 18, has just returned from Australia. Though Australians speak English, “their sign language was like French to me,” he says. He felt self-conscious, signing with an American accent.

Caroline tells of how a man approached her in a loud, crowded bar. She motioned to him that she couldn’t hear. He thought the loud music was the problem. He kept shouting, then gave up, confused.

Scott Morrison, a family friend, explains how he went deaf: “I was 11 years old and watching `The Twilight Zone’ on TV. The sound kept getting lower. The next morning, I couldn’t hear. My hearing went into the Twilight Zone.”

Scott’s wife, Deeadra, is deaf, but their son, Daylon, 2, is not. Deeadra and Daylon were recently on a playground, signing to one another. “Parents looked at us like we were freaks,” she says. “Daylon wasn’t embarrassed. But I know he’ll go through a stage where he’ll be ashamed of me.”

I ask for complaints about hearing people. A half-dozen hands start signing at once. Scott hates people who gawk: “In a restaurant, I ask to sit facing the wall, so I won’t see people staring when I sign.”

Some people are ignorant about the deaf. “They ask if we read Braille, or if we can pray, or how we communicate when we make love,” says Iris Martinez, a family friend. “I say, `Date a deaf person and find out!’ ”

The old phrase “deaf and dumb” still stings. “There’s a lack of confidence in us,” says Valerie.

Another complaint is that local TV news is not captioned for the deaf. “When Mayor Washington died, we were desperate to know what was going on,” says Iris’s husband, Fidel.

Their advice to the hearing: Don’t bother screaming; even a bullhorn won’t help. If your children are deaf, learn how to sign. (A poem from a deaf child to his family begins: “What I want most is to hear your loving hand. . . .”)

“We don’t want sympathy,” says Iris, who has been sent free drinks by people who see her signing in restaurants. “All we ask is patience, understanding and if you can’t communicate by speaking, write it down. People can hear with their eyes. They can talk with their hands.”

While the Depcik women watch “Dynasty” (with captions), I have another beer and some laughs with the men. By then, it’s late. I thank Rita for a great meal and we say our goodbyes.

Once in my car, I listen to the radio self-consciously. Then I turn it off and drive home in silence.

November 7, 2008
Wordless Wednesday–A Special Wall in my Office

I had these four plaques scattered in various spots around the house–one was in a nightstand drawer, two were in boxes and one was in an office drawer.   One day last year, I gathered them all together and hung them above the key holder in my office.   The small one on the upper left was a gift from my Mom during my first year of college. It says, “Hang on, Friday’s coming!” My Mom sent it after one particularly hard week when I was really homesick and having a difficult time understanding the teachers in class.

The one on the upper right was given to me by my Aunt Gertie. It says, “Lovely flowers are smiles from God.” Aunt Gertie, my Mom’s sister, was profoundly deaf and she was battling cancer. She didn’t have much time left.  I was ten at the time, sitting on the edge of her bed and I remember her smiling. There’s a picture of Aunt Gertie somewhere in one of my Mom’s albums; my sister Jeanie is holding a huge toy comb over her bald head and everyone is laughing. So when I see flowers, I think of Aunt Gertie.

The large one on the lower left was simply one that I found at either a garage sale or a store. It says, “The nicest days are full of love.” I had that one and Aunt Gertie’s plaque hanging on my bedroom wall for many years.

The last one on the lower right was given to me by my first itinerant teacher, Mrs. Rellis.  Mrs. Rellis was a special teacher–she was the first teacher to sit me down and challenge me not to let my hearing loss hold me back. It says:

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are

something to do,

something to love, and

something to hope for.

Those four plaques are my source of inspiration every time I hang up a key. Do you have a source of inspiration that is special to you? Tell me about yours in the comments below.

This photo is a part of Wordless Wednesday, even though I used a bunch of words to describe it.

November 5, 2008
Kathy Buckley, Comedian & Humanitarian

The first time that I saw Kathy Buckley on Comedy Central, I was blown away. There, standing on stage, was a hard of hearing gal firing off jokes and one-liners. Every now and then, I would see her throw in a sign or two, perhaps out of habit or perhaps to connect with the many deaf and hard of hearing people who enjoy her comedy routines.

Kathy is still involved with comedy and currently working on a routine called “Puberty at 50.” She is a speaker who is in high demand and every time that I talk with her, I find that she’s flying off to one place or another. I once saw Kathy speak to group of parents and professionals, and I watched how she connected to everyone in the room with her stories and slices of inspiration. She is indeed, a master at public speaking. Kathy is also on the Anthony Robbins Life Mastery Classes.

Take a look at the awards she has won throughout the years:
Achievement Award for the Year 2002:
Reynolds Society
American Hero Award: City of Hope
Empowering Women Around the World: CARE Communication and Leadership Award: Toastmaster International
Media Awareness Award; The Dole Foundation
Hero Award: Challenge Center
Woman of the year: Oralingua School
Valley of the Hearts Award: Parents Helping Parents
Lois Tarkanian Award: Lois Tarkanian Founding Administrator
Better Hearing Achievement Award: Better Hearing Institute
Help America Hear Humanitarian Award: Hear Now Foundation
Individual Achievement Award: National Council on Communicative Disorders
Award of Excellence: New York State Theatre Education Association
Walter Knott Service Award: Goodwill Industries
President Awards: PATH
Ovation Award: Best Writing
Drama-Logue Award: Best Writing, Best
Performance Media Access Award: Best Play
Cine Golden eagle Award: Outstanding
Video Production PBS Special: No Labels, No Limits
Media Access Award: 2002 Outstanding
Television Special: No Labels, No Limits, Executive Producer

My daughter picked up her book, If You Could Hear What I See and read through it three times. She was so inspired by Kathy’s life, that she selected her book for an autobiographical book report for school.

Check out a recent article about Kathy at Disaboom: Comedian Kathy Buckley Continues to Draw Laughs

November 4, 2008