Writing By Laura

I’ve previously described myself as a “forever student” before I experienced my Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Well, it’s been nearly three years since my accident and while I’ve been through a lot and changed a lot I’m slowly making my way back to having that same “forever student” quality. No, I’m not enrolling in more graduate school (sorry to those betting 💴 that I would) but my curiosity is officially back! I know I’m more a 🐶 person but 🐱 🐱 and I have curiosity in common 😆. As my earlier blog post about hearing loss- or deaf-friendly smartphone apps attested to, I’ve taken up an interest in how technology can aid my particular hearing difficulties. So I recently attended an accessibility session at one of my local Apple stores where we learned about how Apple devices (iPhones, iPads, Macs and even Apple TVs) work with accessibility features for those like me who have hearing loss.

Before the accident I graduated with two Master’s degrees while I worked full time (which dragged it out a tad and made me feel like a “forever student”). However, now I’m obviously not enrolling in any programs so the “forever student” moniker is used to describe myself as forever curious and forever learning. And this week I was continuing to be curious and learn about how smartphones help with hearing loss, etc.

The Hearing Loss Association of America chapter that I attend was approached by a local Apple store to have interested members attend one of these accessibility sessions. They call classes at the store “Today at Apple.” Since I’m late to post, yesterday at Apple I learned about accessibility.

What I wanted to learn about Apple devices and Accessibility:

1. My hearing aid wasn’t working with my iPhone since I recently got it updated by my audiologist. I had tried to figure it out but hadn’t spent enough time. I was a tad embarrassed when everyone else in the Apple session said their hearing aids synced with their phone and mine wasn’t. They didn’t really have time to work with me on it during the class so as we were driving home (my Dad was driving) I did some poking around and finally figured it out! My audiologist had changed the settings on my hearing aids enough that I had to make the phone forget the old hearing aids entirely and then re-pair it as a new one. I found the solution here (on page 6 of the manual of my Oticon hearing aids manual).
2. Accessibility features of a Mac. The lovely thing (biased opinion of an 🍎 💕) about Apple products is the common user interface between iPhone/iPad/MacBook/iMac and how it’s all user-friendly. So the accessibility features of a Mac are pretty similar to that of an iPhone & iPad & you access it in the same spot. (Yes, I love Apple but at least I didn’t/don’t idolize its co-founder Steve Jobs like Elizabeth Holmes 😬. Read about THAT in my latest book review.)
3. The accessibility features of Apple TV. Since my parents and I moved in together again following the accident and my inability to live alone, we got a MASSIVE smart TV that my lovely Mom convinced my Dad I needed to see closed captions better. (Just between us but I don’t know if that was truly necessary but I’m not complaining!) So I transitioned from using an Apple TV on my primary TV to using a Smart TV. However I was curious if an Apple TV is more accessible. My parents attended the session with me and my Mom again (thanks, Mom) convinced my Dad to purchase a new Apple TV. I want to hook it up in the room where I exercise so I can watch Netflix! I’m so spoiled. I’m almost as spoiled as my dog! (Check out my spoiled pooch @selbysweetie on Instagram to see her spoiled adventures.) So it probably won’t take the place of the huge Smart TV, see what I mean when I say #spoiled.

And then after doing last week’s post I still had some things I wanted to find out about. So I did some more searching on my own, etc. (I told you I was a curious 🐱).

1. How to caption my own videos. Two apps that I found out about through someone who read my blog. (Thank you.)

• Clips App (FREE) iPhone only (App Store Link)
• Clipomatic App iPhone only ($4.99 App Store Link)

2. A good resource for podcast transcripts. Yes. I found a website through Google. Not sure why I didn’t find it before.

• This particular article talks about “podcast enjoyment for the hearing impaired.” A deaf friend of mine has taught me the “impairment” word is a tad frowned on in deaf communities. Because it’s not an impairment per se. So I’m going to choose to overlook the use of that word in this article and instead focus on the content. It has a nice list of transcripts of podcasts.
• This Reddit query from a deaf user asking about ways to consume podcasts and a lot of people replied with great responses. I bookmarked this so I can refer back to it.
• Gimlet Media has a whole host of podcasts and they transcribe them.
• Listen Notes is a podcast search engine that allows you to search millions of podcasts. Some of the podcasts are transcribed and apparently you can request one that isn’t for a fee (it should be free in my opinion).
• And I’m a fan of a particular podcast called “My Favorite Murder” (don’t judge me based on the name because it’s a true crime podcast put out by two comedic women who are so uplifting and lovely [OK there is swearing]). It saddens me I can’t listen to it anymore. However, I found a public Google Doc where podcast fans are voluntarily transcribing episodes. The hosts Karen Kilgarif and Georgia Hardstark also released a book which I pre-ordered on Amazon once a fellow podcast fan told me about it. It came a few weeks ago! It’s perfect. (I just checked and it doesn’t look like episodes of MFM are transcribed on Listen Notes and since there’s free Google Doc [see above] I wouldn’t 💰 for it to be transcribed on this site.)

Well until next week, that’s it from me!

#thecuriouscatfoundoutaboutthat (I think I need to write a children’s book with that title)