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>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Hello, this is Virginia Moore, Executive Director for the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I am very proud today that we have a guest who will explain some of the issues and challenges that we have with the deaf-blind community here in Kentucky. I am honored to introduce Emma Riley. Emma, would you like to introduce yourself and explain what your position here is in Kentucky?

>>EMMA RILEY: Sure. My name is Emma Riley. And this is my name sign. I am from Harrodsburg, Kentucky. It's central Kentucky area. I consider myself a deaf-blind individual. I work at the Kentucky Department of Education, KDE, as the Transition Coordinator. I primarily focus on deaf-blind students as well as partnering with the Kentucky Deaf-Blind Project.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Wonderful. That's wonderful that we have someone like yourself in that position. And the parents, I'm sure they would appreciate having somebody to help them with their child transitioning. So you as a deaf-blind individual yourself, could you explain how you became deaf-blind? What was your upbringing?

>>EMMA RILEY: Yes. When I was born, they didn't know I was deaf. They found out that I was deaf when I was about 13 or 14 months old, but they didn't know about my vision loss. When I was about six and started going to an eye doctor, the doctor noticed that I had something called salt and pepper retina. But that typically, at the eye doctor, they don't notice a salt and pepper retina. So they said we need to do more tests, and after more tests, they determined that I had Usher syndrome. Usher syndrome can include deafness, retinitis pigmentosa, which is also called RP. You can also have severe balance issues. And Usher... There are three different types of Usher syndrome. I'm not going to go into great detail on that, but just to let you know, I am a type one Usher syndrome individual. That means that I was born completely deaf and then will lose my vision starting in early childhood. So really, when I grew up, I was deaf, but I did have some vision issues. Like in school and high school, it was just a little bit of a problem, but it's become progressively worse. So in my early years, I considered myself just as a deaf individual, and now I consider myself deaf-blind. I hear nothing. I am completely deaf. But my vision right now is, I would say, about ten percent. I have really good central vision, so I'm able to read just fine, but my peripheral vision is limited. If I'm in a dark area or if it's a new area for me, I really can't see a whole lot, so I have to depend on my guide dog, Lucy, to help me through the world.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Wow. That is a wonderful and clear explanation, Emma. My mother had macular degeneration, and so she had that, you know, center vision, or radial area that, later in life, she wasn't able to see. So I can kind of understand some of the situations that you may face compared with how my mother had the vision loss later in life. She wasn't able to see just in the middle of her vision, whereas you're the opposite and can only see in the middle. So that was a great explanation, Emma. Thank you. So you work at the Department of Education. How long have you worked there and what is your job? You said transition specialist, but transition for students from high school to work or from middle school to high school? What kind of transitions do you work with?

>>EMMA RILEY: I have worked at KDE now, I just started my sixth year. I have been focused on transitioning students for about three years. I believe it's been three years now. The transition that I focus on is more like IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. They have Part B, and that includes transitioning for ages 13 to 18 to get people ready to go. So I focus on their skills for life, how to apply it to their life. And their transition shouldn't be waiting until they are 14 and then worrying about what their life is going to be after that. So actually, we can start at age six, even. So 6 to 22 with the IDEA Part B. So I work with the deaf-blind community for IDEA Part B.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. Can you tell me KDE's criteria on how they identify a student who may be deaf-blind? Do they have specific criteria?

>>EMMA RILEY: Yes. To be considered eligible for services, you must fill out an application form, and this form is specifically for deaf-blindness, but you will also need to apply for hearing loss services and then vision loss services. The difference between the two different services then will allow you to get combined deaf-blind services. Both of these applications for services have minimum requirements, but it does vary. Because of the criteria, if a child meets one of the criteria, they may qualify, two or three or such. If a child has possibly their vision is 20 percent or less in their better eye, or their stronger eye is less than 20/70, or sometimes with hearing loss, we look at, "In your better ear, are you able to hear 25 decibels?" things like that. There are certain criteria that you have to fall into on these two applications to then become a deaf-blind serviceable individual.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So then, say you were blind in one eye, but your other eye is fine. Would you qualify for services?

>>EMMA RILEY: That's a good question, Virginia. Yes. But again, it's just like with any type of criteria, there is a minimum to meet. So as long as you meet the minimum criteria for vision loss, then yes, you would qualify for that service. If you do have one bad eye, one good eye, that could work. But if you don't have a hearing loss, then that wouldn't qualify you for the deafness access. So it just depends on what your access to everyday life skills would be.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: You know how some individuals are really... they just know how to get around things, or work things, because they have just had to live with it, and they have come up with different techniques and tools to help themselves. Some people are savvy like that, and other people may not have that type of skill, and are not able to use what they may have remaining. With what residual hearing they have, they may not be able to use the phone. With what residual sight they have, they may not be able to see screens. So for a student who has like, you know, a very low vision, and they can't see something well, do you evaluate the students to see what their actual ability is to use what they do have remaining in these two sensories?

>>EMMA RILEY: Yes, when you apply for special education services, and that's the application form that you fill out, you do go through an evaluation as well. So for that evaluation, we will check your hearing, we will check your vision, and if the individual is able to access regular education instead of a special education classroom, if the individual is able to use their residual sensory ability, whether it's hearing or sight, then yes, we do take that into consideration.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay, good. Do you know about how many students are currently within the Kentucky Department of Education system who are marked as deaf-blind?

>>EMMA RILEY: Oh, that's a wonderful question, Virginia. That is something that we have struggled with. I will give you an explanation of why it is a struggle. The Kentucky Department of Education, they count all students within the state, and there are between 10 and 15 who are on our rolls right now, but that is not an accurate count. Part of it is is because there are several disabilities going on at the same time. So deaf-blind children, about 90 percent of them are not just deaf-blind, they have other disabilities as well. So some of those other disabilities get primary designation. And then, you know, there are other gaps that happen. So a lot of times the more common disability that's labeled may be blindness instead of deaf-blind or deafness, and therefore it's focused on that one disability instead of the entirety. So really, the census that we have from birth to 22, we have at least about 150 students that we think we have, but we almost think that there should be double that, just because of how things are counted and are kept track of. So there's a lot of them out there that I know that we're not keeping track of.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: I know that the census... Counting the children and those needs, the ones that have disabilities, multiple disabilities, that is something that is so critical, and we need to find a way to resolve that and get a better count of what is going on. I don't know if it's like with IDEA, or if, when those children go in for their IEPs during the school year, if there were a different way that we could list all of the disabilities instead of having a primary disability... We really need to work on that.

>>EMMA RILEY: I agree, Virginia.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Do you happen to know what KDE's specific goals are for deaf-blind children? I mean, of course, is a more accurate count one of those goals to work towards?

>>EMMA RILEY: Yes. As I mentioned before, I work in the Office For Special Education, Early Childhood. And I'm not the only individual that's working there. I do have other individuals who work as well in the organization, and so, we partner together to make sure that all of the students are ready. So right now we are focusing on... Well, we have a work group that is focusing on developing a document that can support the work that we are doing and the current IEP guidelines, kind of like for school districts out within the state, to help them implement and actually complete the IEP more successfully. Of course, mine focuses mainly on the deaf-blind students, but I work with IEP teams and ARC teams around the state to make sure that we develop the best plan for the child in their IEP, because deaf-blind children, there's they're not just cookie cutter. They have such a variety of needs and services that can benefit them. So like I said before, we used to focus on transition at around age, you know, 13, 14, but now we're saying, no, we need to get that much earlier, and we can target certain skills at different ages. So right now we are in the process of developing modules for training. Those are going to be available online. Hopefully, after the pandemic, we can maybe go into in service or in-person services. But we are training individuals who can help teach those around the state: how to use these documents, how to use these modules that we have developed so that people can serve better the students that are getting the IEPs in school. And we also want to try to get some immediate support out to those in the field who are serving deaf-blind children right away. We don't want much more of a delay. We want to make sure that we have as much included, as much resources provided, and get the ball rolling as soon as we can. The third thing that we are working on is, we have received funding to support families. So we have started assessing how we can support the families better during this transition period.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Oh, that's very good. So the modules specifically, are they for the teachers who are teaching the children? Are they for the parents of the children? Who exactly do these do these modules... who are they being made for?

>>EMMA RILEY: Well, currently our target audience are the teachers, but it could be a teacher's aide, it could be an intervenor, it could be anyone who works within that classroom.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: How do you, or KDE, educate the parents about the resources that they can expect for their child? Or are there parental supports available?

>>EMMA RILEY: That's also a good question. We know that the Kentucky Department of Education is at the state level, so typically we focus more on districts and departmental levels. And I don't want to say that we're putting it on hold, but it kind of is. Once we get the money, like I said, we just had the funding come in so that we can focus on the families. It's not ready to roll out right now, but we are planning to you know, we're trying to implement that soon. We will have parental forums to support the parents. We want to see, what are the things that you felt that you need that you may not get, what things that you think worked, etc. And so from there, with the feedback we get from the parents, we'll be able to develop more for them.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Right. I can see a big need for that, yes. When parents have a child who is born and then see that they are diagnosed as deaf or blind or low vision, what have you, they may not understand. Now what do I do: it's not only one disability, but it's multiple, and where are the resources? Of course, that's going to be life-changing for them. So how is KDE maybe possibly going to be able to help parents identify other parents who may be in the same situation? Maybe that's something that KCDHH can help set up. Something like Guide By Your Side, that program from Kentucky Hands & Voices, they have parental support groups, and maybe we could have an offshoot of that so that we can specifically provide services to those parents who have deaf-blind children as well. So we can certainly help with that.

>>EMMA RILEY: I would think KDE... We partner with the Kentucky Deaf-Blind Project, so it could also be something with the Deaf-Blind Project, because I do know that they have parental support and resources, and they're always a great resource to reach out to.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Ah, yes. Yes. The Kentucky Deaf-Blind Project is definitely one that we work with, and we will be interviewing a representative of that project today. Emma, what are some of your personal goals? I know that you've talked about KDE's specific goals, but what other kind of goals do you think that Kentucky should be focused on for our children?

>>EMMA RILEY: My personal goals would be, first, that I would like to see support services increased within the state. Kentucky tends to be more of a rural state, so there's more limited access to resources, particularly because of transportation, to service support providers, interpreters, so many things that we have limited access to. I personally don't see myself moving to a different area. This is my home, so I'm going to stay in a rural area. Services have improved for me some as well as for other people, so I think it can continue to be done. But I think that that's my... My big goal is I want to just continue to increase access. Also, I would like to increase individuals' awareness and inclusion of individuals who are deaf-blind in the community. So those would be my two main goals: increasing services and supports around the state, but then also spread that knowledge and awareness. Those are my two main personal goals. Now, with my bachelor's degree, I would like to get more education for myself, but I haven't yet decided what area I want to go into, because there are so many needs in education, in mental health, in different fields. So I haven't really decided where I'm going to get my higher education in, where I feel that I fit or am most needed, because, of course, I want to make the largest impact I possibly can. So I'm still figuring that out.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Well, Kentucky is lucky to have you, Emma. We are lucky. With the pandemic, the last year and a half has been really tough for the education of our children, obviously, but especially for those who are deaf-blind. What have been the largest challenges that you have noticed for the students who may have had to only be educated from home for a while?

>>EMMA RILEY: Before I go into depth with that, I just want to make sure everyone understands something. It's important to remember that most people have five senses. They can hear, they can see, they can smell, taste, and touch. Those are five senses that people depend on. Mostly people depend on eyes and ears. That's your natural world where you're learning from, where you're taking in information. For those who are deaf-blind, they're now down to only three senses: touch, smell, and taste. So which one is going to give them the most information? That would be the sense of touch. But with social distancing, we can't use that sense of touch. That information is not getting through. So that attachment, that relationship for any child with a disability, any disability, we don't want them to experience that isolation. We don't want them to go through that. But with deaf-blind, it's even more important not to detach them or separate them from the world and the sensory information that they have to have in order to understand their world. So with the pandemic and moving to virtual learning, it was almost worthless for a lot of our deaf-blind children, because they're not able to see the screens, they're not able to hear the information coming across, so that educational deprivation has just caused... it has caused tremendous delays in education for our deaf-blind children around the state. My recommendation is to do your best to end this pandemic. Please help us stop the spread. There are so many things that we can encourage. I mean, you hear them all the time, but we need to be able to touch again and to be close again to get that sensory information for the children.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Very well said, Emma. I think that we need to end the pandemic, yes, and it is a challenge. And those five senses that most of us have, losing two of them, I can see that that is tough only having three senses. Here at the Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, we are trying to figure, you know, we focus so much on deaf and hard of hearing, but we want to make sure that we include our deaf-blind constituents as well. And this video is just one of four in the series that we're doing. We're going to have vlogs with parents, with teachers, with providers, so that we can understand what the needs are for the deaf-blind community in Kentucky. I hope that when people see this video, they can realize what KDE is trying to do, who you are. And then suppose a person is seeing this and saying, "Oh, wait, I want to get in touch with KDE. I have a child who I think, maybe they haven't been identified specifically," or they want more resources, who should they get in touch with? Is there a phone number or an email that we could provide them?

>>EMMA RILEY: Yes. If an individual would like more information, they can contact KDE. There's two individuals: the first contact would be Carol Morrison. And I can give her email in just a moment. But Carol Morrison is the state director for all: deaf, hearing loss, vision loss, blindness. She's the go-to person. If you need to, contact Carol. And her email is C A R O L dot Morrison, M O R R I S O N, @ education, all spelled out, dot KY dot gov. And of course you can contact me as well. My email is Emma, E M M A, dot Riley, R I L E Y, @ education, spelled out, dot KY dot gov.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: We will also list those two email addresses and names under the video on our website so people can easily access them there as well. Thank you so much, Emma, for the opportunity to ask you questions and learn more about this. I know that we haven't really gotten too deep into it today, but we are developing resources and manuals here at KCDHH, and we always try to provide these resource manuals to parents so that they have access to more. And we will definitely get that ready to hand out. Really soon we'll be able to share that. So thank you. Your involvement has been so helpful. And thank you for serving Kentucky. Definitely stay in our state. I know that, you know, you have the new family growing, you have two children, and so your roots are running deep here in Kentucky, so we love that.

>>EMMA RILEY: Yes. Thank you so much for having me here.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Again, thank you to everyone watching. We will be having three more videos coming out in this series soon. Please stay tuned, and thank you for watching.

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>>VIRGINIA MOORE: This is Virginia Moore with the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. And this is a second video in the es that we are producing about deaf-blind individuals and their needs. I am very proud to say today we have with us, Danielle Burton. And I'mng to let her introduce herself and to explain a little bit about herself. Danielle, go ahead.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Hi. My name is Danielle Burton. I am a deaf-blind student finishing up my undergrad at Eastern Kentucky University. My sign name is a D. And I am also a member of the National Federation of the Blind of Kentucky, and also, second Vice President of the National Federation of the Blind, Deaf-Blind Division. >>VIRGINIA MOORE: Well, first of all, let me say that congratulations on getting close to your graduation. What is your undergraduate in? >>DANIELLE BURTON: My undergrad would be a bachelor's degree in Deaf Studies.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. Well, we need more individuals like yourself. Are you going to continue on to get a further degree from that?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: As of right now, I think I need a break.

(Laughter.)

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: I can understand.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: I've considered... I've considered going for my Teacher of the Blind certification, but in all honesty, you know, I'm not in any hurry. I'm hoping to find a job between now and then and take some time off school, and maybe I might decide to go back, but I'm very much burnt out on the homework.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. I can understand. It's, you know, I sort of did the same thing myself, so I get it. Let's start out a little bit by asking you, can you explain a little bit about what degree of blindness, and being deaf-blind, and how do you best communicate, and how do you communicate? Go ahead.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Well, I have no vision, so that's probably the easiest part. I have mild to moderate hearing loss. I do have hearing aids that I wear when I'm out, not necessarily at home. I read Braille. So sometimes I use captions in a Braille display. Sometimes I use both the captions and the Braille at the same time, and audio. I also sign, I use tactile sign language. And, you know, I also speak. So I do a lot of various communications at any given point, and sometimes I do multiple at the same time.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Wow. That's incredible. That is incredible. So right now, I understand you have a Braille reader with you on your computer, and you are also reading Braille as we are speaking back and forth.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Yes. I have a 40 cell Braille display that's currently on my lap, just for ease of finding it, with my screen readers actually muted, and then I'm using audio and Braille at the same time currently.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Well, that's amazing. That's amazing. Now, you said that you are also with the National Federation of the Blind.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Yes.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Can you tell us a little bit about what they do? And is... that's the national level. You are at the state level. Am I correct?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: I am a Board member at the state level, and I am also the second Vice President of the Deaf-Blind Division at the national level, so I do a little bit of both. And one of the things, I think the biggest thing, goal, of the National Federation of the Blind is to allow blind people to live the lives they want and to provide equal opportunity and support to all blind people. So, with that being said, as part of the Deaf-Blind Division, our goal remains the same as it applies to deaf-blind individuals and providing information for our members of the federation that may have a hearing loss, that may not know, you know, resources that are available. And that's part of what our division does.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So what are some of the challenges on the state level that you find in trying to get some information and resources out?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: As far as the state level, I found that it can be hard reaching a lot of deaf-blind individuals across the state. Many are scattered throughout the state and may not be in, you know, like a big city or somewhere where they have a lot of access to resources. You know, for myself, I understand that, growing up on a farm in a rural area. I think a lot of the rural parts of Kentucky, it can be really hard for deaf-blind individuals to obtain training and equipment in order to be independent.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So, let's go back to a little bit of the work on the federation level, the national federation level, some of their goals. Like, I understand you talk about resources. Can you give us a specific goal that you know of that you're currently working on?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: At the... I know... I know for our national Deaf-Blind Division, you know, some of the things we're working on is simply educating the federation about what our needs are as far as captioning, as far as using interpreters for virtual events. We have also done some workshops, our conventions, and we do this every year, even through the pandemic, we have managed to pull it off is we do workshops about various topics, about, you know, sometimes we have panels on deaf-blind individuals on independent travel, independent living, using SSPs. So we try to do those workshops every year, and that way we give those resources to our members and allow them to, you know, further look into such resources. Like how do you use an SSP? How, you know, what... where do you go to find training and the skills you need? Where do you go to find technology such as the ICanConnect program? So we try to provide that, those resources.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That's excellent. Let me... What are some of your personal needs and challenges that you see that Kentucky needs to work on? What do you think, of all the things that you've experienced yourself, what is one of the, one or two of the most, the biggest issues that you experience?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: I would say the two biggest ones are: We need more deaf-blind specific interpreters. There's, you know, we have a lot of interpreters, and, you know, especially for EKU interpreting program, I think there's one in Louisville, but we need more that are skilled in protactile interpreting, haptics, and those deaf-blind specific. We also need, desperately need, an SSP program, support service providers for deaf-blind.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yes. I've heard both of those issues. Yes. Can you explain haptics? And I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correct.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Haptics, H A... H A P T I C S, yes.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Right. Now, I've seen it, it's remarkable, but I don't know that it is very common here in Kentucky.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: It's not.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Can you explain a little bit about it?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: So there's a difference between protactile and haptics. And I know people tend to use these terms interchangeably, but they're very different. Haptics is more designed to give somebody feedback about the visual environment or emotions. For example, you know, if I were to be presenting to a group, I could, you know, somebody could be behind me conveying visual information about how the audience is reacting, if someone raises their hand, that's more of a haptics standpoint. Drawing a map on your back, that's more of a haptics, you're providing that information. Versus protactile is more of a back and forth feedback when you're signing. For example, you know, tapping to be, tapping to show that you're listening, showing emotions, being able to convey those same things that you would normally show visually on your face, you would show tactually as you're signing back and forth. So that's the main difference between protactile and haptics. And I probably use protactile more, but I have also used haptics and have found it useful.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yes. I saw haptics one time in a big group setting, and the individuals that were utilizing that service were actually engaged quicker...

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Yes.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: ...and involved quite a bit, and they were right there with us engaged, because they got a lot of the environmental, they understood where people were sitting, and they, and they were able to convey what they were, you know, to that person, and it was remarkable and something that I would love to see us be able to provide in Kentucky more.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Yes. It's useful, you know, not just... haptics is useful for a wide variety of deaf-blind people. A lot of people that don't sign use haptics, and that's what's, why it, you know, I'm surprised it's not more widespread, just because it is simply touch centers. It's not necessarily language in and of itself, it's just a way of conveying information.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Exactly. So let me ask you: As you know, we're going through this horrible pandemic right now. The coronavirus has sort of consumed all of our lives.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Yeah.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: And I'm sure that you've had to do a lot of work online. What are some of the mmain challenges for a deaf-blind individual, and how, what can we do to help overcome those challenges?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: For me, because I'm in a deaf studies program, you know, all my classes are in ASL, and ASL and Zoom and tactile is not the best combination on the planet. It can be very hard for the interpreters to figure out what's happening. It's hard for me sometimes to follow what's happening if it's on Zoom. I found that it's also very disconcerting, as someone with no vision, signing to a screen.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yeah.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: And, you know, I'm relying fully on the interpreter to give me whatever feedback my classmates and my teacher is giving me. And it's just, it's not the same as being in the ASL classroom and having the teacher be able to come over and directly communicate, or classmates directly communicating.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yes. I can, I can certainly see your point on that. We, you know, we hope that this pandemic can, we can get through it, and we can be done with it and everybody takes care of what they need to do, so we can all get back in person. But during this time also, you've been a part of a study group that we have had here, called the Deaf-Blind Study Group. And I want to first of all thank you for your involvement and giving us your feedback, as we have tried to develop a resource manual so that we can try to pull all the resources into one place to help parents, to help parents who have a newly identified baby, who are deaf-blind, or parents who have children that later in life become deaf-blind, or just in general, anyone who needs to have information. So I want to thank you first for being involved and working with us. We appreciate that.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: It's my pleasure.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: What are some of the things, and you talked about the two personal goals you have for an SSP and to have better... interpreters understand different signing needs of the deaf-blind. What would you like to see KCDHH sort of help push? Is it those two issues? Is there anything else that you can come up with?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: I honestly feel like that those would be the two top issues. I think if we can... I guess my other one would be, you know, finding ways to get training to deaf-blind individuals. You know, we do have the Helen Keller National Center in Sands Point, New York, and that's great, but not everybody has the ability to leave their home and travel for several months. You know, I would like to see deaf-blind individuals in Kentucky be able to get quality training and the skills that they need.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: And that's a very good point. That's a very good point. What would you like to share with parents or individuals that are suddenly finding themself in a position where they're, you know, deaf-blind or they have a deaf-blind child?

>>DANIELLE BURTON: First I want to say that deaf-blindness isn't the end. It is absolutely okay to be deaf-blind. You can still do whatever you choose to do. Probably not drive a car, but, you know.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Well, not yet. Not yet.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Not yet, anyway. We'll see. We'll see in about 10 or 20 more years. I'm sure it's coming. But, you know, and the other thing I would want to say is learn how to advocate for yourself and your child.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That is definitely an excellent point.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Yes. Because... and teach your child to advocate for themselves. I see a lot of deaf-blind individuals who don't have the skill to advocate for their needs, and I see a lot of that happening because family is taking care of them, or someone else has done it. Teach your kids how to advocate for their needs and stand up for what they need, because that's going to get them farther than just about anything.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Well, I gotta tell you, you know, having you with us here on the screen so that everyone can see how, what a strong and just simply a person that sees no limits, like yourself. And you are a wonderful role model. I appreciate it so much. And definitely you have shown that there are no limits, you just have to figure out a different way to do it.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Right.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: And you know what, I have, I do think that eventually you're going to be, quote, unquote, driving a car, or a car is going to be driving you, I don't know, but that, I can see that happening.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: We'll see. And, you know, I'm still satisfied with driving a Labrador Retriever. I think that's more fun, but we'll see.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. Yeah, I'm sure that that's good right now. Listen, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We'll let you know when we post all this. And if you have any other more questions or anything you want to add, we'll be glad to post that online.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Awesome. Thank you so much.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: All right. Bye-bye.

>>DANIELLE BURTON: Bye.

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>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Hello. This is Virginia Moore, and this is our third video on deaf-blind and deaf-blind issues here in the state of Kentucky. I am thrilled to have with us today, Donna Carpenter. I'm going to let her introduce herself and to tell us what she does for us here in the state of Kentucky.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Well, I am so excited to be here! Thanks, Virginia! So I'm Donna Carpenter, and I am the Kentucky Deaf-Blind Project State Coordinator. So I get to work throughout this entire state of ours, from top to bottom, east to west, which is really great. And there are only two other staff members with us on the Kentucky Deaf-Blind project, and guess what, we're housed at the University of Kentucky. And the thing that we do best is we work with families, school teams, vocational rehabilitation, community partners, all who are working with kids and young adults 0 to 22 who are deaf-blind in the state of Kentucky. So that's what our focus is. And we try to connect, we try to support, we try to educate everyone who's working with any of our kiddos who have both vision and hearing loss. And so what I'd like to say before we even get started with questions is: Everyone automatically assumes deaf-blind means Helen Keller, but really we want everyone to think of two continuums - one for vision, one for hearing - and any loss on both of those continuums together, that means that they would qualify for our services, and our services are free. And what we're supposed to be doing is, Kentucky Department of Education gives us funding, Office For Special Education programs gives us funding, and also Vocational Rehabilitation gives us funding, and so we are given this money to go ahead and support everyone across the state of Kentucky with those students who have that dual vision and hearing loss.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So, okay. I see it's very interesting how you talk about the dual division loss and the continuum on each.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So is there a criteria? Because that continuum is limiting for some facets of KDE, First Steps, you know, you have to be a certain dB loss, you have to have a certain percent of vision loss. What are the criterias for your program?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: So that's really important that you say that, because for our services it can be anywhere on that continuum. So it can be a mild loss with a vision loss; It can be a mild vision loss with a profound hearing loss; It can be auditory processing disorder; It can be cortical vision impairment also. So it's any combination of vision and hearing loss that directly impacts, and we always say deaf-blindness is a... it's a disability of access. So we want people to think of it's not deaf plus, it's not vision plus, it's deaf-blind, and trying to get everyone to understand the students who are listed as deaf-blind really need some really, I guess, specific interventions, training, understanding of how to best work with them to communicate, especially communication. Think of communication: our kids communicate through sign, through speech generative devices, through oral communication, through touch. It's such a variety. So yeah, for us they qualify, but what you said is really true. Some of our kids being served at the Department of Ed, they may not qualify for vision services and may not qualify for hearing services, but that doesn't mean that we can't get in there and assist their teachers, their staff, the families, their transition into adulthood through Vocational Rehabilitation. We can still go ahead and work with them.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So, you know, and that's a good question: How do you get involved if they don't qualify and if it's not on their... Does it have to be on their IEP? What happens? How do we get you involved, especially with a student that's going through an educational system?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Right. So I'll give you a little example. So at Kentucky Department of Ed, if you look through their eligibility, their primary disability eligibility, only 11 students are listed as deaf-blind across the state. If you look at our census, we have over 165 students. It's probably double that...

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Right.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: ...because people don't really understand what that is. I look to like our neighbors in Tennessee. They have over 350 on theirs. So we're really pushing for Kentucky to identify. What we rely on right now is people to make referrals. So either through First Steps, through any of the teachers, Usually they're vision teachers, teachers for the deaf/hard of hearing who are making the referrals to us. They just have to go on our website, and there's a little button that says submit a referral. The referral comes in to us, and our Family Engagement Coordinator, Kim Zeigler, will go ahead and call the family and say "Hey, can we meet?" Usually we meet in person or we'll meet on Zoom, share what our services are, we'll get them to sign a release, and then we're able to work with everyone who's working with that child, whether it's home, maybe we're working with the First Steps providers, maybe we're working with some therapists, maybe it's school teams, trying to come up with how to work best with the student. And then we have some really great ideas for working with transition. We're actually working with Emma Riley from Kentucky Department of Education to build our transition program so that our kiddos, when they go into the department... go into Vocational Rehabilitation, are getting some really good services to prepare them for this adult world that they're moving into.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Well, that's excellent. You know, it's nice to hear that some of the limits that we impose upon these students or individuals - you have to have this type of hearing loss or you have to have this type of vision loss. You know, I have seen individuals who have a certain dB hearing loss, but they can still use the phone.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Right.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: The same dB hearing loss and they can't use the phone. It's all in the processing and how they process. So I think it's unfair that we put limitations on them, because how do they process it? How well can they utilize, you know, what they, what their residual hearing or whatever vision loss that they might have?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: You came up a few minutes ago with different areas. You said deaf-blind and then those that may be, did you say aphasic or...

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Vision, vision plus, or deaf/hard of hearing plus.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Right, but you also mentioned two different categories, and you'll have to excuse me, I'll have to remember those two categories. You were saying that if they have auditory processing issues...

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Oh, yes, auditory, central auditory processing disorder.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Can you explain that? I don't want to assume that our audience understands.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Sure. So there's two. There's one called cortical vision impairment, and that's for vision, and there's one called central auditory processing disorder, which is for hearing. And what that's saying is that your vision, your eyeballs are working, your ears are working, but it's the connection to your brain. Your brain is not making the connection and making it clear to what the input is into either visually or auditorily. And, you know, it can come across in so many different ways. We have one student with central auditory processing disorder, you can actually see it. If someone talks to him, he sits there, his eyes roll up, and it looks like he's almost throwing the thought out, and it comes back in. You have to give him some time to process, and then he can motor plan and then he can say what he needs. But yeah, so central auditory processing disorder and cortical vision impairment are both included.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yeah. I think that people don't realize that. I worked with a student once way back in my beginning of, you know, a career, and this was when I was an interpreter, and this student had could hear but couldn't process. So I was actually his interpreter, and I was signing to him. So everybody did not want to give him an interpreter because he wasn't deaf.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Right.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: But it was how he could process. So we had to sort of advocate through that. So I think that's very important, because, you know, we may have more individuals and parents that have, you know, children who may be experiencing this and they don't know how to deal with that.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: You know, that's funny. That's a really good story, Virginia. I'd like to hear about that story sometime, because, you know, a lot of times we are working with school districts and there are kiddos who are not really deaf enough to get that interpreter, but they benefit from it. So the student I just talked about with central auditory processing disorder, you know what, he uses an FM system. And really everyone said he doesn't need an FM system because he only has a mild hearing loss, but he had that central auditory processing disorder on top of it. And he was the one who advocated for himself and said, "I do better when I have the FM system on, and the teacher is talking through it." But most professionals would never have thought to put that on him. Kind of like what you said with the signing, with ASL, you know, with them. You have to find out what is the best way into their minds.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: And so, is that what you do to help us figure out with each, the teachers, the students, the parents, the, you know, the educators in general, how, what is the best door to open up, or the tools to use, or the process to help that child or that individual? So that's what you all help that individual do?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like we become that detective. And it's really kind of a fun place to be in, because we're all good problem solvers and we can think outside the box. But we go in, and we meet with everyone, the team, which includes family and home, because really we want to bring together family and home. We come together and we talk about: What do we notice? What do we see? What would we like? What are we striving for? Hey, what's that best life that this student is going for? And remember that we are all so important in this child's life to be able to support them, and remember the child is the... It's the center of everything we do. But then we go: Okay, let's try this. Why don't we do this? Hey, this is something else that another family is doing. Can we connect you to another family? Can we connect you to another teacher?

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Wow.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: And just really try to build capacity within that team to just be the best you can for the student, so that they have a really great life.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: You know, that's so fantastic. It's like you're taking a child and just assessing their abilities.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Yes, always strengths.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yeah, and their strengths. You're not taking that child and looking at the disability, what their limitations are, you're doing what their abilities and their strengths are. Man, if the whole world could do that, wouldn't we be in a different place?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: That would be great.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That is... How many students do you all work with, do you think, in a year's time?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: So right now on our...

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: How many do you have?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: So on our census right now, and we're really working to try and get more referrals in that early childhood, that zero to six, zero to three, which would be fantastic just to get them a little bit earlier. So, on our census, 0 to 22, we have 165 students, right now, young adults and children on there. But directly, who we're working with... So remember, we provide all different types of support. It can be we're doing a training, so everyone in the world is invited, or it can be something that's really asked for from the team, so we go in specific and look at the student, or it can be something that's really targeted, really something that needs an intervention plan and that we write that. So there's all different levels of support that we can give everybody. And everyone's really different. I mean, it's all very different, it just, it's individual. But we're never working with all 165. You know, during the school year, maybe we're working with like 20 kiddos over different, you know, are they in transition? Are they babies? You know, trying to figure out what's best for them. But we are always providing information. We have a website. And actually, our website is really not very pretty. We're working on it right now. We're revamping it. But we have a website and a Facebook page. We have a private Facebook page just for parents, and you have to be invited to it, and it's monitored by our Family Engagement Specialist. So there's all different ways that we try to reach out.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: We will list some of those. We'll list the link to requesting a referral or whatever.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Great.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: We'll list these links. So after this I'll ask that you share some of those links with us so that we can list those...

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Great.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: ...to help parents and individuals and teachers get to that quickly. So as far as getting you involved, and we understand that anyone can ask, teachers can ask...

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: ...but I guess I'm missing, how do they know about you?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: And that's another big one. No one really knows what we do.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Right.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Even people we worked with forever. People don't know what we do. Sometimes we don't know what we do. But really, what we're trying to do right now is we're working really closely with Kentucky Department of Education, and we're trying to identify all those kids who are not listed as deaf-blind. So if only 11 are listed as deaf-blind, then only those 11 teachers really know that wording and would be able to go, "Oh, I need to find more resources on deaf-blind. I'll contact... Oh, the Deaf-Blind Project will come up when I Google." But all those other kids who are not listed as deaf-blind, they're either listed as multiply disabled, vision, hearing, other health impairments, those teachers, those staff, they don't know even how to reach out with us, so we're backing up, and we're working closely with Emma Riley from the Department of Ed, and she's working with Gretta Hylton on that. So we're trying to get some stuff together so that people can ask for something that they don't know they, they don't need it right now. They have no idea that we exist. So we're trying to do that. The nice thing is, though, working with Emma, we now have a page on the Kentucky Department of Education, on their site.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Oh.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: There was only a, there was only a page for the School for the Blind and School for the Deaf, so now there's one for deaf-blind on there, too.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Well, that's excellent, because I can see where just trying to figure out that I need the resource or that it's possible. You know, I could see going to the deaf or going for the blind, but then deaf-blind, that's a whole different set.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: And I think that we're having an issue with trying to make sure that resources are shared completely, and that's one of the reasons for this video.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So I've heard you say several times that you want to work with getting children involved earlier.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: And you say you work with First Steps. Are you a First Steps provider or no?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: No. So the thing to remember with us, we're not direct service, so we don't work directly with the student. We work with everyone else who's involved with that student. Our job is to build capacity, local capacity, across the state, so that there's more people who understand some of the really unique skills, techniques, research, teachings of working with students who are deaf-blind. So that's our job. We don't do direct service. The thing that we do, though, Virginia, and this is something we've talked about at our advisory board, is there are several points of entry. So when the child is born, if they don't pass their vision and hearing screenings, they go into two separate places. And guess what? They don't even talk to each other.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yeah.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: So there almost should be like a red flag that says, oh, we need to connect them with, you know, the appropriate resources. Same thing happens when they go into First Steps. So in First Steps, a lot of times they are not listed, there's no category for deaf-blind. So we're working with them to see if maybe in their TOTS system there could be at least something, another red flag that goes up, that says, hey, this little, this little baby right here has both vision and hearing together, we need to get them appropriate services. And then we're working with the Department of Ed to see if we can't do that with them. Trying to find three points of entry that maybe, you know, other than humans making that choice of: Do I refer? Is this person going to refer? Should I refer? Is there something in a system that we could set up across our state? Which would be great! My gosh, we would be way ahead of all the other states, if we could do that. So we're working on that right now.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Well, there is, you know, with IEPs, you know, if there's multiple disabilities, we seem to find that if they can understand and work with mobility, they'll make that first. Hearing, blind, blind may be first before hearing, but not necessarily. So it depends. And then sometimes it's not even put on there because they don't find that as their primary.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Correct.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So we're trying to work with that as well with KDE.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Well, we'd love to work with you, Virginia, on that, because, I mean, I've worked with Emma and Gretta on that, trying to get that understood, because most people right now, they are not putting deaf-blind on there. They, they will... and they have been instructed to pick other things, and I wish they knew that deaf-blind was a...

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. That's perfectly fine. So what I would like to also do here is just, we're going to set up some times for us to communicate some more and talk about some of your-all's priorities, some of the things that you see that we need here in Kentucky, and I've heard several right now. And I want to say thank you that you have worked with us, giving us some feedback, because we're pulling together a resource manual with our Deaf-Blind Study Group. So we're just starting to try to figure out what Kentucky needs...

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: ...and how to explain to Kentucky what we do have.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Which right now, you're a gold mine. We do have deaf-blind services, and we do have this with you guys.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Uh huh.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So we need, we need to communicate that, that the teachers and the caregivers or whomever is working with the deaf-blind individual can get some better understanding.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: That would be super.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yes. So what, is there anything you would like to add before we end our video?

>>DONNA CARPENTER: The most important thing to remember is anyone can make a referral: teachers, school staff, families, neighbors, doctors, audiologists, anyone can make a referral. It's really easy. All you have to do is go on our page, hit "make a referral", and then that information comes in to Kim Zeigler. So I think that's the biggest thing, because people automatically think someone else will make the referral, or should I make the referral? I don't have the proper paperwork. Don't worry about all that, just go ahead and make the referral, and we can collect all the information we need.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So for our video, below the link we would like to have a person's name, a contact number, an email, a phone number, the actual referral form, whatever you can give us, and we will post this for anybody out there that would like to make a referral. And thank you so much for giving your time today to talk to us and to explain your services.

>>DONNA CARPENTER: Thanks, Virginia. It's been fun.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Alright.

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>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Hello. My name is Virginia Moore, and I'm with the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. This is within our series of the deaf-blind vlogs that we're providing today for our new deaf-blind website. So today we're very proud to have with us a representative from the national Helen Keller Center, Marilyn Trader. Marilyn, hello, good afternoon, and could you tell us a little bit about your position and the Helen Keller Center?

>>MARILYN TRADER: Sure thing. So my name is Marilyn Trader. I'm the Southeast Regional Representative for the Helen Keller National Center. And as everyone knows, Helen Keller National Center is located in New York, but we have Regional Representatives all over the United States, and I'm one of ten Regional Representatives that covers the Southeast. My five states actually is Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico. I reside in North Carolina, so I am nowhere in New York, and I gotta tell ya, I love the South, you know, I'm not going anywhere. The South is great, and I have great partners and just great delivery of services and truly enjoy it down here.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Fantastic, fantastic. Okay. So tell us a little bit about the programs and services. I think there's... it's twofold, in essence: the programs and services that Helen Keller National Center will provide, and what you're able to do locally here in Kentucky.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Correct, correct. So number one thing that a Regional Rep does is that we provide consultation, connect resources, advocacy. It's not like somebody contacts us, and they have to open up a case. Okay? Anybody can contact me. Anybody can ask questions in regard to vision loss, hearing loss. We do focus on dual sensory loss, of course, but we get calls from everywhere. I think one thing a lot of people don't realize is our population is aging, and so people don't realize that we have age-related hearing loss or age-related vision loss and that people can qualify for services through Helen Keller National Center. And those services consist of whether somebody wants to obtain a job or want to remain in a job but need some adaptive tools and assistance to be able to stay on that job. And so what we do is, we can assist them in getting connected with either resources in their state, if there isn't any resources in their state or they need something a little bit more intensive, they can go to the Helen Keller National Center in New York for an intensive training. One thing to remember, though, when it comes to Helen Keller National Center is it's individualized. So you're not in a classroom of five or six other people, it's you and the instructor together meeting the needs that you need to, you know, have success in whether it be employment, independent living, or whatever you're aiming to thrive in your own community or employment.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay, so let's talk about the Helen Keller National Center first.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Sure.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So is there a time frame a person can think, "Well, if I go up there, it's gonna be..." or is it so individualized, the amount of time that a person may be there may also vary?

>>MARILYN TRADER: So it is individualized. So there's no time frame. So let's say somebody goes, they do the assessment, and they after the assessment they go, "Okay, let's start out with 13 weeks of training first." We have five core areas of our training, and some people may only need three of those. Maybe they're not there yet for the other two areas. Okay? and so that can be communication. Okay? It could be technology, which as we know technology is advancing like crazy all the time. We have, of course, employment, vocational services, orientation mobility, and independent living. Okay? And so those five core areas we would focus on with our consumers who come to the center. We also have short term training, too. So say, for instance, somebody says, "You know what, I just want Braille. How do I go about doing that?" We can set that up as well. But it's all based on that communication together and us finding out exactly, "What do you need to continue to thrive successfully? What do you... you tell us, and we can work together and see." Now, that's at the Center. They can go there; they have their own room; they have their own bathroom; they eat in the cafeteria with all the other students there as well. And this is all adults. Now, we do have summer youth programs, those are typically in the summer. Okay?

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So, real quick, give me the age frame between the adults and the summer youth.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Sure. So adults: 18 and up. Okay? But, our average age, usually, I mean, it just depends. We can have somebody there who is a senior, who is 55 and better, looking for continuing on in a different career path. Okay? We can have somebody there who's in their 20s, who just finished maybe college, but wants to now live independently and just needs a little bit more tools. So it just varies. But our students range in a variety of ages throughout the whole year. We do not close, too, that's the other thing, we're open 365 days a year.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Wow!

>>MARILYN TRADER: So when you go, you're there for that whole time training. And then, as far as the summer youth programs, those are done in the summer. So that goes from June to about August. And that could be a summer youth assessment; it could be a summer vocational program, where they actually get paid New York dollars to test out different work experiences. Pretty cool. Or we have the Empower Program, which is about a two week program.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Is that more of an advocacy, self advocacy, self empowered program?

>>MARILYN TRADER: You got that. Correct.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: And what age group is that youth program?

>>MARILYN TRADER: And that's usually 15, fifteen years and up.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So about 15 to 18?

>>MARILYN TRADER: Yeah, our transition age.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. Okay.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Correct.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So, once a person, let's say if they go to Helen Keller, and they're training for a specific type of job, what makes the connection between Helen Keller in New York and their home base here in Kentucky in obtaining a job?

>>MARILYN TRADER: Sure. So that's one thing, and I've gotta say, I love quoting Joe McNulty. He was our previous director. Fantastic man who would always say, you know, this... "Our goal in life is to actually, you know, build services in the field, because everyone goes back home."

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Uh huh.

>>MARILYN TRADER: And that's what we need. And that's where we're fortunate enough to have a Deaf-Blind Specialist in Kentucky. And so for us, for Kentucky, our Deaf-Blind Specialist will be involved in the whole process while they're there for training in New York. We have meetings to talk about how the progress is going for your training. We will go through what... what work experience have you done. And so some of our consumers will actually obtain a job while they're there, and then they can be transferred back home, and/or they're now building their resumé to a point where we can then connect to a location at home and say, "Hey, this job now at home wants to hire you." And so they're that link that will help us to ensure that there's not that gap when they're coming back home for services. Okay? Now, we do have some states that do not yet have a Deaf-Blind Specialist. Our goal is eventually to have as many as possible across the United States. And so that would be myself to work with our VR counselors, work with our community rehab programs, and collaborate in those other states that do not have a Deaf-Blind Specialist yet.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So for Kentucky, is that you, or do we have a Deaf-Blind Specialist here?

>>MARILYN TRADER: So for Kentucky, right now we do have a Deaf-Blind Specialist for Kentucky, and he's actually located in Nashville. So currently he's covering two states. And so, he's actually working on several active cases in our state right now of Kentucky. And so, the good thing about what's happened with COVID for us is it really shows that we can still provide services, and that we actually have actually provided more services virtually. And so, he's able to work with a lot of our cases virtually at this time, and some of them he's actually driving to their location of home and work to assist in those areas. Now specifically, as far as what a deaf-blind specialist does in order to get connected with that service, it has to go through me, again, so as the main point of contact for that delivery of service. And we just have to have an assessment to find out exactly what are the needs of that consumer. We have a really great collaborative effort in our state of Kentucky. We have, as you know, our deaf-blind interagency team, and so all of us work together to find out together what is the needs of our consumers. And so if they are working with the Deaf-Blind Project, or if they're working with any of our providers, VR, we come together and see what is needed for that consumer, their family, and community. Now, our Deaf-Blind Specialists can do an array of areas, whether it be job seeking skills; they can do on the job training for them; they could do work adjustment; activities of daily living. And one area we've noticed too is that preemployment transition services, which is key for us in working closely with our Deaf-Blind Project, because what we found out is a lot of our young adults don't have that work experience, so we will work with them in that area too, which is great for our state of Kentucky.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Right. Right, that is true. So let me ask you this: Let's say... there is a continuum of loss for an individual. I mean, they can be totally deaf/totally blind, they can be totally deaf and have low vision, they could be totally... they could be hard of hearing with totally deaf. I mean, there's such a continuum. I mean, so this way you're totally, and this way you're less, and so, you know, they just go either way. With that being said, who provides voc rehab services? Who do you contact for an individual? Is there services here in Kentucky for voc rehab that serves deaf-blind, or is it depending on their disability which way you need to go?

>>MARILYN TRADER: So one good thing about a Regional Rep is, we don't go anywhere. So most of these Regional Rep positions you have that Rep staying in that position until they retire, and so we build those relationships with a lot of our states. Many, many years ago we had what was called affiliate programs, and we would set up working relationships with each state on who that person was that we would have that relationship with to ensure that services were delivered for our consumers in those states. Then came the State Deaf-Blind Coordinator positions. I'm fortunate that in my states, I still have those Deaf-Blind State Coordinator positions. So currently we have under... under Kentucky OVR/OFB, we have Tonia Gatton is our now State Deaf-Blind Coordinator. And so her and I work closely together, and she'll contact me, say, "Listen, I have a case, the consumer is hard of hearing, low vision, I'm just trying to figure out which direction we should go." And because we have good relationships with our managers in each of the district offices, we will call maybe Amanda Friend and say, "Amanda, we have a case that somebody contacted us right now, and what do you think of a counselor that would be a good fit for this case?" And we have these conversations and work through to ensure that our consumers are going to be given the right delivery of service for them, and then we come together and have team meetings to assist that consumer as well as the providers who are serving our consumers.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That's an excellent resource of coordinating of services.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Yeah.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Let me ask you, then. Let me back up a little bit about the assessment. Does an individual receive assessment here in Kentucky before they go to Helen Keller to determine that Helen Keller is better, or do they go on up to Helen Keller and receive the assessment?

>>MARILYN TRADER: So what we do is we have a conversation for a while first, because not everybody can go to Helen Keller. Okay? For several reasons, whether it be medical, whether it be, "I'm a mother and I have kids and I gotta take care of them," I mean, there are so many reasons. Because once you're there, as I've already mentioned, you're there for a long period of time. So we have to have these conversations to really find out what are we looking for, what are we seeking as far as the needs for you, and... and somebody may say, "You know what, I just really want to obtain a job, but I'm not sure of the advocacy piece, I'm not sure of work adjustments, and things like that. What can you do to help me in my state?" So we may have those conversations and then realize that the Deaf-Blind Specialist can provide that in their home. And then we may find out that they need intensive training in order to be independent. I mean, you and I know, you know, if we can't manage our own banking, we can't take care of and make our own meals, and we can't get to work for transportation, how are we going to be successful on the job? So we may find out that, you know, our consumers are saying, "Hey, I need all of this. So can I go for an assessment?" And we've had consumers who will go for an assessment and realize, "You know what, these are the areas I want to have right now," and may start on some of their training, and may get some of the training while they're home too. So it just depends. Again, it's so varied in our consumers, and our consumer population is so diverse, it just really depends on what their needs are and where they're at in life as far as time frame.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: I want to share just a quick story. I have a good friend and someone that I worked with whose father suddenly was hard of hearing, started losing, you know, age-related hearing loss.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Yeah.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: But then had severe macular come on, come on strong, so he lost a lot of his center vision. And it was determined that he needed to go to Helen Keller. Now, he was approximately, almost 80 years old, never used a computer, did not know... I think at that time, they had installed the program called JAWS that would read, was a reader for him. Did not know how to use a printer, nothing. And he was to go up to Helen Keller. He's never flown in a plane, he's never done this. And at that age he said no. Well, he was convinced to go and give it a shot, and he did. He came back a different person. I will tell you this, from a man who had... was in construction, built houses, did all these things, to a person who seemed to feel like he was losing a lot of his independence. He was married, you know, and he had children, and he, you know, just... his interaction with people were starting to really sort of... he was getting himself boxed in.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Right.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: When he went to Helen Keller, when he came back, he was a whole different person. He got on the computer, he sent me emails, I mean, it was amazing! So, I hear what you're saying, that it is someone for all ages, practically, you know, at least from 15 on. And is there an age limit?

>>MARILYN TRADER: You know, Virginia, these days none of us are really retiring.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yeah.

>>MARILYN TRADER: You know, we are going into a second career, you know, and so, you know, many of us are just trying to think, "Okay. What's the next tool we're going to do," to go ahead and go into that next career option. You know, and again... again, I grew up in deafness my whole life, and working with some of our consumers... I have one consumer, for instance, who was telling me, "Listen, I used to travel the world. I used to surf all over the world, but then my vision, you know, due to Usher syndrome, has gotten worse and I can't see to travel anymore. I can't use a phone anymore. I don't even... I can't even get into a computer anymore. You know, I got this brand new computer and I can't use it now." And sometimes it can hit somebody fast, too. You know, and he's like, "I just want to be able to travel and work." I mean, and he used to do some great, great things and work with woodworking. And he's like, "I can't do that safely anymore." And I said, "Well, yes you can, if you have the right tools," you know. And also he needs to learn tactile communication, and that's best taught sitting side by side with somebody. You know, that has to be touch. And so, you know, we got him connected, and he's so excited, looking forward to it, you know, and is now able to use alerting systems that can... you know, he can wake up on his own, you know, use the phone on his own, travel again. It's that, you know, there is not a loss of independence once you have all those tools in your pocket, you know. And so that's... and that's what we do for our consumers. I mean, we... and we get consumers who, due to injury or illness, immediately... meningitis, huge you know, that one day they can see and hear, next day they cannot, and come out there for training, and it's emotional. And that's one thing we do... I do love about us being there at the center the most, is because they get that peer connection you're not gonna get anywhere else. And you also have our staff, you know, whether they're signers or deaf-blind themselves, and/or we have our staff like Lisa, she works in our mental health area, who will meet with our consumers one on one throughout this whole adjustment process, because one day you can be fine and next day you're goingto be like, "Wait a minute, I'm not fine." And so, again, that's why it's important to know that someone may need us now, but they, you know, may notneed us later, and may come back again, and that's why there's no open and closed case with us.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That immediate loss of one's senses can definitely throw you into a huge grieving process, mental health issues, so I can understand that. Let me also ask you, so with some of the training, with the... you had mentioned Braille, you had mentioned tactile signing. I would assume that as a person gets older, it's a little bit harder to learn these two things. It's just like learning ASL, the older you get, it's a different language, you have to... you know, it might be a little bit more difficult, but I don't know that it's impossible, so...

>>MARILYN TRADER: Right.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: ...you all train those two things for anyone of any age, am I correct?

>>MARILYN TRADER: So one thing that's important to know, too, is some of our consumers, due to neuropathy, are unable to learn Braille, so we have other methods to try and teach them to identify their clothes or to identify objects in their home. So we also use tactual objects and symbols to help them as well. So it's... we use a variety of ways to help in that area. And it's interesting because many people always ask, "So what's your assessment tool?" I'm like, "We don't have one tool because everybody is different, so we go along the way with our consumer and meet whatever their needs are and be creative along that path." You know, the thing is, is it is very difficult to teach consumers who that motivation may not be there. You know, "I'm not gonna use it." My mother in law, for instance, okay, completely deaf-blind, tactile, no vision whatsoever, no light perception, and she gets mad at Dad all the time because he's always on his phone texting. And I'm like, "Well, Mom, you can have your own phone and you can text us too." I have brought Braille displays, cute little Braille displays home to show her, and she goes, "Oh, Dad's saying blah, blah, blah, blah." And I said, "Yeah, you can text us too in North Carolina while you're in Ohio." And she's like, "Oh, but it's just a lot to learn."

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Uh huh. Yeah.

>>MARILYN TRADER: So again, it just depends. It's that motivation. And again, it's something new. You know, right now she has Dad who's doing the communication, and she's pretty good with that.

(Laughter.)

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yeah, it's... I can see that it's all individualized. It depends on where the person is in their life, and, you know, how much of a sensory loss that they have. My mother also, being deaf, both parents being deaf, my mother did have macular in her life. It started by the age... when she was 60, she died at 94, so she had a fairly severe case of it. However, we found that it was very interesting between my friend whose father really could still depend on his hearing and my mother that had no hearing, there was a difference in how much they actually put forth in trying to figure out, use their vision, the sweet spot of their vision more, or to be able... you know, that motivation of having... he depended on his hearing more, so he didn't let that... he would not find that sweet spot in his vision or try to really push that, whereas Mom had no choice. And yes, there were different tools. We had someone from voc rehab of the blind come in and put in little dots, little raised dots that means this was hot or this was cold. She could still wash clothes, and she could still do things. So yes, there's wonderful resources out there, and I think this is what this vlog is about is to let you know that there are resources out there. There are no limits. The only limits we have is ourself.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Exactly.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: And once we get past ourself, we can start doing great things and continue to do great things no matter where you are in your life, no matter what senses you lose and how you can get through life is really solely up to ourself and how much motivation we want to put in for that. One question, one last question, and that is: I've had some questions of "I don't want to go to Helen Keller."

>>MARILYN TRADER: Right.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: "I want services here in Kentucky only." Now, Kentucky has resources, but we're not one of the resource rich states for deaf-blind. We... you know, it's not like Seattle, Washington, you know, where I think, you know, that's... they have lots of resources there. They've really worked on that. And we're not. We're trying to work up to have more resources. So am I correct that you're saying that there is enough here in the state that if someone can... does not want to go to Helen Keller, or can't, you can work with individuals and network here?

>>MARILYN TRADER: So one... you gotta give... Virginia, you gotta give Kentucky credit here, though. You know, in the ten years or so that I... in the 20 years that I've seen Kentucky grow, you guys have come so far. You actually... there's a lot of states that actually look at you all and see how great the service is you do have. You've grown so much in this state in recognition of what services you're needing to strengthen, and as a result of that have collaborated with several agencies and have been building such great resources. Chad Hunt, our previous State Deaf-Blind Coordinator, did a fantastic job with doing a conference for the state of Kentucky for VR, and as a result of that, we are getting referrals from consumers all over the state for independent living, for employment, for outreach, just, you know, getting connected with resources and services to other programs that we do have, which we'll talk about later on as well. But a lot of people on our registry are coming from Kentucky. It's a huge growth in the last less than ten years ago. Okay? And so we have... as a result of that, we've been able to obtain a Deaf-Blind Specialist, as I've mentioned. And so our waiting list to even obtain services from our Deaf-Blind Specialist continues to grow because of that. And yes, so there's a few things... Like I said, the Deaf-Blind Specialist can come to the home. They can provide that service for the consumers in their home. They can collaborate with our Independent Living Counselors in assisting to ensure that we're providing all the necessary services for our consumers. We also are going to continue doing virtual services. So even though, you know, we are opening the doors at the center for people to go to New York, we will continue to still provide virtual services. So everything that I have already mentioned, minus orientation and mobility, we will collaborate with an O&M specialist in the state for that, but all the services that I mentioned, we can actually provide virtually.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So I guess if we have to say that COVID has provided us, you know, a little gold nugget, and that is we figured out we can do this. We can do this virtually. And I think that is very good. So this is just a glimpse into what services you provide, Marilyn, with national Helen Keller Center, and this is a glimpse into that. What we would like to do is get your name, your contact information, we're going to place it underneath this vlog so that individuals who need to, want to start asking questions may contact you directly. Would that be okay?

>>MARILYN TRADER: For sure. I would like consumers to text me. You know, you can email me, emails get lost though. Text me or video phone, and we could talk face to face. No problem at all.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Fantastic. We love having a Regional Rep right here in our state to be able to answer those questions. Even though you're in North Carolina... or South Carolina or North Carolina?

>>MARILYN TRADER: North Carolina.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: North Carolina. Even though you're in North Carolina. But that's the beauty of what we're able to do through... you know, through the Internet and trying to bring everybody together. Thank you so much for this opportunity. And remember, we are our own limits. We can do anything, we just need to know where the resources are, we need to reach out, and Kentucky is trying grow those resources, so please reach out to us with any questions that you might have so that we can help get you the answer. If you know that you're going to start having a problem, or if you have a problem, or if you have a child that has some limitations with their... with their vision and their hearing, reach out now, because we need to start those services early. We need to get you into the system so that we can provide you all the services that are... that are out there for you. Thank you, Marilyn. I appreciate it.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Thank you so much, Virginia, and thank you to the interpreter. Appreciate it, guys.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yes.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Take care.

--END TRANSCRIPT--

--BEGIN TRANSCRIPT--

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Hello, this is Virginia Moore. I'm the executive director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. And I am pleased to welcome back the Helen Keller Center. We are going to talk with Marilyn Trader just for a few minutes because she's going to introduce a new guest to us. Okay so, Marilyn, good morning.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Good morning, everyone. Yes, Virginia, thank you so much for inviting us back. We are thrilled to have the iCanConnect program, or what we also call the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program. And we are even beyond thrilled that we have the opportunity to have our New York ICC trainer, Bryan Ward, here in Kentucky serving our Kentuckians. And so I am really excited to have him here. He is filled with so much technology knowledge, like you would not believe, and just a beautiful soul. So all of you enjoy talking with Bryan. And if you ever have any questions, again, contact me anytime. Okay?

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Thank you, Marilyn.

>>MARILYN TRADER: Thanks, Virginia.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: I appreciate it, Marilyn. Bryan, I am thrilled to have you here. The iCanConnect program is so important to everyone in the United States, especially those that Helen Keller serve, but to Kentucky, most importantly. Now, I know that you are a New Yorker; am I correct?

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes, I am. I am from New York, but I am in Kentucky right now for training purposes.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So Kentucky welcomes you. Is this your first time to Kentucky?

>>BRYAN WARD: Well, really, I've been here a few times since I've been with the program. I think this is my fifth visit.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. Well, again, we welcome you back, then. We appreciate you being here to help individuals with the iCanConnect program. Can you tell us a little bit about the iCanConnect equipment distribution program and how long you've been involved personally?

>>BRYAN WARD: Sure. Sure. This is Bryan speaking. I have been with the ICC program for... well, that program has been around for about 17 years so far, and we started in New York, and we ran that program, and then it became more of a statewide training program, so then we went to the states and went to do some more training for the iCanConnect program. And then it became a federal program from the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission. They gave us a grant that would then make sure that all deaf-blind individuals would have equal communication access, so they could connect with any of their friends, families, just the world in general. Also, we have several different programs available for individuals who are only deaf or individuals who are only blind, but this program is specifically for those who both have deafness and blindness. So we are responsible to provide equipment to consumers who need to have accessibility for telecommunications as well as providing training to teach them how to use the various devices and equipment that we can provide to them in order to make their communication with the world successful.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That sounds fabulous. Tell me, can you describe one or two pieces of the equipment, and what is the most common piece of equipment someone might need?

>>BRYAN WARD: Sure. So we have a variety of equipment in our program, because within the deaf-blind community there's a huge range of needs: you have some who are fully deaf with full blindness to some who have maybe low vision or maybe just a, you know, their central vision only. So it just depends on what their needs are. So we have a variety of equipment that can meet a variety of needs for their hearing and vision loss and needs. So we have laptops. We do have cell phones, like iPhones. We have iPads or other tablets. We have Braille readers. We have, we have large screens. There's just a variety of equipment depending on the need. The most commonly requested item through our program would be an iPhone or an iPad tablet. That would be the most common one for our deaf-blind consumers.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That's fabulous. Now, since this program is through the Helen Keller Center, is it available in every state, do you know?

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. For example, the iCanConnect is... since it's a federal program, it is available for all states, but there are different individuals who are certified to run the program. So for Kentucky, you all have the Helen Keller National Center who can run the iCan program for the state. We also run it for seven other states or... so a total of eight states that Helen Keller... Helen Keller National Center runs. But then there are other programs that provide the ICC to other states.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Very good. So let's get down to the important questions. What are the criterias for eligibility?

>>BRYAN WARD: Oh, sure. This is Bryan speaking. It's very simple criteria for getting the equipment. The most important two pieces of criteria is that you must be deaf-blind, have vision loss and hearing loss, and then you also must follow the federal, uh, param... poverty level to be considered eligible, so that would mean low income. So those are the two requirements that we have as a program. So if you are deaf and blind and have low income, you can qualify for our services. Now, to apply for services, you do have to fill out an application, and that can be done through the ICC website. And that can be available in both English and Spanish if you need it. And you can do it in regular print or in large print if that's how you need it. So you do the application, which is a very simple application. You put down your information, your name, your address, how... about... information about your hearing and vision loss, and then there are two sections of the application that require a verification that you do have a vision and hearing loss. So we need an actual official attestation on the statement that you do have hearing loss. So you would either need to go to your audiologist and get that signed, and then your vision loss would need to be signed, or you can go just to your regular family doctor to give that proof that you are an individual who has vision and hearing loss. Even if you have something from a school that they can sign for you. But it must be signed on the application showing that you have both a vision and a hearing loss, because that is what the equipment is meant for in order for individuals to have a better everyday life. So you have to have both of them. Then the second portion that's very important that you have for our application is that you have the federal poverty income level verification. We need to make sure that you are within those guidelines of having low income. and iCanConnect has a... we have like a fee schedule that shows how much of the federal poverty level you fit into, the category that you are in, and we call that... we have like an automatic qualification if you're at a certain level, or then we have what we call, you know... SSI, if you receive that; if you receive Medicaid; if you are a food stamp recipient, the SNAP program; also if you have any sort of Section 8 or housing income, or if you have any veteran status from the military, those types of qualifications are automatically accepted. If you don't have one of those qualifications, that's fine, you just need to provide us with possible tax return forms from the previous year, you know, that we have to turn in every year to the IRS; you would need to provide us maybe with a Social Security disability income verification form to show how much your monthly earnings is from the federal government, because then we know how much you would be earning in the year. We also would accept a bank statement that kind of shows what your financial status has been. So if you look at the application online, you can fill those out, see what documentation you can have and is maybe required, and if you have any questions, you can contact us and we can go from there.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. Wow, that's a lot of information. So let me just clarify one thing. A person needs to be both deaf and... low vision and deaf, deaf-blind. Is there a degree of vision loss or a degree of hearing loss that is required, or is it any degree? The levels.

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. Good question, Virginia. Thank you. The... basically what it is, is you have to have some of both, either some limited vision issues. I would say it would be 20/200 would be the minimum vision that you would need to have to be considered legally blind. Then for deafness or for hearing loss you have a... a hearing loss.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Must be profound?

>>BRYAN WARD: You would have to have a moderate, at least a moderate hearing loss.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. Okay. That's good information. You know, some individuals, I have seen them have the same audiogram but not function the same. So it depends on how they were raised, on how well they can utilize their hearing or their vision. So I'm sure they can talk to a counselor at Helen Keller or someone that can guide them through some of these other criterias.

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. Yes. Really, I would like to emphasize that sometimes it is hard for individuals who are deaf-blind to get the information signed. For example, I've had consumers who are struggling to get any of the forms to verify their status, so we connect them with Marilyn, who can then get in touch with audiologists or opticians or ophthalmologists to get the information that is necessary. So, yeah, especially if you are in a very rural area, you know, that's okay. That's okay. We can still... we can still get you into the application process. It may require just a little bit of work, but we're happy to help you, and we can go through that process with you and make it as smooth as we possibly can.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Yes. I'm sure that some individuals will need your all's advocacy work, but you know the Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is also here to help in any way we can to help get that person qualified for your program.

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: So let me ask this: Can they obtain more than one piece of equipment, or is it just one piece? And is there a limit? How many years can they reapply?

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. This is Bryan speaking. That's two good questions. Thank you. It actually depends on the state where the person is applying. So there are different criteria. There are no rules or hard limits on the equipment, but we have several factors that will impact the type of equipment that we're providing the individual. And there are various reasons for that. Since we do get money from the federal grant to run our program, that is a limited amount of dollars that we can use. So once that is used up, we have to wait until the following year to get another part of the grant to fund our distribution. Then another impact that we do have is that we want to make sure that the consumers have full or as close to full communication access as they need. If they need texting, then that's great, we can give them an iPhone or some sort of a smartphone. If they would prefer to communicate through email, then, of course, that may be a laptop that they need. So we want to just make sure that we're getting the best equipment to match that consumer's needs. And there's not necessarily, you know, a hard and fast rule, but we do have two standards. We have some for individuals who will be at home only. They may just get a laptop or a tablet. But then we have other individuals who are much more mobile and they're out in the community and such, so we want to make sure that they have communication once they are outside of their, you know, home. So that may mean giving them also a smartphone. But with that, we then want to make sure that they have a case to protect their device. We want to make sure if they need a Braille reader, they have the mobile Braille reader. So we actually meet with them and ask them what they plan to do with their equipment and what their needs are. For an individual who applies for services, though, we have the consumer apply, fill out the application, we do an assessment; we can provide them with equipment and then training for that equipment and they are good to go. But, as you know, technology is always changing. Every day there's something new and better, and you just know how technology is. So we recognize that fact, and we continue to provide training at any time that they need to make sure the consumer is satisfied. If there are any sorts of problems with the equipment they have, or maybe there's updates or changes, they need to upgrade their equipment, we try to work through that with them and train them on the new updates. We do try to notice if an individual is having a vision or hearing change in their life. If their vision is getting less or their hearing is getting worse, then we may have to provide additional equipment to them to support their new needs. Typically, though, we make sure that they have the equipment that they need and try to look a little forward to what they may be needing soon, but typically it's about a two year testing window, like "Is everything still okay? Are you still is it still meeting your needs?" And if it's been about two years and they qualify, they have, you know, more hearing loss or more vision loss, then we may go through and get them new equipment.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. That's great information. So from that, they can get more than one piece of equipment, it depends on the individual. There's really no limit, but on the individual needs. And they can apply approximately every two years unless their vision or hearing loss changes. And again, this is a federal program, so you all have to manage the money that you get yearly. So depending on the demand on the program, you may need to say a person can only get this piece of equipment that will meet their needs, but not the third piece or whatever, which may go beyond meeting their needs, because the money may run out. Okay. I get that. That's great information. Does the recipient, does the person who gets the equipment, do they own the equipment, or is it something that they do not own and have to give back once they... once they get another piece?

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. This is Bryan. I do want to emphasize that the iCanConnect program, the equipment that we give to the individuals are considered as loan equipment. Yes, they own it, it is theirs to use, but it is a loaner piece of equipment. So if someone gets two pieces of equipment from us and then later one of these is too old to be useful any longer or is no longer matching that consumer's needs, then that's fine, they can reapply, and they are required to replace that. So they need to give it, you know, return their original equipment to us and we will give them the new piece of equipment. So, for example, if it was a laptop and they need something that may be larger, faster, what have you, they give us the original laptop that we provided them and then we can give them the new piece of equipment. So that is how our program kind of works with that system. Yes, it is theirs, but it's technically a loaner piece of equipment. And sometimes the equipment that we receive back from a person, we can also then use that for another individual. If that actually is still in good condition and is still functioning well, we can use that for another individual.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That's good to know. Now, we have an equipment distribution program mainly for deaf individuals, and that is a you-own-it program. So for deaf-blind who are going to be getting equipment from you, it is a loaner. So an important point that we always try to explain to individuals, especially because of warranty purposes, if you get a piece of equipment from iCanConnect, keep the box, keep everything that comes with that box, because when you have to trade it in for a new piece of equipment, it would be nice to put it in the box that it came in. Don't throw the box away. We try to make sure that people know to keep the box and everything, so it's safer to trade those in. This is some... this is great information.

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. And Bryan is signing yes, that is correct. It is really important that the individual is responsible for that. I mean, it is okay if they've, you know, lost the box, because people move and things happen, and that is fine, but it's important that the equipment itself has it, the serial number and such, and then we can, you know... Keep in touch with us. If you are moving, please update your information with iCan. If something, you know, goes missing, just let us know, and we can work with you, because we do have warranties on our equipment, and the consumer can take advantage of that warranty with a company that they would like to use. So we do provide that kind of support, yes.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Let me ask you a question. A few minutes ago, you said that equipment is updated, and some equipment's obsolete, and it happens so fast. New technology tomorrow is going to be something different. And you're right. Apps that come out, they come out daily. There's new apps all the time. If a person gets these apps on their iPhone and there's updated apps that is possible, do you tell them about it? Do you push an update yourself? Or are they expected to keep those updated themself?

>>BRYAN WARD: That's a good question. This is Bryan speaking. We typically do not let them know that there are updates, but we, you know, within the training, explain to them how to be aware of what is available for updates, how they can look for it. We show them how to recognize if an update is needed on their equipment, where they can look for the update in the system. So we do teach that during our training. And sometimes the updates can be a struggle. I mean, sometimes it happens. And we can help any individual who is struggling to update their device. Or sometimes the update itself will actually throw a wrench in the works and it won't... the device won't work like they, you know, did before. So we can help them work through that.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: That's great, because everybody needs somebody to help them with their technology, I know it. When you say you help them, do you help them through Zoom, in person, or a combination of both? How do you help them?

>>BRYAN WARD: Sure. This is Bryan speaking. There's a variety of ways that we will help people, different channels that we can use to provide our support. We can do in-person, we can do it over the video phone, we can do it over Zoom. We can even do it in texting. So it just depends on what we are doing. We are working with remote access to individuals' devices, especially laptops and the like, we can go in and do things ourselves on your laptop. So there are a variety of channels that we can use to help our consumers. If they do want us in person, we're fine, we're perfectly fine to provide that, so we will make it work with what is necessary. Sometimes we will have a couple of barriers. You know, we may have to talk with family members if the person is, you know, living with their family, but we try to do whatever is best for the consumer.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Bryan, this is a fabulous, fabulous program. It is so needed here in Kentucky. I appreciate you being here in Kentucky in person, and this is one of your states, and I understand you're going to be going around and meeting some other individuals. So iCanConnect is an equipment distribution program for individuals who are deaf low vision, hard of hearing with blindness, either way, there's a combination, and it does take into account their income, and they do need to have verification of both vision and hearing loss. Is the application online?

>>BRYAN WARD: Oh, yes. This is Bryan. The application is available online. If individuals need a hard copy, you can contact Marilyn Trader or the Helen Keller... Helen Keller National Center, and we can get that application sent out to you. If you are trying to apply online and you are struggling with the application, just give us a contact and we will walk you through the process.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: We will, with this... with this vlog here, we're going to have links below, and the Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing will also point individuals to the ICC program and Helen Keller, but we will have links so that individuals can quickly go into a link and see what's available. I want to thank you so much for being here. But I have one more question that I think maybe you can help us with that is not connected with ICC. But with individuals who have blindness and deafness, low vision, hard of hearing, whatever, when with working with Zoom or other visual platforms, you know, during the pandemic, this is what we have, and backgrounds make a difference. Does one size fit all?

>>BRYAN WARD: Ah, that is a good question. This is Bryan speaking. I myself am a deaf-blind individual, and I fully depend on visual access to my communication. In various meetings that I'm on with different platforms, I do require the individuals who are signing to please have a background that contrasts with your skin color. So me, as a white man, I would want a background that has a dark color. Like here I'm in a room with a black background. I definitely want plenty of light. I can... you know, I don't want it to be dark.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Okay. Fantastic. I know for some deaf individuals, they do not want the person to have a black background with a dark shirt, because then they need that contrast. And for some individuals who have low-vision, you know, quite low-vision, they want black on black so that they can get the hands and the head and be able to see exactly the communication. So it... there's a big difference.

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. This is Bryan speaking. Yes. It is important that you have the visual accessibility, especially for individuals who are Deaf-Blind, because they are definitely relying on the facial expressions as well as the hands, but if you have different contrasts or different colors going on, it may not be enough of a contrast to be able to see what is going on, and then we would have a struggle to understand what is being said, and it's just not as much as of a connection and involvement with that conversation. So yes, it is important to provide that communication access.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: We find that it's very important to have clear communication. Ask the person what their needs are. Find out from the person themself what their background needs are, what their communication needs are, do they need captions, do they rely only on the interpreter, do they need... you know, are they going to be using their Braille machine, so thank you for that information. Does Helen Keller have any kind of information as far as a sort of best practice for working on a platform with Zoom?

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. This is Bryan. We have several. We call them Zoom best practices, but we have several best practices available that explain how you should, you know, try to set up your background, set up your Zoom meeting, how to have successful meetings on Zoom with deaf-blind individuals, and that is all available on the Helen Keller National Center website. And it, I mean, any of that information, it's free to read, free to access, so please, yes, look for it there.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: We will also link that below this video.

>>BRYAN WARD: Yes. Thank you.

>>VIRGINIA MOORE: Bryan, it is wonderful to have you with the iCanConnect program here in Kentucky, providing us services. We need this service here in Kentucky. We need to get individuals back out there communicating with other people, taking on jobs, you know, being a productive citizen, and you're going to be able to help do that. Thank you for being with us here today. If you all need any more information, please contact the Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing or the Helen Keller Center. Thank you, guys.

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