Welcome to CHHA-BC

Coming Events

Jan 18

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Calendar
CHHA National is having their National Conference on May 17 – 19, 2012 at the Delta Ottawa City Centre Hotel, in the capital city of Ottawa! Join people from across Canada by registering online by clicking on the registration link and follow the instructions. For more information, please visit their CHHA National Conference Website. This year’s theme is “Wellness and Health for Persons who are Hard of Hearing Around the World.” CHHA National is also celebrating its 30th Anniversary!

CHHA-BC and CHHA Vancouver is planning the Walk2Hear Walkathon on September 22, 2012 in Vancouver. For more information, please check back on this website or contact the Resource Centre by email at info@chha-bc.org or call us toll free at 1 866 888 2442.

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Employment Opportunity – Ambassador Relations and Events

Oct 12

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The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association B.C. Chapter and Vancouver Branch is looking for a
motivated and dynamic person with an interest in communications and fundraising work.
Working closely with a volunteer organizing team, the Ambassador Relations and Events person
will support the CHHA Walk2Hear team with outreach and research for their 2012 walkathon,
Walk2Hear. All funds raised will support the hard of hearing community in Vancouver and B.C.

If you are interested, click here for more updated detailed information.

WALKATHON 2012 Walk2Hear

Feb 10

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Walk2Hear walkathon held in Vancouver, superbly organized by Marilyn Dahl and volunteers, last year was such a great success that many participants want to have another walkathon this year.

The last year’s walkathon was held in conjunction with the one held in Ottawa, organized by the CHHA-National Capital Region. It turned out to be a great way to get the hard-of-hearing and others to come out and get together socially as well to raise public awareness of the hard-of-hearing and to raise funds. CHHA-BC is working closely with CHHA-National and CHHA-Vancouver to make this year’s event a success.

CHHA-BC is hoping to encourage more CHHA-BC branches initiate walkathons in their localities and are working towards to achieving it. Vancouver Branch plans to organize one in Vancouver for this year like the very successful one they had last year.

It is going to be an exciting year!

Rodney George
Vice-President, CHHA-BC

911 Emergency Services/Emergency Notifications Survey

Nov 16

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Have you ever had problems accessing 911 emergency services or are you concerned about getting emergency notifications such as storm warnings or natural disaster alerts? Do you feel current technology is limiting your access to these services.

If you have a disability (includes those who are hard of hearing) and are interested in making 911 emergency services and emergency alerts better and would like to ensure these services meet your needs, then please take a few minutes to complete this survey.

http://www.neilsquire.ca/E911survey

The Neil Squire Society is looking for your opinion on how the next generation of emergency service and alerts designed to work with mobile phones should work for you. Your opinions are important.

As a thank you, all participants who complete the survey will be entered in a draw for a $200 gift certificate to The Bay Department Store. The deadline is February 15, 2012.

Is it time to legislate music players??

Sep 25

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Vancouver Sun published an article on August 3, 2011 that was written by Pamela Fayerman regarding music players and hearing prevention. See the article below!

Is it time to legislate music players?

CHHA 911- Exciting News for a Barrier Free life.

May 5

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Access to Emergency Servicesis crucial. But in today’s world of technology, people who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech impairments (DHHSI), these services are often inaccessible.

In November 2008, Arthur Rendall, a CHHA member from Burlington, made a presentation to the CRTC regarding the need to make 911 service accessible by wireless handheld devices, using SMS text rather than voice. In 2009 CRTC requested that an investigation be conducted into identifying a system that would DHHSI community members to have access to emergency service from anywhere in Canada by such devices.

In January 2010, the CRTC issued a directive to the Interconnection Steering Committee Emergency Services to progress with the investigations findings, which mandated the introduction of a 911 service via “Text Messaging”.

Mr. Rendall now sits on the Emergency Service Working Group of the CRTC and is requesting assistance from interested CHHA members living in Vancouver, Toronto, PEEL Region (Mississauga/Brampton) and Montreal to take part in trial testing of the system that has been developed.

The system will be tested using the test candidates’ personal wireless devices, which will be registered with their Wireless Service Provider as a DHHSI. The system operates when the DHHSI caller contacts the local 911 operator by text. Therefore the wireless number of the DHHSI registrant must be known so to allow the gateway for 9-1-1 and the Emergency Service Operator to set up their equipment to accept text messaging rather than voice.

These trial tests will be conducted over approximately 3 months. It is hoped that if the tests go well, the system will go live before the end of 2011 and Canada DHHSI community will have the only such direct 9-1-1 system in the world.

Please send your name, where you reside (city) and WSP carrier used for your handheld device to CHHA National Office attention of Karla Wilson. The snail address is: 2415 Holly Lane, Suite 205, Ottawa, Ontario K1V 7P2 or by email at chhanational@chha.ca.

Thank you in advance for your help in bringing peace of mind to the community of Canadians who are not able to relay on voice/speech emergency systems.